Virtual workers should interview themselves first…

Sara’s post at Pajama Professional about asking yourself tough questions before starting a home business (here) made me think about the challenges of telecommuting and virtual work.  I had been tagged for an interview about the topic — I didn’t make the cut — and my team is almost entirely virtual.  The topic is always [...]

Non-Financial Ways to Engage and Motivate

I hadn’t seen this blog before (here), but I liked this post that compiled tips focusing on non-financial incentives and practices (here).  The suggestion to “establish an appraisal system where clearly defined objectives are mutually agreed” seemed benign enough, but adding the phrase “appraisals should be continuous, not just once a year” put some punch [...]

Resentments and Doghouses

From my recent tag surfing spree, here’s a post from Barry Zweibel on making sure that one’s doghouse doesn’t get too full (here … hat tip: Your Executive Edge here).  His first paragraphs set up the story well:
We get mad. We get cranky. We judge. We blame. We put people on ice. Send them to Siberia. [...]

Status of women in China…observations

This is a follow up on a conversation I had with someone about the improving status and respect for women in China.  I made a note to myself to pay more attention while I was here, so here goes…
I’m attending the Asia-Pacific + Japan PMO summit here in Shanghai — BTW, I can get to WP [...]

New Poll — Corner Cutting in Project Management

Inspired by a post on Sharp End Training’s blog (here), my post (here), and a comment by PM Hut…
FYI, moved to right sidebar

Embedding Employee Engagement in your processes

Mike King at Learn This has a fairly long post on promoting employee engagement (here) — one last Hat Tip to the PM Blog Carnival (here).  I liked the thoughts in this passage especially:
Make it Part of The System … In order to ensure that employee engagement is something that gets attention, is measured and has [...]

Acknowledging fear when leading change

Wow, the latest PM Blog Carnival (here) sure had some blogworthy entries in this edition…this must be my fifth post inspired by it.  Louise Manning at The Human Imprint had a set of key change management steps (here), the foundation of which is her riff on the well-known Gandhi quote:
“You must be the change you [...]

Corner-cutting in Project Management

Elizabeth included this post from Sharp End Training’s blog (here).  I agree with her assessment of the post.  It is a good question but I would have like to seen a take on which corners are typically cut, not why corners were cut.  FWIW, here are my top ten corners typically cut:

Stakeholder management planning
Executing planned [...]

A contrary view on boredom

Phil B. has a little different take on boredom at work than I do (here).  Per an earlier post, I believe it is my responsibility to not be bored (here).  I certainly agree with him about the side effects of boredom at work:
Job stagnation can lead to much more than just boredom. First, job stagnation [...]

Training and qualifying sponsors

For those who need to educate their sponsors, the approach of the UK’s Home Office might at least inspire your next efforts (here, the syllabus is here).  The content looks very meaty.
This approach may only work in the public sector — I’m not sure how many senior folks in my organization would sit still for [...]