There's a major difference between Leadership and Management. These posts will keep you up-to-date on leadership developments. For more essential foundational information, read our special report on Leadership.
Being a manager is a lot like being head coach. Your job is to put your players in the best position to succeed.
Some managers are like Jill Ellis, head coach of the U.S. women’s national soccer team which just won the World Cup. Or 11-time NBA champion Phil Jackson. Others? Eh, not so much.
So what truly makes a good manager? The ability to engage and motivate people.
Not everyone is cut out for it. At least that’s what Gallup pollsters found in their studies of employee engagement.
What makes a great leader? Just stop and let’s think,
Is it the way that you look or the fact you don’t stink?
I guess it could be, but that’s said with a wink,
It’s probably because you’re totally in sync!
OK, so Dr. Seuss I’m not, but there’s a lot to be learned from this wise man who rhymed almost everything he wrote. And his lessons aren’t just for children either.
Anyone who manages/supervises people, places or things,
could learn a thing or two from the rhyming book king!
Ooops, sorry, there I go again.
Leadership lessons, life lessons, business lessons, pearls of wisdom, call them what you want, Dr. Seuss books are loaded with them.
For the most part, executives and managers are honest people. But all of us find ourselves in the position of telling a “little white lie” from time to time.
ResourcefulManager asked 1,133 executives and managers which “white lies” they have told. We gave them a list of 33 lies.
The Number 1 lie?
“I was just getting ready to call you!”
Here are the Top 10. How many have you told?
The workplace is changing as rapidly the technology that drives it.
Yet there are still a surprising number of stubborn beliefs about management that just won’t change, and frankly, just aren’t very true.
One reason these myths persist is people don’t understand what managers do (and, unfortunately, that includes a lot of managers.)
Here are seven management myths that you might want to reconsider:
The higher you go in an organization, the harder it is to see what life is like way down there on the front lines.
And heaven help you if you ask someone, because you never know who’s going to tell you the truth.
The longer you are at the top, the more likely you forgot what life is like lower down, if you ever really knew.
It’s a very different existence, even for the frontline folks who love their jobs.
You don’t think so?
Here are 8 reasons you might want to think again.
Some phrases really should be banned from the workplace.
You know them when you hear them.
They are the sorts of things that make people wonder how their boss ever got promoted in the first place.
And yet, they are the kinds of things we all hear, and maybe even say, all too often.
If any of these sound familiar, hopefully it’s because someone ELSE is saying them.
So steer clear.
There’s no use hiding the fact that I am a huge fan of TED Talks.
I love the way they strip away all the distractions and focus on the essence of one idea. And how that one idea can change things.
They’re a great source of information, wisdom and outside-the-box thinking. Even better: They’re short.
What follows are five TED Talks that I think every leader, executive and manager should watch.
These five challenge conventional thinking about leadership and management. And while I don’t expect you’ll run out and blindly do what they say, there’s a good chance you’ll be adopt some of their ideas and apply them.
I know I have.
Get ready to have your mind expanded.
When your employees are humming along and doing their best work, more than likely you’re humming, too.
Unless you’re just damn lucky, it’s not an accident.
If you’re like most of us, you had to work to create that environment. And you have to work even harder to sustain it.
To do that takes a well-thought-out plan. Don’t have one?
Well, here are the seven key components I use:
One of the best things that can happen to a manager is having the opportunity to hire someone smarter, more talented and more accomplished than you.
Now, why does managing talented people seem so terrifying?
Successful leaders know – or should know – that hiring talented people is like winning the lottery. You gain an employee whose abilities could be that proverbial high tide, raising all boats, including yours.
What could possibly be wrong with that?
Is there one leadership quality that rises above the rest?
A fascinating examination of that very question, done by the Harvard Business Review, answers with an unequivocal “yes!”
Respect.
Or, to quote a phrase, R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
No other leadership quality had a bigger effect on employees than respect.
Being treated with respect was more important to employees than recognition and appreciation, communicating an inspiring vision, providing useful feedback — even opportunities for learning, growth, and development.
