I have a story to tell you about a friend.  This friend started by saying he used to have a normal workday.  His job was to manage a State of Missouri training department. Life was easy, lessons were planed and workshop facilitated. About the most difficult thing he had to do was to schedule trainers…

Many talk about wanting efficiency and effectiveness, but little is done.  Delegating projects, jobs and tasks to others is maybe a manager’s most important tool for achieving his/her department’s goals and objectives. When one observes important goals are not being achieved in a timely manner, it is often the result of ineffective delegation.   There…

I’m not a reader. Most of my reading includes articles in business journals:  they take less than 10 minutes to read!  However, I ran across a book titled Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron Mc Millian and Al Switzler that I couldn’t put down. Crucial Conversations shares the results of 25 years of…

My most difficult role as a human resources consultant is to help clients fire an employee. When I meet with clients that are having performance or behavior problems, I can see the stress on their faces and can hear the pain in their voices.  Firing an employee can often turn even the bravest of managers…

Some years ago, while reading my wife’s Discipleship Journal, I came upon an interesting term with which I was unfamiliar. Matthew Woodley used the term “Idiot Default” to describe a behavior in which one’s mindset immediately assumes the worst of someone’s motives and actions when his/her performance is less than perfect.  The “Idiot Default” button…