Game of Thrones is back for its final season this week. This video comes from the beautiful city walls of Ávila, about 100kms to the west of Madrid in Spain. I used to think that it was enough to be good at your job, and to be nice to people… and money, success and power … Read more
I’ve been reading a few books recommended by my readers and youtube watchers since my recent video review of The Surrender Experiment 4 weeks ago. A wonderful author that I was recommended is Dr David Hawkins. He was a psychotherapist who worked over 50 years with patients in all stages of conscious functioning. In this … Read more
Be careful what you wish for… In the Zoo, the animals are safe in their cages, they are fed 3 meals a day, the fence keeps out predators and competition (isn’t that what Trump promised?). We have to be careful what we wish for. Freedom comes with a price, and that price is called responsibility. … Read more
Yesterday, Boris Johnson was on a triumphal march to the leadership of the UK. Today, his career lies in ruins. What happened? Tragedy is “a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in audiences” (from wikipedia). The essence of Tragedy is that the hero’s greatest strength will end up … Read more
There is a power tool in negotiation. I would say this is the single most useful tactic that I use in my years of selling (I sell private jets among other high value products). It is not competitive, it is not aggressive, it is not avoiding anything. It does not require massive intellectual development, years … Read more
70% of organisation change efforts fail. John Kotter has an 8 step process that can reduce the likelihood that your project of organisational change (and all leadership projects mean some form of change the the existing status quo). A big source of failure is starting action before you have put together a solid base of … Read more
I just watched Thomas Hyunh speak about his lifetime obsession with Sun-Tzu, the 2,500 year old Chinese General, at Authors@Google (video at the bottom of this post). Sun-Tzu was only 30 years old when he led the smallest region of China to victory over the largest region. This victory made him famous, and made … Read more
I was watching the UK version of the TV show “The Apprentice” a few months ago. This particular week’s challenge was to sell caravan and camping equipment at a trade show. Early on, there was a key decision to make: Which model of caravan would the team try to sell? Now, this was a trade … Read more
How to Give a Killer Presentation Chris Anderson, Owner of TED Presentations rise or fall on the quality of the idea, the narrative, and the passion of the speaker. It’s about substance, not speaking style or multimedia pyrotechnics. It’s fairly easy to “coach out” the problems in a talk, but there’s no way to “coach … Read more
The Visionary Leader In times of crisis, we prefer Visionary Leaders. Hope is a strong motivator to current action when the situation is difficult. In the years leading up to 2008, the USA was stuck in two protracted wars, and an economic crisis sparked by the subprime lending collapse. In this context of uncertainty, the … Read more