Blog

I can’t say this better than Seth Godin did: “We Have Limits… There are challenges, limited resources, people or organisations working against you. Your knee hurts, the boss is a jerk, the systems are down.   We Have Opportunities… There are opportunities, new sources of leverage and ideas just waiting to be embraced. You canRead more

Listening without an intent (that is, your sole purpose, your only immediate outcome, is to hear what the other person’s saying) takes guts. It takes courage. And it takes patience. Listening-without-intent also takes practice. Think about it… How often are you currently “listening while waiting to speak?” Or “listening to understand”? Or “listening with theRead more

I appreciate you taking the time to read this bulletin  Some leaders have it embedded in their DNA to let others know that they appreciate them—and for other leaders it’s a learned skill. Regardless of your genetics, let’s look at why thanking a team member, or anyone really, is a hugely impactful habit to develop.Read more

It Was Clear That The Two In The Next Meeting Room Were In Trouble… Overhearing was inevitable from my adjacent room—and things weren’t going well for them! Interestingly, when you only hear the voice it’s so easy to notice the underlying attitudes, isn’t it? The flavor of their communication, especially the bad habits they’d bothRead more

The leaders we admire and align with are the leaders that we trust—and, when it comes to cranking up engagement, having your team members trust you is THE number one essential. It’s therefore essential that you’re alert to these two key ways you can immediately kill off your team members’ trust in you: Being emotionallyRead more

Yes, we know carrots are good for your physical health—your skin, digestion and blood pressure, plus some—and they’re good for your mental health too. I want to be sure our thinking is aligned regarding the “mental health” though… Using my exercise routine as an example, here’s my self-talk about exercising: “I enjoy a physical workout.Read more

Follow Your Natural Tendency At Your Peril It’s not that tough is more effective than tender, or that tender is more effective than tough… It’s that some leaders automatically take a tough stanceyou know, those firm leaders whose decisions are based on a detached logic, who take a no-compromise position, whose judgment disregards sentiment orRead more

Leaders who don’t master conflict are leaders who grapple with managing their tension and stress—and who unwittingly stall their careers. You’re reading a great article for you if: You feel nervous, or even powerless, when conflict strikes, or You find yourself side-stepping hard-to-handle, difficult situations, or You have an inkling that your success, and yourRead more

Oh my gosh, occasionally circumstances seem to line up against us, don’t they? You know those days, when the traffic made you late for a meeting, then the content of the meeting had you feeling hot under the collar, and then, on the way back to your desk, one of your team members, Mike, informsRead more

Yep, nothing has changed in this respect since Emotional Intelligence (EQ) first became a mainstream topic of conversation almost twenty years ago. EQ is still the #1 predictor of first-rate performance at work. Of course, technical skills and IQ also impact performance—but not nearly as much as EQ does.   We Only Need “Threshold” AmountsRead more

Seth Godin, whom I must say is the most consistently stimulating and highly creative author I’ve ever encountered, strikes again in my Leadership Bulletin this month . This time it’s with a reminder of a pivotal insight into a setting that we each encounter day-by-day, even minute-by-minute… Seth said: “The batter has already hit twoRead more

You really want to make this change, right? Maybe you’ve tried before and it hasn’t stuck. Now you’re ready to step up to the plate again—but you need a new approach. You’re in the right place. I’m about to describe a dependable, NASA researched process for shifting a behavioural habit for good, once and forRead more

Apologies for being the bearer of this bad news… Multitasking is a misconception. We human beings can’t actually multitask. Let’s dig into this and then look at the good news…   What Happens When We Think We’re Multitasking? When we think we’re multitasking what we’re actually doing is switching quickly from one thing to another.Read more

Let’s cut to the chase: Good leaders ask good questions—starting with the questions that they ask of themselves. Good questions create a productive mindset… That productive mindset determines what questions the leader asks of others—and those questions help others foster their productive mindsets.   Examples Of Good Questions Are… “What can we do to getRead more

So often leaders and others struggle to know how to construct a convincing argument. Let’s look at how you can make that construction process a whole lot easier… Let’s say you and I are working together on Project A—and I want us to put Project A on hold and work on Project B. I’m aboutRead more

Difficult people can be exasperating! You put so much mental energy into thinking about them, allowing thoughts about them to niggle away at you. How can you resolve this?   Step One: Make a Decision Make a realistic decision about whether or not you’re able to change things with them. And if you don’t thinkRead more

Scenario One… You’re sitting at your desk. A team member, whom we’ll call Dan, comes up to you and says:   “Can we talk about the xyz project? I’m concerned that we aren’t going to achieve the cost savings we’re targeting.”   Part of you thinks you’d better listen up, this could be serious—yet anotherRead more

Seth Godin, the wise marketing guru whom I regularly quote, said, “the most important question isn’t”, for example, “is it reliable enough?” or “am I promising enough?” No, Seth said that the most important question is, “Do they trust me enough to believe my promises?” When I read these words I realised what a crucialRead more

Have you heard the song, “What About Me?” by the Australian rock band, Moving Pictures? The song’s about people who’re feeling disregarded—ignored, as if others are looking right through them. That song sprung to my mind during a recent conversation I had with Tony (not his real name)…   Tony’s Controversial Proposition Tony was aboutRead more

I know that when I’m anticipating the successful completion of a project, when I’m anticipating how smooth an upcoming conversation will be, or when I’m anticipating an abundant financial year, life feels good! Conversely, anxiety is provoked whenever I fall into the trap of ruminating about something not working out well.  For example, as IRead more