Influencing and Problem Solving for Leaders and Others Mike Lehr's Blog

Want to Motivate? Beware of What You Say

Posted on21 Nov 2011

TagsInfluence, food, employees, constructive criticism, compliments, anchoring, leadership, word choice, Tori Rodriguez, Scientific American, phraseology, motivation, management

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So, the boss walks in and harshly reprimands an employee. Unknowingly, she probably just shot his productivity down for the day. A while ago I...

Cooperation vs. Self-interest (Pt 4): Intrinsic Rewards

Posted on17 Nov 2011

Tagsbusiness, compliments, cooperation, Cooperation vs Self-interest Series, organizational culture, employees, Harvard Business Review, intrinsic, money, motivation, power, rewards, self-interest, Thank You, workplace, Yochai Benkler

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Intrinsic rewards are important aspects of creating a cooperative work culture. However, such rewards are difficult to understand and teach. Moreover, many, many people just...

Best Practices = Inside the Box Thinking

Posted on14 Nov 2011

Tagsthink outside the box, thinking process, standardization, reinventing the wheel, problem solving, original, Mike Wyatt, innovation, Downside of Best Practices, differentiation, best practices

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One of the paradoxes of best practices is that they promote unimaginativeness because if everyone followed best practices the differentiation among competing firms would drastically...

Problem Solving Technique: Alter Process

Posted on10 Nov 2011

TagsAram Donigian, document, group, Harvard Business Review, Jeff Weiss, Jonathan Huges, negotiation, objective, problem solving, process, process management, Techniques

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In the November 2010 issue of the Harvard Business Review Jeff Weiss, Aram Donigian, Jonathan Huges discuss in their article “Extreme Negotiations” the importance of...

Real-time Personality Assessment (Pt 4): Extrapolation

Posted on07 Nov 2011

Tagsconversation, decisions, Naomi Quenk, objective personality tests, Personality, practical, practice, Real-time personality assessment, Was That Really Me, Wordle

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In this series’ previous post, I wrote about using Wordle to help identify word usage and phrasing trends by people as a prelude to identifying...

The Silent Revolution: Understanding Ourselves

As I had mentioned in The Rise of Intuition, the biggest advancement we’ll see in the next five to fifteen years will not be in...

Star Wars, Women & The Good Guys

Posted on31 Oct 2011

Tagswomen, Star Wars, Personality, good vs evil, emotions, diversity, organizational culture, business

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If you examine the two opposing sides in the Star Wars Epic, The Empire (Bad Guys) and The Rebels (Good Guys), there are two major...

Diverse Workforce Means Rethinking Talent to Manage It

Posted on27 Oct 2011

Tagsmanagement, homophily, The Atlantic, Talent, social skills, Richard Florida, Personality, networking, market, innovation, diversity, creativity, change management, adaptability

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In the October 2011 issue of The Atlantic, I ran across Richard Florida’s article, “Where the Skills Are” and found myself rethinking the idea of...

Correlation: High Testosterone and Poor Risk Assessment

Posted on24 Oct 2011

Tagsfree will, biochemical, Cambridge University, decisions, diversity, emotions, employees, failure, hubris, John Coates, management, Personality, process, technology, The Economist

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When I’ve written about the illusion of free will, I’ve focused on the advancement of technology and research methodologies to uncover subconscious thought patterns. However,...

Cooperation vs. Self-interest (Pt 3): Empathy

Posted on20 Oct 2011

Tagsbrain, cooperation, Cooperation vs Self-interest Series, organizational culture, emotional intelligence, emotions, feelings, Giacomo Rizzolatti, happiness, Harvard Business Review, intuition, leadership, Personality, sensitive people, sensitivity, Tania Singer, Yochai Benkler

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For many of us, we feel good when we help others. What we are even learning is that many of us, especially women, will tend...

Bridges, Muscles and Crises

Posted on17 Oct 2011

Tagstraining, struggle, problem solving, perspective, learn, emotions, analogy

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In problem solving, seeing the connection among disparate things helps. Recently, I drove home on a road that runs along a creek. People living along...

Real-time Personality Assessment (Pt 3): Word Themes

Posted on13 Oct 2011

Tagsconnotations, listen, Personality, Real-time personality assessment, word choice, Wordle, words

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The words people use tell you much about their personalities. The challenge is trying to see a theme. While not every word is important, it’s...

Best Decision as Myth

Posted on10 Oct 2011

Tagsquality, process management, organization, decisions, business, adaptability

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Many people agonize over decisions. A primary reason is belief in a “best” decision. Consequently, people run endlessly through their options when often there isn’t...

Downside of Focus and Rise of Situational Awareness

Posted on06 Oct 2011

Tagsdecisions, anchoring, aptitude, Before You Make That Big Decision, business, business planning, conditionality, context, focus, Influence, market research, optimism, pigeonholing, planning, situational awareness, skills, Talent

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Classical business literature emphasizes focus: set goals, plan, and then focus on execution. However, it’s relatively void of focus’ downside: obliviousness to peripheral threats and...

Clarity vs. Truth: Problem-solving Implications

Posted on03 Oct 2011

Tagswords, word choice, truth, problem solving, clarity, analogy

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We often assume two words have the same meaning. If true, there would be no need for the two separate words. Distinguishing the difference develops...

Mike Lehr’s Blog

Want to Motivate? Beware of What You Say

Cooperation vs. Self-interest (Pt 4): Intrinsic Rewards

Best Practices = Inside the Box Thinking

Real-time Personality Assessment (Pt 4): Extrapolation

Star Wars, Women & The Good Guys

Correlation: High Testosterone and Poor Risk Assessment

Cooperation vs. Self-interest (Pt 3): Empathy

Bridges, Muscles and Crises

Best Decision as Myth

Downside of Focus and Rise of Situational Awareness

Clarity vs. Truth: Problem-solving Implications

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