How do middle class people of the developed world keep the edge, work ethic, and values their immigrant ancestors had? How do we develop mental toughness?
Tag: Organizational Development
Get to Know Me, From My Company’s Portal Blog
This month my company featured me on our portal in a blog-style interview. I thought I’d share since I haven’t posted much about work lately. Here you go: Get to Know John Demma We all share common goals, […]
Gut Check – Getting Back Up
This barber, he had to be seventy, was telling me once while trimming me up how he just had a whole bunch of cancer surgically removed about a week earlier. Tough old dog, I thought. “I can’t […]
Management Skills: Create Symbiosis
That’s a picture of a cute little clownfish, we’ll call him Remo, swimming among sea anemone. Most fish would not be feeling too good right now, because those cool looking tentacles of the anemone are […]
Management Skills: There’s No Such Thing As ‘Manager’
Manager is a just a made up word. Supposedly a manager is a person who controls a portion of a business, but you and I know this is silly, and not a real thing. Any […]
The Temptation of Waste and The Fall of Organizations
The greatest trick Waste ever pulled was convincing the Organization it didn’t exist. Waste does not look like an enemy, it appears as a friend-in-need. Waste is the extra team member that can lighten the […]
Born Lucky: Playing Warren Buffett’s Ovarian Lottery
Warren Buffett says he was born lucky. Being born in America, in the 1930s, without having to overcome barriers of race or gender, combined with the power of compound interest, allowed Buffett to amass one […]
Management Skills: Praise and Positive Feedback
The other day I read this Wall Street Journal article called “Smarter Ways to Discipline Children.” The article advocates the parent management strategy outlined by Dr. Alan E. Kazdin in his famous book The Kazdin […]
Having Kids Won’t Kill Your Career, But Seeking Work/Life Balance Might
Kids are generally thought of as little career killers for their parents. I can understand why. Kids take up a lot of a parent’s time with their need for attention and supervision, and time is […]
Expecting Perfection is an Imperfect Strategy
I have a tendency to judge others against a perfect version of themselves. I assume people are capable of perfection, and I expect to find everyone virtuously sprinting towards perfection. Expecting perfection from direct reports […]
The Top 10 Tips For Being A Great Manager (Not Really)
The other day a new guy asked me, “Can you give me some tips?” I think he wanted me to give him one of those top ten lists, you know, the ten simple things you […]
Just Joking: An introductory guide to a manager’s sense of humor
Having a good sense of humor is important for a manager. It shows the team you’re a real person, and not just an order shouting robot. I think some managers are confused about what they […]
Screen Addiction
I read this Newsweek article called “Is the Internet Making Us Crazy” last week. It’s about how people are becoming more addicted to the web, digital devices, and screens in general. I am one of these […]
Entropy Always Increases – The second law of thermodynamics applied to business management
Why do we experience time in one direction? In other words, why do we remember the past, and know nothing about the future? And why is it a complete certainty that my company and your company will some day go out of business?
The Myth of the Millennial Job Changer
I read this article last week, another in a long list that talks about declining employee tenure. The article reminded me of dozens of articles I’ve read that peg the millennial generation (people born in […]