I have seen many Bosses From Hell (BFH) in decades of management, consulting and coaching (I just really hope I haven’t ever been one!) I have heard about enough of them and their antics to believe that their behaviour does not happen by chance.
“This is what I do for a living and a loving,” I said as I introduced myself as the workshop facilitator. I paused as if a bird had stopped mid-flight to consider the miracle of its defiance of gravity. The words had flowed without conscious thought from somewhere deep within me.
The great quest of our life seems to be to find balance. We crave a sense of stability in our relationships between home and work, career and children, material desires and spirituality.
One of the resources that a leader has to manage is time, his or her own and the time of others. The workplace is driven by time. There are specific hours for starting and ending the workday and for taking breaks with some having to physically clock in and out.
“But isn’t silence a sign of weakness?” my coachee asked. We were discussing a difficult meeting he had with his peers, who had pummeled him with questions for which he was unprepared. On reflection, he was very dissatisfied with his response which he felt came across as being defensive.
Recently, I facilitated a highly interactive, fun, joyous workshop for 70 people as part of a corporate Core Values Initiative. We sang, did skits, danced (even a conga line) all whilst doing some very serious and important work.
In over two decades of management consulting, I have yet to find anyone who likes performance appraisals. They cause no end of stress for both appraiser and appraisee and are dreaded by both.
How would you feel if you walked into your office one morning, a normal workday, to be greeted by your employees all over the world, hailing “You’re the Man”? That’s exactly what happened to Mark Sebba, retiring CEO of Net-A-Porter.
On January 19, HONY (Humans of New York) shared a photo of Vidal and this brief conversation…
Many years ago, when I was the CEO of a food processing and distribution company, a line worker was caught stealing a jar of jam. I fired her. She pleaded with me that it was only one small jar, sobbing as she told me about her children, and her very poor circumstances. I was emotionally moved, and still feel a great deal of sorrow over it.
Shift your focus from what's going wrong to what's going right.
Download my free Gratitude meditation today and start experiencing the benefits for yourself.