Collaborative Culture
I first noticed corporate culture when I moved to my second employer. I didn't know that work environments could be so different! I had been with my first employer - a multinational manufacturing company - for 10 years, and so until I moved to a new company I had no understanding of "Company Culture" at all.
All I knew was what I had experienced. We were a "no-frills" company, and a part of the culture was to make sure that you held on to the best office furniture that you could accumulate as people moved on through.
If someone got a promotion, moved to a different department, or handed in their notice, the rest of the team would be on the lookout for a furniture upgrade - perhaps a more comfortable chair or a newer filing cabinet.
Passing the test of tomorrow
If you want to lead people, they must trust you We need to consider how today’s ‘accepted business practices’ will stand up in light of tomorrow’s exposure?
Stuck in the storm
There is a storm going on right now for many businesses in the midst of this pandemic, where uncertainty is causing staff to dwell in the storm for far longer than they need to. If the team can’t see a way forward with certainty, and the what-if discussion goes round in circles, then the team can find itself languishing in the storm from where others have already emerged.
Making decisions in the dim light of incomplete information
When I came back to the bike sheds to cycle home at the end of the day, of course, it had gone. My bike had gone. Forever. And I didn’t get a replacement for several years; my parents decided it would teach me a valuable lesson, and it did!
What’s your motivation?
I have found without exception, when working with teams, that by helping them to understand the things that motivate them and their colleagues, they can learn how to improve their combined performance, productivity and profitability.
What did a conductor ever do for us?
What did a conductor ever do for us? Well, for me, exploring what a conductor does provides a really helpful model to see leadership . By the time a piece is ready to perform the hard work has already been done: seeing over the horizon, describing what’s on the horizon, and getting to the horizon.
Are you an influencer?
If we can’t get people to change their behaviour by changing their behaviour, how do we go about Influencing an audience, so that they do change their behaviour, and turn Shelf-Development into Self-Development?
The Mystery of Flight, and Managing Change
Rather as a plane needs to have both the thrust to provide the forward motion, they also need the wings to generate the lift. In the same way a new idea needs the dream to produce drive, and it needs the excitement to make the dream fly ...
Tough Times and Turning Points
This turn of events also brought me to the start of a journey into a new season in my life and career. A transition from majoring on sales for other people and minoring on and training, to the new season where I am majoring on speaking, coaching and training and only engaging in sales for the newly formed “Leadership for Business”.
How're you doin'
We all see the conductor standing right there at the front of the sea of musicians waving his baton around, but what does he actually do? Well, the answer is that it’s something that the audience at a concert will rarely if ever see, but it has a massive impact on the performance of the orchestra.
Life Sentence
The Life Sentence exercise is a process of looking back over my life and career to identify the people, events, activities and circumstances that have most affected my life. It involved exploring the highs and the lows ...