The key to leadership is to recognize over what I have control, and not. Basically, I have control over myself, my thoughts, feeling and abilities. Over most everything else in life, I am powerless. Anything else is just an illusion. Let it sink in for a moment. The first time a mentor said this to [...]
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Category Archives: values
The Best Advice I Ever Got
The current issue of Fortune contains mini-interviews with 22 well-known people from business and politics, including the usual suspects, e.g. Bill Gates (together with his father) and Warren Buffet. The interview with Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google, caught my eye, since he describes how John Doerr recommended a coach to him in 2001. [...]
For the day that’s in it …
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Growing up in Ireland in the 1960s, I was told my fair share of stories about St. Patrick, Ireland’s patron saint, whose feast day is being celebrated all over the world today. The story that stuck with me is about the Easter fire.
The then custom in Ireland was that the High King and [...]
Pennies from heaven
Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s CEO has an in-your-face reputation, or as my mother might put it, no class. When he suggested last week that passengers might have to pay to use the washroom on flights, I thought this is as low as it gets.
One of the functions of a business is to make money. O’Leary has [...]
“Think Positive” for charity!
The local jeweller, TeNo has started a campaign to help a local charity (the Stand Up Initiative, an organisation collecting money to help paraplegics) by requesting comments on its blog: a 2 Euros donation per positive comment. They’d like to reach 1250 comments, so help them out in a good cause.
It probably seemed like a good idea at the time …
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 misguidedness that companies such as Coca-Cola, Kroll and BP (maybe they should change their slogan to Beyond [...]
Meeting Interruptus
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 meeting and can’t talk now; or they blackberry; or they use meeting [...]
Recognising values
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 common sayings and phrases within the organisation. One example is when new ideas are greeted with, [...]
Values and attraction
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 powerful hiring filter, a decision-making support tool and basic motivation.
A number of leaders I [...]
Values and health
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, when we are asked to conduct ourselves in ways we don’t [...]
