One of the situations most avoided by leaders is dealing with unacceptable behaviour and performance. The main reasons are: Fear of failure. Causing more conflict or escalation. Losing or breaking relations. Not knowing how to do it effectively. Concern about the process being onerous. Yet, those leaders who have invested the time to learn how […]
Mindfulness seems to be a hot topic right now, and not clearly understood, especially in the context of leadership and the workplace. We hear elaborate explanations referring to Buddhist and similar doctrines which are helpful in the longer term in the personal development and spiritual space. However, they need to mean something more direct and […]
Max (not his real name) was my new client, a CEO of a mid-sized infrastructure service provider (industry changed for privacy). He had asked me to help him improve his leadership skills. I agreed because he had the ‘learner’s attitude’, despite his solid experience as a respected senior leader. He believed in continuous improvement and […]
Stop, I say – we are all human with similar predictable needs, established over the millennia. We need clarity of agreement about values, vision, goals, tasks and roles. We need clarity about our value to the team, organisation or community. We need acknowledgement for achieving agreed outcomes. We need clarity about the possibilities for our […]
Sharon (not her real name) had completed our three-day executive retreat and returned to her workplace determined to rejuvenate her people. Sharon is an engineer and the chief operating officer of an infrastructure service employing 120 people. Sharon’s motivation to attend the retreat was that her people were becoming disengaged, productivity was slipping and the […]
We are all facing continuous, even disruptive change or improvement, aren’t we? We have all experienced a natural resistance and even rejection of change, especially if it is forced upon us. Whilst most of us eventually accept change that makes sense, some of us are very resistant for a variety of reasons, such as the […]
Gordon (not his real name) had just been appointed head of his firm’s large regional office, after four years as a senior sales manager there. He was aware that it was an unpopular choice, having earned the mistrust of three long serving key people he’d criticised and re-deployed whilst in his previous role. They were […]
Asking and listening – that’s it. Gone are the days when leaders could just be command and control addicts. Gone are the days when leaders are anointed the alleged gurus in their field. Educated informed and concerned employees worth their salt need more than gurus and bosses. Google is guru and bosses are dinosaurs. Today’s […]
Sakichi Toyoda created the 5 Why’s as a technique to identify root causes of defects in manufacturing and production. The example used in Wikipedia illustrates how that works: The vehicle will not start. (the problem) Why?– The battery is dead. (First why) Why?– The alternator is not functioning. (Second why) Why?– The alternator belt has […]
Kevin and John had a good working relationship, built over the last few years. Kevin had a new service he was offering through his website and asked John, his go-to person for website content, to review his website prior to the service launch. John promised Kevin that he would complete the website review by the […]
