Rights. More and more, we are focusing on Rights. What are Rights? The Right to remain silent? The Right to an attorney? The Right to be reminded that anything you do or say can and will be used against you in a court of law? Or is it the Right to Life, Liberty and the […]
“Don’t Judge Me!” Heard that before? Said it yourself? What does that phrase mean? I’ve heard a few people saying that to me before, and this is what I think it means. Justification You know that what you’re doing isn’t right, that it’s not in line with what you really know and believe, deep down […]
Are you worth your salt? Well, ARE you? Do you receive your salary, your pay, your commission, your fee, with great satisfaction, knowing that you have delivered much more than the pittance you received? I hope you do. As one wise man once said “There are two tragedies in life. The first is not getting […]
Google yielded 1.2 million results when I typed “talent shortage” just before writing this post. The IT sector is currently complaining about a “shortage of tech talent” which, even if available, is seen to be “expensive.” Really? What are all our ICT graduates doing, then? When I actually started reading a few posts and articles […]
Maturity – A Person of Substance Do you aspire to maturity? Would that mean being matronly? Or would it mean being middle-aged, with hints of grey appearing already? Given a choice, would you want to be mature? Or would you want to keep playing the Peter Pan card of eternal youth? Does being mature mean […]
Inanities How often have you read a report about once-great entities now gone to the dogs? Have you noticed how often those entities are described as being “Victims of their own success”? What does that mean? I don’t know, do you? How do companies become “Victims of their own success”? After all, if your success […]
There’s an app for that! There certainly is! With probably a few million apps in both the Apple and Android Play stores, people are either spoilt for choice or freeze. There are apps for any number of reasons. Play a game. Order something and have it delivered to your home or office. Ask for directions to […]
“Give me liberty, or give me death!” ~ Patrick Henry Clarity is greatly liberating, in the sense that decisiveness is enhanced by it. Since liberty is not the right to do as we like, but the freedom to do as we ought, then being clear how our convictions inform our actions opens up many degrees […]
Hacks? Is it just me, or are you seeing more and more people posting about “life hacks” and “tricks” to magically get around problems and situations of every imaginable sort? What are your favourites? One of mine is about how to open a can of food if you don’t happen to have a can opener. […]
All of us have ideals in mind and heart. The world we live in, though, is far from perfect. Organizations are not perfect. People are not perfect. I am not perfect. Neither are you. We continue to see some people expressing their desire to do good and be good, and perhaps posting a thing or […]
Many years ago, we used to sing a silly campfire song which went something like: Says a thousand-legged worm As he gives a little squirm Have you seen a little leg of mine? If it can’t be found I shall have to hop around On my nine hundred and ninety-nine! Hop around, hop around Have […]
I am fed up with people selling fantasies to everyone on their contact list. Exasperated by declarations of “It Will Be Great!” with no definite, organic steps in the right direction. Signs like “You Should Be Here!” make me shake my head at the foolishness of exploiting others. I’ve never read that classic called “The […]
Really? Sounds like a leadership cop-out to me! Doctors make judgments about people all the time, it’s part of their job. If your kidneys aren’t functioning because you have a type of diabetes, then your kidneys aren’t functioning. Changing your lifestyle, habits and so forth may help to alleviate external symptoms, but your health is […]
Stay Calm and Read On. Did the title cause you some unease? I hope so! It might move you to take positive action so that you can have a life of genuine ease. What do I mean by that? We are becoming more and more addicted to creature comforts. We want things instantly. We want […]
“Look before you leap.” “Think before you act.” “Logic makes people think, emotion makes them act.” Yes, we’ve heard all these before. Some of us might even be living by them. Level-headedness is more the exception than the norm. “Go with the flow” is often taken to the extreme and becomes nothing more than impetuousness. […]
Does the title sound like a “Call to action” phrase? Of course. The structure is one of many types of such phrases. Do you know why there are so many types and varieties of “Call to action” phrases? It’s because they work. Do you know why they work? It’s because most people have a scarcity […]
Kate Thome wrote a three-part series on Executive Presence on LinkedIn recently. She discussed three kinds of observable behaviours which would indicate whether or not a person has that X-factor commonly known as Executive Presence. I call them tell-tale signs. Uptalk. This is when every statement you make sounds like a question from someone with a […]
What comes to your mind when you think of soft skills? Scoffed skills? If so, you need to change your mindset or continue hemorrhaging to death at whatever your current hemorrhage rate is. Soft skills are not some airy-fairy “I love you, Sister” kind of thing. They are actually much harder to develop than training […]
Inducements to be normal are very powerful indeed. So powerful that individuals tend to remain silent and compliant when living in a highly “abnormal” society even when they feel things are not right. As a whole, we don’t want to believe the scientific evidence that the law of entropy is relentless and that the human […]
Comments I made on the post by Suzanne Snowden on “Seven skills needed for tomorrow’s CEO.” What do you think? Skills? Competencies? Core values?
Everybody thinks they’re lucky and everyone wants to be lucky. Fortune does favour the bold. The bold are prepared. That’s why they’re bold.
No one likes doing admin work. However, it is part of the package and doing it well has its own rewards.
Are systems and automation wonders going to solve all your business issues? Hardly. YOU are! For that, you need to automate consciously so that your business can operate at the unconscious competence level. So you can focus on relationships.
Would any of your staff lay their lives down willingly for your sake? How about you, would you lay yours down for them?
Feeling blase? Feeling, as some put on their social media statuses, “meh”? Your mouth has a lot to do with that! Switch from “Blah-say” to “Bon-say”!
