Travels with Myself

A Journal of Discovery and Transition
Doug Jordan, Author

Mentoring

Everybody needs a mentor and I wish I had had one when I needed one. From time to time in any life we come to

2023-04-27

Leadership as the Art of Creating Followership

In his book, The Dynamics of Management: Mastering the Art of Influencing Others, Doug Jordan argues that successful executives must master the dual requirements of

2016-12-02

Management Development in the Absence of Organizational Process

You may have found my previous blog on this theme a bit jaded; but for many of you I’m sure it came close to the

2016-06-15

Management Development as an Organizational Process

In my years of coaching and consulting it no longer surprises me when a client tells me, ‘our company doesn’t do a good job of

2016-05-10

E-mail Efficacy – Part 2

In our previous blog (The Paradox of E-mail Communications) we argued that e-mail was not a very effective medium of communications because, as Marshal McLuhan

2016-04-13

The paradox of e-mail communication

E-mail offered the hope of instant communications. It also offered the advantage of asynchronous communications – the sender and receiver don’t have to be directly

2016-03-18

More Thoughts on Millennials and Internships

In my previous article I argued that from a societal perspective (and that’s pretty broad!) there is a need to facilitate and promote Stage 4

2016-01-18

Millennials and Internships

Edgar Schein in his seminal work, Career Dynamics and its companion workbook, Career Anchors, described a model of the Major Stages of a Career. There

2015-12-02

Millennials in the Workplace

Admittedly my perspective may be skewed by my location – I’m in Ottawa, surrounded by abstract public servants, or self-important technology (especially software) companies. They

2015-10-07

Millennials

Much has been written, or talked about, when it comes to the latest generational cohort, much of it misplaced, in my view. Still we generally

2015-10-01

Communicating with Tact & Diplomacy, Part 9d: Balancing Politeness and Honesty – Getting the Balance Right

As with many things in life we all have to manage a balance between politeness and honesty. Such balances will be personal to us and

2015-09-09

Communicating with Tact & Diplomacy, Part 9c: When Deception Goes beyond Politeness, and Honesty has Negative Consequences

Okay, we all know about social niceties, even political correctness – communicating so as not to offend. But what about deception that deliberately, and persuasively

2015-08-20

Communicating with Tact & Diplomacy, Part 9b: Is there a place for deception?

Deception in interpersonal relationships is commonplace. Deception can be especially prevalent when being polite, and it may not be as benign as you might think.

2015-07-08

Communicating with Tact & Diplomacy, Part 9: Balancing Politeness and Honesty

The reason for using tact and diplomacy in communications – being polite so as not to offend – is to avoid adverse social consequences. But

2015-06-24

Communicating with Tact & Diplomacy, Part 8: Honesty in Business Conversations

Your first thought might have been – oxymoronic. But lets not be quite so cynical. While we do wish to speak about communicating with honesty

2015-06-11

Communicating with Tact & Diplomacy, Part 7: Faux Pas and Humour

A ‘faux pas’ (from French meaning ‘false step’) is usually an accidental, or unintentional, breach of socially accepted norms, manners or etiquette. Naturally, communicating with

2015-05-28

Communicating with Tact & Diplomacy, Part 6b: T & D Strategies

Consciously or not we often adopt communications strategies based on previous communication encounters. These encounters may or may not be appropriate points of reference, or

2015-05-21

Communicating with Tact & Diplomacy, Part 6: T & D Strategies

Even when you have mastered effective communications techniques – attentive listening and getting your message across – you may still not be a consummate communicator.

2015-05-14

Communicating with Tact & Diplomacy, Part 5b: Five Keys to Getting your Message Across

The goal of effective communications is not to be nice, necessarily, but to get the other party to ‘act’ on your message. You need them

2015-05-06

Communicating with Tact & Diplomacy, Part 5: Getting your Message Across

Most people prefer to talk than to listen – which is why listening is so hard. Even so, getting your message across is about getting

2015-04-28

Communicating with Tact & Diplomacy, Part 4: Common Listening Misconceptions

We are all capable of listening effectively in different situations and to different people. Listening effectively is, however, an active process – something we have

2015-04-21

Communicating with Tact & Diplomacy, Part 3b: Two Components of Attentive Listening

Attentive listening requires both cognitive and emotional processing: active listening and empathetic listening. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t very good at either one! Active Listening

2015-04-14

Communicating with Tact & Diplomacy, Part 3: Attentive Listening

There are two components to effective communications: Listening and Messaging. Just as there are two parties to every communications event, both are necessary for a

2015-04-08

Communicating with Tact & Diplomacy, Part 2: Four Facets

“Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.” – Isaac Newton “Diplomacy is the art of letting somebody else have your

2015-03-31

Communicating with Tact & Diplomacy, Part 1 in a 9 part series

Effective communication, especially listening, is something everybody knows is important. Amazing how ‘everybody’ doesn’t do it. This series of articles is about the obvious; so

2015-03-23

Job loss – other losses – and a few surprises

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in her book On Death and Dying brought into the modern lexicon the notion that when people are first told that they have

2015-02-28

In defence of ground hogs

It’s not their fault. They never claimed to have e.s.p. and the ability to forecast spring, or anything else. They were forced into it by

2015-02-21

On Procrastination: Summary

This series has hardly been the last word on overcoming procrastination but maybe it gave you a couple of insights, and more importantly some inspiration.

