Author: Fred E. Frederickson
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Man-ager in the Middle
Middle managers get a bad rap; some say they add overhead, create uneeded bureaucracy, slow down organizations and add expense. Some so called “lean and mean” corporations are even eliminating middle mangers. Scary thought isn’t it. What would a world without middle management look like? No weekly status meetings, no yearly reviews, no empire building.… Read more
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Message to the C-Suite
Everything you’re doing is great! Every personnel decision you’ve made since you reached the top has been perfect. As long as you have the “C” in front of your title, so will be every decision going forward.* *Note to the reader: At ICBM we occasionally use sarcasm to make a point, but not in this… Read more
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Rules
Some rules can’t be broken, like the speed of light. As much as the executives might want you to, you’re just not going faster than 186,000 miles per second (300,000 kph outside the United States). Some rules should never be broken, like ignoring attendance at a mandatory meeting, and really aren’t they all mandatory? Yes,… Read more
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The F*#% You Say
There is great power in profanity. The power to shock. The power to describe. The power to motivate. The power to entertain. Even the power of release as celebrated American author Mark Twain remarked “profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.” Damn right it does. But beyond all that, there is also the power… Read more
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Term Limits
We at the International College of Businessry and Managering, as a policy, practice and peccadillo, express no political views. But as the world’s leading experts in organizational structure optimization we have recently completed an in-depth analysis and determined that every political party across the globe is, as one our Senior Fellows put it, “full of… Read more
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Cultural Sensitivity
Unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, you are aware “Cultural Sensitivity” is a hot topic in the business world. Perhaps you’ve even had to attend classes, or in the COVID world of 2020, 2021 and beyond, more likely watched a video performed by the Corporate Compliance Playhouse Players. While those training classes serve… Read more
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Macro-Micro-Nano
I previous we have discussed macro-meetingnomics (the study of the larger meet-market) and micro-meetingnomics (covering the meet-market on a more individual level). What separates meeting-nomics from the more traditional dismal science of economics, other than better parties and a restraining order, is the the detail in which meeting-nomics can delve. Traditional economics is hamstrung by… Read more
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What Kind Manager are You?
The post-holiday season has a tendency to bring about a bad case of the “blahs” to almost everyone, so each spring the Frederickson clan engages in a spirit raising family tradition: we gather the great grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren and maybe even a few “great-grandchildren” on loan from the local orphanage. We build a fire,… Read more
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P = NP or The Battle of the Sexes
Actor Rex Harrison crooned in the 1964 movie My Fair Lady “Why can’t a woman be more like a man?” Today we would like to discuss the various reasons why they aren’t, and more importantly, why as a manager you wouldn’t want them to be. Before delving deeper into the topic of gender differences as… Read more
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Self Help
Regarding self-help books I admit: I am NOT a big fan. While teaching several ICBM classes, I often have to deliver this disappointing news from the front of a classroom full of young self-help-book enthusiasts. Before the responses and book-club applications come flooding in, allow me a chance to offer a more-complete answer: While I… Read more