Last April Steve Tobak, who writes BNET’s The Corner Office, did a post on 5 classic blunders when presenting to the board of directors. Good post, interesting and useful if you’re in that arena.

But his current post, 5 Classic Dumb Executive Moves is priceless; not just the five of his own that he shared, but the dozens shared by readers.

The great thing is that they apply to everyone, so you don’t have to be an executive to learn from them.

Many talked about email sent to the wrong people or the entire company instead of the one person for whom it was meant. (Sound familiar?)

Sadly, many talked about what happened when they gave honest answers to their managers; enough similarities to assure you that Dilbertland is alive and well.

Obviously, it’s a matter of culture and the manager’s MAP, but it’s a good idea not to misread it.

As one person offered in his WORDS TO LIVE BY:
No good deed goes unpunished
Good guys DO finish last

A few were hilarious, here’s a favorite from a woman who was even brave enough to use her own name.

“Gave a speech in a foreign language and, in an attempt to say, “You can be flexible,” accidentally said, “you can stretch your private parts.” The audience loved it and kept asking me to repeat the sentence before I caught on.”

Let’s start our own list, here are 5 of mine.

1. Back when smoking was still acceptable in offices I smelled a cigar and made a comment about the phallic implications of men who smoked cigars to my cube-mate. A few minutes later the VP visiting from HQ walked in carrying his cigar. He pretended he didn’t hear, but I was told later that almost everybody heard me.
2. When I was a recruiter I called a long-time client and presented an engineer for a critical opening. Half way through I realized I was presenting the person who had just left.
3. Probably one of the dumbest things I did as a recruiter was setting up an interview and then forgetting to tell the candidate, so he was a no-show. The manager was furious and I had to grovel to get him to listen to the truth and reschedule.
4. During a training session on writing better emails I critiqued one of the real life examples given to me by HR, pointing out the grammatical and spelling errors, poor phrasing and misused words. It turned out that the email was from the executive who hired me.
5. Then there are the times, too numerous to count, since my hearing went south that I’ve responded to what I thought was being said and was not only off base, but completely out of the park.

Not my smartest moments.

What about you? What are your most remembered OMG moments?

Each OMG moment you share will enter you in a random drawing for a copy of Jason Jenning’s Hit The Ground Running.

The contest runs through August 31 and you can enter as many times as you want.

Your comments—priceless

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Image credit: annia316 on flickr

Last spring I mentioned that I love Mark Jabo of Biz Levity and you have him to thank for this Odd Bit. Mark has a link to Abbott Research & Consulting which has a link to a discussion on Amazon about a toy called Playmobil security checkpoint—termed a “Seriously Disturbing Toy!” I’m not sure which is creepier, the toy or the kids reactions. What do you think?

Next, writing on BNET. Steve Tobak offers up on comments on grandiose, company-crashing visions and profiles the three types of CEOs who have them, with examples of each.

Last, but not least, is from Dan McCarthy at Great Leadership. His post and commentary on The State of Talent Management and link to the full report make useful reading for anyone with a company to run.

All in all, tasty reading for this weekend.

Image credit: flickr

I love it. In November BNet posted 10 Reasons why middle managers are more valuable than CEOs—but you knew that.

So, what makes middle managers more valuable? Here’s a synopsis, click the link for the full version.

1. You know how stuff really gets done.
2. You know what motivates individuals.
3. You know the customer well enough to get to the truth.
4. You know the vendors as well as the competitive landscape.
5. You don’t have to defend the original strategy.
6. You have the skills to get people of diverse backgrounds and in cross functional groups to work together.
7. You know exactly what point your company is in the movie.
8. You know the believers.
9. You can motivate with humor.
10. You have the power to heal.

Obviously, there are a lot of middle managers who don’t fit this profile, and plenty of senior managers who do.

The smartest companies encourage everybody to be a middle manager, relatively speaking, while in startups and smaller companies it’s a necessity—from the CEO through the developers to the receptionist.

Having everybody acting like middle managers may be powerful, but it’s only half of what can be accomplished.

The action that really juices the results comes when everybody is listened to as if they are the CEO.

Image credit: sxc.hu