A Friday Celebration

By Michelle Malay Carter on August 29, 2008 

Today’s my birthday, and I’m off to the beach with my husband and kids?to visit my parents.? I plan to do some swimming, fishing, and boating.? The tidal creek in my parent’s backyard often offers up a unique experience from snapping turtles, to crabs, to eels, to owls, to Kingfishers, to gar and we even […]

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Boundaries are Liberating – Micromanagement is Not

By Michelle Malay Carter on August 27, 2008 

In my last post, we discussed the requisite components of an effective task assignment.? Anyone who has lived under the opression of micromanagment might look at the?level of detail in?the task assignment format I shared and conclude that it would squelch creativity rather than facilitate it. Waste not Want Not When ambiguous assignments are given, […]

Filed Under Employee Engagement, Managerial Leadership, Requisite Organization, Talent Management | 6 Comments

The Lowest Hanging Fruit in Managerial Leadership – Effective Task Assignment

By Michelle Malay Carter on August 25, 2008 

With all the curriculum out there -?from supervisory training to MBAs to leadership courses, you would think that?effective task assignment?techniques would be at the top of the list.? My experience is that it is not.? Managers I’ve met have usually had?more Myers Briggs training than they have effective task assignment training. What does an effective […]

Filed Under Accountability, Corporate Values, Employee Engagement, Executive Leadership, Managerial Leadership, Requisite Organization, Talent Management | 2 Comments

Big Picture Thinker Miscommunication – A Friday Funny

By Michelle Malay Carter on August 22, 2008 

We’ve been talking about how to “language” messages in order to make them satisfying to employees.? In my last post, I suggested that the language that individuals find satisfying and actionable might be tied to work levels and corresponding cognitive capacity. As you move up the work levels hierarchy, the use of language moves from […]

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Improving Communication with a Work Levels, Attractive Leadership Framework

By Michelle Malay Carter on August 20, 2008 

In my last post I talked about the elusive holy grail of leadership – effective communication.??I plan to throw a new iron into the fire on this one by discussing how an understanding of work levels can improve communication within organization. Employee’s Want RELEVANT Communication Since each work level of an organization contributes a specific […]

Filed Under Employee Engagement, Executive Leadership, Managerial Leadership, Organization Design, Requisite Organization, Work Levels | 3 Comments

I AM Communicating, Now What?

By Michelle Malay Carter on August 18, 2008 

Blog after leadership blog.? Book after leadership book claims to have found the Holy Grail of Leadership and Followership (engagement).? In case you’ve missed it, I will reveal it here. Are you ready? ?Communication!? My Invoice is in the mail. Now, go ask 100 managers if they do a proper job of communicating at work.? […]

Filed Under Employee Engagement, Managerial Leadership, Requisite Organization, Work Levels | 11 Comments

Olympic Cuisine – A Friday Fascinating

By Michelle Malay Carter on August 15, 2008 

A friend passed along some photos of the food choices available to Olympics visitors in the Chinese markets.? I guess when you eat “Chinese” food in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA it’s not wholly representative of their culinary offerings. In addition to the photos I’ve included, she shared photos of lizard legs, iguana tails, seahorses, dog […]

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Organization Structure is a Business Initiative Not an HR Initiative

By Michelle Malay Carter on August 14, 2008 

Playing off a line from my last post, organization structure is a business initiative, not an HR initiative.? A Missing Collective Understanding I think executives underestimate the connection between organization design as well as all of an organization’s “people” systems, i.e. compensation, performance management, talent management, and organizational sustainability. When executives push down the accountability […]

Filed Under Accountability, Executive Leadership, Organization Design, Requisite Organization, Strategy, Talent Management, Work Levels | 4 Comments

Web 2.0 is a Business Initiative, Not an IT Initiative

By Michelle Malay Carter on August 12, 2008 

I often find myself underwhelmed by survey results, responding to survey result reports?with the thought,?well duh!, rather than ah-ha!? You? McKinsey’s latest, Building the Web 2.0 Enterprise: McKinsey Global Survey Results, had a few well duh’s for me as well.? I thought I’d share. “A higher level of usage is found at companies that encourage […]

Filed Under Corporate Values, Organization Design, Requisite Organization, Strategy | 2 Comments

Distracted from the Mission – A Friday Funny

By Michelle Malay Carter on August 1, 2008 

How much time do you spend a work negotiating and renegotiating with peers and colleagues in order to get your work done?? What if we systematized specifying role relationship accountabilities and authorities into job descriptions, leaving the people free to do their work without the constant relationship strategizing? Defining Role Relationships For example:? A human […]

Filed Under Accountability, Employee Engagement, Executive Leadership, Requisite Organization, Strategy | 2 Comments