Managing up

How to approach your responsibilities—and your career—in an understaffed unit by Paul Michelman

Here’s how to address the problem in a productive way.

During the last week the tut-tutting morphed into screaming and yelling. But it was too little too late. Despite all the recent hand-wringing and blame-gaming by many of the world’s most powerful and prominent leaders, Zimbabwe’s longtime despot, Robert Mugabe, received 85.5 % of the vote in Friday’s sham election. So without further ado he […]

Those of you who occasionally read my blog, or who in some other way are familiar with my work, will not be surprised to learn that every time there’s a story about the powerless intruding on the powerful, I get interested. For in the last couple of years I have become convinced that those who […]

A project manager with a talent for creating dashboards, David is frustrated by his repressive, micromanaging boss, Thaddeus - aka "the Commodore." Thaddeus...

Especially if the CEO is a woman or person of color.

Don't wait to have duties assigned.

It had been three weeks since my throat started to feel sore, and it wasn't getting better. The pain was most acute when I spoke. So I decided to spend...

Own the mistake and offer a solution.

Coping strategies for employees.

Toxic bosses. We’ve all seen them. They’re screamers, stressed-out micromanagers, volatile, untrustworthy, insecure nightmares to work with. They’re everywhere, and they do tremendous harm to the people around them and to their organizations. And it seems that bad behavior is on the rise. Why? Because people are freaking out about the economy. Our economic systems […]

Don't mimic the bad behavior.

When to leave and when to stick it out.

Three data-driven recommendations.

How do you reduce headcount when almost everyone gets the same scores on performance reviews? HR vice president Nils Ekdahl confronts that question at...

A division vice president blows the whistle on corruption at the highest levels of his company. A young manager refuses to work on her boss's pet project...

Toxic bosses. We’ve all seen them. They’re screamers, stressed-out micromanagers, volatile, untrustworthy, insecure nightmares to work with. They’re everywhere, and they do tremendous harm to the people around them and to their organizations. And it seems that bad behavior is on the rise. Why? Because people are freaking out about the economy. Our economic systems […]

With his business under severe pressure, a group vice president went into his annual strategic-plan meeting with top management carrying nothing more than a large, pencil-draft spread sheet. He brought along no plan document, no overhead slides, and none of his operating staff. But using that simple spread sheet, he identified the difficult options facing […]

"The biggest challenge that I face at work is not managing my team. It is dealing with my boss and upper management. Any suggestions?" Every decision...

The executive entourage may have its uses, but can keep leaders out of the loop.