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They say TV rots your brain. But doesn’t that depend on what you watch?
If you’re a fan of “NCIS,” you may have actually learned something from the lead character Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
Gibbs is a former U.S. Marine sniper turned special agent who works and lives by his own special set of no-nonsense rules.
These rules define who he is and how he manages his team.
Of course, not all of Gibb’s rules can be applied to business, but here are 13 worth tweaking for your environment.
Chances are, when you look around, you see a group of people that hardly resembles the pool of folks you were a part of before you became a manager.
They’re likely younger, better educated, less experienced, more tech-savvy and generationally different in many ways.
Part of every manager’s role is to adapt to the dynamics of the team – not the other way around. Knowing how to work with changing demographics requires knowing how to make rules that they’ll be able, and willing, to follow.
Otherwise, people might pack up their laptops and go looking for greener pastures.
A great first step in keeping these emerging up-and-comers happy is to ditch old-style rules that went the way of 8-track tapes and TV vacuum tubes.
Here are a few of the fuddy-duddy rules you can ditch right away.
You’re great at leading other people, but could you do their jobs?
If not, it’s time to learn.
Before you start thinking, “Yeah, right. I’m busy enough doing my own work. I don’t have time to learn their jobs,” give us a chance.
On the surface, it might not seem important – or even feasible — that the boss knows how to do employees’ work. But new research finds the exact opposite is true.
A manager’s understanding of employees’ work has the biggest impact on their job satisfaction, a study in the Industrial and Labor Relations Review found.
No matter what you think about the Harry Potter novels, you must give it up for J.K. Rowling.
She was at rock bottom when she had the idea for the book series and wrote the first one on a manual typewriter.
It’s now estimated that after taxes, thanks to the books, movies, theme parks and television, Rowling’s earnings are $1.2 billion, according to The New York Times.
Not too shabby for a single mother who was once on welfare.
When it comes down to it, leaders, supervisors and managers can all take a page from Rowling’s book on what it takes to be successful and fulfilled both personally and professionally.
What other life/business lessons can you steal from the world-renowned author? Here are nine that could change your life:
Feel like you’re spending more time putting out wildfires?
You know, the unnecessary ones sparked by petty employee outbursts.
One minute things are fairly quiet and, next thing you know, something flares up and causes yet another disruption.
You can almost smell the smoke outside your office.
Here are five classic employee fires that, with some deft handling, you can stomp out for good.
It’s easy to point the finger at others when things go wrong. Sports coaches and players are blamed for games lost, deadlines are blamed for poorly executed plans, we even blame the weather when we’re having a bad day.
The blame game isn’t something new. We all know the term “scapegoat.” That term comes from a story in the Bible (if not even earlier) in which the collective sins of a community were placed upon the unsuspecting back of a poor goat.
Too often we get sucked into a pattern of blame and counter-blame, but I’ve got a couple of powerful questions that could alter that pattern and put an end to the question “Who is to blame?”
We all make mistakes.
Then there are those times when it’s A REALLY BIG mistake.
You know the kind. When everyone gets together after and tries to figure out, “What in the world just happened?”
Think United Airlines. They say they stuck to the rules when they deplaned a passenger against his will. Fallout? The stock fell sharply the next day. And the turbulence could last for months or even longer.
Big mistakes aren’t just embarrassing. They’re expensive. Just little grammar issues cost companies billions of dollars each year, one study found. Some poor decisions that led to big mistakes have buried companies, leaving people jobless.
Researchers say many big mistakes – such as the embarrassingly public 2017 Academy Awards Best Picture flub – could be avoided or at least minimized if people paid more attention to the factors that lead up to them.
Quick question: How fast does it usually take you to rally your troops when you’ve got a problem that needs immediate attention?
If you’re still doing the calculation in your head because you can’t remember, now might be the time to examine the amount of flexibility you give your team.
We often have things running so smoothly that we’re taken by surprise when work hits a snag – an emergency or crisis that needs all hands on deck.
It can come as a shock when you’ve got to get your team focused, but they’re so busy doing their own thing.
I know this may seem counter-intuitive, but you may have let your desire to be a “flexible boss” go too far.
Negative energy can take over fast if we’re not paying attention. And once it has a grip, it’s that much harder to break.
It might not be outright bullying or shouting matches. But you can sense when misery hangs over your team like a dark cloud. You don’t know if or when the storm will hit, but you can definitely feel it in the air.
How’d it happen?
Good leaders should never assume things are “fine.” Entire departments – even whole companies – can become so bogged down with negative vibes that only an overhaul will turn it around.
If unchecked, negativity can spread like a plague through a team, says leadership coach Michael Hyatt. “[It kills] cooperation and slows down the work we do,” he says.
Everybody wants to start off on the right foot with a new boss.
Particularly if you’re that new boss.
First impressions count – but you’ve been up to your eyeballs figuring out your new job, meeting other higher-ups, and sorting through the mass of paperwork left by your predecessor.
So how do you make the most of those early introductions?
Here are 5 things you can do that will have a big impact – and, thankfully, they’re not hard to do.
