Strategic Serendipity

There is a great song called "Watching You" by Rodney Atkins about how children watch and mimic us at our best and at our worst. It was a sweet and funny song until the first time my sweet little toddler said "s$@t" when he couldn't get his duplos to snap together. I had to suppress a small bit of pride that he had used it in the right context and make a split decision about what to do. Since he was 16 months at the time I ignored it and immediately took the word out of my vocabulary. (Since I get excited about every new word, this worked...this time.). What I learned is that he is taking in every single thing I do and say. I started practicing saying please and thank you and encouraging his use of them and he is often the first to say it now when someone holds the door for me while pushing the stroller.  It made me think about developing others. You can tell people to do things until you are blue in the face but if you are not modeling the practice you ...

Which came first - the chicken or the egg?  Increasing employee engagement has always been an organizational goal (it increases productivity and decreases costly turnover).  As times get harder and we have to ask people to do more with less and take furlough days we seem to also be pushing our managers to increase employee engagement.  Those who know me may think that this last sentence is dripping with sarcasm.  Actually, the more I think about it, maybe not so much. Two recent campaigns at my condo building make me think that there really is more to engagement than an external push.  A few months ago, fed up with the conflicting information our owners had received from Harris Teeter and the condo board, an owner (Sarah) put together a simple form letter, left it on the concierge desk, obtained 400 signatures, and took them to the Arlington County Board to advocate for them to clear the way for Harris Teeter to move back into our building after a flood last y...

When it comes time for mid-term or annual reviews there are obviously things a MANAGER needs to tell an employee.  But if you are a good LEADER you have consistently given in-the-moment feedback on the things that the employee does well and the things the employee does not do well.  And so the annual review becomes a practice in "busy" work for both. So how does a LEADER effectively use the reflective time called the "annual review" if both the employee and the leader know all the nuances of that piece of paper?  Admit it is just a formality, shake the employee's hand, sign the necessary paperwork, and send the employee off with a new assignment?  Possibly.  Or the leader can use that time in a way that will serve the employee, the leader, and the organization for the next six to twelve months. Here is a proposed agenda for leaders who want to maximize the annual review time with high-performing employees: 1.  Welcome the employee to the office. 2...

I am constantly carting around a toddler and a stroller full of stuff and possibly a bag or two on my shoulder.  Getting on and off the bus is the worst.  Many times, someone will grab something to "help" and not realize that they are making it harder (that bag you just grabbed is hooked to my stroller and now the stroller is being pulled out of my arms while I am trying to hold the baby and scan my card to pay for the bus ride).  The other day, when I got off the bus stop, there were two military men who  watched me get off the bus, open the stroller with one hand (if you are buying a stroller this is a MUST requirement), and put the baby in.  Afterwards, they laughed and said they were going to help but realized I had it under control.  I actually knew from the minute I saw them stop talking and look up that if I needed help I could ask, but the fact that they waited to see if I needed them or not meant more to me. That is not to say, do not help people...