Many times the solutions we seek are waltzing around in full sight, but we don’t see them.  Let me give you a personal example.
I started RampUp Solutions in 1997, but finding a simple way to describe what we did took several years.
In the show Gypsy there’s a song that says, “Ya gotta have a gimmick” to succeed and I doubt that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.
I wanted one clear, concise term that gave insight to RampUp’s coaching approach, not a couple of paragraphs—no matter how well written.
When the light finally went on I had to laugh. The term I …read more

Did you know that as nimble as an ordinary bat is when flying it can’t take off from a level place?
If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and painfully until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then it takes off like a flash.
That’s also a good description of what happens to workers who aren’t given what they need to succeed.
Whether it’s coherent instructions, correct and complete information, additional training, viable feedback, or something else, without it they struggle to survive, let …read more

Recently Dan McCarthy asked if there was a leadership crisis or is it a branding issue and I’ve been stewing ever since. (Please take a moment to read the post and the discussion.)
I’ve been stewing not so much because I disagree with Dan’s individual points, but because I disagree with the whole leadership-for-the-chosen-few attitude prevalent since the end of WWII.More than that, I am vehemently against the leader-as-a-silver-bullet school of thought.
The extent of this attitude has become glaringly apparent and the Presidential election is the highest profile example.
Yes, I voted for Obama, but not with any expectation that he could …read more

People hate reviews, but done correctly reviews are a terrific tool to provide individual attention, improve retention and show your love—tention reviews as opposed to tension reviews.
I won’t bother explaining the latter; everybody has suffered through a tension review at least once in their life and probably far more.
The biggest difference between the two is in the level of communication and frequency.
Done correctly tention reviews happen constantly and are called feedback. Think of them as a manager’s response to the “how am I doing” sign implicit on every member of their team.
We all crave feedback, which includes

sincere strokes (given publicly),
constructive …read more

Yesterday I told you how monkeys lose productivity when treated unfairly.
Unlike the managers I described in that post, good managers know that unequal pay, but they also know that it’s not just a matter of title/grade.
Not everyone with the same title deserves the same compensation—in fact, to do so would be extremely unfair!
Most companies establish a range for each job and some guidelines within each range, but the guides frequently fall short of what’s needed in the real world.
How do you draw the lines to achieve fairness?
You might think that ‘fair’ is some kind of universal one-size-fits-all yardstick, but all …read more

Few things are constant, but management stupidity when it comes to retention is one of them.
Before Wall Street pulled the rug out of under the economy global demographics made the need to cherish workers at all levels obvious.
Estimates of the national shortage run as high as 14 million skilled workers by 2020, according to widely cited projections by the labor economists Anthony P. Carnevale and Donna M. Desrochers.
Then came the downturn and executive retention stupidity is once again running rampant.
Two-thirds of executives at large companies were most concerned about losing Gen Y employees, while less than half of them had …read more

What do you think about slogans? Do they resonate with you or do you just shrug them off?
The subject came up when a client asked me whether it was worth the effort of finding an effective slogan for a new program at his company; he said the idea surfaced because of the success of President Obama’s “Yes we can” during the last election.
Our conversation reminded me of an article last year about the futility of slogans in today’s world by Dan and Chip Heath, co-authors of Made to Stick.
Now, Made to Stick has some great stuff in it and they …read more

It’s November, a time when the end of the year is suddenly much closer than you thought.
During the next two months people will be doing their best to tidy up all the loose ends, both business and personal, before the year ends.
Whether you do it yourself or have and executive team and thousands of employees, you can’t afford to focus only on wrapping up 2009; you need to plan for 2010.
The approach we use was drummed into my head since 1979 by Al Negrin, RampUp’s angel and chairman.
It’s called PBO (plans, budgets and objectives), but is very different from the …read more

How do you define success? Do you (or your boss) look only at the numbers and other recognized metrics or do you go a step further and evaluate the harder-to-define areas? Numbers and other business metrics are important, but they measure mostly the present, i.e., short-term results. What does long-term success look like? How can you evaluate yourself in terms of long-term success? Do you care? If your answer to the third question is “no” then you probably won’t be interested in the rest of this post, but if it is “yes” read on. Whether …read more

Nii Dowuona started as a programmer, became project manager, then added engineering manager to his workload, picked up an MBA at night and is now VP of Development—all at the same company.
He recently shared four tips that he has worked to instill in his company’s culture.
Avoid giving unsolicited advice.
Always ask for permission first, and don’t be insulted if you’re refused. Reacting calmly will leave the door open for future conversations.
However, remember that people can’t/won’t solicit what they don’t know they need. It’s true that advice can be obnoxious, but suggestions can be offered differently or the advice can be phrased …read more