leadership

Praise—and How to Give It Right

Genuine praise can do many positive things for the workplace, such as rewarding work well done, raising self-esteem, boosting morale, and increasing productivity. Even so, it's possible to overdo it or even give praise the wrong way. Read on for tips on the best ways to give praise in the workplace.

Naomi Karten's picture
Naomi Karten
Three Things Managers Should Not Say to Their Employees

Being the boss means getting your employees to work well, and that involves communication. There are some ways of saying things that are better than others—and there are some things that are just better left unsaid. If you're a manager, here's a reminder of three phrases you should do without.

Naomi Karten's picture
Naomi Karten
How Serving Is Your Leadership?

Some managers don’t realize that they are not their titles. The value they should bring is the "plus": the management, plus their relationship with their peers, the people they manage, and the systems and environment they enable or create. If you're a manager, are you providing servant leadership?

Johanna Rothman's picture
Johanna Rothman
Six Productivity Tips You May (or May Not) Want to Follow

Some productivity tips seem at first glance to be designed to slow you down or stall your progress. But they may actually help you achieve results faster and better. The key to being more productive is finding what works for you personally. Read on for some suggestions on maximizing your time.

Naomi Karten's picture
Naomi Karten
Design Each Team’s Project to Optimize at the Program Level

If you are part of a program, it’s not enough to design your project for your team. You have to consider the needs of the program, too. Each team needs to ask itself, “How do we deliver what the rest of the program needs, as the program needs it?” Aim to meet deliverables—not control your people.

Johanna Rothman's picture
Johanna Rothman
Book Review: Management 3.0

It's challenging to be a manager or a leader, much less both, and the challenges are greater on an agile team. Jurgen Appelo's book Management 3.0: Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders explores what management and leadership mean in a world of agile and self-organizing teams.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
Eliminate Workplace Jargon and Get Your Ducks in a Row

The business world is full of jargon: words that sound like they mean something, but what exactly isn’t a sure thing. These vague, overused, and trite phrases increase the potential for misunderstanding. Here's why you should think outside the box (there's one phrase!) and eliminate jargon.

Naomi Karten's picture
Naomi Karten
From Jeff Bezos—A Valuable Lesson on Competition

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos recently addressed a group of children at an elementary school. There was was one particularly interesting sound bite: "Who succeeds at Amazon? Explorers and pioneers. Who fails? Those who focus on killing our competitors." Here's why you shouldn't obsess over competition.

Mukesh Sharma's picture
Mukesh Sharma