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A hiring lesson from American football
This week has been an unusual one. I have been in the US for over two weeks now, to take care of some of my business here, and to attend two board meetings. It was already planned as a period full of activity, with visits to family and friends squeezed in among the rest. Of course, as some of you know, I had not planned to stay nearly this long, but then the weather took a bit of a wild turn, as does sometimes tend to happen in New England. I was staying at my parents’ house in the town of my birth, Worcester—a city of some 180,000 people in the … Continue reading
The possibilities of a middle management role
For a little more than a month now, I have been writing about topics related to middle management. In early December, we began with a discussion of why these people—particularly those in the middle of large industrial groups—seem to be so discouraged and disengaged. When I started writing about managers and engagement, I cited studies that indicate that only about 30 percent of workers are truly engaged in their daily work. At the same time, I gave some examples of manual laborers who were able to give meaning to even the most mundane of tasks—cleaning hospital rooms or refurbishing wooden wine cases, for example—by reframing their jobs. One of my purposes in presenting … Continue reading
How Gandhi inspires middle managers to lead
There is a potential drawback to using the stories of great men such as Gandhi when I teach a seminar or work with middle managers in companies. People sometimes react by commenting that such examples are interesting but far removed from their realities. How much can we take the lessons of men and women who have truly changed the world and apply them to our day-to-day lives and jobs? So, I do ask myself at times if it is perhaps too much of a “stretch” to think that middle managers can utilize lessons from important historical figures as they go about their daily business. After some thought, though, I have come … Continue reading
A story of three paths
After the last post, I received several requests from readers for a further explanation of exactly how I use the term “surrender to the context.” So, my purpose today is to elucidate this concept and to fit it into a broader picture. If we consider any situation that is making us unhappy, we can often view it in terms of three possibilities, or what I have come to call the three paths before us. At work, for example, if we are frustrated by the organization’s culture or the behavior of our boss, one of our options is to resign from our post. Of course, this assumes we have the freedom … Continue reading
