Some people feel they must be combative when giving feedback, as if it’s a clash of wills or a battle of wits. It’s counter-productive. Test your style against this checklist …

My research indicates we waste a whole day a week in useless meetings. Other findings presented here are depressing, but what does all this wasted time signify?

Proper feedback can’t be just any old conversation, a bit of a chit-chat, an occasional word in the ear. Here are all the things it must do …

If I spent my career improving weaknesses, I would just end up with stronger weaknesses. Mediocrity, in other words.

It’s a lazy, off-the-shelf technique that imposes a generic template for an idealised employee. And it’s irrelevant.

Good accountability is enabling and inspiring; the person is activated as an agent in bringing about a new, good reality. Bad accountability backfires.

It stands for “Marginal Undersized Poor Performance Enterprises”, and Britain produces quite a few of them

Mind your language, because good goal setting requires clarity and precision, which takes work.

It took 10 months for the division paying David’s salary to call him in to give an account of himself. There wasn’t much to say …

If you engineer a big plan for your delegatee to carry out, and then police them, you’re still micromanaging.

Don’t bother making elaborate plans to fix problems. Instead, find out what’s already working

Big organisational outcomes that you can’t realise yourself are more complex than complicated. They necessitate a different approach than we’re used to