We love referring to classics, don’t we? Many of the quotes that we like to use for self-affirmation or when we’re just trying to appear as if we do have some degree of sophistication come from some classic or other. Someone has of course quipped that a classic is “A book everyone knows about but […]
You might inadvertently give someone influenza or catch influenza if you mispronounce influencer. I suppose you could say that both are infectious in nature. We have all heard the saying “Attitude is infectious. Is yours worth catching?” and we all know what that refers to. We also commonly use the term COI, meaning “Centre of […]
Seems like an inexhaustible number, right? Wrong. Seven billion is finite. Seven billion can still be counted. I’m talking about our collective insatiable need to “Get this cheaper somewhere else. Never pay full price again.” Someone, somewhere, will always be selling it more cheaply, and we will never run out of sources of cheap goods […]
You might be having some trouble being creative once people start referring to you as an “expert.” That’s because we as human beings tend to let the “expert” label go to our heads. Oh, sure, we all know that pride goes before a fall and all that, but we still let such compliments inflate our […]
I’m in one of those reflective moods that assail me from time to time. Hence, the title of this post. Seriously now, have you ever thought about how you will be missed? At the workplace, I mean. Ron Jenson once described how someone who was working in a large company had witnessed a colleague being […]
Someone shared a post on “16 Ways to Put More Enthusiasm in Your Work and Life” by John Wood, and I was struck by how true the Law of Entropy is. The little drawing below came to mind, how different character qualities all support one another. In fact, we need all facets of our character to […]
Most people I know have no problems with producing results, fulfilling KPIs, chalking up the numbers, and so on. Production is no big deal. You do what you’re supposed to do, maybe make some small, incremental improvements, do your due diligence, and….. voila! … the day is done. Even if some innovative new thing comes […]
We can all expect similar responses, or perhaps reactions, if we bring up the topic of dressing well at work. Popular culture seems to have reacted against the perceived hypocrisy of being well-dressed and well-heeled outwardly, but being just the opposite inwardly. I suppose that’s where the term “stuffed shirts” comes from. The well-dressed of […]
Are you concerned about privacy on Facebook and other social media sites? Are you concerned with privacy online in general? Why, what big commercial secret projects are you handling? What’s the big deal? As we think about that, we might come to a realization that the big deal is US. It’s our inner voice, our […]
Slow death by Political Correctness (PC) is to me a painful death to die. I always wonder why we can’t get to the point, why we can’t call a spade a spade. I don’t object to using euphemisms, if the context, intent and situation call for their use. So, what’s the difference? Political Correctness seeks […]
Yes I did say it. Bullshit. This concept of us being in the 21st Century, and therefore us being more enlightened, is sheer nonsense. It is nonsense because our concept of “enlightenment” does not equal more maturity, greater depth of character, more kindness shown to others, more evidence of wisdom or a greater manifestation of […]
Someone must have started this. “We don’t listen to understand. We listen to reply.” In the context of the title we might have said, “We don’t listen to understand. We listen to profit from it.” When it comes to behavioral science and studies in leadership, I think many of us have only partial understanding of […]
Intrapreneur is actually the same as entrepreneur except it operates within the framework of a larger organization that the Intrapreneur does not own. I think that most of us are born with an entrepreneurial mindset already embedded within us. Tragically, this is eroded by the time we get to school and start working, and is replaced […]
You come into the job eagerly, with high expectations, perhaps a degree or two behind you, or perhaps with some years of experience under your belt. Your interviews had gone very well, and you look forward to making a big difference together with your new co-workers and managers. Yes, this is your dream job! Six months […]
We have all heard versions of “Clone yourself”, “Make copies of yourself” and the like. At the same time, we have been told to make our businesses “scalable” and therefore more profitable for ourselves. Making many copies of “I, Leader” seems to make much sense, for if the Mark I, Mark II and Mark ad […]
At this writing, the question of whether the Scots go their own bonny way has yet to be decided. Ironically, as I took in more news on the subject, the song “When a child is born”, popularized by Johnny Mathis, sprang to my mind. What happens when you think of a child being born? Do […]
Have you ever been encouraged to “fire your Boss”? Have you thought about “firing your Boss” yourself? I wrote a little bit about this in “Wish You Could Fire Your Boss? Why? So You Can Take Over?” a while back, and I’d like to expand on this a little more. Think of all the reasons […]
“Say what you mean and mean what you say” seems to have lost its meaning for at least some people these days. Whatever proceeds forth out of your mouth is no longer valued as what will be done, what has been agreed upon. Saying “You have my word on that” no longer holds water for many […]
Probably yes, whether you’re male or female. Before we go further, let’s establish a few things. 1. When you put men and women in stressful environments and make them work together and be dependent on each other for long periods of time, they will soon cease to act as working professionals towards each other […]
Outstanding! Are you tired of trying to be different, trying to “stand out from the crowd” and trying to be “outstanding”? I have good news for you! Stop that nonsense! Your body is comprised of between sixty to seventy trillion cells. That alone makes you unique! So, why do you try so hard to “stand […]
Say “Love” in this day and age and what comes to the hearer’s mind is spelt “S-E-X“. Come on, now, surely we have better minds than that. Still, it does seem to be so, from all I have been observing. “Sex” is a subset of what we understand as “Love”. “Love” encompasses quite a few […]
You might think you’re getting paid too little for what you do, and what you contribute. On the other hand, if you’re really honest with yourself, you might actually admit to the fact that you’re really being paid far too much! How do you think you ought to be paid? By virtue of good pedigree, […]
Never Fail? Do you fear failure? Do you know people who say things like “I never fail, I only learn”? Well, I respect where they’re coming from, and I also know that language controls communications and controls our thoughts. It is not only a tad hypocritical to say that we never fail, it actually causes […]
Why? That’s the first question I ask. If you have as a reason personal ambition, I would tell you to get real and go take a running jump, we don’t need such self-seeking people in management. Well do I recall the day when, while I was still in Active Service, I happened to meet two […]
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