How Steve Jobs Reframed The Competition To Rally The Troops
Photo: Screenshots of Apple 1984 Super Bowl TV Commercial I have been in companies that operated with an extremely competitive culture...
- May 11, 2020
- 13 min
3 Reasons Physical Offices & Face-to-Face Meetings Are Not Going Away
The traditional, physical office is not going away any time soon despite advances in technology allowing people to work remotely, either...
- Nov 1, 2019
- 3 min
Pygmalion Effect – A Leader’s Attitude and Expectation Set the Tone
In the book, Extreme Ownership, Leif Babin (a U.S. Navy SEAL officer who was a SEAL instructor overseeing the Junior Officer Training...
- Dec 3, 2018
- 7 min
Layoffs (Usually) Don’t Work and Why They Harm More Than Help
“Layoffs are mostly bad for companies, harmful for the economy, and devastating for employees.” -Newsweek (2010) In December 2017, I...
- Sep 2, 2018
- 4 min
An “Action Bias” Can Be Counterproductive
In a Wall Street Journal article, Staats (2018) writes, “we have an action bias: We would rather be seen doing something than doing...
- May 1, 2018
- 2 min
Why Organizations Need More Star Followers and Less Yes People
Many of us miss a key point about the importance of followership. Indeed, most people hold a negative view of followership (Kelley,...
- Jul 2, 2017
- 11 min
Book Review: The Leadership Challenge, 6th Edition
[Note: This post was updated July 2020 for freshness & clarity.] “The notion that there are only a few great people who can lead others...
- Mar 7, 2017
- 4 min
How To Manage A Team That Keeps Growing
Athletics carrying a crew canoe over heads | Credit: Clerkenwell I was contacted by a freelance writer working on a blog post for the...
- Feb 1, 2017
- 3 min
Reasons Why People Resist or Support Organizational Change
“Change can generate deep resistance in people and in organizations, thus making it difficult, if not impossible, to implement...
- Jan 4, 2017
- 8 min
Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE)
Much of the original research on Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) came from the field of sociology. Two sociologists from University...
- Dec 3, 2016
- 3 min
Characteristics of a Team and Barriers to Effective Team Functioning
Before delving into the barriers of an effective team, you must first understand the difference between a team and a group: “The...
- May 9, 2016
- 6 min
The Link Between Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Organization Development, & Change Management
[Note: This post was updated February 2022 for freshness & clarity.] I often find people confusing and commingling the terms...
- Sep 18, 2013
- 4 min
Can Apple Remain Innovative Without Their Visionary Leader?
In January 2009, Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times wrote: “No American CEO is more intimately identified with his company’s...
- Jul 3, 2013
- 7 min
Industrial and Organizational Psychology’s Identity Crisis and How to Fix It
[NOTE: This post was updated February 2022 for freshness & clarity.] Recently, I’ve been struck by how stuck people and even...
- May 26, 2013
- 3 min
Organizational Diversity Initiatives
[Note: This post was updated March 2021 for freshness & clarity.] Diversity initiatives usually sound great on paper and on an...
- Nov 26, 2010
- 4 min
The Dangers of Charismatic Leaders
[NOTE: This post was updated September 2017] In a post called, “Lend Me Your Wallets:” Research on the Link Between Charismatic CEOs and...
- Feb 5, 2010
- 4 min
Implementing Change and Overcoming Resistance
[NOTE: This post was updated November 2016] In “Leading Change,” John Kotter (1996) outlined an 8-Stage Process to Creating Major Change:...
- Feb 1, 2010
- 2 min
Elements of Corporate Cultures
In “Culture by Default or by Design?” Edmonds and Glaser (2010) talk about the challenge of describing the culture of an organization. In...