A Professional: “On a Desert Island”

November 19, 2008

 I vividly recall the anguish as she told me her story. She’d happily followed her husband here to Maine for his exciting appointment as statewide director of a huge program. She’d vacated her position as Special Ed. Department Chair at a highly-regarded public high school, where she was well known in her region as well as the [...]

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Good Old Girls

November 19, 2008

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In hindsight, it was probably true that Serena wasn’t a ton of fun to be around, but still …   The small office she worked in was virtually all women – with the exception of one customer service guy and one of the two salesmen who came around three or four times a month at [...]

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The “Micro-Managing” Accusation

September 28, 2008

In many workplaces, the key quality that makes someone a manager is his or her willingness to step up and take responsibility for the satisfactory completion of the work product. Since these managers know that their own job performance is being closely monitored, there’s a huge motivation to be right on top of real and imagined problems – in fact, failure to anticipate and act on “preventable” situations is one of the main reasons managers lose their jobs.

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Divorce: The High Road is the Way

September 16, 2008

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Taking the high road communicates that you at least take your own life seriously, and that – down the road – you don’t want to look back at this major life crisis, and cringe at how you managed yourself.

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Parents as “Case Managers”

September 2, 2008

It’s the eye-on-the-ball stance that a good case manager takes that makes the difference for the long haul. Sure, parents love their children more than case managers love their clients, but that should enhance, not harm, the chances for success.

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Managing Hourly Employees: Two Stories

August 21, 2008

I usually say “battlefield promotion” with my tongue in my cheek when I’m talking about managerial careers, but Jim’s situation was close to being literally true.   Jim worked at one of those “quick oil change” places.  He’d taken the job in early May, right at the end of his Junior year of college, planning [...]

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Emotional Intelligence: Meet Phil

August 14, 2008

I once had a client we’ll call Phil, who came to see me because, as he put it, “Work is starting to get to me, and I’m not handling things the way I should.” He was a supervisor in a blue collar environment, mostly men, but an increasing number of women.  My usual strategy of [...]

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Dear Ray: Counsel to a Newbie

August 14, 2008

Dear Ray: I remember our last chat in the lobby outside the auditorium waiting for the main speaker to close out the conference. You seemed a little wistful compared to our previous encounters, and I wondered whether being up to your Adams apple in clients now is more of a cold shower than you’d anticipated. [...]

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EI meet Phil III

July 30, 2008

Privately, I affectionately refer to people like Phil as “lunkheads,” and sure, some of them do have a small dark side like the rest of us, – but still, they’re mostly decent people who’ve embraced their “character,” and are usually just looking to play out the string. Phil liked me enough to go farther down the road [...]

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Emotional Intelligence: Meet Phil II

July 30, 2008

Phil’s boss wanted me to “fix” him, but what that really meant wasn’t clear.   Phil had been there going on 18 years, had outlasted several management makeovers, and an ownership change. Even though there were no barriers to firing him, like a union or strict seniority policies, there was no stomach for it either. [...]

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