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
Leadership: You Have to Go First. I love this little Dilbert storyline from Scott Adams: Employee: “I find it rather demotivating that you never praise me for a job well done.” Boss: “You’ve never done a job well.” Employee: “That’s because I’m demotivated.” Boss: “You have to go first.” Employee: “Wouldn’t that make me the … Read more
“But, is this normal?” Why am I so fixated by normal? What about optimal? Wouldn’t optimal be a better aim? Is my life normal? Some of it, yes. Some of it, no. But it adds no direction to my journey to the future me. Is my life optimal? Is my running posture optimal? Is my … Read more
At the end of every course I teach at IESE Business School, all participants give extensive feedback on their experience of the course, the facilities… and on my role as a teacher. When the summarized feedback reaches me a couple of weeks later, I open the pdf in a state of nervous tension. I am preparing … Read more
In 2013, I had an opportunity to give a talk at TEDx University of Navarra in Pamplona. Here is the video and a transcript of my speech. Now over 4.2M views of this talk If you had 1000€ and you could invest that money in someone’s future, who would you bet on? Is it yourself? … Read more
Economist Andrew McAfee suggests that, yes, probably, droids will take our jobs — or at least the kinds of jobs we know now. In this far-seeing talk, he thinks through what future jobs might look like, and how to educate coming generations to hold them. Are you Bill or Ted? There is a big and … Read more
Good speaker? Writer? Dancer? Singer? Runner? How do I become one? How does the whole thing come together? How will I know if it really is my thing? Will it be worth it? There is only one way to find out. There has really only ever been one way. The way to mastery in the … Read more
Sometimes I want a lazy day. Sometimes I don’t feel like producing good work. I often blog about productivity, about removing purposeless-busy-ness from our lives; but sometimes I don’t car and I want to give the impression that I am really working hard. Here are 10 golden rules for looking like you are working hard: … Read more
The Webinar: This is the recording of the IESE Develop Your Communication Skills webinar we ran on 13th April 2013. It is here on the IESE Business School YouTube channel. Storify Summary of the Webinar via Twitter Hashtag: #iesewebinar Communication Skills Webinar with Prof. Conor Neill http://t.co/rzT7nCPaVB #storify #iesewebinar #communication — IESE Business School (@iesebschool) … Read more