Nothing Memorable Happens Without Some Kind of Risk

I don’t need to mention the current climate. You cannot avoid conversations and news stories full of the global impact of our current circumstances. Whether you run your own business, manage a large or small team, or head up a company, it is a time for careful movement.

Plan well, watch the cashflow and manage risks.

Learning and Development: Increase the impact

I was asked recently how to reduce the costs of learning and development, and at the same time increase its impact.

It is such a loaded question —  training / learning/ development is a multi-faceted aspect of most businesses today. The answer depends on the outcome that the business wants to achieve – why they provide training. Any scheme to reduce costs will depend highly on the answer to this question.

Customer Service a Strategic Advantage

You only have to google customer service to see how severely the level of customer service has dropped in the past 5 years. Site after site are detailing episodes of the falling levels of customer appreciation, never mind customer service.

Routine sets you free – The Rhythm of Business

One of the things that Growth Guru Verne Harnish talks about is the rhythm of business. I love that phrase. It is what distinguishes a Performance Focused Organisation, intent on continued and controlled viability, from a group of people pursuing work opportunistically. Organisations with Rhythm have a heart beat that establishes the pace and maintains the rhythm.

One of the key elements of the Verne’s rhythm is the daily “Adrenaline” meeting, as he calls it. For me, this is a chance to focus your team each and every day on what needs to be achieved. It is an airing of the day’s issues and challenges. It is a chance to synchronise and to achieve synergy.

Paying Attention to Attention: Part 3

Over the last couple of weeks we have been discussing how to watch your attention each day to develop dynamic knowledge about yourself and your drivers or motivators. You can see the posts here and here.

If you are persistent in your personal journey to better leadership and people management, sooner or later you will have to face your emotional capacity. In other words, you will find yourself assessing your ability to positively control your emotions. Often this is called Emotional Intelligence (IT) or Emotional Quotient (EQ).

This is not the same as suppressing emotions. The two are often confused.

The Chemistry of Stress

Harvard Business Review in its September edition has a sidebar on Stress. The full article is “Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership” by Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis. It is worth a read.

When people are under stress, surges in the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol strongly affect their reasoning and cognition. At low levels, cortisol facilitates thinking and other mental functions, so well-timed pressure to perform and targeted critiques of subordinates certainly have their place.

Performance Focused Organisations: Organisational Paradoxes

There are many paradoxes in organisations – elements which are actually under tension, yet to be successful, an organisation must provide both elements. I will call them Organisational Paradoxes.

For example, the need for strong personal reputation and career growth vs the requirement for strong individual contribution to the business / organisation goals and growth aspirations. This is especially true in research organisations, such and universities, and legal organisations.