Why making mistakes is the key to a better working life
 
Yes, that headline is correct. This article really is about how to increase the mistakes you make — and do it deliberately. It may sound a stupid idea, but it’s not, I assure you. Making mistakes really is the key to a better life, at [...]

Is the corporate world cutting its own throat?
 
For some time, I have been complaining about corporate addiction to Hamburger Management: the myopic, short-term obsession with supposed increased efficiency and cutting costs as the sole route to higher performance.
Not only is such an approach uncivilized and, all too often, prone to leading managers into unethical actions, [...]

If time is opportunity, why are you spending it on things that don’t matter?
 
Occasionally you come across an article on a blog that makes you stop and re-think some of your basic assumptions. This is such an article, posted by Tom O’Leary on LifeGoalAction.
It reminds us that the flow of time is never-ending. The opportunities [...]

The dangers of getting too intense about work
 
It’s easy to get too intense about your work. Most people, deep down, believe what they do is valuable and important. They care about it. The employees most likely to feel work-based anxiety — even, eventually, burnout — are the ones who put more of themselves into their [...]

Research finds no causative link between happiness and doing a better job
 
Here’s a challenging finding for those who argue that helping people to be happier at work is justified by the effect it will have on their productivity.
According to an article in the New York Times, the conventional wisdom that a happy employee is a [...]

Why allowing power to be concentrated in a clique produces the organizational equivalent of thrombosis
 
This article has been around for a little while, but it’s still worth reading, regardless of your political views. I found it made me think and helped me understand why even change that everyone can see is vital so often fails [...]

Here’s an interesting snippet from “Management Line,” the blog at the Australian newspaper “The Age.”
Saying “thank you” for work well done seems such an obvious action, both from politeness and as a (free, simple, and powerful) motivator. Yet it’s quite uncommon in many organizations, especially those afflicted by Hamburger Management. Maybe Hamburger Managers [...]

Can you hear the crack of the boss’s whip?
 
This guest posting is by Karen Senteio, Business and Life Coach and President of VERVE. You can read more about her and her business here.
In the movie the “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood,” the significance of relationships, loyalty and support are unfolded in a touching and [...]

Why it’s important to let go, let be, and let the unexpected through
 
The universe has a way of producing greater riches than we expect — just not in the form we were looking for. Yet if your courage is strong and your mind open, you can seize these unexpected offerings and use them to your [...]

Why leaders should practice benign neglect
 
Things (and people) almost always work better when you stop messing with them. All that probing and peering, opening things up and fiddling to try to improve how they work, checking and supervising, absorb time and effort that would be better spent on doing the job itself. If you [...]