Culture significantly influences how the following statements are made, and how people respond to them.
“We should take the initiative”
“We should wait until we are asked for help”
“This could turn out to be a great political manoeuvre”
“Let’s not do anything, as it might be seen as a sign of weakness”
“We should take con...
I have observed that for many people it is easy for their focus to shift from serving a need (outward orientation) to serving themselves (inward orientation), often causing a significant issue with the sustainability of their business.
‘Service’ is different depending on the organizational context. For most businesses, ‘service’ has more to do with making profit from ...
Book Review
Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes
William Bridges
Making sense of life's transitions is not always easy. Okay, let's be honest. Sometimes it is incredibly difficult!
We can often experience a range of emotions - hurt, anger, anxiety, fear and many more. Mix in a dose of confusion and disorientation and trying to discover that illusive ‘ne...
In Leadership & the New Science, Wheatley explores a perspective on leadership rarely heard.
Pushing us beyond Sir Isaac Newton’s mechanistic theories of why things work the way they do, Wheatley forces us to think more about the relationship of how things work together in a symbiotic and complementary manner where relationships are rarely static.
This challenges our preconceive...
What if I recruit the wrong person? How do I make sure I get a return on my investment and not lose this person to a competitor? Do we need to first make sure we have the strategy bedded down?
These are some of the most frequently asked questions I get from leaders in relation to succession planning and the ability to project what talent the organization needs to take it to the next level.
...
In 2006, Dr. André Martin conducted research on a sample of 800 leaders and identified four global trends [i] . The first two were ‘The Ground Truth of Globalization’ and ‘The Rise of Complex Challenges’. This article addresses the next two.
The third trend was The World of Interruption.
Martin states that 11 minutes is the average time spent on a task befor...
In a series of studies on narcissism, Professor Alex Frino, Dean of the Macquarie School of Management, concluded that “there was a clear correlation between the level of CEO narcissism and the company’s use of ‘earnings management’ – a technique which takes advantage of the flexibility in accounting rules to inflate profit figures” (Frino, 2014)[i].
The ...
Recently, I was in a meeting with a CEO who expressed concern that he no longer had time to read. “I’ve read more books on leadership than most, and they all say the same thing.” However, I discovered that the reason he had no time to read, was that it simply wasn’t a priority.
While it’s impossible to remember everything you read, there are nearly always insigh...
All of us, at some point, have been frustrated at the ineptitude of some leaders, especially when their actions reveal an attitude of ‘what’s in it for me?’, or when self-preservation is clearly the goal no matter how it affects others.
A discussion on character, or values, may not be as riveting as the latest sales techniques, marketing strategies, or innovative product id...
When working as an executive in the U.S, I experienced the early, unsettling days of the Global Financial Crisis that began in 2008/09.
I saw the collapse of the housing market, severe falls on Wall Street, companies letting go thousands of employees, and many major financial institutions filing for bankruptcy or being acquired by those in a stronger position. Headlines were dominated by the...
