Kent Blumberg

Using Meyers-Briggs concepts to better communicate at work

The Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator is widely used in organizations and by individuals.  You have likely encountered it yourself.  If not, you can read summaries on Wikipedia and in this article by Howard Ditkoff.  The sixteen types are described in detail on Typelogic.com.

In this post, I will provide suggestions for improving your communications with folks of a different type. (You may want to know your type before reading further.  If so, here's a free on-line test.)

Embracing Failure at Work

Want to understand an organization's culture and leadership with one question?  Jeffery Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, in their classic book Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management (Harvard Business School Press, 2006) propose asking,

"What happens when people fail?"

Clarifying Responsibilities

People want and need to know what is expected of them at work.  Without explicit and clear responsibilities, some will feel as if they are carrying the world while others kick back and relax.  The RASCI framework is a great tool for sorting this out on a team, and communicating it clearly.  Download this framework and follow along as I explain how to use it.

Leading Change - Actions are what people "hear"

"I can't hear what you are saying because your actions are so loud."

-- Louis A. Raspino, President and CEO, Pride International Inc., November 2, 2007 speech at Jones Graduate School of Management, Rice University, Houston, Texas.

When you are attempting to lead a change in your organization's culture, what you say has little power.  What you DO is everything.  Here are some thoughts about how to make your actions speak loudly in service of the change you are trying to bring about.

Great guide for the shy and for the not-so-shy

Are you shy, or are you outgoing?  Either way, I think you will want to read Ilise Benun's book, Stop Pushing Me Around!: A Workplace Guide for the Timid, Shy, And Less Assertive (Career Press, 2006, 220 pages).  I am far from shy.  (In fact I can sometimes be a bit too much for some people.)  And yet I found huge value in this book.  Each of us has shy moments, and those moments are what this book is for.

After-action Reviews

You and your team have just completed a big project, made a sale, lost a sale, shipped a critical product on time, or shipped a truckload of off-quality product.  Or perhaps you have just completed a semi-annual evacuation drill in your factory.  Whether the end result was good or bad, you want to learn from it.  You are committed to continuously improving your performance and that of your team.  A great tool for that is the After-Action Review (AAR).  You might want to make AARs a routine part of every project you undertake.

My new business: Executive Coaching

I rarely talk about my business on this page.  However, as I have just added four new pages explaining my business (see the links below my photograph), I thought it was time to tell you what I do for a living.

For 28 years, I worked in manufacturing in North America, New Zealand and Asia.  Starting as an energy engineer, I worked my way up to CEO of a publicly-listed company in Thailand.  Through most of the last ten years, my primary approach to getting business results has been through coaching those I work with. 

Now I am a full-time, professional Executive Coach.  (No, I am not a horse drawn conveyance from a bygone era, but I couldn't find an interesting picture that captured my profession, so I decided a homonym was just as good.) 

Praise and recognition at work

Jeffrey Zaslow writes in "The most-praised generation goes to work" about the how much praise 20-somethings need.  In "In praise of less praise," he follows up with a counter view.

In this article, I'll summarize Zaslow's key points and then sort out what I think it means for you, the business leader.

How to help an "odd duck" fit into your team

A friend of mine had an interesting question this week:  "How does a manager help an 'odd duck' fit in?"  Fun question.  Let's see if I can do anything with it.

First of all, what is an "odd duck?"  I'm going to take it to mean someone who is different from the rest of your team.  Perhaps our duck has a different academic background from most of the team, or came from a different country, or is a youngster among baby boomers (or a boomer among gen-y folks).

Regardless of the details, you want to forge a strong team and you need your odd-duck to become one of the team.  How might you approach the task?  Here are my thoughts, but I might have this completely wrong.  I would sure appreciate your corrective comments!

(Perhaps the friend who brought me this sticky question will weigh in with some ideas?)

Employees as Volunteers

The textbook for last week's coaching clinic included the following quote, attributed to Jerry Kouzas and Barry Posner:

"To get a feel for the true essence of leadership, assume everyone who works for you is a volunteer."

What difference would that assumption make to your leadership approach?