Who are your question-asking role models? It is your third grade teacher who always knew the answer to any question she asked and who was just testing you? Or, perhaps, you ask questions like those cops on TV who use clever questions to trip up a suspect. I don’t know about you, but most of what I’ve » Read More
Tag: Communication
Feedback without Fear
Feedback. New bosses dread it. Experienced bosses hate it. Participants in my programs have told me that for over twenty-five years. So I’m always on the lookout for helpful advice on how to do that critical job well. “Conquering Your Fears of Giving Feedback ” is the headline of an interview with » Read More
If you’re worried about confrontation
It was one of the worst moments of my working life. I was the assistant manager in a distribution center and I sat down one of our warehousemen for a chat about his behavior, which needed improvement. Things started out just fine. Then, without warning it seemed, he was standing over my desk, red-faced, shouting and » Read More
This is not Reality
The Belgian surrealist painter Rene Magritte is best known by most of us for a painting with the official title “The Treachery of Images.” The painting is a representation of a tobacco pipe, under which Magritte wrote “This is not a pipe” in French. People didn’t like that much. They said » Read More
Confrontation and Splinters
You may know him from his songs, but Kenny Chesney appeared in the NY Times Corner Office column as a boss with more than a hundred people working for him. Adam Bryant titled the piece: “Country Singer, Songwriter and C.E.O.” There is a load of good advice in this column, especially if you’re a new boss » Read More