Six Degrees of Separation

EA Professionals who work in internal or embedded* models of employee assistance programs are at a distinct advantage to provide management consultation to the workplace leadership. This is in large part to familiarity with the micro-cultures, pulse and people of the organization. I have managed an EAP call center at a MBHO, and I had [...]

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Adopting a Manager for Uninvited Consultation

It has been my experience that one reliable source for creating consistent utilization in the EAP is a supervisor who behaves badly. By that, I mean that managers and supervisors who demonstrate low emotional intelligence, high criticism, or invoke frequent conflict end up creating distressed employees who seek help from the EAP. It’s not that [...]

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Building Momentum on the topic of Management Consulting

How might management consulting have changed over the years? Is MC only in the domain of internal EAPs? As we talk more about the ‘science’ of consulting, is there something to be said about the ‘art’ of consulting for management as well? I received a call today from Sheila Monaghan in Chicago, of Sheila Monaghan [...]

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Managing by Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD)

You’ll recognize the employee who is being managed by F.U.D. — he or she has contacted the EAP for stress, has fears for job security in spite of reasonable performance, doesn’t know how to please the manager. What is F.U.D.? F.U.D. stands for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt, a term I co-opted from the marketing world. [...]

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What is Your “Elevator Speech”?

In the most recent column of Effective Management Consulting, I suggested that one way of defining EAP-based management consulting was to take on the challenge of creating a 30-second “elevator speech.” Simply put, could you describe what you do for managers in the thirty seconds available to you in a shared elevator ride? Why an [...]

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Writing for the Journal of Employee Assistance

Our professional association, the Employee Assistance Professionals Association, conducted a poll of its membership last year on the direction of content for its trade journal, The Journal of Employee Assistance. Several of the themes resonated with me, including the desire of readers to have more practical subjects relating to everyday EA work, as well as [...]

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Inception

In Christopher Nolan’s screenplay titled Inception, actor Leonardo DiCaprio attempts to plant an idea into the mind of a young CEO by entering into his dreams. The movie has many fascinating elements to it, including the concept that an organically-created thought within the individual goes on to define oneself for a lifetime. I was reflecting upon Inception when [...]

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