Over 2500 years old, this is one of my favourite leadership quotes. Empowering others, rather than self glorification, lies at the heart of real leadership – try telling that to some of the big business egos! To lead people, walk beside them… As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The …
Say what you're going to do Do what you said you'd do If anything goes wrong, as quickly as possible, let people know what happened, the consequences & what action you're taking. In other words return to 1 and repeat. This is one in an occasional series of short thoughts on the question "What …
We all have things that we'd prefer not to do right now, even though we know they will bring long term benefits. We'd rather exchange that long term benefit for present pleasure. And often we justify it by saying "I can always do that tomorrow." (aka procrastination) This morning my alarm rang at 6:00, I …
For pretty much all of the 30+ years that I’ve been in business, I have employed the power of collaboration. Before I did what I do now, I ran an engineering business based in Kent. It was my family business, I was the fourth generation of my family to work in it, and I started …
Unleash the Power of Collaboration in your business (& I’m not talking about software) Read More »
So, George Osborne has done his thing, we've had the "Emergency" Budget, and now all the pontificators, pundits & politicians are giving us the benefit of their "analysis". Except that the majority of the "analysis" is nothing of the sort – more accurately it is opinion and speculation about what is good, bad or indifferent …
Did you see Question Time on BBC1 on Thursday night? It was pretty incredible. On one side of David Dimbleby sat Michael Heseltine and Simon Hughes, together representing the new Liberal-Conservative (note big C) progressive coalition government. On the other side were ranged the entire gamut of conservatism (small c), represented by Labour peer Lord …
All the (small c) conservatives seem committed to the coalition failing Read More »
As I'm writing this, there is still no conclusion to the "everyday story of Westminster folk." If it had been presented on a stage, the last few days would have borne more than a passing resemblance to one of Brian Rix's Whitehall farces. People entering and leaving the stage in rapid succession. Appearing through one …
Have you noticed how people often fail to take best advantage of the opportunities they have in life because they are fearful of the consequences? Or rather, they are fearful of what they think the consequences might possibly be in some kind of worst case scenario, that they create in their heads. I know I've …
So, it's all over bar the shouting – or perhaps, given the apparently calm (in public, at least) way in which the three main parties are exploring their coalition options, it's more accurate to say, it's all over bar the very polite, respectful conversations. For me there are two things of particular interest in the …
What can be learnt from the UK Election? (and I don’t mean politically) Read More »
A while ago, on the train into work, I overheard a man sitting opposite me make a phone call. Now, I don’t make a habit of listening to other people’s conversations, but as you probably know, it’s not always that easy not to overhear them on the train. He was evidently speaking to a colleague …
