19
May 2017You Are Not One of the Lads. It’s Over.
Oh the painful irony. The promotion ladder has been climbed and we’ve made it to ‘Leadership’. Damn. I’m here, and now my buddies, the folks I grew with… are over there. I still, deep down, want to be ‘one of the lads’ (sometimes lasses but mainly its the lads). It...
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10
May 2017Empathy is More Than A Two Day Seminar.
The Empathy Course literature promises so much; nail these two definitions and you’ll qualify for the empathy badge: Empathy is simply recognising emotions in others, and being able to “put yourself in another person’s shoes” – understanding the other person’s perspective and reality. To be empathetic, you have to think...
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29
Mar 2017Wisdom Shows Up As Self Control
Where does wisdom come from? Often it arises from the space where we have exercised self control. “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lie’s our freedom and power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.” Victor Frankl Between stimulus and...
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15
Mar 2017Our Doubts Are Traitors.
It is not only the hostility of others that may prevent us from questioning the status quo. Our doubt can be fuelled by an internal sense that group opinions must have a sound basis, even when we are not sure what this basis may be, often because they have been...
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19
Jan 2017Problem Addiction.
“What is the Managers job? It is to direct the resources and efforts of the business towards opportunities for economically significant results. This sounds trite – and it is. But every analysis of actual allocation of resources and efforts in business that I have ever seen or heard showed clearly...
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10
Jan 2017War & Peace – The Long Haul in Collaboration
I know it shouldn’t bother me – but it does. The significant upfront investments that are often made in procuring project teams that are aligned in values and collaborative behaviours. Then nothing. Was it all a tick box exercise? There is either apathy or some profound misguided notion that high...
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16
Dec 2016Disrupt Your Reasonableness.
This week, I witnessed the unreasonable men and women in the room lead the way in creating the relationship and result breakthroughs. They put aside diplomacy, sometimes tact, occasionally they were clumsy in their communication (aren’t we all), they spoke with emotion (heaven forfend), got a little animated (good grief)...
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07
Dec 2016The Power of Resentment.
So who really suffers when there is resentment in the air? Those doing the resenting feel vexed, gripped, burdened, consumed, quietly seething. Meanwhile the resented feel, well, they feel nothing. Mainly they are oblivious. So who is doing the suffering? ‘Resentment is like drinking poison and hoping the other person...
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03
Nov 2016Trust – An Interdependent Commodity of Progress
‘Successful organisations are no longer built on force but on trust. The existence of trust between people does not necessarily mean they like one another. It means that they understand one another. Taking responsibility for the relationship is therefore an absolute necessity. It is a duty.’ (Peter Drucker) Everyone goes...
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10
Oct 2016Gossip Matters. Have You Heard The One About Social Survival?
What consistently happens in the tea room, at breaks in conferences and in the car on the way home from work? Gossip. Humans gossip. We seemingly take compelling pleasure in talking ill of others and spreading the word about those who are deemed scoundrels, untrustworthy, wasters or downright dangerous. From...
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