Last Tuesday, May 24, 2022. Pro Basketball Coach Steve Kerr’s Golden State Warriors were preparing for their Western Conference Finals Playoff game in Dallas. Their playoff game was just hours after the school shooting just 400 miles away in Uvalde, TX.
American managers have a common practice. They use an approach called Leave ’em alone > ZAP! They provide apparent autonomy until they’re caught doing something either undesirable or incorrect. Then they get ZAPPED.
We’ve all lived through more than our share of political horror stories when political tactics worked against us. Political tactics can include hidden agendas, deceit, lip service, veiled or not-so-veiled threats, mean spirited gossip, bootlicking, patronism, Who wants to get involved with those games? But Wait! There’s at lease one effective political tactic listed above that doesn’t need to be dirty.
Is it Time to STOP Saying “I’m not in sales”? Have you ever found yourself using this disqualifying phrase? Why did you say it? If you’ve been disqualifying yourself as a “sales person”, let me help you to be more realistic.
Leaders typically choose their approach intuitively without thinking about the choice. What if they gave it more thought?
Effective communication is all about influencing the thoughts and actions of others. There are countless “selling tactics” that you might apply to a given situation. But it is easy to shoot yourself in the foot with them. Why?
How often do new and different ideas and approaches meet with resistance?
In any team or group there are naysayers. The bean counter who says: “We can’t afford it” The engineer who proclaims: “That will never work.” or “It can’t be done.” The tenured folks who may say: “That’s not how we do things here.”
It’s enough to drive an optimist into submission. And sometimes it does.
♦ Deerfield ♦ Chicago ♦ Milwaukee
