The majority of organizations today claim they have a performance appraisal system in place.  The procedures and documentation are carefully designed and circulated every quarter or half year. Managers line up interviews with their staff. Sometimes people are asked to complete self assessments before their appraisal interviews.
Afterwards, the data is collected and analysed to identify [...]

Are there people around you behaving like this?
 They perform way under their capabilities even though you hold regular performance reviews
 They use up most of their sick leave each year although you see no evidence of any serious illness
 They use mobile phones during meetings for mail and messages in defiance of agreements to [...]

I have been working with a client in Lexington, Kentucky this week. It is one of the largest NGOs in the USA, serving the needs of impoverished communities in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Some of the people on my workshops were the managers of particular projects; others were from building maintenance, finance, HR and donor [...]

One manager I’ve seen recently uses the all too familiar tell or authoritarian style with her team. She knows it all; what is wrong, who is at fault and exactly what they must do to fix it. She even knows what others think! In a meeting from which one of her people was absent, she [...]

I was reminded again this week of the many ways organisations can be incompetent.
I had been asked to help a manager whose staff were argumentative, surly and uncooperative. ‘There’s nothing I can do with them,’ he said. ‘They just don’t want to work!’ On the surface it looked as if this manager had indeed inherited [...]

I’m sure you are familiar with the terms Baby Boomers and Generations X and Y.
Baby Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964, so they are starting to retire.
Generation X was born between 1965 and 1979. They are now between 28 and 42 years old so many are in managerial positions of authority.
Generation Y was born [...]

Everyone talks about the importance of relationships; in teams, with customers, with your boss, with your staff; in families, with spouses and partners. But mostly what I hear are people holding the kind of conversations that do little to build relationships and are often virtually guaranteed to damage them!
I hear emotional outbursts, accusations and blame. [...]