Posts Tagged ‘Leadership’
Resilience is a current trend in organisations, often connected to the themes of wellbeing and mental health. People are shipped through half-day modules on how they can be more resilient, and stressed and overworked leaders are told they must be role models for resilience – “as if we’re not busy enough,” they often seem to […]
It’s fairly well established in organisations that what gets measured, and rewarded, gets done. If you reward people for individual performance then individual results go up (at least for some), and team work goes down. If you reward collective performance team work goes up, and some individual results decrease. Organisations that I have worked with […]
360 degree feedback is a standard practice of the leadership development and coaching industry. It is commonly used, and organisations will spend considerable sums of money developing competency frameworks for their organisations, defining behaviours for those competencies, and assigning different behaviours to different hierarchical levels. They will then subsequently build a 360 degree feedback instrument based upon this […]
Many of the leadership development programmes that I am asked to take on have a theme of equipping managers to handle ambiguity and uncertainty. In today’s world where change and uncertainty are key themes, leaders are required who can remain calm and collected, who are able to think things through and come to reasoned responses. […]
I see them everywhere, across all industries and organisations, and like lambs to the slaughter they steadfastly refuse to acknowledge organisational politics, all whilst being shafted by those who abuse their political awareness. They say, in righteous tones: “But it shouldn’t work that like that!” “I should be rewarded on the basis of what I […]
On a recent leadership development course, with senior executives, I led a discussion on ‘integrity’. We started with trying to agree a definition – and there was considerable disagreement. Some argued it was relative, and that integrity was all about living in line with your values, beliefs, ethics and morals. Others argued that it was […]
There is much written on the subject of finding our voice. It’s a critical element in leadership, but actually I believe it’s just critical for human beings, and at times one of the hardest lessons to learn. It’s easier to hide and be small rather than stick our heads above the parapet and be seen and […]
The recent student protests in London, and other UK cities, are more reminiscent of French or Greek protests, than the usual UK response. Now, whilst I deplore attempts to harm others and wilful vandalism, these protests have reminded me of the vital importance of getting angry. (I could also use the word passionate here, but to […]
Why I hate Myer-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) You’ve probably met them too. You reveal something about yourself as part of getting to know them, and they come back with some version of, “Oh, so you’re a P.” (Or J, I, T, F, E, N or S.) And in that moment they start to either tell […]
RSS Blog Feed
This is a Randori
During a black-belt test, in Japanese martial arts, the candidate will sit at one end of the mat, and three or more opponents will sit at the other end. At the moment indicated by the teacher, the opponents will attack. To pass the test the candidate needs to find a way to be in charge. […]