What does it really mean to be strategic? Early in my career I heard that “In order to succeed you have to be strategic”. Think strategically and that's how you will advance. And then I had a performance appraisal. “Doing really well in all areas – projects are great, you deliver on everything that's expected.” But, (you know that “but” in performance [...]
After the recent post on think not do, the work of a leader. I was challenged to describe the internal and external business factors that will prompt a leader to take some time out to reflect with their team. My quick answer was that it’s always a good time (!), but on reflection (!!), there are some key triggers when [...]
As a facilitator how do you collect all the great ideas that the group you are working with have? One of my favourite tools is the ubiquitous post it note. Simply by posing a question and asking people to respond can generate many ideas. Then grouping these ideas and asking people to vote creates clear priorities before creating an action [...]
My early days learning about leadership seemed to be focused on the fact that a great leader creates inspirational visions that makes others want to follow their lead. I always struggled with this, maybe I could never be a good leader, as I just didn't have what it took to inspire others to follow me in the way that Shakespeare’s Henry [...]
Setting annual goals for an organisation can be challenging, especially when you work in an environment that is constantly changing. However taking time to reflect, connect with colleagues and look forward can be invaluable in reenergizing and focusing your team on the year ahead. If everyone is working towards the same end goal it is much more likely you will [...]
“Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare”. Japanese Proverb. Some people love to plan and others hate it, believing it restricts their flexibility to respond and arguing they work in such a changeable environment that its simply not worth it. Maybe they’ve experienced a turgid bureaucratic process that was only focused on financials and over time [...]
Setting annual goals for an organisation can be challenging, when you don't have a long-term plan and don't have the time or resources to create one. But it doesn't stop you from looking ahead and engaging your team to ensure that everyone is working towards the same end goal and that you will have a successful 2018. If you do [...]
Remember the days when life was simple. We had an idea and we could command our organisation to follow. There was an automatic alignment of resources. Why its hard to achieve alignment The command and control organisation is harder to find now. A long time ago Lewis Carroll said, “No good fish goes anywhere without a porpoise” and this light-hearted [...]
