Ah the annual performance appraisal! Let’s deconstruct this. Annual means every year. Performance means accomplishment. Appraisal means offering a judgment on the value of something or someone. So the annual performance appraisal is a yearly judgment of another person’s value to the organization. Continue reading
partnership
Hidden Leadership Lesson #32
A leader is one who others have chosen to follow. So because leaders require followers, it is imperative that the leader be a person of utmost integrity. Knowing who you are and what you stand for and embodying this in your way-of-being is paramount. Moreover integrity is the antecedent to trustworthiness. Why is this important? Who among us would decide to follow another who wasn’t worthy of our trust! Continue reading
Mindset Not Market Failure
In an article on Harvard Business Review Blog, titled U.S. Companies Versus the U.S. Economy, Thomas Kochan (of MIT Sloan School of Management) argues the disconnect between U.S. companies and the U.S. economy is the result of market failure. While the management of each business corporation makes decisions believing the unit of survival is the independent business enterprise, this doesn’t mean there aren’t other socio-economic consequences of these decisions. These consequences impact the very collection of people to which business leaders believe they have no connection or responsibility, yet upon which they so much depend. Continue reading
Performance Appraisal: Pathway to Mistrust
Robert Galford’s HBR Blog Network article, “How to keep your cool during a performance review” suggest there is a widespread abhorrence and likely fear of the annual performance review. To make what is often a not-so-good experience better Robert offers four tactics: relax; prepare yourself to hear one or more unexpected ‘somethings’; if you don’t agree with the feedback, don’t launch into a defense right away; and when it is over, say thank you, reflect on the overall message and don’t file it and forget it. While these are no doubt helpful toward making lemonade out of a lemon, they don’t mitigate the overall effect of the annual performance appraisal process. Continue reading
Rethinking a Fixed System
Is the system broken? No, not at all! It is fixed just as desired.
Our economic system has no (explicit) concern for ‘we’ in its design, it is all about ‘me’ getting what I can for ‘myself’—it is best labeled an egoistic economic system. The pursuit of material self-interest is the guiding principle for all action. Continue reading
Retaining Talent
In a Forbes.com article Eric Jackson presented the following top ten reasons why large companies fail to keep their best talent. Continue reading
A Wake Up Call
The fact that Wall Street and other corporate executives are not only allowed but helped in gaining so much from the general public while they generally thumb their nose at the general public is not the problem, though it is symptomatic of a serious problem. The fact that more and more people continue to lose so much ground is not the problem, though it is symptomatic of a serious problem. The fact that our elected officials (the representatives of the people of society) are not just emissaries but employees of those contributing vast amounts of money to their livelihood is not the problem, though it is symptomatic of a serious problem. I could go on almost endlessly, but the point is that these are just effects of our problem. Continue reading
Hidden Lessons in Leadership #29
In a New York Times interview Andrew M. Thompson, co-founder and C.E.O of Proteus, spoke about how he advances the capability of his company by creating and maintaining what he calls “ a leadership culture as opposed to a management culture.” As Andrew noted, “culture in our company is a really big deal, and we have a values system built around quality, teamwork and leadership.” Continue reading
Hidden Lessons in Leadership #28
In a New York Times interview, Kenny Chesney, the country music singer, offers a glimpse of his approach to managing. Although Kenny Chesney Inc. employs about 150 people, 120 of which are on the road with him everyday, the insights we can gain from his way of thinking about managing/leading apply to any size organization. Continue reading
Essence of Leadership
What is the nature of the leadership theories that have been developed by business-minded academics that have advanced the body of knowledge and informed leader preparation and practice? It appears that to a great extent the theories have been attempts to not just offer descriptive but also prescriptive knowledge of leading and leadership. Continue reading
Gregory Gull 