Most employees have it – a desire to express themselves, creativity, ingenuity, an innovative spirit, loyalty, the ability to work with other team members, resilience, energy, ideas, etc. – but much depends on the environment in which these employees work if they are to live out their innate abilities and express their skills. “Being skilled”…
A couple of decades ago, and even persisting today, the conventional definition of an effective leader was one who got results, optimised the business to create a stronger bottom line and generally forced productivity out of his or her employees. Many of these management initiatives expended to get these results were at the cost of…
In coastal cities, particularly those where frequent cold fronts make landfall in the winter months, weather conditions are known to change rapidly. This happens to be true of Cape Town, a beautiful city located at the south-western tip of Africa and nestled at the foot of famous Table Mountain. Subsequently and as a result of…
The word “unabridged” means complete and uncut – the full product, which has not been shortened, censored or decreased in size in any way. An “abridged” version suggests that you are just getting the highlights – a pick of some of the juicy parts, but not the whole picture, as decided by an editor for…
“In a child’s lunchbox are a mother’s thoughts” (Japanese Proverb) On occasion, I also took my turn as a parent preparing lunches for my children when they were in junior school. I was not that creative I guess in what I prepared, but was very creative in the way that I cut the sandwiches –…
We don’t know who to trust anymore! Many political and some business leaders keep letting us down. In fact, they deliberately manipulate circumstances (tenders, the system, etc.) to suit their own selfish desires. Money that should have been directed to infrastructure development and other worthy projects that uplift communities is diverted into the pockets of…
The Information Technology project team seemed to be upbeat, certainly if one analysed the tenor of their weekly project reports mailed to everyone in the company. Their “Win of the Week” e-mail was a status update of progress being made with the intended implementation of a new IT platform for the company – a much-needed…
“Nothing kills ‘one team one goal’ thinking like silos” (John G Miller, author of QBQ: The Question Behind the Question) A CEO of a large business recently shared some of his frustrations with me – he complained that he needed to mediate conflict frequently between his senior managers and asked: “Why do people responsible for…
I sometimes get frustrated by poor customer service – no, I get frustrated all the time when it is bad, especially when I am treated with disdain. In situations like the aforementioned, I attempt to keep my cool and offer a different perspective, but not always successfully. It would seem that many shop floor staff…
The door was open and I received a comforting welcome when I arrived at the potential client that morning. Whilst waiting for my presentation to the executive leadership and sipping on a needed cup of rather good coffee, I was surprised to sense the warmth of relationship that seemed to exist in this company. The…
Tim McClure, Professional Speaker and Brand and Leadership Consultant, noted: “The biggest concern for any organisation should be when their most passionate people become quiet”. Highly motivated individuals – their participation, their creativity and ideas and their keenness to be involved – carry the best of the organisation’s culture and establish it in an aspirational…
The expression ‘in the same boat’ is typically construed as a negative idiom – “you say that you have run out of money – well, I am in the same boat”, meaning that I have run out of money too. It implies that you find yourself in a similar situation or in the same position…
