Do Business Well

B. If your manager forces you to do things her way . . . she is probably focusing on process too much. Pick your moment, perhaps during your performance planning meeting, and tell her that you want to define your role more by its outcomes than by its steps. Ask her which outcomes she would use to measure your success. As you discuss this, describe for her how your style, although different from hers, will still enable you to achieve the outcomes expected of you. Continue Reading »

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Imagine a plain white wall as a metaphor for a well-run, successful business. Now imagine that there is a small black mark somewhere on the wall. Where do you focus your attention? It travels to the blemish. The established thinking of ‘let’s fix what’s wrong’ has become so obsessive that we can spot a flaw in seconds, simply because that is what we are looking out for. Whenever someone makes a presentation, we are more attuned to its weaknesses than its strengths. Whenever we meet someone, we are more attuned to evaluating what we dislike about them, rather than what we may like. How many times are we missing the good by habitually searching for the bad? Continue Reading »

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