I’ve always been fairly ambitious in my life and that ambition has driven me to work ridiculously hard holding down full-time jobs as well as two other part-time jobs while studying part-time on top of all that!  I’ve also gone out and set up small side businesses in the areas I was passionate about at the time but my earlier attempts always met with the same faith.  I was so driven to succeed in my twenties that it was all I could think about.  How to make money! (more…)

This summer my wife and I had grand plans of getting the garden in shape and I found myself standing in the sweltering heat of a greenhouse in the local garden center. It was a busy day and there were lots of people wandering by outside checking out the fruit trees but unable to help themselves taking a little look in to see what I was up to. It dawned on me that this is exactly what it’s like working in a professional office environment…we go through our professional lives living in our own personal greenhouse. (more…)

Times were pretty tough at home and we were struggling to make ends meet.  We cut back as much as we could and ultimately the only thing that was draining the family resources were the children…they were an expense and we had to continue to make sacrifices if ever we were going to make it.  Besides, they weren’t doing all that well at school and would only continue to be a drain on us as a family so we told ourselves it was for the best.  Could you imagine the heart-ache and pain associated with giving up your own children? (more…)

Attending networking events is something that most of us dread doing and, if you’ve never been to one before, your first one can be quite intimidating.  Here are some simple tips to help you be more comfortable the next time you find yourself at a networking event or even amongst a group of people you don’t know. (more…)

Have you ever noticed, either with yourself or with others, that managing up only ever becomes an issue when things aren’t going so well with the boss.  It’s only then that the hue and cry goes up and people scramble for what they should do.  In reality though, managing up should be something that you do all the time.  It’s your responsibility to understand your boss’s strengths and weaknesses, their priorities and their Working Style and to take the time to build a productive working relationship.  Here are a few tips to help you along the way… (more…)

I brought my seven year old daughter to the movies at the weekend and afterwards we were looking around the shops.  I told her she could have $10 to spend on anything she liked.  So after returning to the first of the four shops we visited and ninety minutes later my patience was wearing a little thin…there are only so many barbies and trinkity toys I can express an interest in in an afternoon!  At that point I told her that she had 10 minutes to make her decision or we would be leaving whether she bought something or not. (more…)

I remember getting my very first leadership opportunity.  I was thrilled because this is what I’d been working towards for many years and boy oh boy did I suck!  I thought I understood all I needed to know because, after all, I’d read all the books and gave an awesome interview so why was I floundering so badly?  I couldn’t understand why my team wasn’t jumping on board and hanging onto my every word.  It was at this point that I was firmly pressed up against reality and I quickly realised that I didn’t have the skills that I thought I had. (more…)

Conflict management is something that most of us aren’t very good at, largely because we generally shy away from confrontation and it’s not really in our nature to rock the boat.  It’s also one of those leadership skills that we don’t get to put into practice all that often and, like any skill, to become good at it, we must practice, practice, practice.  If conflict management is something you’d like to become more comfortable with, read on.  I’ve provided a simple framework that will assist you in dealing with (more…)

It must have been the winter of 2008.  It was a cold one and my wife and I decided to break up the winter and head to Fiji for a week.  So we packed up our 7 month old daughter and off we went.  My outstanding memories from Fiji were a cockerel who crowed every morning at 5am (grrrr!!!), the amazing friendliness of the people, the beautiful island itself and a tiny book stall in the lobby of a hotel…the name of which I have altogether forgotten. (more…)

This blog is the second part of “Why your staff are disengaged” and was written in response to a recent Gallup survey revealed that two-thirds of employees are disengaged.  It went on to say that “72% of New Zealanders are actively disengaged in the workforce, with 59% of employees behaving poorly with family and friends after a stressful day’s work.”  These statistics are quite unbelievable and very scary!  So what is it that is causing this lack of engagement and the general unhappiness of our New Zealand workforce? (more…)