2015-01-02

On Procrastination Part 6: Using Cognitive Therapy to Overcome a Negative Explanatory Style

Procrastination can be defined as one’s voluntary delay of an intended course of action despite being worse off as a result of that delay. A

2014-12-31

On Procrastination Part 7: The Value of Positive Self-Talk

Despite my earlier diatribe against positive self-talk in the shallow Anthony Robbins style, it has its place if framed properly. Cognitive Therapy can help us

2014-12-31

On Procrastination Part 5: Negative Explanatory Style – Chief Cause of Procrastination

Being an optimist – or more accurately perhaps, having an optimistic thinking style when things are going alright – is one thing. Learning how to

2014-12-15

On Procrastination Part 4: What can we Learn from the Optimistic Explanatory Style

There are a lot of ‘motivational speakers’ out there from the Anthony Robbins School of Positive Self-Talk – Awaken the Giant Within – who first

2014-12-15

On Procrastination Part 3: Self-Efficacy, Self-Leadership, Self-Reinforcing

Turns out people who have high levels of Self-Efficacy and Self-Leadership (which includes Personal Goal Setting, Positive Self-talk, Self-Monitoring, and Self-reinforcement) have much less difficulty

2014-12-04

On Procrastination, Part 2: The Role of Self-Esteem

I said in On Procrastination Part 1 that people are concerned with self-esteem and so worry about being judged, and in particular about being judged

2014-11-15

On Procrastination

I’m not a psychologist, but … As an executive coach many of my clients raise this issue of procrastination as one of 2 – 3

2014-10-31

What’s Up With Radio Silence?!?

You know what I mean – when you send out an email (or text) and you get no response; and you’re left wondering. – Did

2014-10-31

Thoughts on Pay Practices: Part 6 – Problems with ‘contingent compensation’

Many organizations offer a substantial contingent compensation component (incentive bonus schemes) to many employees as part of the overall pay package – 20-50% of total

2014-08-19

Thoughts on Pay Practices: Part 5 – More thoughts on inequity

Luckily, neither employees nor employers evaluate equity outcomes based merely on surveys; it is not like checking the price of a flat screen tv in

2014-08-08

Principles for Effective Layoffs

These days organizations seem more interested in limiting their financial and legal liability than they are with preserving the ongoing effectiveness of the firm, even

2014-07-26

Thoughts on Pay Practices: Part 4 – Inequity is the Enemy of Engagement

Employees need to believe that they are comparably and fairly paid relative to others, both internally and externally. Luckily, employees are fairly elastic when it

2014-07-21

Thoughts on Pay Practices: Part 3 – Performance Recognition

I used to be a great believer in linking performance appraisals with ‘performance pay’ – annual MBO type performance reviews were supposed to drive the

2014-07-17

Thoughts on Pay Practices: Part 2 – Towards Employee Engagement

The intrinsic motivators that drive employee engagement go waaay beyond ‘compensation’.

2014-07-07

Thoughts on Pay Practices: Part 1 – ‘Compensation’

I am of the view ‘Compensation’ is a counter productive term. With effective job matching of employees’ talents and temperament with the duties and conditions of the job there can be high intrinsic value in almost any job, and engaged employees. So why ‘compensate?

2014-07-03

Performance Reviews Part 4: Summary

a formal performance review process is still critical to organization effectiveness, but maybe not for everyone, especially if pay is not linked to performance

2014-06-23

Performance Reviews Part 3: Evaluating the CEO/ED

Performance reviews of the CEO by his/her chair, especially under ‘Carver’ governance rules, is often flawed in at least two ways:
First, the performance of the ED often is undifferentiated from the performance of the agency as a whole.
Second, the adequacy of the information upon which a judgment must be based.

2014-06-17

Not Another Performance Review Part 2: 4 Steps to Effective Reviews

Despite the criticism of the annual performance review ritual, employees still want to know, on the record, where they stand. This is especially true for

2014-06-12

Not Another Performance Review, Part 1

For years, performance reviews have been criticized. There is a current movement in the literature decrying the annual performance review ritual as archaic and ineffective, irrelevant, and possibly even counterproductive . This despite the fact that employees frequently report in surveys that they lack adequate feedback on their performance and behaviour.

And it’s unfortunate. Because the annual performance review is a key event in the ongoing cycle of managing expectations.

It comprises four components: …

2014-06-06

Not Another Performance Review, Part 1

And it’s unfortunate. Because the annual performance review is a key event in the ongoing cycle of managing expectations.

It comprises four components: …

2014-06-06

Travels with Myself​

A Journal of Discovery and Transition Doug Jordan, Author

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Travels with Myself

A Journal of Discovery and Transition
Doug Jordan, Author