When I was 8 years old the world was gravely concerned about the prospect of a nuclear war, as global superpowers the USA and USSR were locked in a Cold War staredown. Then, when I was 28, approaching the year 2000, there were serious worries about the Y2K computer bug, which some experts said would […]
Yes it is Lonely At the Top (But it Doesn’t Have to Be)
When we commence our careers we usually work in the fat bit of the organisational structure triangle, somewhere near the bottom, where it’s anything but lonely. Everywhere we look there are people we can talk to, people to ask questions of, people to have a whinge with and people to share a laugh with. Very […]
Humility for Leaders (with Lessons From Donald Trump)
Donald Trump’s approach to leadership saddens me, never more so than when he shoved past the Montenegro president at a NATO meeting. If you missed this you might like to check out the short video below. This behaviour would be inappropriate in a schoolyard, it would be inappropriate in a workplace and it is highly […]
How Teams Can Embrace Positive Conflict
Conflict is a bad thing for a team, right? No, not right. Quite wrong actually. Show me a team where everyone always agrees and I’ll show you a team that’s falling a long way short of its potential. When teams avoid conflict these are some of the results: Growth and improvement will be limited, […]
Starting Team Meetings with a Human Moment
Here’ a question for you if you’re a manager or a team leader. How do you spend the first 5 minutes of your your weekly/ fortnightly team meetings? We get straight down to serious business (e.g. we share project status updates) We talk about something work related but fairly light (e.g. we share good […]
How Not to Treat Workers Like Robots
Automation has enabled modern organisations to make giant leaps forward. This has led to significant benefits such as improved reliability, greater accuracy, faster results and reduced costs. However, with automation comes a risk – that the people who work in organisations may begin to feel like robots rather than the real live human beings they are. To feel human […]