You may remember the story of Sam (read it here), the employee who was summoned to the manager’s office. Expecting to be commended for an exceptional month of sales he was instead reprimanded for excessive (although not by much) use of sick leave. This is a classic example of number 2 in my list of...

Back when I wrote a series called Power Plays, one of the articles dealt with the practice of authority (read it here). I made the following points within that article: Authority is both delegated DOWNWARD and awarded UPWARD. You authorize someone for a particular job. They grant you authority to oversee and hold accountable. When...

Motivation is intensely personal, innately practical, and incredibly fragile. Unlike accelerator pedals or throttle controls which can be mechanically manipulated and malfunctions repaired objectively, motivation is more an art than a science. Humans are predictably unpredictable. We do not always respond the same way to the same stimuli.  But we are unique and there are...

Motivation can often be very fragile. It is usually much easier to demotivate than it is to motivate. Acknowledging that motivation is almost always intrinsic, that it originates within a person and that effective leadership and management can ignite the engine, this series would be incomplete if I did not give some mention to the...

Effective leadership is the process of persuasion and example by which an individual induces a person or group to take action that is in accord with the leader’s purposes. It is the art of letting people have your own way. Remembering the motivators specific to generations detailed earlier in this series, here are seven general...

The department manager stepped up to the sales desk, dropped a file on it, and said to Phil the salesman, “Take care of this right now.” Phil objected, “We have already discussed this customer. She has refused to comply with local zoning laws. We cannot proceed with this because she won’t do what has to...

It's always risky to make generalizations about a demographic and the tendency to rely on stereotypes is all to tempting. But each generation is shaped by the dynamics in which it lives. Millenials have never known a world without computers. Methods of communication and choices by which that communication are possible have always been there...

Generation X is the little cohort that could. Born between 1965 and 1980, this group numbers only 46 million. Having grown up as latchkey kids, they learned independence and resilience which manifests itself now as independent and resilient employees. Writes Jay A. Conger, professor of organizational behavior at the London Business School and a research...

Like every generation, Boomers bridge the attitude gap between the old and the new. In the first article about Boomers, I listed the first two motivators – the importance of feeling important and the autonomy to make decisions. In this post I’ll list the last three. 3. Future goals - the promise of tomorrow. I...

In the last article I posted the first two motivational triggers Boomers respond to. If you’re just now checking in, you can read that article here. I want to share a story that was told to me since I posted last week. I am doing so because it directly feeds into the theme of flipping...