What’s Really Important?
October 12, 2012
By guest author, Arielle Essex (www.practicalmiracles.com) Every so often, it’s a great idea to re-evaluate where we are going and what we are doing. To take stock of what’s what and get clear on our priorities helps prevent getting stressed and overwhelmed. “The range of what we think and do is limited by what we [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Leadership is not a panacea
October 11, 2012
In a recent opinion piece for ILM’s The Edge Online I discussed why leadership alone won’t solve every organisational problem. It’s clear that developing better leaders is a sure-fire way to improve organisational success. But that’s not all that is needed. If leadership is seen as “the only way out of this mess” and so [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Solutions to fishy problems
October 7, 2012
Managers deal with problems. And we all know that it is better to fix the underlying cause of a problem than just deal with the symptoms. One of the best tools to find the underlying cause is to use the deceptively simple ‘five whys’ technique that originated at Toyota. Think of a problem you are [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Should leaders be specialists?
October 4, 2012
I got into a discussion online on that age old question as to whether a leader needs to be a specialist in the technical areas worked on by the team they are leading. I certainly know at first hand several situations where a generalist took over a department and did a better job than their [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Discomfort is the gateway to change
September 30, 2012
I was in a class at the gym and the instructor was urging us to use slightly heavier weights than we would normally. He said “There is no change without challenge”. (JJ the gym instructor) That got me thinking. And you… What does it mean to you when you roll that statement around in your [...]
Read the rest of this entry »What do you think you are not?
September 23, 2012
“It’s not what we are that holds us back, but what we think we are not.” Dennis Waitley So what do you think you are not? Here is how to find out. Think of an elusive goal you have and then ask yourself the following… “I want to do/be/have [Goal] but I am not ?????” [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Social Learning = Social Media? Really?
September 22, 2012
As I near publication of my book on Informal Learning, I notice that there is a lot of misleading information and misconceptions floating about. Just yesterday I commented on a blog which was quite rightly extolling the virtues of Social Learning, but had a very narrow view of just what it is. Social Learning is [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Triumph from adversity
September 16, 2012
One of the things that make life worth living is the joy of winning; succeeding against the odds, achieving a tough goal, triumphing when for a while you thought you couldn’t make it. Just remember that in every case of triumph, the seeds are sown with the poor odds, the peril, the adversity… because they [...]
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