Text posted Thursday, June 28, 2012 The following story was told to me by a senior executive in a large automobile parts supply company: ”We were downsizing the organization, but we were trying to do it through controlled attrition. So we were offering buyouts for senior people in certain categories who were willing and able to leave the company [...]

Text posted Tuesday, June 26, 2012 “I was managing this very young team of programmers,” a senior manager in one of our nation’s intelligence agencies started to tell me. ”For the first few months, our weekly team meetings were great, but after every meeting, the programmers would come up to me one by one asking for feedback on their individual work. I [...]

Text posted Thursday, June 21, 2012 A senior private equity managing director told me of a parent calling to complain that her son was working too many hours. I asked how he reacted to this call. “I just listened and tried to be polite. I didn’t tell her that her son was going to make ten thousand [...]