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86 days ago
The Question: After finishing my professional training a year ago, I started work for a large municipal agency. Fortunately I have a pretty good working relationship with my immediate supervisor. My challenge is that he often chooses to do things himself rather than show his staff how to do them. I think he gets so busy that when something comes up he just doesn't feel he has the time to explain it to me. I'm concerned my professional development is suffering, but I don't know how to talk to him about it. -- Young and Stymied Dear Young and Stymied, Regular readers of Leadership House Call might think this sounds like a broken record, but before you do anything, you need to test your assumptions. Check out your interpretation of what is happening. We find in our consulting work at Cambridge Leadership Associates that the misdiagnosis of a situation, or
96 days ago
The Question: I'm a newly appointed executive director for a medium-sized family foundation, and I am having a hard time making meaningful changes to the foundation's antiquated programs. The family is content doing things the way they have always been done, but I know the non-profit sector is changing rapidly and that our money has the potential to achieve a lot more. Also, this family's personal issues take up a lot of energy at our board meetings and shape many of the foundation's major decisions. I want to lead this foundation, but any changes I attempt to implement are bogged down by old patterns and the family dynamic. How can I help the family members make decisions in the best interest of the foundation, and not themselves? -- Enmeshed Executive Director Dear Enmeshed Executive Director, You are in the middle of it, for sure. Family foundations often become arenas for
107 days ago
The Question: The messages from the top of my organization are "do more with less." I was overworked before the economic crisis hit, and now it is even worse. I don't see how it is possible to achieve this commandment and keep up a level of quality I am committed to. Also, having two kids and a wife that I want to spend time with, but also need to support, is emphasizing my need to keep this job! Leaving is not an option. -- How to stay alive, doing more with less [Send your leadership questions to leadership@washingtonpost.com, or post them in the "comments" section below] Dear Staying Alive: Leadership is about making tough choices and helping others do the same. And you certainly have got some tough choices in front of you right now. Your problem cannot be decided on the basis of a cost-benefit analysis; it is not
120 days ago
The Question: Q. I am a fairly new senior public manager, currently charged with increasing the performance of the people who work for me. I have repeatedly exhorted them, told them how important it is that we step it up a notch -- several notches actually -- and pushed them to do better. I have very few carrots or sticks to employ, as I did during in my previous career, which was in the private sector. I am really stymied. These folks seem addicted to complacency. -- Complacency-Addicts Manager [Send your leadership questions to leadership@washingtonpost.com, or post them in the "comments" section below] Dear Complacency-Addicts Manager: It doesn't sound like you are having a lot of fun. But your characterization of the people who work for you as "addicted to complacency" is pretty revealing, of you more than them. As long as you believe your own rhetoric you can be
136 days ago
The Question: I am a female in boutique consulting firm and have been working here (and promoted to middle management) for the last five years. Recently, a male -- junior to me in age -- was hired to our firm and quickly promoted to a position equal to mine. I noted from the outset his extraordinary sense of entitlement. That quality, coupled with relationships he has formed with senior males in the firm, has increased his level of responsibility and prominence. At the same time, he is--with shocking ease--delegating tasks to myself and other peers, and has gone behind my back at points to change my work as he sees fit. While I certainly admire his sense of entitlement and think I have much to learn from it, I am frustrated by how he treats me and has accomplished his stature in the organization. How can I leverage his behavior
