Today’s driven, macho managers have lost the idea of how to use others properly

Here’s a little story — a true one — from the time when I was working with a major European organization. Sally P. was overworked, burned-out, stressed and exhausted — the whole nine yards. So her boss asked me to talk to [...]

Opening your mind and closing your mouth will pay big dividends

There’s a common saying that human beings were given two ears (and two eyes), but only one mouth to show that they should listen (and look) at least twice as much as they speak. To be successful as a manager and leader that ratio is [...]

How managers and leaders misinterpret chance events

We all know that a “fair” coin, when flipped, has a 50:50 chance of coming down heads or tails. So what will happen if you make the experiment and flip one, say, ten times in a row?
If you guessed that you would get heads five times and tails five [...]

Impatience merely wears people out and induces yet more stress

Events in our lives and our businesses are much like rivers. They flow at their own pace, depending on the geography of the circumstances. Sometimes they sweep us along in a torrent and we feel close to drowning; at other times, their progress is agonizingly [...]

(This is a guest post by John Fletcher. John is an Englishman now resident in Europe, with a long career in the public sector in several countries. He has spent a good deal of time in working environments outside the Anglo-Saxon world, and has written and lectured on organizational issues.)
Tactics: good and bad
 
In the [...]

Our quality of life is in our own hands

Choice is a constant theme of Slow Leadership. It’s so easy to stumble into the future, eyes wide shut, repeating the conventions of past and present and missing the opportunities open to us to make our future different — and better — from what has gone before.
Until [...]

Getting out of the post-holiday blues

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.
Something is bothering you. You can’t quite put your finger on it. It’s like a dull ache deep in the pit of your stomach. [...]

How to think about timing a career move
 
At this time of year, I guess that many people are asking themselves whether it may be time to move on and seek to improve their careers elsewhere.
If this is in your mind, here’s some timely advice from “Mavericks at Work” in the form of an article called: [...]

Maybe none of us are quite as we believe
 
I think nearly everyone believes that they know themselves and can evaluate their behavior accurately. We know — or think we know — what we have done, why we have done it, and how we will will react to future events.
But what if this isn’t quite true, [...]

Why “slow and steady” wins the (business) race
I don’t normally post articles at weekends, but I had to draw your attention right away to Joe Nocera’s article in today’s New York Times Business section. The piece is entitled Put Buyers First? What a Concept.
The article is about customer service at Amazon.com and Wall Street’s reaction [...]