I just finished reading Harry G. Frankfurt’s little book On Truth, the follow-up to his book On Bullshit. I’m hesitant to admit that I enjoyed Frankfurt’s bullshit more than his truth; nevertheless, it’s still a great book. Frankfurt’s main point is that because the truth is grounded in objective reality, we need to care about [...]
Self-righteous: Confident of one’s own righteousness, especially when smugly moralistic and intolerant of the opinions and behavior of others. (dictionary.com) How should we deal with self-righteous people at work? I’ve reached the conclusion that we don’t. Self-righteous folks only care what we think when we agree with what they think. That’s annoying for sure, but [...]
The process of leadership is dependent upon responsive organizational citizens that recognize the ethical imperative to assume full responsibility for their behavior in the workplace. At a minimum, good organizational citizenship requires treating others with professional courtesy and respectful civility. I have to confess that’s not always easy, especially when you work with people that [...]
At an event I recently attended, a senior leader gave his organization a presentation on how to handle conflict. He said a lot of things I agreed with, i.e. conflict is inevitable and try to be part of the solution when conflict arises. As good as some of his advice sounded, a fundamental flaw in [...]
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I am speaking this morning to a group of leaders at Truckee Meadows Community College. It’s not often that I get a chance to speak to colleagues in education about leadership so I am looking forward to it. These folks have been participating in leadership development and my talk will be the final session. I [...]
Crappy Systems – The Reason Why Good Service Is So Elusive
Why is it so hard to get good service in a coffee shop in Reno at 7:30 am on a Friday morning? Last week I had an unacceptable service encounter at Starbucks. This morning I once again was near that same Starbucks, and instead of going for the convenient experience, I drove out of my [...]
