Category: Leadership
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Dustin Johnson, not Thierry Henry will save our Economy
I watched the world’s top golfers play in the prestigious PGA tournament over the last 4 days. This is one of the top 4 prizes in world golf and a massive achievement for the overall winner. Winning a “major” is a vital brick in the career of the world’s top golfers. I want golf and…
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How to ask the best questions
I have a page of notes in my notebook about asking questions. In the spirit of breaking the mold of my blogging, I will dump it here unedited… and a bit of commentary and James Joyce style flow of consciousness thinking to follow. The best answer is a question. Ask question = control power, help…
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How do you lead people to excel?
I just watched Michael Feiner, a professor at Columbia Business school, on Authors@Google. He talked about leadership. Jack Stack, author of the great game of business says that there are two disciplines needed in a company: optimization and innovation. I think that these overlap with the skills of management and leadership. Management is about predictability…
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The roots of violence: Rights without responsibilities.
I listened to Warren Rustand speak on Leadership to the Entrepreneurs’ Organisation event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia last week. Warren is a man who has fit the experiences of several lifetimes into his own – he has been in public service, in academia, involved in not-for-profits and has been chairman or CEO of 17 organisations.…
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Does meaning come from excellent execution or excellent execution from shared mission and vision?
Should we focus on the ends to improve the means or focus on the means to improve the ends? On Monday I spent a couple of hours at IESE in a research seminar where Harvard Professor Julie Battiliana presented her research on professional and organisational identity in two Bolivian commercial microfinance institutions. BancoSol and Banco…
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Its not what you do but how people perceive what you do
I came across the concept of Personal Branding via the blog of Dan Schwabel about 6 months ago and have been a regular reader of his blog. Some ideas have been percolating up through my unconsciousness and drifted into consciousness during a day skiing with my friend Javi. (Thanks to Ana, Piero and friends for…
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How we fool ourselves brilliantly and how Dwight D. Eisenhower became President
Most days are much the same. However, great changes in our world don’t come from normal days – they are driven by the extreme events, the outliers. Something like 70% of all the drops in the US stock exchanges are due to 6 particular days of extreme share price drops. The course of my own…
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Five and a half reasons why you should start a blog today
6 Reasons to Start Blogging Now “We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret” Jim Rohn Clarity of Thinking – It will force you to become a better thinker and get clear on your beliefs. It will force you to read to gather material. It will…
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Where does a leader get their energy from? Ken Blanchard says "Begin the day slowly."
I was priviledged to attend a small gathering to listen to Ken Blanchard and then join him for lunch this week thanks to Alberto Cabezas (co-founder of Claction online marketing) and the Entrepreneurs’ Organisation. Ken Blanchard is the author of “The One Minute Manager” a simple but brilliant story about management that has sold over…