Do Business Well

Praise is easy to take. Who doesn’t want to be flattered? Criticism is another matter because it touches a sensitive nerve: our egos.

Unless it’s given properly and under the right conditions, criticism is often perceived as an attack, says Robert Bies, assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. “A person’s defenses go up when it comes to taking criticism,” he says. “Nobody wants to hear what he or she thinks may be bad news.”

As unpleasant as it is to give and take, criticism is essential for getting the best from your subordinates and from yourself. Continue Reading »

5 Comments »

• At the meeting last week, you blew up when colleagues couldn’t see that your long-range plan was better than a co-worker’s proposed alternative.
• Yesterday, the person filling in for your vacationing secretary collated documents incorrectly and was stuffing them in envelopes to be mailed when you caught the error and then exploded.
• When the president asked someone else to show him the details of an ad campaign for one of your division’s products this morning, it was all you could do to keep yourself from telling him off.

Sound familiar? You may be the “short-fused” executive. You are likely to have a set of personality characteristics that can propel you to the very top—if you don’t sabotage yourself first. Continue Reading »

5 Comments »