Category: Leadership
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The Speech Act Theory of JL Austin
The Words, the Meaning, the Effect As we communicate, there are 3 separate processes at play: what we say, what we mean when we say it, and what we accomplish by saying it A rhetorician would call these 3 separate processes: 1) locution, 2) illocution, and 3) perlocution. In my courses we use the shorthand “Point X” to […]
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"You are not doing that right!"
When someone tells me that I am wrong, what do I learn? “You are not doing that right!” “How did you let this happen?” Do I learn what is intended? I don’t think so. I don’t often know what is intended – that I should feel bad or guilty; or that I need to see […]
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Charisma
What is Charisma? In the words of Dr. Nick Morgan “Charisma is focussed emotion.” There are 2 ways to increase your capacity to deliver “Focussed Emotion” when you speak: Remove Distractions: remove all distractions 30 minutes before you speak Care: know how the message of your speech can change people’s quality of life Watch the […]
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There is no Freedom without Self Discipline
Freedom is dangerous without self discipline. Few people will get anything important done in life without a boss, a parent, a teacher. It is the removal of freedom that allows creation. Completion requires constraints: deadlines, scope, format… We chaff at the chains, but they serve us. My boss is an idiot, but without her insistance […]
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5 little things put a Leader in the top 10% of performance
I come more and more to the conclusion that excellent performance is not about complex innovations, but about small habits. Excellent performance is about small habits I am reading Leading with Emotional Intelligence by Redlan Nadler. He quotes from book The Extraordinary Leader by Zenger and Folkman. They found that doing 5 specific things really well […]
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7 Reasons for lack of self-knowledge
Fear of Failure Clinging to one’s comfort zone Arrogance Defensiveness Impatience Rigid mindset Lack of perspective From Pablo Cardona and Helen Wilkinson’s book “Growing as a Leader“. Have a great weekend.
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Reining in the State
There was a wonderful letter to the editor in this week’s Economist magazine that used a powerful metaphor of an orchestra to highlight the untenable future of state social spending as currently provided. The letter was in response to Taming Leviathon – a special report on the future of the state. “Sir, you twice mentioned […]
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4 approaches to learning a new discipline
The US Aikido master George Leonard in his book “Mastery” speaks of 4 approaches that we take to learning new disciplines. It scares me that I might be a regular Hacker… how to shift my approach and push through “good” and reach “better” and one day “expert”?: The Dabbler – The Dabbler’s learning curve rises very quickly, […]