Posts Tagged ‘civilized-work’

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»

Change Here

After the election last week in the United States, change is a hot topic, but it isn’t political change that I have been thinking about recently. It’s how organizations and their leaders cope—or, more often, fail to cope too well—with the need for changes in business practices to promote growth and foster creativity.

It’s a truism to point out that no one can avoid change. It’s part of the reality in… » Continue

November 13 2006 | By Adrian | Tagged: breakthrough, business-fundamentalism, change, civilized-work, corporate-culture, creativity, dignity, effectiveness, Hamburger-Management, happiness, improvement, lifebalance, Management, priorities, slow-leadership, strategy, thinking, thought, trust, work, work-life, work/life-balance, worklife, workplace | 1 comment»

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»

Focusing on What Matters (and Ignoring What Does Not)

As I look back at this week’s postings on Slow Leadership, I notice that most of them were concerned with helping people stop wasting their time and energy on fruitless endeavors.

Take the first post, entitled: To Succeed, First Forget About Leadership Technique. In it, I argued that belief that success—in just about any business or leadership —comes from one simple source (applying the correct “leadership technique), is both… » Continue

October 30 2006 | By Adrian | Tagged: civilized-work, decision-making, firstthingsfirst, freedom, Hamburger-Management, lifebalance, Lifehack, Management, overwork, prioritization, problem, problemsolving, technique, timemanagement, work-life, work/life-balance, working, worklife | 1 comment»

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»

Heresy and Progress

We live in world full of pressures to conform: to believe what others tell us is true, to toe the line, to accept the values of those in positions of power, and to follow conventional, approved paths. That’s the way to get on in life and business, we are told. You need to fit in, play the game, and avoid rocking any boats.

Fitting in and following generally accepted views on… » Continue

October 9 2006 | By Adrian | Tagged: accomplishment, achievement, career, civilized-work, consumption, creativity, decision-making, delegation, economics, enjoyment, freedom, happiness, kathy+sierra, leadership, lifebalance, Lifehack, Lifestyle, Management, micro-management, Money, priorities, prioritization, slow-leadership, spending, strategy, stress, success, time, work-life, work/life-balance, worklife | 1 comment»

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»

Quality Leadership

Suppose someone asked you to list the most important qualities you would find in an outstanding leader. What would you say? Toughness? Authority? Decisiveness, perhaps? Tenacity? You could make a case for all of these. Today’s conventional thinking about leadership tends to stress the more active, resolute qualities in a leader. Leaders are expected to get results and remain effective under the constant pressure of globalized markets.

What I want to… » Continue

August 14 2006 | By Adrian | Tagged: business, civilized-work, effectiveness, generosity, incentive, leadership, listening, Management, manager, mercy, micro-management, organization, performance, restraint, slow-leadership, work-life | no comments»

Thinking About Trust

Trust in other people is one of the foundations for creating a civilized working environment. Many managers are overworked primarily because of a lack of trust. They take on too much themselves, because they don’t trust their subordinates to do the work properly. They cannot allocate enough time to their own work, because they don’t believe people will put in the required time without constant supervision. They attend pointless meetings… » Continue

July 31 2006 | By Adrian | Tagged: attitude, behavior, boss, burnout, business, businesslife, civilized-work, control, corporate-culture, delegation, discontentment, fear, happiness, leadership, lifebalance, Management, manager, micro-management, office-politics, organization, respect, team, teamwork, timemanagement, trust, work, work-life, work/life-balance, working, worklife | 1 comment»

“Hamburger Management”

A leader forced to utilize “hamburger management” is like a cordon bleu chef told to work as a short-order cook and produce nothing but hamburgers with french fries every day. Any organization that uses this approach is like a diner who eats nothing else. The first becomes bored, frustrated and disillusioned; the second becomes sick rather quickly.

Hamburger management is any form of leadership or management technique that utilizes only a… » Continue

July 9 2006 | By Adrian | Tagged: civilized-work, creativity, decision, leadership, managememt, Management, manager, organization, overwork, performance, prioritization, time, timemanagement, work, work-life, workflow, workstyle | 4 comments»

The Soul of Business

When people speak about the soul — outside of a purely religious context — they’re usually referring to the qualities of something (or someone) that they see as fundamental to its identity. The word “soul” is shorthand for the innermost, truest or most obviously unique nature of whatever or whoever they are referring to.

Used in this way, the word can apply to people (where it means whatever they feel is… » Continue

June 19 2006 | By Adrian | Tagged: anxiety, attitude, balance, behavior, civilization, civilized-work, corporate-culture, happiness, leadership, lifebalance, Management, organization, performance, soul, stress, work-life, work/life-balance, worklife, workspace | no comments»

Civilizing Corporate Culture

This week, I’ve been thinking a great deal about what counts as a “civilized” corporate and workplace culture. That’s because I’m deep into the editing process with my new book, Slow Leadership: How to Civilize Your Workplace, which will be published this Fall. The more I think about it, the more is seems to me that much of corporate America — much of the Western corporate world, if it comes to that — has taken a large step backwards in recent years in providing truly civilized working conditions. » Continue

June 12 2006 | By Adrian | Tagged: achievement, burnout, civilization, civilized-work, happiness, leadership, lifebalance, Lifehack, Lifestyle, Management, manager, organization, overwork, prioritization, time, work, work-life, work/life-balance | 3 comments»

The Truth About Work/Life Balance

Problems with the balance between the demands of profit-driven corporations and peoples’ need to live a satisfying life won’t be cured by policy statements and procedure manuals. That isn’t where the causes lie. They’re inside peoples’ heads. » Continue

June 4 2006 | By Adrian | Tagged: achievement, civilization, civilized-work, happiness, leadership, lifebalance, lifebalanceseries, Management, organization, stress, work-life, work/life-balance | 3 comments»