Natasha’s boss mistrusted her. This wasn’t because she was incompetent – rather, it seemed to be a matter of principle for him.

He spent most of the day watching people to make sure they did their work correctly. He watched the clock to ensure that everyone’s lunch hour was exactly one hour long. He even checked their mailboxes to make sure they weren’t receiving personal messages.

Not surprisingly, Natasha and her colleagues resented their boss’s mistrust. As a result, they stopped making decisions for themselves; they just asked him what he wanted when a decision had to be made, and they stopped taking responsibility for what they were doing. This reinforced the boss’s belief that they weren’t capable of working under their own initiative.

Have you ever seen a cyclical pattern of behavior like this in your workplace? It’s common in organizations, and it’s illustrated in a simple model called the Betari Box.

In this article, we’ll show you what the Betari Box is, and you’ll learn how to use it to improve the mood of your workplace.

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCS_82.htm

“The Red:Green Bed day is a visual management system to assist in the identification of wasted time in a patients journey. It is most applicable to in-patient wards in both acute and community settings” (Dr Ian Sturgess)

The Red and Green Day approach was created by Dr Ian Sturgess a number of years ago. His quick guide can be found here.

At the end of March 2016, one of our wards at Mid Cheshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust tested this approach and we have learnt a lot since. We have been approached by a few people to ask what we do so here is our story so far…

A good negotiator finds a mutually acceptable way forward, instead of being at loggerheads with people who hold different views or who are working toward different goals. He or she will skillfully close a deal, agree a new training plan, set a schedule, or fine-tune processes. Good negotiation leads to better working practices, and increased satisfaction in the workplace and in life in general.

In this article, we look at some of the different approaches to negotiation, how best to prepare yourself, and what other skills you can employ to maximize your success.

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/essential-negotiation.htm

Many researchers have studied the phenomenon of abusive supervisors, or what we’ll call “bully bosses.” The behavior of a bully boss can include a wide range of various forms of non-physical aggression, such as ridiculing employees, putting them down in front of others, accusing them of incompetence, blaming them, lying to them, or not giving them credit for their work.

Such bullying has been shown to result in a whole set of negative consequences for employees such as psychological distress, job dissatisfaction, and emotional exhaustion. It’s also been linked to counter-productive behaviors, from the organizational to the interpersonal. For instance, in organizations where bullying occurs, employees may arrive late, intentionally slow down the work itself, or not follow the boss’s instructions. Bullying can also encourage employees to become bullies themselves, by humiliating their colleagues, being rude to each other, or being aggressive towards others. Not surprisingly, bullying also increases turnover.

So what drives bosses to become bullies?

https://hbr.org/2016/06/why-some-bosses-bully-their-best-employees

What’s the difference between managers and leaders?

How many of us have worked in places with “leadership teams,” comprising all the heads of department? What makes the people in those teams “leaders,” I often wonder? Is it because they have the natural charisma and flair that motivates people to work toward achieving organizational goals? Or, is it simply because they’ve reached a certain level in the company? Perhaps the rationale is that if they’re given the leadership label, they’ll live up to the expectations that go along with it!

But isn’t using the term “leadership” in this way a little bogus? Surely being a leader is about your personal effectiveness, and is something that other people see in you. Yes, it’s true: leaders are often in senior positions, but that doesn’t make them effective as leaders…

https://www.mindtools.com/blog/2015/05/12/managers-versus-leaders-the-big-debate/

Dweck’s Mindsets

In her 2007 book, Mindset, renowned Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck says that it’s not intelligence, talent or education that sets successful people apart. It’s their mindset, or the way that they approach life’s challenges.

In this article, we’ll explore the meaning of Dweck’s idea of mindset, how a “fixed mindset” can hold you back, and how a “growth mindset” can help you to reach your goals. We’ll also show you how you can adopt a mindset of growth, so that you can increase your self-motivation , effectiveness and success.

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/dwecks-mindsets.htm?utm_source=nl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=31May16#np

There are many different power bases that a leader can use and exploit.

These include problematic ones such as the power of position, the power to give rewards, the power to punish and the power to control information. While these types of power do have some strength, they put the person being lead in an unhealthy position of weakness, and can leave leaders using these power bases looking autocratic and out of touch.

More than this, society has changed hugely over the last 50 years. Citizens are individually more powerful, and employees are more able to shift jobs. Few of us enjoy having power exerted over us, and many will do what they can to undermine people who use these sorts of power.

However there are three types of positive power that effective leaders use: charismatic power, expert power and referent power.

This article teaches the technique of building expert power.

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_04.htm?utm_source=nl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=10Mar16#np

French and Raven’s Five Forms of Power

Think of a leader you’ve known who relied on his or her ability to discipline or reward people to get things done. Then, remind yourself of a leader who was a renowned expert in his field, or who you really admired for his integrity.

How did it feel to work for these leaders, and which one got the best from you? The way a leader behaves toward you and how effectively you work as a result can both depend on the source of her power and her power need not come from her official status or title.

Social psychologists John French and Bertram Raven studied this phenomenon more than half a century ago. Despite its age, their research can still help us to understand why some leaders influence us, how prepared we are to accept their power, and – if you are a leader – how you can develop new power bases to get the best from your people.

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_56.htm?utm_source=nl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=10Mar16#np

Imagine being forever immune to heart attacks and strokes because you take a daily dose of medication. Great! But there’s a little hitch. The medication can be very sour and it takes 10 minutes to prepare. Would you take the medication or just hope that your heart is strong enough without it?

This question is a metaphor for what faces a manager. The medication – called giving feedback – does indeed takes some time. When your feedback is negative, the tone of the conversation can be sour. When it is infrequent, the metaphor’s heart ailments are poor workplace performance, unmotivated disengagement, and your best employees walking out the door to find it somewhere else…

https://www.mindtools.com/blog/2016/04/25/how-to-give-feedback/

When you talk to an audience, you need to know how to hold its attention and to make sure that the message you are trying to communicate is understood clearly. To do this, you need to balance the abstract and the details. For example, if you are a leader trying to inspire your people to buy into your vision, you shouldn’t focus solely on the concepts and “big picture” ideas. You need to give people facts and details, and concrete plans for achieving that vision.

At the same time, you shouldn’t get bogged down in detail and minutiae, or you risk losing your audience’s attention once again. People will want to know why the facts and details you are presenting are relevant and important – you need to give them context.

Effective communication requires moving regularly between the abstract and the “real,” as the situation dictates. You can learn more about how to do this in our article, The Ladder of Abstraction. If you can master the skill of balancing “highbrow” concepts with the “nuts and bolts” of your big ideas, you’ll never send your audience to sleep, or catch people playing Buzzword Bingo during your presentations, again!

https://www.mindtools.com/blog/2016/04/22/dont-be-a-boring-speaker/