Blog
Take a look at recent insights in leadership, strategy and more.
Giving them (and us) time to think
It's tempting, if we have a point to put across, to be rather full-on about it; to give the other person "the benefit of our wisdom" in short order, in the hope perhaps that the very energy and pace of what we say will convince the other person we're right. The...
Too much to do?
Then you might find this helpful... This isn’t my idea at all and, in fact, I’m a student of it. The philosophy is Jim Benson’s and Tonianne DeMaria Barry’s and it’s written up in their book “Personal Kanban.” See http://www.personalkanban.com/pk/#sthash.kx80gfYu.dpbs...
Do we know our own power?
Quite often, it seems, we don’t know the impact we’re having. We decide we need to make a point or express our dissatisfaction with something. Expecting that our message may not be received, we tend to transmit at full volume. That could be far more than is necessary,...
Blending the intervention
We don't have all the answers. That's true whether we're on the outside of the issue looking in or on the inside looking out. The leadership team knows its business, whereas the change agent knows something useful the insiders don't currently have. Neither has all the...
Buyer’s prejudice
Are we discriminatory when we buy? We’d all like to think we’re not prejudiced, in general terms, and no doubt we work hard to avoid that. Unfortunately... The reality is, however hard we try, we are likely to be more cautious with people who seem different. The more...
Knowledge-sharing as a social process
We often need to transfer knowledge from one person to another. And yet, how effectively do we really do that? Quite often our approach is to turn the knowledge into information on paper (or perhaps Powerpoint slides), usually in objective, dispassionate, businesslike...
Are you leading with your professional paradigm?
They say the way we do anything is the way we do everything. When it comes to leadership and management, we tend to lead and manage in a paradigm dictated by our professional or vocational expertise—our worldview, if you like. For example... Scientists manage...
What really is the question?
Most of the time we focus on answering the question—or trying to. But is it the right question? Are we investing our energies in solving the right problem? In my own (sometimes painful) experience... We’re inclined to spend rather too much time trying to answer a...
Why relationship skills?
Sometimes it's worth reminding ourselves of our reasons for doing something. Specifically... Why focus on relationship skills, whether in a professional or a personal context? After all, talking about the subject can seem a bit "preachy" if we're not careful. But...
The dog barks again
The tea is poured. The seating is comfortable. The TV is OK. But the biscuit isn’t wanted. No big deal. It’s set down on the coffee table. The dog barks at the biscuit. The dog is hushed. The dog barks again, louder. The dog is given a bit of the biscuit. Soon, the...
Doing what you don’t have to do today
Doing what you have to do today is relatively easy. You have to do it after all. Doing what you don't have to do today is harder. There's no urgency: not today, not tomorrow, not even the next day. It's easy to put it off, especially if the task is a bit of a...
Are you at arm’s length?
It all depends on your perspective of course... Who's at arms length from who? We might feel more secure keeping uncomfortable (but needed) influences at arm's length. The thing is... It's tempting to keep people at that distance; to not let them in. But it makes us...
The emotion and the numbers
Sometimes we avoid getting the figures together because we know we won’t like what they’re telling us. Sometimes our people will avoid preparing information accurately because they’re scared of how we will react to it. That’s a problem. As W Edwards Deming said,...
The decision to buy – emotion or logic?
Our rational brain, and our education for that matter, would like us to believe that people make a decision to buy based on logic and the facts - that's "buy" as in literally a sale, or perhaps just a decision to pay attention to someone or invest in their ideas. In...
The edge of expertise
We tend to be most comfortable working in the centre ground of our expertise—where we’re really pretty sure of our ground. Actually... That may not be what’s most useful to people, or to us. That may not be where we make the most difference, or learnt the most. Often,...