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The Alpha Male Paradox

20 March, 2018 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Alpha Male

It isn’t really me I’m not what you would call an alpha male, truth be told I’d struggle to qualify as a beta male.  I will never scare anybody into submission.  I’m your average middle management wimp. But I have an alpha male hero My hero is Frank Shamrock. If you have not heard of […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: command and control, learning, listening, management style, rhetoric

What Is the Score?

12 March, 2018 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Shattered

The bully A while back I watched an internal audit.  I saw an Area Director evaluate his Ops Supervisor. The results were, how can I best put it? Poor… Out of a possible 20 audit points the area scored 3. The boss went ballistic.  He took his subordinate aside and destroyed her.  He told her […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: auditors, command and control, continuous improvement, employee performance measures, management style, motivation

Scapegoating and the Black Magic of Work Creation

5 March, 2018 by James Lawther 4 Comments

Scapegoat

An imaginary tale… Picture a high pressure environment.  Resources are stretched and the work keeps on coming. Jobs are routinely prioritised so that staff can focus on what is important. That isn’t an uncommon scenario, maybe it is ringing bells, so let me make it a little more dramatic by upping the stakes. Imagine it was […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: blame, bureaucracy, fear and anxiety, mitigating demand, office productivity, over-processing

A World Class Ego

26 February, 2018 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Ego

ego ˈiːɡəʊ,ˈɛːɡəʊ/ noun: a person’s sense of self-esteem or self-importance. “he needed a boost to his ego” Synonyms: self-worth, self-respect, self-conceit, self-image, self-confidence, amour propre We all have egos But the ego of a corporate manager is stronger than most. Beyond a point we don’t work for the money. Power and status drive us. We even […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: blame, command and control, human nature, leadership, management style

The H.R. Hammer

13 February, 2018 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Performance Management

My brother is nothing like me Before I start this post I should point out that my brother and I live in very different worlds: He works for a F.T.S.E. 100 bank (not an insurer) He works in Canary Wharf (not the City) He works in I.T. (not operations) He is going bald (see picture […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: blame, collaboration, performance management

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