Blog
Take a look at recent insights in leadership, strategy and more.
Are too many bosses “control freaks?”
Sir Brian Souter, highly successful co-founder of the Stagecoach bus group and always an entertaining speaker, made the front page of the Scottish broadsheet newspaper “The Herald” on Saturday with his conference comment that “too many large companies are run by...
Being the boss isn’t the same as leading
Just because you can tell someone what to do doesn’t mean you should, or that it’s the best option. In most situations, probably, you’ll be right—the one in the know, the one with the insight to see the correct course of action, the one with the relevant experience....
Most of us need a kick up the…
No, not that. Most of us need a kick up the assumptions—our assumptions about what's possible, about how things might happen, and especially about other people and our relationships with them. We tend not to see how the assumptions we unconsciously make affect the...
It’s the orderliness of you (or your business) that matters…
...not necessarily the orderliness of your systems. Order around us is generally helpful and a good thing—of course it is, but at the end of the day... What really counts is our own internal order—how organised we are in what we do and how we think and who we are....
From where does personal presence come?
We’ve all experienced people who have a powerful presence, whether we’ve come across them individually ourselves or just observed them as public figures. Indeed, we may well have that quality to a degree—even a considerable degree—ourselves. Perhaps we might like to...
The ability to convey ideas…
...may be scarcer than the ability to generate the ideas themselves. It's conventional to think that the ability to generate novel, practical ideas is rare. That may well be true. In fact though... The ability to get novel, practical ideas taken up and used may be...
How disruptive is too disruptive?
Sometime we need shaken up a bit. We get set in our ways. We fail to notice that the world has changed around us. So a disruptive input can be good for us—what we need, even if it isn't very comfortable at the time. No doubt we will need to settle back to some...
The presence needed for transformational leadership
Transformational leadership i.e. leadership that truly brings out the best in people in a sustainable way requires presence, or rather being present. We need to be involved and connected. On the other hand... Transactional leadership that seeks to manage performance...
Are you an interpreter?
It's conventional to admire the creator of novel work—the ground-breaking innovator. In fact, much value is added in the interpretation of new ideas for familiar situations. And that's an art too. There's considerable skill in sensing what a person or a group needs...
Discerning patterns, seeing what’s going on
Have you ever noticed...? If you can just faintly hear some music being played in a noisy place... If you know the piece of music, you can make it out, whereas if you don’t, you can’t. It’s just part of the noise. Or... If you know what some barely visible lettering...
Fairness—does that mean equality or proportionality?
In relationships of whatever kind, there's potential for getting in a muddle over this: By "fair," do we mean "equal" or do we mean "in proportion?" This is a key distinction in moral psychology developed in Jonathan Haidt's "The Righteous Mind"—one that evolved over...
Stating the position or actually addressing the issue?
It could be that I'm noticing this more for reasons that are particular to me. That said... It seems to have become more and more common for representatives of some corporate bodies and local and national government to respond to a new question or challenge with a...
Courteous co-operation and single track roads
Sometimes revisiting a simpler way of life reminds us of important things: Take single track roads with passing places, for example... (We have these in Scotland, especially on the islands, but maybe not in your part of the world, I know.) In case you’ve never...
How direct can we / should we / must we be?
It depends, of course... ...on the situation, our formal role within it (if any), our personal power or authority in the specific circumstances, the personalities of other people involved, and what we want or need to achieve. If our aim is to make a difference in a...
If it doesn’t suit the cognitive processes of the user…
...then our work is useless. We—or others—often congratulate ourselves on our efficiency in standardising a process or making electronic what once was a paper system. The trouble is... If in so doing we create something that no longer matches the cognitive processes...