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Category Archives: Women in Management

Personality, professionalism, and presentation

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

I mentioned yesterday the events leading up to a negotiation I witnessed earlier this month. It involved a man who wanted to take over control and credit for organization of an event that a woman, on proper authority, had already been busily arranging. The man resisted having a meeting about it, since doing so would have constituted an acknowledgment that he lacked the standing in the issue that he claimed for himself. The woman nevertheless managed, with personal tact and professional focus, to obtain his agreement to attend. . .

Also filed in Management Skills, Negotiation | | Comments (5)

Professionalism, personality, and preparation

Monday, April 21, 2008

I recently observed a very peculiar negotiation. One of the parties, a woman, had been asked to organize an event for a leading expert in her field. The other, a man and a local figure of sorts in that field, wanted to step in, have the woman announce publicly that he was fully or partially responsible for work that he had not done, and then dominate the event itself. . .

Also filed in Individual Leadership, Managing Leadership, Negotiation | | Comments (2)

Setting the stage for leadership

Friday, April 18, 2008

When I argue that leadership is not something that comes from individuals, I am certainly not saying that individuals don’t express leadership. Surely, some people do. And at first glance, some of them even seem to be generally better at it than others, at least under certain circumstances or in particular organizations. But that doesn’t mean that the leadership, such as it is, that they exhibit is coming from them. Indeed, sometimes it isn’t even really leadership at all. . .

Also filed in Management, Managing Leadership | | Comments (1)

The audition

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

It may seem obvious that it is important to understand what skill sets you need in a job before you start looking for someone to fill it. And, indeed, many Human Resource departments know precisely what is required in closely defined line positions. From sales to production or service fulfilment, these criteria are often quite clear, and the process of discovering who has or can develop them can be just as clear. Unfortunately, the situation is more muddled for managers . . .

Also filed in Human Resources, Management Development, Peter Drucker | | Comments (8)

The mustang

Friday, March 28, 2008

Consider a civilian automobile factory, for example, in which someone moves up from being a blue-collar front-line factory employee - and, perhaps through some of the the supervisor levels, as well - to ultimately enter the white-collared ranks of management. There are definitely advantages to this pipeline. For one thing, such managers are often able to detect the sorts of orders coming down from on high that are destined to be greeted, by those who are to carry them out, with amused bafflement - almost never a productivity enhancer. Sometimes they can do something about those, and this usually works to the benefit of both the recipients and the issuers. But there is another interesting aspect to this . . .

Also filed in Culture, Human Resources, Management Development, Training and Education | | Comments (14)