Influencing and Problem Solving by Mike Lehr

This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series Change Management StrategyAs we acquire knowledge and experience, we tend to become wedded to the status quo. Tenure compounds this effect as Xueming Luo, Vamsi Kanuri, and Michelle Andrews report in their article, “Long CEO Tenure Can Hurt Performance” (Harvard Business Review, March 2013 edition). [… Read More]

Businesses strive for predictability. Standardization helps them achieve that. Still, many employees like their jobs for their variability, “It’s something different every day.” Herein is a paradox. On one hand, we have predictability containing expenses by minimizing surprises. On the other hand, work’s variability gives us pleasure. Could predictability make us wealthy but miserable too? [… Read More]

When I was on the debate and student congress team in high school, practice would often entail arguing an opposing view. Often I would find arguments I had not considered and holes in my own that I hadn’t discovered. The main “AhHa!” point was just how much I missed by being comfortable in my own [… Read More]

This entry is part 5 of 7 in the series Beauty as PowerWe often hear about the jealousies women have for other women who they feel are attractive. While it’s easy to discount this as pettiness, there are business implications when it comes to appraising and hiring talent. For example, the March 31, 2012 edition [… Read More]

House of Arbitrariness & Conditionality We often view measurements as unchangeable. A meter is a meter, a pound a pound. We often forget that at some time someone somewhere declared what those were and that they would be a standard. The point is this: arbitrariness underlies almost all objective standards by which we live. For [… Read More]

This entry is part 5 of 8 in the series Relationship Building TechniqueWe often don’t learn the value of listening techniques in building relationships. Consequently, people might not realize we are listening; this needs to occur in relationship building. Encouragement directs the other person to elaborate on a point. It’s similar to an acknowledgement except [… Read More]

This entry is part 4 of 8 in the series Relationship Building TechniqueWe often don’t learn the value of listening techniques in building relationships. Consequently, people might not realize we are listening; this needs to occur in relationship building. An acknowledgement is usually a short utterance, statement, phrase, question or gesture. It lets the other [… Read More]

This entry is part 3 of 8 in the series Relationship Building TechniqueWe often don’t learn the value of listening techniques in building relationships. Consequently, people might not realize we are listening; this needs to occur to build relationships. A pause is usually a short, silent break in an interaction of about ten seconds or [… Read More]

Confederate Attacks (Red) on the Union (Blue) at the 3-Day’s Battle of Gettysburg In business, people often see aggressiveness as a virtue; however, it can be a defect. Exploring this will give us insights into dealing with aggressive personalities in our lives and examples of how different perspectives help in problem solving. The Battle of [… Read More]

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 this road have driveways running over the creek connecting their houses to the road. The last two years has seen much intense flooding from rain, thus causing extreme damage to [… Read More]