- A Tale of Two Managers: Command versus Commitment
"Organizations should be built and managers should be functioning so people can be naturally empowered. If someone's doing their jobthey should know their job better than anybody. They don't need to be 'empowered,' but encouraged and left alone to be able to do what they know best." - A Process for Continuous Innovation and Controlled Chaos is Built on a Service Ethic
Today's leading organizations are knowledge creating companies that thrive on continuous innovation. It's a big competitive edge. New products and services can be "knocked off" or copied. But it's much harder for competitors to duplicate a management system and corporate culture that produces a continuous stream of successful product and service improvements, innovations, adaptations, and extensions. - Thermometer Manager or Thermostat Leader?
The late 19th century Irish playwright, critic, and social reformer, George Bernard Shaw, had a lot of useful things to say about personal effectiveness. A few of his comments have hung on my mirror or been posted in my day planner over the years. This one speaks to a core management-leadership choice we all have; "the reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends upon the unreasonable man." - The Many Faces of Love
Like leadership, love has many faces and forms. Both are states of being that defy easy definitions or how-to formulas. Pianist, Arthur Rubinstein, describes one face of love, "I'm passionately involved in life: I love its change, its color, its movement. To be alive, to be able to see, to walk, to have houses, music, paintings — it's all a miracle." Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia outlines another face of love when talking about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four-year-old child whose next-door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry." - Purposeful Leaders Make Meaning
In our organization and team development consulting at The CLEMMER Group, we often bring groups of people together to get their perspectives on strengths and weaknesses, improvement opportunities, and the like. One morning I asked a group of very quiet production and service people a series of these questions. I was getting very few responses. This was going nowhere fast. Finally one grizzled veteran sitting at the back of the room with his arms folded said, "Jim, I think you're confusing us with people who care." - Leaders Make the Difference
All organizations have access to more-or-less the same resources. They draw from the same pool of people in their markets or geographic areas. And they can all learn about the latest tools and techniques. - How Total is Your Quality Management?
Notre Dame football coach, Lou Holtz, once observed "When all is said and done, a lot more is said than done". Despite all the talk -- passionate speeches, glossy brochures, clever ads, high tech videos, convincing sales pitches, snappy slogans, strategic plans, and solemn annual reports -- the service and quality action delivered by most organizations is mediocre at best.
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