Management Articles by Wally Bock

• Theo Albrecht, Trader Joe's, and Ruthless Focus   view details
  "When you've got a strategy that works, stay with it. That frees your people up to lavish innovation on the strategy. It helps you concentrate your resources and your efforts."

• A Secret No One Tells New Managers   view details
  "Controlled confrontation is a key part of being a boss... Your objective is for your team member to leave your meeting thinking about what will change and not how you treated them... Start with the facts. Just the facts. Drain away the adjectives and describe the behavior or performance in neutral language. This should only take a few seconds. Move right on to describing the impact of the performance or behavior that you want to change. Describe the impact in logical and emotional terms."

• Planning is only important if it helps you execute more effectively   view details
  "Planning is all about possibilities Execution is all about accountability. Planners analyze opportunities. Execution is deals in limitations. Planning is intellectual fun, with no responsibilities. Execution is all about work and there's lots of responsibility. You can declare a victory when you produce a plan. Execution never ends."

• Build Relationships   view details
  "Relationships take time. There's no way around it, there's no quick fix, sure-fire program or magic potion. You have to make the time to grow relationships. ... helping other people succeed is one important way to develop a relationship, and one that's easy for me to understand. It's also immensely gratifying."