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There are no solutions, only trade-offs.

“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

3 Life and Leadership Lessons from my Father

My father is by all accounts a successful leader. There are 3 “superpowers” that he has that I think have helped him have such a positive effect in each of these environments. My father has had a long and successful career in business leading to a decade as the Chairman of the Board of Accenture, … Read more

The Tyranny of Convenience

Convenience makes things easy… but what is easy is not always whats most important, valuable or effective. We choose between the options we see, not all the options… we’ve got to be increasingly careful that we don’t choose the path that is just easiest to see. Convenience food… is not health food. Tech companies work … Read more

What do excellent CEOs do? (according to McKinsey research)

A company has only one ultimate decision maker: the CEO. The CEO is the only person in a company without peers. No other individual holds such a full and final responsibility for the company. The CEO is the most powerful and sought-after title in business, more influential than any other. The CEO takes the company’s … Read more

What evidence would change your mind?

I was listening to Shane Parrish interview Adam Grant on his knowledge project podcast last week. Adam was speaking of the loss of rationality in many public domains. Politics, gender, science, global warming, race relations… are all domains where it has become dangerous to ask questions or engage with open curiosity. As Adam was speaking … Read more

Uncommon sense

Charlie Munger on uncommon sense… Competence – you can only be trusted as competent if you clearly understand the limits of your competence. The great danger of experts is they forget the limits of their expertise – “it is better to trust a man of 130 IQ who thinks he is 125 IQ, than to … Read more

Leaders Must Develop 2 Skills in the People around Them

If you are a leader, you need to work on developing 2 skills in the people around you: Influence and Decision Making. The Importance of Influence Skills Without the people around you learning how to influence others, they will always need your involvement to get anything done. Read more on Influence 18 Influence Methods to … Read more