In my trainings, leaders are often surprised to learn that praise is not a good technique for leadership or for any kind of relationship with adults or children. After all, we are used to a lifetime of praise and seeking external recognition. How else? I was reminded of this theme again at the Song and Dance Festival at the weekend, where I heard such lines repeatedly: “You were such a good boy!”, “Good girls!”, “Good!”.
Why is praise bad? Read More »
Last week, I spoke at a conference at the Estonian Training and Conference Centre for management assistants about motivation and inspiration. It was a lovely half hour with nice people!
I don’t think people can be motivated. But you can inspire people if you do what you do with passion and inspiration. Through it, we can unintentionally draw other people in as we shine and enjoy our own lives in our work and activities.
I don’t think it is possible to motivate people. Read More »
About a year ago, I met Sirje Kautsaari, the then director of Rapla Gymnasium, by chance during lunch on a conference day. We ended up at the same table. Our conversation turned into a passionate debate on education and leadership. Sirje’s idea that why not come and talk to young people about leadership, so that they would know how to make more accurate choices about their careers and leaders in their lives, sounded nice, but unrealistic.
Debate on education and governance Read More »
I’ve been getting questions in the last few days asking me, since the reader is not a manager, whether my book “The Footprint of Management” could still be of value to them. These questions are a great symptom of just being valuable. If we continue to separate the worlds of subordinates and managers and assume
On governance for non-managers Read More »
I sincerely believe that no one should tolerate bad management! I was on TV3’s Stuudo and I talked about a book 😊 A book that talks about leadership from a slightly different angle for non-leaders and also for leaders. It was a short but nice chat! https://play.tv3.ee/embed-video/ivar-raav,clip-4955980?autoplay=true&muted=true
We always see the things we look for and believe are there. A good example is when the outgoing manager gives the new manager an overview of his or her team’s perspective and the new manager starts to assess people and seek validation for this. However, people are still constantly changing with new information and
12 archetypal human characteristics in the workplace Read More »
Unfortunately, suppressing emotions and pretending to be happy is still common in the workplace. Man is an emotional being. Why do we find it difficult to cope with workers who cry or otherwise express their negative emotions? I wrote more about this in Director.
What to do if a worker starts crying? Read More »
We all come from our childhood and carry it with us. Subconscious patterns affect us more than we know. So we adopt one mask or another, also in the work environment. But what potential lies behind the masks? It’s not about labelling people, it’s about finding the potential that may not be visible behind the
Masks and untapped potential Read More »
Think how many unnecessary conflicts would be avoided if we could ask one simple question: “Do you want a solution or do you want to be heard?”. or simply start with the assumption that a hearing is wanted. You will be notified when solutions are needed. Very often, however, we do not do this and
Listening or Resolving? Read More »
In one training session, a participant said the golden words: “Be specific in what you give out and fully open to what you receive.” He meant verbal communication and the ability to share information, but I’ll extend this to expressing emotions, using the example below. A leader’s clarity in his messages may be very precise,
The team is a mirror of the leader’s emotions Read More »
