I have met many “nice” managers in my travels and frequently at workshops – good people, pleasant demeanours, humorous, caring and loyal. These managers easily fit into the leadership team and are generally liked by all. They go about their tasks faithfully and encourage colleagues and employees, especially when the workload is putting everyone under…
Focus on and persistence with the implementation of a strategy is often lost amongst other pressing issues – handling crises, problem-solving when things break down, protecting oneself in a sometimes politicised environment and dealing with the digital deluge. Frazzled managers and supervisors make sporadic attempts to get organised and to stay on top of things,…
For many decades, 3M’s executives have focused on a constant flow of terrific new products. In order to achieve this, in 1956, the company instituted a catalytic mechanism that is now widely known: design engineers and scientists are urged to spend 15% of their time experimenting and inventing in the area of their preference –…
Having consulted with a number of firms, I have noticed, almost without exception, the frantic activity of senior and middle management as they scurry from meeting to meeting, prepare presentations, work on budgets, hoping to get the best deal for their respective departments, write reports, attend or participate in road shows and generally answer questions…
I am frequently involved in strategic planning sessions with my clients. Based on a desirable future reality for the firm, company executives get together to plan the way ahead – develop a strategy to achieve their joint vision. Usually, enormous amounts of energy and time are expended in this necessary exercise, but many companies have…
Having to travel frequently for my consulting and workshop facilitation activities and having to subsequently endure the sometimes arduous processes within international airports (transfer, check-in, security, customs and immigration), especially within Africa, I have found that my primary goal in the embarkation procedure is to get to the business lounge as unscathed as possible. The…
I took my grandchildren to the park yesterday – a shaded playground, well-appointed with an appropriate slide, jungle-gym, see-saw, swings and the favourite merry-go-round or “round-about”. All of the activities represent one or another challenge for little ones – the swing (how high can I go?), the jungle-gym (how daring can I be?), the slide…
Organisations are not naturally fertile seedbeds for new learning, growth and doing things in better ways. Leaders who want to instil wide-spread change and improve their respective companies, in fact, need to recognise that they are attempting to change a seemingly unchangeable paradox: organisations thrive on routine and the status quo. Daniel Goleman, in his…
There are plenty out there that are bad, really bad – so-called “consultants” that wear the right suits, say the right things, claim experience beyond their years, but who ultimately give the profession a bad name. They parade their “skills” and expertise in front of the client with no real proven substance or testimony to…
Sir William Edward Parry (1790 – 1855) was an English naval officer and record-setting explorer of the Arctic. He made one of the initial attempts to conquer the perilous trip to the North Pole and, in so doing, travelled further north than any other previous explorer – a record that stood for almost fifty years….
In life and particularly in a work context, we are often faced with situations that are “uncomfortable”, situations that may show up a weakness in us, situations that call us to “give an account” of ourselves. In these moments, the human’s default programming is one of defensiveness, attempting to protect one’s value and trying to…
For leaders of organisations and businesses alike, the period before drifting off to sleep, when the sub-conscious mind seems to be working overtime, could be the most important and significant “thought moment” of the day in terms of knowledge (business and relational acumen) required to grow their respective organisations. In the “hour of the owl”,…
