Posts Tagged ‘business-ethics’

Putting Your Trust in . . . Trust

Trust is an essential component in almost all dealings between human beings, other than outright hostile ones like wars and terrorism. It is certainly vital for the proper running of any organization, as well as for almost all the components of trade and commerce. Lack of trust between trading partners undermines the proper functioning of business. Mistrust is a major cause of excessive (and unnecessary) workload on leaders, since the… » Continue

November 27 2006 | By Adrian | Tagged: business-ethics, civilized-work, collaboration, commitment, corporate-culture, empowerment, Hamburger-Management, honesty, innovation, integrity, leadership, Lifehack, Management, micro-management, motivation, office-politics, relationships, teamwork, trust, work, work-life, workstyle | 2 comments»

How to Ruin Your Career In Five Easy Steps

If you’ve had six different jobs in the last 18 months and the only thing that is the same at each job is you, there may be a problem.

Unless you’re doing research for a book entitled “How to Lose Your Job in Ten Days.”

If you are some of the following may be some great information gathering techniques.
1. Be oblivious to expectations. Most operations don’t want a yes man. But… » Continue

November 22 2006 | By Reginald | Tagged: business-ethics, career, employee, Management, success | 16 comments»

Why We Should Put an End to “Hamburger Management”

Hamburger Management is a shoddy, debased version of real leadership that focuses on just three things: whatever demands least, can be used fastest, and costs least. It thrives wherever organizations seek to meet unrealistic targets with insufficient resources to maximize short-term profits. Indeed, Hamburger Management is short-term by nature, and will habitually sacrifice long-term advantage and value for the immediate gratification of bosses and investors.

To force people to work long… » Continue

November 6 2006 | By Adrian | Tagged: accomplishment, anxiety, business-ethics, change, civilized-work, competition, creativity, effectiveness, Hamburger-Management, innovation, leadership, lifehacks, Management, manager, micro-management, organization, slow-leadership, strategy, stress, trust, value, work-life, work/life-balance, worklife, workplace | 3 comments»

Antidotes to Hamburger Management

I’ve been thinking and writing quite a lot this week about Hamburger Management: the type of management approach that is based on always doing whatever is quickest, simplest and (above all) cheapest. Hamburger Managers provide the kind of leadership that is best described as: “Never mind the quality, look how fast it goes and how cheap it is.” Sadly, this approach is being forced on a great many otherwise perfectly… » Continue

October 23 2006 | By Adrian | Tagged: attitude, behavior, bestpractices, business-ethics, civilization, civilized-work, competition, decision-making, effectiveness, empowerment, engagement, expectations, guideline, Hamburger-Management, innovation, integrity, leadership, lifebalance, Management, meetings, organization, performance, priorities, prioritization, slow-leadership, strategy, stress, success, trust, work, work-life, work/life-balance | 4 comments»

Doubt, Conformity, and “Hamburger Management”

When you write an article on a topic, it’s traditional to start with the problem, explain the causes next, then move into offering a solution. On the Slow Leadership site this week, I took things more or less in the opposite order, starting on Monday with part of the solution, giving my views on the reasons for the problem mid-week, and finally explaining the problem itself on Friday. This… » Continue

October 16 2006 | By Adrian | Tagged: business-ethics, business-fundamentalism, civilized-work, doubt, Hamburger-Management, lifebalance, Management, office-politics, performance, slow-leadership, strategy, success, timemanagement, work, work-life, work/life-balance | 3 comments»

Creating Hardworking Idiots

The German World War II general Erich von Manstein is said to have categorized his officers into four types. The first type, he said, is lazy and stupid. His advice was to leave them alone because they don’t do any harm. The second type is hard-working and clever. He said that they make great officers because they ensure everything runs smoothly. The third group is composed of hardworking idiots. Von… » Continue

October 2 2006 | By Adrian | Tagged: business, business-ethics, business-fundamentalism, civilized-work, effectiveness, leadership, Management, micro-management, priorities, prioritization, slow-leadership, strategy, work, work-life, working, worklife | 22 comments»

The Onward March of Folly

Despite all of mankind’s technological progress, some patterns seem rooted in human behavior. One of these is the tendency to grab for short-term gains and ignore the longer-term consequences, even when those are almost entirely predictable.

This attitude has been illustrated this week by the announcement from the Ford Motor Company of still more lay-offs, plant closures, and buy-outs of workers’ contracts. For years, Ford’s cars have been becoming less popular… » Continue

September 18 2006 | By Adrian | Tagged: burnout, business-ethics, business-fundamentalism, civilized-work, ethics, Management, mission, performance, priorities, Productivity, slow-leadership, strategy, stress, work, work-life | 3 comments»

Motives, Manipulation and Morality

I’ve been thinking a lot this week about why people do things, and what they have in mind when they ask others to act in a particular way. It’s common to find that what people say is the reasoning behind their actions or requests isn’t the real motivation for either. I may do or say something that I claim is aimed at helping a colleague, but my real reasoning is… » Continue

June 26 2006 | By Adrian | Tagged: business-ethics, business-fundamentalism, corporate-culture, ethics, honesty, integrity, leadership, lifebalance, Management, motivation, office-politics, organization, work-life, work/life-balance | 1 comment»