Respect and Alignment
Leadership Lessons from the Orchestra At a recent concert, I was sat in the middle of the first violin section of my local Symphony Orchestra playing pieces by Tchaikovsky, Walton and Dvorak. If you’ve ever been to watch an orchestra at a live event you’ll know there are some rather fun and somewhat antiquated elements of […]
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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?
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Speak up
What did the Professional Speaking Association ever do for us? Some years ago I decided I wanted to get fit and lose some weight, and so I started cycling. Initially, it was just an occasional trip out with some friends on our Mountain Bikes, and as my interest and fitness improved I started to […]
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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Can you change the behaviour of a nation?
“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” ~ LP Hartley People won’t follow you to “there” until they know they can’t stay “here”. Even then you can’t change people’s behaviour simply by trying to change their behaviour. There are two elements that are necessary to lead people through change, and both […]
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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?
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Leadership is Relational
Leadership is Intentional Influence in the context of Relationship Have you ever noticed that some people are naturally more relationship-oriented, and others are naturally more results-oriented? The thing is, we tend to see others as we are, not as they are; we tend to see people through our eyes, not through their eyes. Understanding your […]
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