“A business unit manager may fret over a $50 million decision. If you’re Jeffrey Immelt, CEO at GE, that’s not a stressful decision, the big decisions are about billions of dollars. So Immelt spends time coaching managers through the $50 million situations. In short, I find the bigger the picture one considers, the less one sweats the small stuff.”

“Possibly, your boss is a truly fine person—wise, kind, perceptive, capable, understanding, the all-seeing director of the office sitcom, the sort of individual one might like to have, in an ideal world, as a parent or a confidant. Or not. In the real world, bosses are known to suffer from a long list of social pathologies: naked aggression, credit hogging, micromanaging, bullying, you name it. According to one report, 60 to 75 percent of employees—it doesn’t matter the organization—say the worst aspect of their job is their boss. It’s not difficult to believe, as one office expert concludes, that ‘every employed adult will have to work for a bad boss for some significant period.’”

“Overworked, mistreated and underappreciated? Think you’re the only one with a right to complain? Think again. Mira Katbamna reveals 10 things your boss hates about you.”

“’A poor supervisor is definitely the No. 1 factor that causes low productivity,’ said Barry L. Brown, President of a Florida-based consulting group. ‘It’s been my experience that a good supervisor will motivate, inspire, encourage and reward good performance. A poor supervisor, of course, is just the opposite, only in multiples. Employees who do not have a direct connection with the company begin to lose all the reasons for wanting to do that little bit extra and take the additional time to make something right.’”

“CEOs can’t change companies on their own. The secret is to foster a leadership mentality throughout the ranks.”

“Most gurus and teachers spend their time telling people what to do. But if you’re already over-stretched and facing an unending future of still more pressure, that’s not likely to appear palatable. Here’s how NOT doing things can help even the most stressed person find ways to improve their working life.”

“Here are three founder scenarios, all with parallels to cases I teach our MBA students: #1: You have an idea for a great product and want to start a company. Do you start it yourself (and keep all of the equity) or do you find a good co-founder (with whom you have to split the equity 50/50)?…”

“People ask me, ‘How can I get our employees to be passionate about the company?’ Wrong question. Passion for our employer, manager, current job? Irrelevant. Passion for our profession and the kind of work we do? Crucial. If I own company FOO, I don’t need employees with a passion for FOO. I want those with a passion for the work they’re doing. The company should behave just like a good user interface — support people in doing what they’re trying to do, and stay the hell out of their way. Applying the employer-as-UI model, the best company is one in which the employees are so engaged in their work that the company fades into the background.”

“The thing that I’ve said more than once to folks about being President is that in the role, I become intimately familiar with how the sausage gets made. A professional services firm is all about the people who work there, and so presidency is all about engaging with the people. And when you’re engaging with people, no matter how great, respectful, and delightful those people are (and the people at Adaptive Path are all those things, and more), things get messy. You put any group of people together, and messiness emerges.”

“About a month ago, Fortune’s Jeffrey O’Brien interviewed Seagate CEO Bill Watkins, and pulled the conversation’s most memorable quote for the headline: ‘Let’s face it, we’re not changing the world. We’re building a product that helps people buy more crap — and watch porn.’ Predictably, the honestly and entertainment value of the quote got Watkins hailed as a hero by those tired of the usual platitudes for the press. So what comes next? The requisite apology…”

“Richard Branson does it effectively from a hammock in the Necker Island, Warren Buffet has been doing it since he was 11, and Bill Gates used it to single-handedly build an empire. Arguably the most powerful and effective managers in the world, these men have one thing in common – they owe their management acumen and success not to fancy business degrees from the hallowed portals of Harvard and Yale, but to plain old, not-so-common, common sense.”

“Too many leaders are promoted because of what they know or how long they have worked, rather than their skill in managing others.”

“A month ago I shared some specific ways to get ahead at work. For me it worked, I got promoted within my IT group and was actually bumped up 2 spots. As I mentioned in that post, I was promoted directly by a VP (my boss’ boss), which was unusual. Since then my boss was let go basically because anarchy broke out in the group and people were quitting daily. However, it got me thinking. What if I didn’t have a VP that recognized my efforts? When does the atmosphere at work get so backstabbing and bureaucratic, that there is no good process to overcome it? What if a star employee wants to grow but management doesn’t know what to do or how to take advantage of the enthusiasm and motivation? Those are all questions that I will address over the next few weeks because they are best answered individually. However, there are several things that mid-level managers can do to keep employees happy and there are even more things they can do to irritate them to the point of quitting or becoming a virus.”

“Here’s a sample snippet of a coaching conversation I have often had with executives. To set the scene for you, it usually happens after we’ve discussed a project or strategic initiative and its value alignment for their organization.”

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