As you go through the process of building your teams, which is really a process of creating strong leaders (a good overview of my key posts on this topic is here), you’re going to be asking a lot of your folks.
You’re going to be asking them to change. You’re going to be asking them to […]

Ok, so we’ve talked about why you should recruit mentors as you develop your own ability to get your job done better/faster/stronger. That’s pretty safe stuff.
But here’s something you don’t hear nearly as often: you should be a mentor, starting now.
Start at the beginning
Most of us think as mentoring as an activity that benefits the […]

Ok, so let’s say you are already a team leader, or even a senior level manager in an HPC company or center somewhere. You’re interested in this leadership thing, but you recognize that you’re going to have to do a lot of culture changing to enable leadership to grow at all levels of your organization. […]

Who says that speeches and public speaking gigs are the only times you should prepare ahead of time?
Before an important private interaction I always take a little time to sketch out in my mind how things are going to go. How will I open the conversation? How will she respond? Which responses are most likely, […]

At least some of the personal interactions you are going to have as a leader are going to fall into the category of a difficult conversation.
Difficult conversations happen when there is conflict, or anticipated conflict, between the ways two people perceive a given situation. For example, when you have to tell a coworker that […]

Since leadership and career management are my thing these days I like to keep up with what the Joneses are saying. I talk to folks, read blogs, check out online magazines, and even read an old-fashioned book every now and then.
There’s a certain type of leadership/career pundit that insists on referring to all this […]

When it comes to careers a lot of us spend way too much time on autopilot, letting someone else decide what promotions we should be interested in and what career paths we should take.
I think some people handle their careers this way because they are pleasers at heart, and when they are asked to take […]

I have a confession to make: I was a brat.
There are a lot of us around, so odds are you probably work with one or are one (c’mon, I confessed; you can too).
The damage a brat can do
I’m talking about young (mostly), headstrong employees who know everything. In the presence of strong leadership and a […]

There are lots of little skills and bits of attitude and information you need to pull together to make a complete person, and the same is true in making a complete leader or a even complete employee. No one collection of tips, insights, tricks, and anecdotes can fully prepare you for anything interesting.
Find a foundation, […]

It is inevitable that when you are following up, looking for successes to recognize and reward, you will sometimes find problems.
Fix them swiftly
When you find problems, take swift but appropriate action to correct them. Just as rewards and recognition must be delivered close to the accomplishment in order to reinforce the behavior, corrections must also […]