“The flower doesn’t dream of the bee. It blossoms and the bee comes” (Mark Nepo) The use of positional power and authority to get employees to act on objectives and team tasks can certainly yield results, but this authoritarian style of leadership does not engender trust or willingness on the part of employees to offer…
“The mirror, a tool by which to ‘know thyself’, invited man to not mistake himself for God, to avoid pride by knowing his limits and to improve himself. His was thus not a passive mirror of imitation, but an active mirror of transformation” (Sabine Melchior-Bonnet) A mirror (or looking glass) is an object that reflects…
“The best way to demotivate and lose top performers is to reward mediocrity in an attempt to maintain status quo” (Jameson St Claire) Governments do it. Many big corporates do it. They reward poor performance to maintain the status quo. Governments prop up ailing industries at the expense of those same industries, of necessity, reinventing…
“The light at the end of the tunnel is not an illusion – the tunnel is” (Unknown) As a year, 2017 had its fair share of challenges – yes, global challenges of a serious nature, but somewhat equally important and significant, personal issues that made the year a difficult one to endure. We all have…
One of the major challenges in change initiatives, whether small or large in impact, is to deal with resistance amongst managers and employees. Even though resistance to change is a natural human phenomenon, resistance typically hinders progress and subsequently alignment to the new direction – it therefore needs to be addressed. One of the ways…
Clarity of direction is important for any company – without it, employees end up “doing” work activities rather than focusing their energy and time on mission-critical tasks. The meaning of work gets lost when employees end up doing work because it has to be done. At the same time, however, in the current turbulent environment…
I was once asked: “Why do you always insist on taking the hard road?” I replied: “Why do you assume I see two roads?” (Unknown) The temptation for managers to look for short-cuts in their respective leadership endeavours is pressing – increasing customer demands, sometimes unrealistic labour union expectations, pressure from the competition, shareholder needs,…
“Why are we here? What’s life all about? Is God really real, or is there some doubt? Well, tonight, we’re going to sort it all out, For, tonight, it’s ‘The Meaning of Life’“ (Monty Python) Those were the opening lines of the first song in The Meaning of Life, a film made by the British…
“Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance” (Bruce Barton) Lewis Pugh has pioneered more swims around famous landmarks than any other person in history. He swam across the icy waters of the North Pole to highlight the melting of the Arctic…
‘Force-multiplication’ is a term used in military science and warfare and refers to an attribute or a combination of attributes that dramatically increases (hence multiplies) the effectiveness of an item or group, giving the troops the ability to accomplish greater things than without it. The expected size increase required to have the same effectiveness without…
The history of Coca-Cola began in 1886 when the curiosity of an Atlanta pharmacist, Dr John S Pemberton, led him to create a distinctive tasting soft drink that could be sold at soda fountains. He created a flavoured syrup, took it to his neighbourhood pharmacy, where it was mixed with carbonated water and deemed “excellent”…
I use coloured flipchart markers frequently during my consulting sessions and workshop facilitation for companies, not only to record ideas and other thoughts for the groups, but also to depict concepts graphically and illustrate themes. I was recently introduced to the Neuland suite of products, a range of markers and related products of which is…
