Chronicles from a Caribbean Cubicle
New Thinking from Framework Consulting
“Positive Thinking” has been touted as the remedy for all sorts of ills, but as time changes, is this technique one that still works?
After an unproductive encounter with a positive thinker recently, I decided to dig in to the researcher and it appears that we have evolved, so that it no longer works the way it once did.
Here’s my Gleaner article on the subject, published yesterday. Positive Thinking Can Be Bad for Business.
Now that we almost all have smartphones, we are trying harder than ever before to pretend we’re listening when we aren’t. This article tackles the problem. addressing those who are in denial.
There’s some unique research about Family CEO’s emerging – they are less productive than their professional counterparts.
My recent article address the fact that this gap exists and gives some ideas about how it can be closed.
Click here for the article – Why Family CEO’s Are Less Productive.
I wrote this article based on my personal experience as a sometime salesperson. it has to do with being resilient in tough times.
Enjoy this peek into what it’s like to keep going, while managing your mind in this Gleaner article.
We all know that managing your time on the job is vitally important.
However, researchers have discovered that managing your free time is vital to your quality of life and has more of an impact than the quantity of time you actually have. Click here to read my article in the Gleaner.
The short vacation you took was good, but a longer one would have been even better. Not true!
Scientists have discovered that by themselves, longer vacations don’t make a difference. Rather than the number of days, what has an impact is how well we manage our free time.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20140831/business/business83.html
There are a number of reasons why employee feedback fails.
One has to do with the quality of the message and this article focuses on how to make high quality suggestions that pass 3 practical tests. Taking them into account gives the manager/coach more work at first, but with practice they help develop precise skills that last an entire career.
Today’s article is designed to help you, a manager, give better feedback.
There are some Caribbean MD’s and CEO’s who insist that they have to look over their employees’ shoulders to get them to be productive.
Is this true?
Some new research brings this approach into question – my latest article published on August 3rd.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20140803/business/business83.html
Francis
Here in the Caribbean we have things confused – we treat firing people as if it’s the next thing to being wicked and evil.
It’s a mistake. Companies need to think about the minimum number of people they need, and how close they can stick to that ideal number.
Here’s my article on this touchy topic, under a headline that’s a bit misleading.
The’re a cost to be incurred when employees, who are trying to get work done, end up having to work around your company’s formal processes.
It could be a dysfunctional department, or a broken process. Sometimes an ineffective person stands in the way. Getting routine work completed becomes a matter of creativity and ingenuity, but also extra time and wasted effort.
A much better approach is to fix the processes involved but few companies know how to make systematic improvements.
Click here : http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20140706/business/business8.html