Most of us spend about half of our waking hours at work. I reckon as a leader we have a responsibility of creating an environment where people want to be. Having a culture of having fun at work can lead to people being happier, staying longer and doing great work. I recently visited Seattle in …
I am currently in the USA on a family holiday. Being a sports nut I have taken the opportunity to see some sporting events that I haven’t experienced before. The first was an ice hockey game between the Anaheim Ducks and the LA Kings. Unbelievable skill and toughness. The second was a Major League …
The world needs better leadership. Australia needs better leadership. Our institutions like the banking industry and the Catholic Church need better leadership. Our organisations needs better leadership. I reckon it’s a safe bet that you wish you had better leadership at your work. Am I right? Most people I know want to be better leaders, …
I don’t know where to start or what to say about the horror in Christchurch, NZ last week. Mostly it’s all been said*. There have been tears in our household this last week, mainly mine and all relating to the NZ situation. It seems that every time I see Prime Minister Jacinda Adern, I tear up. …
One of the most impactful books that I have read is ‘The One Minute Manager’ by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson. Listen to it for free here as an audio book through Audible*. The authors talk about getting the best from people by managing them in ‘slices’ of just one minute each, hence the title.It …
I was working on a big project with a client and we were communicating back and forth, mainly by email. I sent a pretty long, multi paragraph email giving the client an update on several aspects of the project. I was expecting a similarly long response. Instead I received an email with just one word, …
At the risk of showing my age, which I’m perfectly OK with, in the 1970’s, Australian glam rock band Skyhooks had a hit song called ‘Ego is not a dirty word.’ Great song – view it here if you are interested. The song has some interesting concepts eg “if you did not have an ego …
Leading is not for everyone. It can be tough, challenging, lonely, stressful. Some people shy away from it. For others, it is a calling. Most do their best, but is a complicated gig, and many of us haven’t really been taught how to lead. A Google search of “what do leaders do” received 800 million …
I was talking to a client group recently about the importance of being authentic in our leadership. An important component of authenticity is reliability, or in other words, doing what you say you will do, following through and delivering on your promises. It’s important because reliability build trust and trust builds relationships. In my book …
As leaders, many of us have power. Power to make decisions, power to make things happen, power to give people feedback. In most cases, having power is not a bad thing, as long as we use it for good and not evil. With power comes responsibility. An important consideration when using power is thinking about how …