All in Leadership
‘Messing up’ is par for the course.
Any time you take on an initiative or a project or a venture, there’s a strong chance that you’re going to mess up along the way.
The more visible the initiative (in whatever sphere of life you’re operating within), the more public that mess up will be - and the more prominent the impact on some stakeholder or constituent. In other words, someone’s going to get hurt, in some form or fashion.
This month's podcasts focus on the art of communication - a critical skill no matter what we do for a living.
In today's episode, I speak to the fine line we walk when we're in the midst of combative communications. In particular, I speak to the four elements that allow us to tell when it's constructive and when it's not.
Forecasts and projections come with the territory, regardless of whether we’re speaking to business, social or political subjects. From new industries to climate change to our own companies, we’re desperate to know what the future holds.
What’s the potential? How long do we have? How serious is this?
I was in the car with my family the other day and we were heading to lunch. We were having a conversation, and in the midst of it, we noticed that my daughter’s answers were short, to the point, not really like her normal, jovial self.
My son actually noticed it first, and he asked her what was wrong.
This month's podcasts focus on the art of communication - a critical skill no matter what we do for a living.
Today's episode focuses on the idea of conflict, and the fact that it can actually be a good thing for our relationships at home and at work. The question is one of intent and ego (or lack of it).
When Amazon launched Prime back in 2005, Jeff Bezos’ central premise was that it should be “such a good value that you’d be irresponsible not to be a member”. This was when it offered 2 day free shipping.
Now, of course, it offers a whole lot more and there are more than 200 million Prime members today. There are two takeaways from this.
This month's podcasts focus on the art of communication - a critical skill no matter what we do for a living.
Today's episode focuses on the idea of objectivity in what we believe and what we communicate. It's important to believe in ourselves but still be objective enough to understand the reality of our situations.
A price of innovation and growth is criticism. If you’re intent on creating change in any material form, you have to expect it.
The simple fact is that the change you’re trying to create will result in some sort of displacement, both real and perceived, and it’s likely to come from many different areas.
The thing is, no one actually has the answer.
We want to believe someone does - perhaps that we do - but we don’t actually know that to be a fact.
Sure, we might believe our version of the answer right to our very core. We might be convinced that our boss or our peer can be trusted to get us where we’re trying to go. But what we’re trusting is our versions of the story. We’ve made a judgement based on the accumulated data at hand.
This month's podcasts focus on people, specifically the different aspects to consider when it comes to the talent acquisition, development and management.
Today's episode focuses on the topic of relationships, and the fact that strong relationships create great teams, which create great organizations. Relationships form the very foundation of our success.
The Ikea effect is a cognitive bias where we place greater value on those things we’ve created ourselves.
There’s value in this idea when you’re a business and you’re providing customization options to your customer. The more they can personalize the product even partially, on their own, the more they will value it. Makes sense.
But we need to be wary of this bias when it comes to ourselves.
Competition is a sharpening mechanism.
It forces a clarification of our strategies, demands a strengthening of our capabilities and forces everyone to improve (if they want to continue to stay on the field).
And, in order to have competition, you have to have participation - without constraints.
This month's podcasts focus on people, specifically the different aspects to consider when it comes to the talent acquisition, development and management.
My last episode talked about the value of the team, even when we have a star performer in our midst. Today's episode discusses the idea that, while it still is about the team, we should all strive to adopt the star performer's mentality.
Recently, Unilever, the global consumer goods giant, announced that it will be removing the word “normal” from its beauty and personal care products and related advertising.
The idea behind this is to move away from descriptions that might suggest who (the type of person) the product is for, and towards those that describe what the product does. A step towards inclusivity and body positivity.
I think we get so caught up in the goals that we’re after that we lose sight of the need to focus on the process. Especially when the goals are big, audacious.
This makes sense, intuitively, of course. The bigger the goals, the higher the stakes, the more invested we are in their achievement. It’s natural then that we takes these goals seriously, and that they occupy our thought processes.
This month's podcasts focus on people, specifically the different aspects to consider when it comes to the talent acquisition, development and management.
Today's episode focuses on the star performer - or rather the need to recognize that, despite the extent of their star qualities, the team is always the most important thing.
Those who’ve worked with me for any length of time will inevitably have heard me say some variant of the following words: “If the customer has to work to understand what we’re offering, we’ve already lost.” I try to live by those words.
There’s enough going on with any client or customer that any of us are dealing with. Just like us, they’re constantly bombarded by emails, news, requests for, and demands of, their time - and, oh yes, their actual work.
We think of technology as the simple fix. If I simply bought this piece of software, I could get this work done so much more effectively. If only we implemented that new piece of tech, we’d get this billing process absolutely sorted.
Many times, though, when we actually get the funding, buy the tool and put the tech place, things don’t always go as planned.
I think I was 13 or 14 when my brothers excitedly came home one day with a handful of vinyls that a friend had lent them. The vinyls were singles from a couple of the biggest British heavy metal bands of the day - Iron Maiden and Saxon.
We put the Saxon single, Women in Uniform, on first followed by Iron Maiden’s now-classic track, Phantom of the Opera.
This month's podcasts focus on the topic of mindset, and the kinds of traits and ideas we need to embed to achieve what we want.
In today's episode, I speak to the importance of being an optimist, to fight cynicism. Many view unbridled optimism as a weakness, because it requires a health measure of vulnerability. To the contrary, I believe it's a superpower.
