In the last couple of weeks I have seen a few examples of where things haven’t gone as well as hoped, for myself personally and for a few of my clients. I think it’s important to remember that we can’t win all of the time and we still need to remember to laugh. Occasionally as leaders we can …
So, before you are allowed to do a lot of things in life, you need to pass a test. Like drive a car, perform surgery or build a bridge. It’s kind of important that if you are going to potentially affect people’s lives or property that you show that you know what you are doing. Leading …
In short, there are some rules for leadership. Like in many other areas of life, if you break the rules there are consequences. In my book ‘Road Rules for Leadership‘ I list the 21 rules for leadership. Rule Number 1 stands alone. It is ‘Managing is not enough. You need to lead’. If you just focus on …
Most of us have conflicting priorities and are time poor. How do we get everything done that needs to be done? When we have lots of things demanding our attention, which ones do we do first? A trap that many of us fall into is to focus on the things that scream loudest. These might include meeting …
The speed of the leader is the speed of the gang Mary Kay Ash As the leader (of the organisation, team or group) you are the pace setter. You are the one that others take their lead from. Are you currently on slo mo, fast forward or paused? Cosmetics legend Mary Kay Ash, founder of the Mary …
Successful organisations have a calmness around them. They are confident and focused. Struggling organisations tend to be chaotic and frenzied. What describes your culture – chaos or calm? In his book ‘Good to Great’, author Jim Collins talks about the five qualities he found in great organisations compared to organisations that were just good. Not …
I heard this saying years ago. “You can’t manage it if you can’t measure it.” Fundamentally I took it to mean you need to monitor important things so you can tell if actual performance matches expected performance. Most people would agree that we should measure things like sales, safety and quality, but there are other …
So, there are several reasons why you could be reading this. First, you like reading the leadership blogs. Second, you thought there was going to be some hot gossip. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume it was the first! You see, we love gossip. We can’t get enough of it. Sometimes it’s …
his might sound hard to believe, but recent research shows that two thirds of employees are either ‘not engaged’ or ‘actively disengaged.’ With further evidence linking high engagement levels and organisational success, it spells bad news for most organisations, but there is hope for leaders who want to make things different. The guru of research …
The number one priority for a leader is to take ultimate responsibility for the culture of their organisation. It doesn’t matter if it’s a multi-national, a footy club, a university or a small business. Culture develops over time and it is the cumulative result of what goes on inside the organisation.