“According to recent cultural criticism … Narcissism is now to be seen at the root of everything…” Jessica Benjamin “The Oedipal Riddle” NARCISSISM The narcissist is more apparent in today’s society due to the many avenues available for one to exhibit their narcissistic behavior from social media to cell phone cameras to 24 hour news [...]
The Winter Olympics The past two weeks have demonstrated to all of us encouraging signs of the strength of our young people in this country although the indications have come from widely divergent places. The Winter Olympics gave us wonderful images of our young athletes. Their grit, determination and class were on television daily highlighted [...]
I just read an article in "Fortune" magazine titled: "4 Ways Women Can Be Taken More Seriously At work". It made quite an impression on me as to the state of women and business in this country. The first point: Decide to participate even if is daunting. The point made me think of Ann Madden, [...]
In my previous blog I noted the new norm of a 72.5 hour work week for E.M.P.'s [executives, managers and professionals]. One of the major complaints that helped create this new norm was the time devoted to meetings by E.M.P.'s and the resultant impact on the rest of their work. There is ample opportunity to [...]
A recent study published by the Harvard Business Review stated that the new norm for E.M.P.'s [executives, managers, professionals] is a 72.5 hour work week. That is the new norm and it has alarming implications. The typical work week breaks down to 13.5 hour days Monday to Friday and 5 hours on the weekend. A [...]
According to a recent Gallup poll in 2014 companies promote the wrong person to a management role 82% of the time. In my book "Theory You" I noted that was one of the main reasons for writing the book. If we want to examine the problem there are several contributing factors that involve both the [...]
In response to a recent blog re: do as I do as a management tool one of the readers posted a message that struck a chord. Her response was: "management is really about common sense". I agree wholeheartedly with her viewpoint. When I taught management courses at Northeastern University I always took a few minutes [...]
In the past month I've had several instances where people have talked to me about a similar problem. Managers expect their subordinates to do as the manager says but not to do as the manager does. The instances have included wardrobe, promptness, and policy. In each case the manager violated the rules he had established [...]
The NFL ratings decline this year should signal they have a problem. The big question from a management point of view is will they honestly examine their problem and seek a solution? Do they have the leadership who will address the problem? While a lot of theories have been put forth as to why the [...]
About one year ago I was in my car listening to an interview on NPR. The woman being interviewed was quite adamant that people seeking jobs should learn to conform if they wanted to get hired. She made the point that employers were not interested in hiring the so called square pegs. The interview struck [...]
