The purpose of giving a speech is to give the audience something valuable to them. If I open most of the books on communicating well that I have on my bookshelf, they will tell me that step one is to know my audience. How do we achieve this? How to do Audience Analysis First, you … Read more
Who are your “Passive Mentors”? Mentors make a big difference in my life. There are 2 types of mentor: Active and Passive mentors. Active mentors are those that you meet in person, interact with and get to know. Passive mentors are those that you learn from without them knowing. Book authors are one of the … Read more
10 things that employees surveyed last year by the Great Place to Work organisation said contributed to poor management: Lack of Recognition and Appreciation – employees who believe that managers do not really appreciate the work, energy and effort put in during their days and sometimes evenings Poor Communication – employees want to find out … Read more
Let Go of Things Others Can Do – Avoid busy-ness as a sign of productivity Encourage Initiative – Allow falling-forward-failure, Destroy comfort-zone; The Institutional Yes Direction and Discipline – Ensure people have goals and know how they are doing Excruciating Accountability – hold themselves and others to clear process goals (under own control) Focus – Don’t dilute energy; … Read more
“It’s extremely difficult to do something big. I think setting out to do something small is easier and more likely to work.” Seth Godin If you are reading this, I will assume that you writing a book or are thinking about writing a book. What is holding you back? What obstacle sits between you and … Read more
My last post was on Meaningful Contribution. I talked about three questions about the work you are doing: does it serve others? do you do it well? and do you love doing it? The 4 Paths in our Working Life Taking two of those questions: does it serve others? and do you love doing it? … Read more
You are probably pretty good at your job. You do it at least well enough to keep it. I bet you are actually pretty good at it when you decide to focus on it, when you give it 100%. But… Do you enjoy what you do? Being good at something is not a good reason … Read more
Chiara Ojeda who writes the Tweak Your Slides blog has recently posted a new set of visuals called Presenting As Yourself. It has powerful visuals. It provides great reminders of the important aspects of communicating with impact; communicating in a way that engages the audience and lets your message stick. Presenting As Yourself What are … Read more
In the last issue of IESE Insight magazine, Carlos Ghosn offered three key lessons he has learned during his career. First, he said, “Every problem has a solution,” but business leaders have to be prepared to pay the personal or collective price that will come with a given solution. Second, things have to get worse … Read more
Failure is Carelessness, Success is Consistency This Sunday I was at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin to watch the key Six Nations Rugby game between Ireland and England. England won. The Irish guy sitting next to me says: “We were by far the better team.” I said “The score doesn’t show that. We were more … Read more