In Defence of Micromanagement
This article is meant to generate a reaction, something that surprises the reader and makes them think. Hopefully I have made my case effectively but please comment and let me know if you think differently – all respectful opinions are valued! Leadership is not just about empowering people and letting them get on with…
Is that a Fact or your Opinion?
Leaders create the conditions for execution. They nurture people and the environment to make it easier for them to perform. If you want to understand why someone is or isn’t performing, it often helps to look at the environment and ask the question, ‘is it easy or difficult to perform here?’ I believe that nearly…
How to Exponentially Increase Team Productivity
Last week, I wrote about personal productivity pointing out that not everything on the ‘to-do list’ has equal impact. I also wrote about planning using your energy levels and briefly touched upon the concept of ‘deep work’. I think that most people know about these concepts but if knowledge was the only thing we needed,…
2 Simple Tips that will Dramatically Improve your Productivity…
If you google ‘productivity tips’, chances are you will get lots of tactical advice, hints and tips that can help you cram more into the day. ‘Tidy your desk, work fewer hours, ignore your phone or even take a nap at work.’ My personal favourite is ‘get up early’. Bill Gates gets up at 0400…
How Shackleton built his High Performance Team
Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated journey to the Antarctic in 1914 is legendary amongst survival stories. When disaster struck and Shackleton’s ship The Endurance became trapped in the ice, he led his men to Elephant Island before taking a small boat across the Southern Ocean to South Georgia. He then launched a rescue mission and returned…
How many Leadership Styles do you have?
Leadership is all about behaviour. It is what you do that counts not what you say because people remember how you made them feel rather than what you said. This is one of the reasons that it is so challenging because, you need to have the flexibility to change your behaviour depending upon the context and…
Would you pass the 10 Day Leadership Challenge?
There isn’t much point in running your own business unless you take advantage of some of the freedom that it gives you. You’re not a full-time employee so you can choose what you spend your time working on. Last week, I was lucky enough to be invited to the British Army’s Recruitment and Training Division,…
Why the Comfort Zone will kill you…
Necessity is the mother of all invention. Unless something is truly necessary, there is no need for it. It is one of the reasons that wars drive such a pace of innovation. Creating new ways to win becomes absolutely necessary when you are in a fight for survival. People have to focus on the threat…
A Great Strategy is useless without Great Leaders
It doesn’t matter how great the strategy is if the leadership can’t execute it… I have had a few requests from people asking to contribute to this blog. This is the first time that I have accepted though. I think JB (who wishes to remain anonymous) has a strong understanding of what is required to…
4 Differences between Effective and Efficient People
Everyone is looking for ways to be more efficient. Ways in which they can get more stuff done in the limited amount of time that they have. The trouble is that few people focus on being truly effective, and there is a massive difference between a person being effective and a person being efficient. Effectively…
How Organisations Set Leaders Up for Failure
You wouldn’t fly with an untrained pilot – so why would you want to be led by an untrained leader? Why is it culturally acceptable to train people for some roles yet others are just left to get on with it? First Jobs The first job I ever had was working as a ‘temp’ for…
What’s your Purpose, Mission and Vision?
I believe in leading by example. I believe that it forces you to hold yourself to account and maintain high standards. People respond to what we do, not what we say. It is one of the reasons that people who smoke, tend to have children that smoke. It is your behaviour that creates the example you set…
Mental Models: Choosing your Reaction
On the weekend, I was witness to an argument in a park in South London. A group of teenagers somehow got into an argument with a woman that was sat adjacent to them on a picnic table. I don’t know what was said initially and only realised that an argument was starting as people’s voices…
The OODA Loop: From the Battlefield to Business Success
The OODA Loop is one of the most valuable – yet poorly understood – theories that exists. This article is my attempt to explain what the ooda loop is by using examples from business, the military and sport to demonstrate how universally applicable it is. History has proven that favourites don’t always come out on…
