4751 Posts Found

Sometimes we hear this thing about “embrace failure. Failure is good.” Actually, it’s not that failure is good. I, at least, don’t like failure. I like working with people who don’t like failure. But there’s a difference between not liking failure and having failure be taboo and not discussed or shared or learned from. If you never fail, you probably aren’t being bold enough.

Content: Quotation | Author: Aaron De Smet | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Success / Failure

Russ Laraway’s book When They Win, You Win, weaves together tons of existing management studies from top-notch sources like Gallup, his own primary research, as well as thoughtful stories from his own decades-long career.

From the Marines to software to VC, Laraway has spotted a pattern that frequently crops up and muddies the waters for managers everywhere. “People have become far too focused on all the … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Russ Laraway | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Motivation, Organizational Behavior

[Don’t] treat all decisions uniformly. I think the most obvious axis to break them down on are degree of reversibility and magnitude. Things with low reversibility and great impact and magnitude, those ones you do want to really deliberate over and try to get right.

Content: Quotation | Author: Patrick Collison | Source: Farnam Street | Subjects: Decision Making, Management, Organizational Behavior

Are you in a situation where the challenge you’re facing requires you to be adaptable, or can you solve it with things that have worked for you before? That distinction is a very important distinction, and it’s very helpful for people to determine if they can solve this situation with old answers or if they need to develop and be open for new things to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Michiel Kruyt | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Change Management, Management, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

We fail more often because we solve the wrong problem than because we get the wrong solution to the right problem.

Content: Quotation | Author: Russell L. Ackoff | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development, Success / Failure

Everything else you’re doing to affect engagement is worth less than half of whatever you’re doing to make your managers great.

Content: Quotation | Author: Russ Laraway | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Motivation

A manager must do more than help employees succeed in the job they are doing now; they must help them discover their long-term vision for their careers and show them what actions they can take right now that will allow them to make tangible progress toward it. In doing this, you show employees that your care for them extends beyond what they can do for … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Russ Laraway | Subject: Management

Add one particular phrase to your repertoire to continue to bang the drum of what matters most. Ask the question: Which quarterly goal does that workstream support? If you keep finding that the work that you’re doing isn’t reflected in the quarterly goals, it’s time to rethink how you’re approaching those OKRs, or get them right the next time.

Content: Quotation | Author: Russ Laraway | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Management

The one thing every single one of us has in common at work is that we want to be successful. So whether or not a manager has charisma is irrelevant in that context. It’s the person who does the grinding work each day or week to make their team members successful. That’s who people ultimately want to work for.

Content: Quotation | Author: Russ Laraway | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Management

Nobody ever applies for a job called ‘leader.’ The job is usually called ‘manager.’ We have to restore dignity to the office of the manager. I’ve found that folks are too focused on finding really complicated, cool leadership-y things for their unique environment, instead of just focusing on the stuff that works pretty much everywhere.

Content: Quotation | Author: Russ Laraway | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Leadership, Management

There’s one common ingredient across every type of manager: You’re leading people. So the core of what makes for good management can’t be all that different, whether you’re leading a team of baristas or engineers.

Content: Quotation | Author: Russ Laraway | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Management

Although most great managers want to recognize their people, the challenge, which has only been made more difficult in the hybrid world, is finding meaningful things to recognize them for. The limitation to our typical approach to praise is that we can only recognize what we see, observe, or learn about from others and our recognition focuses on what we appreciate, which is not always … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Christopher Littlefield | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Motivation, Organizational Behavior

There are limitations to our typical approach to praise. We can only recognize what we see, observe, or learn about from others and our recognition focuses on what we appreciate, which is not always what others want to be appreciated for.

Content: Quotation | Author: Christopher Littlefield | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Motivation, Personal Development

Sunil Chopra describes how looking at combinations of product and channel through the lens of return on invested capital (ROIC) allows retailers to design omni-channel portfolios that align their products, service offerings, and pricing. By using each channel to improve invested capital turns or broaden profit margin, these portfolios increase the company’s value. 

Content: Article | Author: Sunil Chopra | Source: Management and Business Review (MBR) | Subjects: Industry Specific, Management, Marketing / Sales, Operations

What we are witnessing, they contend, is the advent of an economy in which data matters far more than capital, a change that represents “a fundamental reorganization of our economy.”

[…]

Up to this point, we’ve used price as the key determinant of how resources are allocated — what we make, how much of it we make, what we invest in, and so on. We’ve done this … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: James Surowiecki, Thomas Ramge, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Management, Marketing / Sales

Build a team in the same way you would build a product. Just as you would think about your users and their pain points, you should think about your team and the problems you’re facing so that you have clarity on what you’re solving for.

Content: Quotation | Author: Jiaona Zhang | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Teamwork

An important skillset of being a good manager is what I call being an “emotional dampener” for the team. An emotional dampener finds themselves in situations where they know their team is upset, they know people are frustrated about a certain problem but choose to coach them and help them by dampening their emotions as opposed to riling them up. If that’s not an easy … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Jiaona Zhang | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Management

“Layoffs kill people,” says Jeffrey Pfeffer. And they don’t cut costs or improve productivity.

Content: Article | Authors: Jeffrey Pfeffer, Melissa De Witte | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

Here on The Review, we’ve committed ourselves to an annual ritual each January. This year marks one decade of using the first week of a shiny new year as a chance to revisit every article and podcast episode we published in the 365 days prior.

2022 certainly brought plenty to reflect on. Assembling this year’s list was a reminder of just how quickly things can change. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Management

In the old days the boss might have said, “Stop talking and get to work!” Today, the boss might say, “Start talking and get to work.” You need to communicate and collaborate with colleagues, consultants, customers, suppliers, and thought leaders to keep learning and get things done.

Content: Quotation | Author: Paul B. Thornton | Subjects: Communication, Management, Organizational Behavior