I first heard this over 30 years ago when I was listening to cassette tapes by the personal development guru, Zig Ziglar. The words spoke to me then and they speak to me now. Ten years ago, someone told me about something that had “literally, changed their life.” It was a video called ‘The Secret’. …
American author and speaker, Jim Rohn is known for his motivational quotes. I am a fan of many of them, but this one is my favourite. “You are the average of the five people you spend most of your time with.” Let’s unpack that a bit as it has implications for all of us, particularly …
I’m not much of an historian, and certainly not a military historian, but the name of Field Marshall William Slim keeps coming up in my leadership reading. Slim commanded a British field army in Burma fighting the Japanese in the ’40s. Here are some things that Slim did that made him highly effective as a leader, despite …
Last week I made a presentation to a group about increasing employee engagement and improving culture. At the end I opened up for questions. “A couple of us are first time managers – what advice would you give us?” Great question! Here are five things that I think first time managers would benefit from knowing. 1. …
Body language tells you a lot. I was working with a team some time ago and the way they sat at the meeting was reflective of each individual’s willingness to take on responsibility. We were talking about some future projects that had to happen and we were breaking the projects down into individual tasks. Responsibility for …
Many aspiring leaders I work with have a lot of responsibilities. Trouble is, things get messy, and some are hanging on to things they would be far better off sharing around. Effective delegation is a key to good leadership. It means that you are making the highest possible value contribution to the organisation. It also means that …
The results from the largest ever leadership study in Australia have just been released. The Study of Australian Leadership (SAL) was conducted by Melbourne University and funded by the Federal Government. SAL surveyed 8,000 individuals across 2,500 workplaces. It involved senior leadership (CEOs), as well as frontline leaders and employees. Key findings: 1. Frontline leaders …
I recently read an article by American author Walter Isaacson about Steve Jobs. He tells a story about Jobs who, when reflecting on a decision to do something or not, thought to himself, what would I do if this was my last day alive? This reflection guided his decision. It got me thinking. What would you …
That was the question asked by a member of the audience to Wayne Bennett at a corporate lunch I attended in 2012. Wayne shared a lot of stories and ideas that he has used over the years in becoming Rugby League’s most successful coach. The largely business crowd seemed comfortable with adapting his football philosophies to …
Put really simply , the difference between leaders and non leaders is that leaders HELP others. HONOUR – leaders honour others. They respect them. They treat them as humans, not as ways of getting things done. They recognise diversity and difference. ENGAGE – leaders are about others. They try to understand what motivates people. Instead …