Do Business Well

Now that you know the difference between skills, knowledge, and talents, you can use these terms to throw light on all the other words used to describe human behavior—words like “competencies,” “habits,” “attitude,” and “drive.” At present many of us assume that they all mean virtually the same thing. We use phrases like “interpersonal skills,” “skill set,” “work habits,” or “core competencies” so naturally that we rarely question their true meaning. Continue Reading »

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Of course, none of this means that great managers ignore nonperformance. They don’t. Focus on strengths is not another name for the power of positive thinking. Bad things happen. Some people fail. Some people struggle. And even your star performers have their faults. Poor performance must be confronted head-on, if it is not to degenerate into a dangerously unproductive situation. And it must be confronted quickly—as with all degenerative diseases, procrastination in the face of poor performance is a fool’s remedy. Continue Reading »

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Going to a workshop may seem attractive. Yes, you can pick up some skills. But it’s difficult to transfer these skills to your work environment. The so-called university model of training (sending employees to outside educational institutions) has proven relatively ineffective. On the average, you can expect to see the transfer of no more than 5 to 20 percent of the desired skills two years after the training program. Continue Reading »

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