Posts tagged as:

Expectations

The Ambiguity Factor

December 3, 2009

When was the last time you heard an employee say “Wow, the implementation of that new program (system/process/idea) was smooth!” My guess is you’ve rarely (perhaps never?) heard that.  There are oodles of reasons why the launch of a new system goes awry— competing values, unclear objectives, unrealistic deadlines, budget constraints and so on.  Here’s [...]

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Praising Mastery

November 6, 2009

I’m reading the book The Power of Respect by Deborah Norville.  She cites a very interesting study from the journal Motivation and Emotion. In this study, a group of researchers from Reed College in Oregon studied whether one form of praise was more effective than another.  The researchers used two different types of praise: “mastery”, [...]

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What’s It Hurt To Ask?

October 16, 2009

I just returned from conducting on-site meetings for a new client.  The CEO of this company hired me to help his employees make the transition to a new organizational structure. We’re doing a series of input meetings, SWOT analyses and informational interviews.  Something that one of the employees said this morning is really sticking with [...]

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When OK is The Best We Can Expect

October 5, 2009

The other day I was exchanging emails with my friend Kathleen who has extremely diverse interests.  She’s an accounting software trainer/working artist / gallery owner.  (How’s THAT for variety?!) It had been awhile since we’d talked and I inquired—“how are you?”  Kathleen emailed back, “I’m fine…well, OK.  But ‘OK’ is the new ‘Fine’, right?”  After [...]

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