It’s Thursday! How is this week going for you? Are you on track to get everything done that you wanted to achieve this week? Or have you been derailed? Have you been side-tracked, or even overwhelmed, with all the things that were not on your To Do list on Monday morning, but somehow, have appeared on it during the last 3 days. And if this describes your week – is it JUST this week, or
The Think, Be and Do of Leadership. Something Jan and I talk a lot about in our consulting role with business owners and leaders, is the Think, Be, Do principle. You see as a Leader or THE Leader in your business there is always a lot of stuff to do, isn’t there? In fact, some days, weeks or even months, can seem overwhelming because of the amount of stuff you have to do. And if
Some people seem to be born to be a Leader, don’t they? I’m thinking of John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Alex Ferguson, Attila the Hun! (I’m not comparing Alex Ferguson to Attila the Hun – just saying – they are both ‘born leaders’). For these people, leadership seems to come naturally, it seems like they were always destined for that role and when they get it, it just all fits together, they’re
You don’t need to answer that question – though you can if you like! No, it was a question a client asked me, when we were discussing why his team weren’t performing as expected. “I’ve worked out Jan, that there is absolutely NO POINT me setting any goals in this organisation because NO-ONE cares about them and they never achieve them – so what’s the point of having any goals?”. Well, I could understand his
Last week we were on a family holiday. Always tricky to balance everyone’s needs on holiday but luckily my kids both like ‘doing’ stuff and my other half is pretty active too. So, there we were, after a 10 mile cycle ride around Bewley – about to get in a 4 person canoe and have an adventure. Well, I call it an adventure – but it was also a competition. Not that I am competitive
According to recent surveys* 63% of people do not trust their leaders. That’s depressing news but hardly surprising. Quite apart from the recent challenges in social media, there has been a trend over recent years of people putting less trust in politicians and ‘media’ and more trust in social proof. Interestingly in this years Edelman Trust report – there is less trust in ‘people like me’ and more in experts. But the point is –
I was recently reminded – and not in a good way – what happens when you let things fester! We have a lovely dog called Meg. We got her from a kennels on a farm. She had been used as a breeding dog, coming to us when she wasn’t able to breed anymore, and in some ways she was not looked after as well as she could have been. When we got her we knew
We all know that if we have a team of highly confident, high performing individuals, then our jobs as leaders are going to be exponentially easier, don’t we? So why is it that it seems so hard to achieve? I know you have probably tried delegating in the past, and maybe it hasn’t worked out quite the way you had hoped. So what happens next is then there is an opportunity to delegate, you don’t
One of the defining points about being a leader – is that you help your team get somewhere they would not have reached on their own. After all, if they can do it without you, what’s the point of YOU? A leader needs to inspire, support, set goals, motivate, train, develop, communicate – all those other skills and qualities that we talk about. They must possess vision, determination, endless energy, integrity, hope, compassion, creativity. All
I don’t know about you but I love change. There is no growth without change. Evolution itself is the change of one form of life into another. Change leads to growth, and inevitably there are casualties! So as species evolve, others die. And that’s a bit like a business because as some businesses embrace change and grow, others fall by the wayside. Our business has changed out of all recognition over the last 2 years.