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Management

• Auditing Nonprofits: Three Issues Encountered by Auditors
• Building Trust Through Transparency
• Characteristics of Peak Performing Organizations
• Dealing with Problem Workers
• Eight Questions Every Board Needs to Answer
• Eight Steps to Transform Your Organization
• Five Questions to Ask New Hires
• How to Deal With a Toxic Leader
• How to Deal with Conflict
• Keep New Hires on Board
• Leadership Ph.D. - The Short Course
• Lessons in Crisis Management
• Mission, Vision, and Values
• Motivation from Inside and Outside
• Never Fire Anyone Again
• Nine Steps to Managing Change
• Reader's Question: Implications of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for Nonprofits
• Six Strategies to Letting Employees Go
• Six Tips to Make You a Better Manager
• Six Ways to Build a Top Staff
• Too Much Control? Not Enough Lead?
• U.S. Marine Guide to Leadership
• Valuing Employees
• Volunteer Management: Making Volunteering a Welcoming Experience
• Blended Value
• Calculating Indirect Cost Rates
• Checklist to Assess Financial Activities
• Early Warning Signs of Financial Trouble
• Eight Questions That Every Board Member Needs to Answer
• Financing: Tips for Cashflow Forecasting
• Leader Notes: Become a Pride Builder
• Lobby and 501c(3) Nonprofit Organizations
• Nine Steps to Reinvigorating Board Leadership
• Surviving Founder's Syndrome
• Understanding Indirect Rates
• Understanding the Fair Labor Standards Act
• Value Alignment: Walking the Talk
• Valuing Volunteer Labor
• Volunteers Management

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Too Much Control? Not Enough Lead?

Anybody ever called you a control freak? If so, you'll recognize some of this behavior:

• Your people may refer to a legendary story of behavior about you.
  Example: When you grow angry because you haven't gotten your way, you "snort and puff like a wild animal."
• If someone asked you why you're so controlling, you'd say that it's just who you are, and that you're faster and smarter and more focused than everyone else. You really believe that if people did everything your way, they'd save a lot of time and accomplish more.
• But if someone asked you whether this style works, and you're honest, you'd say "No."

Recognize yourself? If so, take these steps:

1. Collect feedback about your behavior from colleagues and direct reports. One popular way: Conduct a 360-degree review, then modify your basic behavior based on the review.
2. Find ways to incorporate empathy into your communication. You have to abandon your own point of view for a few moments. For example, instead of "Did you finish your assignment:" say: "I know that came with a lot of instructions. How's it going?"
3. Loosen up. Try to recall what early experience made you feel that you couldn't gain control of a situation, or that you might lose control of it. Accept that this fear exists, then banish it. The fear of loss is a powerful thing, but you can overcome it.
4. Recognize that, along with tightly controlling behavior comes the delusion that it's necessary.

Source: Adapted from Face It: Recognizing and Conquering the Hidden Fear that Drives All Conflict at Work, by Art Horn, Amacom.

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