“A prudent question is one half of wisdom” (Francis Bacon, Sr.) Many employees have become so used to receiving instructions – their respective bosses telling them what to do – that they have stopped thinking as a result. They perform the functions, but their hearts and minds are not part of their actions. They go…
I wish that I still had 20/20 vision, but many years have slipped by and the time is coming for reading glasses – although reasonably inexpensive, they have the profound ability of bringing text back into focus again and I no longer need to squint to see that which is before me. In geometrical optics,…
I was lied to as a kid – my parents, teachers, sports coaches, etc. – not intentionally, of course, as I guess they were only trying to encourage my development, but they lied. They told me, even exhorted me that practice makes perfect: “The sky is the limit. You can achieve anything that you want…
I have an interesting application on my phone which allows me to view the exact location of all domestic and international flights around the world at any time during the day or night. The application provides details of a plane’s registration certificate and flight number, departure airport and destination city, departure and estimated arrival times,…
“Consistency is the only currency that matters” (Prudential Investment Managers) There are no short cuts to great leadership – great leadership is cultivated over time. In 1979, teenager Jadaf Payeng began planting trees on his small Northern Indian Majuli Island – it’s an action that he has repeated millions of times over the past 39…
“Today is your day, your mountain is waiting, so get on your way” (Dr Seuss) Dreaming about a thing in order to do it properly constitutes wisdom; dreaming about a thing when you should be doing it is ineffective. Contemplating your vision and meditating on it, letting it become engrained in your mind, is helpful,…
“What is planted in people is more important than what is poured into them” (Alinda Nortje, Founder and CEO of Free To Grow) Forward-thinking companies typically host many interventions for their employees (workshops, dialogue groups, seminars, e-learning platforms, coaching, etc.) to accelerate learning and grow the knowledge base of the business. Whilst these attempts are…
“Left to ourselves, we can no more find out the purpose of life than a man can pull himself up by his own shoe laces. What we need is for the meaning to be revealed to us from the outside” (Melvin Tinker, What Do You Expect?) Bernard Levin, infamous journalist who poked fun at British…
I had to do some grocery shopping today and couldn’t help noticing the following words on the till receipt: “Do it with passion or not at all!” I fortunately love my job and put passion into what I do, but not everyone has this same experience of work. There are many employees, even some on…
One of my most loved music genre’s is ‘classical’ – not only compositions from the so-called ‘greats’ (Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, etc.), but also the lesser-known composers that have influenced music style in the 20th Century. This morning, it was Ravel’s turn to serenade me. Joseph Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), perhaps one of the greatest of…
Acclaimed athletes and international sports teams have many of them – coaches for different aspects of the game or discipline. This group of professional advisors often includes physiotherapists and masseurs, sports psychologists, nutritionists, fitness specialists and even doctors, quite apart from analysts, agents and the like. All the personnel exist for one thing alone –…
Behind the problems that routinely plague teams and organisations are individuals who either can’t or won’t deal with failed promises – some have just not performed well, missed deadlines or behaved badly; others have broken rules or have been involved in more serious issues. The managers that attempt to address these difficulties often do so…
