The newest trend in leadership development is for multinational companies to send managers to the Antarctic to learn about the environment and hone their leadership skills. If I was feeling charitable, I might call this misguided. However, the misgui… [more]

Back to the phone. A simple working definition for stress that I've distilled from listening to and reading much wiser people is: my level of stress is a good measure of how far I am from the "here and now". From this perspective, being always on, al… [more]

Meeting interruptus is a condition that seems to affect most of the meeting population: either people take on a distracted look (waiting for that phone call); or they answer any call that comes - taking five minutes to explain that they're in a meeti… [more]

Julia Butterfly Hill spent two years living in a thousand year-old tree in the States, protecting it from being cut down. Her question to all of us is, "what is your tree?". This isn't a call to tree-hugging, but rather a call to think about what dif… [more]

A commonly held misconception is that the boss must set the goals. It is helpful is they know in which direction they want to move their team. However, involving their staff in developing the goal, helps to bring a different spirit into the organisat… [more]

Harvard Business Review joined the podcasting bandwagon a few months ago, for which I received my first advert only today. They offer a free biweekly HBRIdeaCast, a 20-minute program comprising an interview with an author of a current HBR article or … [more]

Sooner or later, most people get into hot water using e-mail. In my case it was sooner. Many years ago, I typed up my personal notes (including "humorous" asides on the participants) from an EU project meeting as an informal e-mail to our project lea… [more]

Are values recognisable? Fortunately, yes. One helpful resource on this is Ed Schein's book "The Corporate Culture Survival Guide". There's a few simple things you can do to unearth an organisation's (or your own) values. The first is to analyse c… [more]

Many people are drawn to work for organisations whose espoused values they find attractive. They hope to be able to make a valued contribution. This attraction works well for people in leadership positions. Being clear on your values provides a power… [more]

Values represent deeply held beliefs and show facets of identity. It's not possible not to have them, it's very possible not to be aware of them! They impact our health: positively, when we can live and work in alignment with our values. Negatively, … [more]

A recurring theme from participants in recent workshops is the increasing importance of values in the workplace. As pressure on managers increases, the impact of values discrepancies increases (at a guess) at least quadratically. In this and followin… [more]

Two handy skills for leaders: keep your eyes open learn to comminucate through stories. On Christmas Eve both came together. We were invited to a Christmas drinks party, very off-duty. Then again, you never know! There I met an Ameri… [more]

Daniel Goleman became well-known through his book Emotional Intelligence (EI) in the mid 1990's. There he explored the impact and importance of emotions and - later on - their influence on leadership. In his new book he takes us on a tour of major de… [more]

One of the common problems leaders face, early in their careers is that they think asking for advice or help is a sign of weakness. They are worried that their staff will lose respect for them. I come across this phenomenon often in my leadership dev… [more]