No Time To Be Nice

Well, I’m back – but only occasionally. Finding a topic every week is tough. Sunday the NY Times had a great article, No Time To Be Nice, with interesting links and a workplace assessment worth taking. Once again the “manager from hell” is described in excruciating detail   Goto:http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/opinion/sunday/is-your-boss-mean.html?_r=0

Sabbitical

Dear readers:

I began this blog on November 17, 2009. Since then I have posted 250 blogs.  Over the last couple of years, between 75 and 150 visitors have tuned in each week. I am running out of steam.  It is time for a Sabbatical. I intend to return in the near future after rethinking the refreshing the content. If you have any ideas, suggestions etc. please send me a note. See you in the Springtime?

Sincerely – John Langhorne

Listening

 

 

 

The Big Three people management skills

 

1.   Manage your say/do ratio
2.   Give and receive feedback
3.   Listen, listen, listen

 

Listening is the hardest to learn. Great article in the WSJ on listening.

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First Hour At Work

Recently a colleague sent me a link about productivity. It wasn’t very good but the link at the end was filled with good ideas about how to start your workday. Remember what Mary Poppins, my favorite organizational consultant, says “Well begun is half done.”

There are a couple of ways that people can subscribe to this blog. Click the “+ Follow” link on the bottom right section of the site and enter your email address. This is a very easy way to receive the newest post as an email. The other way is via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. The RSS Feed link is located on the right sidebar of the site, directly above the Categories section. Click on “RSS – Posts” to receive your posts in their favorite RSS reader. The RSS reader that many prefer is Google Reader (http://reader.google.com). It is free, well organized, and easy to use.

Latest on Optimism

Optimism is a powerful learned attitude, attitude = cognition + emotion, that predicts many successful life outcomes. Recently I came upon a TED video that is quite intriguing. It really is worth the time and is quite thought provoking, as is new research.

 

Christmas 2014

Parenting To Managing

On occasion people ask “What’s the difference between parenting and managing?” after along pause I reply “Children are shorter.” This reply is neither entirely facetious nor does it apply to teenagers.

A recent interview in the New York Times provides explicit support for this proposition.

Could it be that women will eventually be shown to be better managers because they have more hands-on experience with children?

 

There are a couple of ways that people can subscribe to this blog. Click the “+ Follow” link on the bottom right section of the site and enter your email address. This is a very easy way to receive the newest post as an email. The other way is via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. The RSS Feed link is located on the right sidebar of the site, directly above the Categories section. Click on “RSS – Posts” to receive your posts in their favorite RSS reader. The RSS reader that many prefer is Google Reader (http://reader.google.com). It is free, well organized, and easy to use.

Hanlon’s Razor

 

 

“In explaining any human shortcoming, the first tool I reach for is Hanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. The kind of stupidity I have in mind has nothing to do with ignorance or low IQ; in fact, it’s often the brightest and best informed who suffer the most from it.”

 

Seeing this quote I chuckled for at least two minutes. Hanlon’s Razor is a derivative of Occam’s Razor. A principle too many people violate. I particularly enjoyed learning that Hanlon was a real person and the law originates from a well known science fiction writer.

 

There are a couple of ways that people can subscribe to this blog. Click the “+ Follow” link on the bottom right section of the site and enter your email address. This is a very easy way to receive the newest post as an email. The other way is via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. The RSS Feed link is located on the right sidebar of the site, directly above the Categories section. Click on “RSS – Posts” to receive your posts in their favorite RSS reader. The RSS reader that many prefer is Google Reader (http://reader.google.com). It is free, well organized, and easy to use.

A Little Midwestern Humor

Recently I was at a dinner party and one couple had just attended a high school reunion.  Reading the local weekly newspaper they discovered a column entitled Alban’s Album in the Ogden Reporter.  “Thank God for church ladies with typewriters” and for small weekly newspapers.  Here are a few of these bloopers from church bulletins:

“Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale.  It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house.  Bring your husbands.

Miss Charlene Mason sang “I Will Not Pass This Way Again,” giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.

Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir.  They need all the help they can get.

For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.

Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.

Low Self-Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7pm.  Please use the back door.”

After that brief pause, back on task.  Excellent article in the NYTimes on hiring entitled Hearing the right notes from a candidate.

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14 Habits of Miserable People

From time-to-time a colleague will send an article that both gives me a chuckle and also describes someone I know to a T. Here are 14 self-defeating behaviors that will assure anyone a miserable life. Who says we cannot learn for a negative example?

There are a couple of ways that people can subscribe to this blog. Click the “+ Follow” link on the bottom right section of the site and enter your email address. This is a very easy way to receive the newest post as an email. The other way is via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. The RSS Feed link is located on the right sidebar of the site, directly above the Categories section. Click on “RSS – Posts” to receive your posts in their favorite RSS reader. The RSS reader that many prefer is Google Reader (http://reader.google.com). It is free, well organized, and easy to use.