Do Business Well

In 1950, W. Edwards Deming was invited to Japan to help bring Japanese industry back to its feet. Although his management methods revolutionized Japanese quality and productivity, he did not gain full recognition in the United States until recently. One of the tenets of his philosophy is that workers who are prone to be fearful and anxious cannot perform effectively.

Many employees operate in a climate of fear. The result is stress, low productivity, medical and personal problems. In the absence of actual physical danger, what are employees afraid of?

Fear generally comes out of a feeling of powerlessness. Someone (the boss) or something (the organization) has control over crucial aspects of a person’s life. Uncertain job security, performance appraisals, loss of status, failure to meet goals—all of these contribute to an employee’s malaise. Continue Reading »

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You know that you’ve got a brilliant assistant when he streamlines the company’s distribution system in a way no one has ever thought of before—and it’s only his first month on the job.

Or, your project team has just left a fact-finding meeting with a prospective client. In the taxicab on the way back, your new assistant spouts a plan that you all realize will become the winning proposal.

It’s enough to make even the most self-confident manager feel a little uneasy. After all, no one wants to be shown up.

Dealing With the Talented Person Successfully

You don’t have to be shown up. Instead, manage this “wunderkind” in a way that helps your career. “The key is to accept the notion that the brilliant assistant is either on the way up in the organization or on the way out,” says Angelo Kinicki, an associate professor and specialist in organizational behavior at Arizona State University in Tempe. “If you help the person move up you’ll have an ally in a parallel or superior position.” Continue Reading »

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Consider the following examples of organizational credit-grabbing:

Your boss has delegated the job of organizing the annual meeting to you, which his boss has assigned to him. You spend two weeks lining up speakers, reserving accommodations, organizing the agenda, writing and distributing invitations and drawing together a myriad of other details. At the closing banquet, your boss publicly accepts accolades for his fine job of organizing a successful meeting without mentioning your work even once.

You’ve asked another manager to contribute to a proposal you’re writing for submission to your mutual boss at a departmental meeting. The proposal is well received at the meeting, but you are annoyed when your colleague takes equal credit, referring often to “our research” and “when we were deciding on budget recommendations . .” Continue Reading »

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