Competing priorities are very evident when dealing with a two-year-old. Adults compromise, negotiate, persuade, enforce and request. Two-year-olds demand. Responding to those demands requires great diplomacy. Two-year-olds don’t have patience for unsatisfactory answers. And they don’t take the high road by letting you off the hook. One night last week, my two-year-old told me she
The tension was heavy in a recent meeting. The participants had competing agendas, different personalities and diverse perspectives. Being privy to side conversations before the meeting, I knew that they were making judgments about each other. Instead of coming together as “we,” they were defending and protecting the “me.” In his classic book “Nonviolent Communication,”
Years ago, a colleague of mine, Harold Knutson, was faced with a difficult decision: support the company plan to outsource, or take a stand for his belief that it was a bad idea at that point in time. As one of a handful of vice presidents, he could have put his head down and gone
We’ve all seen the PowerPoint, the plaque or the “About Us” page with feel-good concepts like Respect for Employees, Safety First, Concern for Customers or Be the Industry Leader. These typically come from well-intentioned leaders who want to document what the company stands for and where it’s going. Too often, though, those words become corporate
Most organizations lack organization. They are filled with individuals pursuing personal adrenaline, comfort, safety and recognition. Focus further breaks down through the competing priorities of departments, hierarchy and stakeholders. Occasionally, however, we glimpse an organization beautifully aligned. It was Mother’s Day 1995 on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, MA. We were the final boat out of
Matt Norman is president of Norman & Associates, which offers Dale Carnegie Training in the North Central US. Dale Carnegie Training is a global organization ...READ MORE