How ‘what you know’ can hurt you
July 25, 2010
Mark Twain said “It is not what we don’t know that gets us into trouble. It is what we think we know for sure.”
What we think we know for sure becomes a blind spot because we stop examining it, and we all have these blind spots. Many of them.
Six steps to easy report writing
July 17, 2010
Business thrives on reports and most ideas need to be written down at some stage if they’re to be implemented.
The more change is going on, the more senior people feel in need of information, and they ask for reports.
If they get a poorly structured and difficult to read report, what would they think of the [...]
How to remember names
July 11, 2010
I met many new people at a wedding last weekend. And I can’t remember most of their names. Does this happen to you?
For the most part, names are arbitrary. Because the information itself isn’t meaningful, you have to make a special effort to create meaningful connections in order for the memory to ’stick’.
Your reputation for confidence
June 27, 2010
Confidence is an interesting concept. You can have confidence in yourself, or others can have confidence in you. From the inside it manifests as self belief and from the outside as support, trust and a mandate to continue.
When one element is weakened it affects both. When your self belief reduces, it will be clear [...]
Controlling the conversation
June 20, 2010
Two people are having a conversation. One person is asking all the questions and the other person is giving all the answers.
Who controls the conversation?
The one asking the questions!
Ideas make a difference
June 14, 2010
If something is simple,
…it is more likely to be practical
If it is practical,
…it is more likely to be used
If it is used,
…it is more likely to make a difference
Are you a leader?
June 5, 2010
You are a leader if you have followers, even if only briefly and occasionaly.
So why would someone follow you?
Preparing a good meeting
May 29, 2010
Most of the time we get invited to meetings with people saying… “We need a meeting to discuss…”.
Discussion is an activity, not an outcome; and this means that most people are framing their meetings with an activity focus versus an outcomes focus. Could this be why most meetings fail?