There are two distinct types of leaders and managers. As mentioned in the chapter on Motivation, you have to talk about Jack Welch, ex-CEO of General Electric.

There is no doubt in the minds of people who have met him, studied his management methods or worked with him over the two decades of his tenure; Jack Welch was a leader.

In contrast, Harold Geneen, the ex-CEO of the old ITT, was a manager. He kept detailed notebooks on each of the operations he controlled. He managed his divisions by knowing the details.  Read the full article...

Let’s spend some time on leadership styles.

There are all kinds. What’s your style? Are you going to be your own person? Are you going to copy someone else’s style? Hopefully, you will be yourself and develop your own style.

For one thing, becoming a leader and then radically changing your style is not the way to go. For example, don’t go from being a hard working team member who works well with people to one who demands everything be done yesterday. It’s not the real you and your team will resent the change. And you will end up with more stress problems than you can possibly believe by trying to maintain a persona that doesn’t fit.  Read the full article...

Open Door Policy

An open door policy is a fascinating policy. Most organizations claim to have such a policy. But don’t you dare use it! Your head will be handed to you if you do.

Do you have an open door policy for your team? Of course, but is it just words or do you mean it? Your open door policy says that you want your team to bring their problems, concerns and opinions to you. You want them to know that you are approachable and willing to listen. Right?  Read the full article...

It’s been some time since I have added to this blog. My apologies! I have been working on my next supervisor training program. Like all of you trainers know, creating a training program from scratch is one heck of a lot of work.

I designed this program for a friend of mine, the leader of a mining company in Nevada. He has a large number of lead people, first line supervisors and superintendents among his four hundred employees, many of whom needed more information on how to manage those diverse people on their crews.  Read the full article...

Organizational policies don’t have to make sense or be fair.

“Suthers, who said this was a democracy?” Bill Cooper, President of Asamera Minerals, made this comment when I thought a particular decision was not fair.

His words made sense to me and I had to admit that he was right and I told him so. The typical organization is not a democracy and the people in that organization have a job to do, even if they disagree with the decisions being made. At times that job is going to be hard on personal feelings and beliefs. But that’s the way it is.  Read the full article...