Dear Madeleine, I am a fairly new manager, and I really like managing. My issue is that a young woman I hired a few years ago either cannot or will not meet expectations. She excelled at the job during her six-month probationary period, and then went off a cliff. She has been on one performance…
Dear Madeleine, I thought you might weigh in on an ongoing debate I have with a friend. We met in college, have been working at different companies, and were promoted to management at about the same time. He believes his direct reports are lazy and will do the bare minimum if he isn’t constantly breathing…
Dear Intern, I just got hired as head of sales for a marketing services firm. I’m really excited to drive the future growth of this small and mighty company. My new team includes several very young team members. For some, this is their first professional job. I have always led more senior sales professionals and…
Dear Madeleine, I have a high performer on my team (HP) who does very good transactional work. They work with speed and most people outside our team like them. HP has managerial ambition but does not have capabilities to be a manager. We are a small, lean team after two rounds of layoffs, and there is…
Dear Madeleine, I am a regional president for a global services company. One of my executive team members recently retired, leaving rather suddenly as the result of an unexpected health issue. We interviewed some candidates to replace him but, ultimately, I took his recommendation to go with the person who had been his chief of…
Dear Madeleine, My company offers a lot of classes, and about six months ago I learned SLII®. I have been managing people for about a decade and honestly, learning SLII® changed everything for me. I realized my biggest issue was that I hold back when it comes to giving people crystal clear direction or providing…
Dear Madeleine, I read your last blog Not Sure How to Address Burnout? with interest. I work in consulting with one of the big five consulting firms. We hire go-getters and work them hard. The competition is fierce and only the most driven get promoted. The rewards are, shall I say, significant—but I won’t lie,…
Dear Madeleine, I recently recommended a former colleague for a job in my company. Months have gone by since then, and our company has restructured. The job she applied for was recently offered to her, and she has accepted. When I made the recommendation, she would have been joining a different department so would have…
Dear Madeleine, I am a sales manager for a specific product in a large US company. My team is small and we all work very hard. As a result, I applied to hire a new team member to accommodate the sharp increase in opportunities. I ended up going with an internal hire who came from…
Dear Madeleine, I am the CEO of a small but rapidly growing global employee relocation services organization. It is a complicated business. One of the complexities is that employment laws are different in every country and they change constantly. Our chief legal counsel is very talented and business savvy. But when we are trying to…