First Step Marketing

The workplace is becoming more racially diverse, thanks to affirmative action and increased educational opportunities for minorities. Unfortunately, racial tensions often manifest themselves. These can disrupt working relationships, slow down productivity, dampen motivation, alienate clients and customers, and even invite legal action.

When racism erupts, managers tend to make some common mistakes, like:

• Setting ultimatums. “Some managers simply say, ‘You two will work together or else,’ ” says Maurine Cooper, staff director for the District of Columbia government mayor, Washington, DC. “This approach only makes matters worse.” Forcing a relationship does not change people’s feelings, which are at the root of the problem. As long as they continue to harbor the hatred or mistrust or whatever it is they feel, the problem will tend to persist. Read the rest of this entry »
  

“You’ve been uncooperative, lax and late for work three times in a row. Take tomorrow off—with pay.”

Has this supervisor gone dotty, rewarding poor performance with a day off? What’s going on?

It’s positive discipline at work. The technique, introduced more than 20 years ago by Canadian industrial psychologist John Huberman, has been used at organizations like General Electric, Union Carbide, AT&T, the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, and others. Read the rest of this entry »

Even in an era where mandatory retirement ages are .creeping higher and higher, corporate managers need to plan for their own transitions from the seat of power to new roles and other activities.

For some, a top consideration is perpetuating a philosophy of business that they feel they have helped their companies develop. They want to know that what they have contributed to the corporate culture and success will not be lost.

Others are more pragmatic. They accept that new management must set its own standards and tone. They put their energies into planning for their own futures elsewhere.

There are many managers who don’t care too deeply about what happens to their organizations after they leave. Such managers recognize that corporations are, by their nature, designed to survive the individual employee, and they, therefore, see little value in staying too emotionally involved. Read the rest of this entry »

“Cognitive divergence” describes the situation of a person whose thinking has become so different from the rest of the group that he or she doesn’t really fit in. This person is now considered ^-out of it,” an eccentric, a maverick. Some changes that can make you seem like this in your own organization:

• Your company may have changed since you joined it as a bright young newcomer. New people with a different management philosophy may have taken over, or the company may have expanded or changed direction as time passed.
• Times may have changed. New ideas, new technology may cause a company to change its outlook. Where once it valued those managers who ran production centers or developed new products, now it may save its smiles for its financial or marketing managers. Or, vice versa. Read the rest of this entry »
  

You have a subordinate who you feel has the makings of greatness. If developed and encouraged, this person could climb to the very top. But with a department or division to run, plus your own responsibilities, it’s not always that easy to give your potential star the support and encouragement that’s needed. It’s a universal problem most managers have to contend with.

Some managers think that talent will win out in the end and that nothing need be done to help promising rookies along. With luck and initiative, they’ll make their talents known eventually.

There is some validity to this contention, yet many experts—like James Clawson, an associate professor at the Colgate Darden School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia—feel that managers ought to take an active role in helping subordinates make their mark. Read the rest of this entry »