Tony Anagor, a long time friend and fellow teacher at IESE Business School, is a great source of wisdom on negotiation. A great start to understanding Tony’s work is his article: The 7 Principles of Powerful Negotiation. Over the 18 years that I have known Tony he has consistently been able to engage with me … Read more
If you want to lead people, you need them to want what you want. Iris H was an MBA student at IESE a few years back, today a senior figure in Investment Banking. I recently discovered her blog. A recent post struck a chord with me: You can’t want it more… 3 Psychological Needs Self-Determination … Read more
“without a goal, you can’t score” …and you are probably somewhat de-motivated… In sports, the goal is very clear. In football – a 24ft by 8ft steel or aluminium frame with a net… so you can clearly see if the ball goes in. In sports, the victory condition is very clear… more goals than the … Read more
There is an old story of a person trapped on the roof of a building as floodwaters are rising. A boat passes and the occupants shout “come down, we’ll take you to safety”. The person says “No, God will save me”. Another boat passes. The occupants shout “come down, we’ll take you to safety” The … Read more
A couple of years ago, I wrote about the life strategy of “Stand in the Traffic”. Shane Parrish in a recent Farnham Street newsletter item reminded me of the concept. His framing of the concept is “Active Patience”. If you’ve not read about “Stand in the Traffic” as a life strategy, check out the original … Read more
Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who made significant contributions to our understanding of the human psyche. He was a former student and colleague of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, but they eventually parted ways due to major disagreements in their theories. Carl Jung devoted his life to studying the … Read more
“CEOs are in the business of making decisions” Sam Reese, Vistage CEO I’ve been reflecting this week on a quote from Economist Thomas Sowell “There are no solutions, only trade-offs.” I work with CEOs. They take decisions. They feel responsible for the consequences of these decisions. They often wait to find a “perfect solution” rather … Read more
Update June 2023: OpenAI have now provided an extensive guide to Prompt Engineering. It’s worth a review. Prompt Engineering. Today I’ve been on a zoom call with a group of senior business leaders from around the world. The number of times that chatGPT has been mentioned (by very senior business people) hit me. In my … Read more
I’ve met some excellent business managers… who are extremely poor managers of their own life. They get results. They support others. They build capable, effective teams. Their business grows. …but they are not joyful. They are not waking up motivated each day. They are not finding themselves energised through the day by the activities, people … Read more
“Sometimes all you need for exceptional results is average effort repeated for an above-average amount of time.” James Clear Consistency beats brilliance. The 20 mile march. Daily progress. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step… and you’ll reach it within a year if you go for 3 miles a day. I’ve … Read more