Category Leadership
Employ Someone Better Than Me? Mmmmm…
It is almost a truism to say that business owners and managers should employ better people than themselves in their business. The idea is promoted by many successful business leaders and management ‘gurus’. At a base level, it reduces the chances of the business leader’s competence being a bottleneck for success. More positively, it provides the wherewithal for […]
Need a Leadership Philosophy? Make it Personal
Most successful leaders have a personal philosophy or approach that suits their style and personality. General Colin L Powell, for instance, offers aspiring leaders 18 ‘lessons’ based on his 35 years of professional soldiering that led to him becoming the first African-American U.S. Secretary of State. They included: “Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off” […]
The Power of Certainty – Even When It’s Rubbish
Have you ever noticed how assertive people can become when they are convinced of their position? In the face of such certainty, people that are less sure or who feel disadvantaged in some way, will often go along with that opinion, even though they may harbour doubts. In extremis, whole populations have been seen to follow […]
Forget New Year’s Resolutions – Just Have an Agenda
Good old Donald Trump! Having won a spectacular election victory on the back of some extravagant promises, we can begin to see the difficulties ‘motherhood’ statements can create. In the UK, we too are seeing how difficult is is going to be to deliver an exit from the EU that puts us ‘in control’ of anything. And […]
Why do we Turkeys keep voting for Christmas?
Politics has recently seen a number of extraordinary election outcomes that will have, or indeed, already have had, detrimental consequences for many of those who voted for them. Amongst these, Brexit, Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn stand out as notable examples. For many, this was the equivalent of turkeys voting for Christmas. We’ve probably all done […]
Climate Control
Looking around the political, business and even sports scenes, there seem to be a number of very toxic situations at a leadership level. The British labour party has people ripping each other apart; neither the Republican nor Democratic parties in the US love their presidential candidates; Sports Direct is apparently not a happy place to […]
How important is the man in the middle?
Now that the contest is over, what lessons does the Brexit referendum provide about leadership? The answer is many, but for managing change, three leap out. Firstly, as the ‘Leave’ and ‘Remain’ supporters illustrated, when someone offers an argument that coincides with your own views, it is more likely to be accepted without too much […]
