Just because most leaders also have management functions, and similarly most managers also have leadership functions, doesn’t mean that leadership and management are the same thing. Speaking of management when you mean leadership and vice versa is a part of why we have a leadership deficit. When I hear someone say “I’m a people manager” […]
After five years as CFO Gary was promoted to CEO of the logistics company, whose long term competitive edge was document and parcel delivery within 24 hours nationwide to capital cities and within two days to regional cities. They were being challenged now by growing electronic document transmission and democratised parcel delivery. Gary’s charter was […]
With my background in leading covert law enforcement, I have received training and experience with the criminal psychopath. The difference between the criminal psychopath or sociopath (there is constant interchangeability of usage between the two labels – to me they are so similar as to be the same) and the workplace psychopath, is that the […]
“I have been here for 7 years and I deserve to promoted to this (leadership/management) position” said the indignant team member. The problem was she had never worked harder or longer to complete difficult or urgent tasks, always saying it was 5pm and she had been there since exactly 8am. She had meticulously taken all […]
Let’s call it SLDS for simplicity. What is SLDS? It’s when the senior leader is so disconnected from the coalface, where most outcomes occur, that the senior leader becomes ineffectual and the culture, engagement and productivity drift downward. It’s not the senior leaders’ fault. It’s the fault of the system and the lack of investment […]
A dinosaur in this context is anyone who has been in a large organisation for long enough to have lost their desire and ability to truly innovate, create or just improve products, service, systems, process or reason for being. We are either disrupting or being disruptive; we are either challenging the status quo or we […]
We don’t get trust and respect given to us immediately do we? However, we can begin earning trust and respect immediately. Or not. We won’t get trust and respect just because we know everything, or lots, about the operation or the technicalities. We won’t get it because we were great in our last role. Trust […]
We live in disruptive times, don’t we? The great have fallen and the many small have disappeared before they were even noticed. Memories of Kodak, Enron, Pan Am, Blockbuster Video and Nokia remain with us. Start-ups have become global leaders and disrupters inside a decade. Facebook, Ali Baba, LinkedIn in the digital world and Uber […]
Gallup’s data shows that 82% of managers are ‘wrong hires’. As CEO, you are ultimately accountable for that error, aren’t you? The HR department can only go on what is given them and they are often so risk averse that they’ll not effectively challenge key assumptions that lead to the wrong hire. Untested role description, […]
Allowing or tolerating toxic behaviour in the workplace kills: productivity talent customers innovation Those four points are crucial components of an organisation’s purpose, capability and sustainability. Harvard Business School calculates that to replace a toxic worker costs $12489, compared to the $5303 benefit from hiring a top performer. A competent yet toxic employee does more […]
