Why People Lie at Work — and What to Do About It

Summary.   

Being faced with an employee who bends the truth or lies outright is a tough managerial situation to be in. It can stir up the expected reactions of hurt and anger and cause you to lose faith in your team. If an employee is being dishonest with you, start by trying to figure out why. Once you can see what the employee is trying to accomplish by lying, you can move to action. The author describes the three most typical motivations for employee lying based on decades of consulting — and tips for what to do about them. First, a dishonest employee might be afraid to upset someone or trigger conflict. Second, they may not want to expose their own inadequacies. Third, they may just be looking to serve themselves.

When you’re a leader, you rely on your team members to tell you the truth so you can make thoughtful decisions and feel confident that you know what’s going on. Most of them repay your trust with truthfulness (marked, on occasion, with a bit of self-serving spin). But sometimes, you’re faced with an employee who bends the truth too far, or who lies to you outright. This is one of the toughest managerial situations to face, because it’s hard to be sure what’s really happening, or because you tell yourself that you must be mistaken.

Source: HBR

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8 ways to understand your boss

It's really easy to call names behind your boss's back, but what if you can strategize your way to be on the same page as him? After all, he is also a human being.

All of us have heard the saying – people don’t leave organizations, they leave bosses. True to an extent but is it the absolute truth? No. One of the skills I think each one of us needs to pick up is how we manage our bosses. In my work spanning 25 years I have worked with 9 bosses, 3 male and the rest female. I am not heading to a gender discussion here. To me a boss is a boss irrespective of gender. There could be gender nuances in your experience and that’s also valid. Here, I am sticking to the subject called boss. 

I have been very keen on this subject for a long time now and felt the need to put pen to paper and write about it. Like any of you reading this relationship would understand that it has not been a very easy one for me. If I have to describe it, I would call it a roller coaster ride with its own jerks and ease. And, in this ride, there are a few strategies that I have very effectively used and they served me well. I want to share those with you and you could in turn share yours with me or critique any of mine. That’s also fine.

Here are the 8 strategies (not in any order though): 

Observe your boss for common ground: To check what matters to him (I am using ‘him’ as a general terminology). What does he stand for? What drives him? What is he good at? This strategy gave me enough information relating to my bosses. I got a common ground to build a sound work relationship. This has not been easy for me. I would observe my boss in every meeting, email communication and saw that the larger vision and mission of the organization was important to him. And that mattered to me as well. So, a common ground was met to tread.

Source: People matters

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Words and Phrases to Avoid in a Difficult Conversation

Summary.   

When you’re in the middle of a difficult conversation, it’s common to focus solely on yourself: your ideas, your viewpoint, your feelings. But a “me-centric” approach can backfire. To achieve your goal, you need to think beyond yourself. While crafting your message, you must keep the other person’s feelings and opinions in mind, too. To do so, avoid these common mistakes: don’t assume your viewpoint is obvious; don’t exaggerate; don’t challenge someone’s character or integrity; don’t blame others for your feelings; don’t tell others what they should do; and don’t say “It’s not personal.”

Difficult conversations are difficult for a reason, and when you’re anxious or stressed out, it’s easy to say the wrong thing. And it doesn’t matter how prepared you are. Your best laid plans will go to waste if you offend or anger the other person.

Over twenty years of teaching and research, which I describe in my new book Choosing Courage, I’ve found that people often forget a critical point: When navigating a difficult conversation, you need to craft your message while keeping the other person’s feelings and opinions in mind.

Below are some of the most common mistakes I’ve observed — words and phrases that can slip into our vocabulary — and explanations for why they often cause trouble.

Source: HBR

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The Limits of the “Sustainable” Economy

Summary.   

Faced with compelling evidence that the world is approaching climate and ecologic tipping points, urgent solutions and actions are a priority. Transitioning to a so-called Circular Economy (CE) has been put forward as a possible solution, and enthusiastically seized upon by both industry and policy makers. CE presents an enticing idea based on three core principles: to design out waste and pollution, keep products and materials in use, and regenerate natural systems by using renewable materials and energy. But CE is not without its critics. While praising the objectives promoted by CE, many question its practicability.  In particular, the ability of recycling, designing for durability, use of renewable production inputs, and adoption of alternative usage models to limit society’s consumption of raw materials and energy is not guaranteed, given practical and environmental constraints and people’s economic and quality-of-life expectations.

Faced with compelling evidence that the world is approaching climate and ecologic tipping points, urgent solutions and actions are a priority. Transitioning to a so-called “circular economy” (CE) has been put forward as a possible solution, and enthusiastically seized upon by both industry and policy makers.

The concept gained attention in the late eighties, after researchers at General Motors first envisioned a “closed loop” approach to production processes. In 2009, Dame Ellen MacArthur (the famous round-the-world solo sailor) launched the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which has very successfully popularized the CE manifesto. Today the foundation has an impressive list of around 180 partner and member organizations, and regulators in some regions of the world, particularly the EU, are actively implementing CE agendas.

Source: HBR

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