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…)

How can you attract more luck into your life and are some people just born lucky? This was the subject of research by Dr. Richard Wiseman and his colleagues over a couple of decades. Dr Wiseman concluded that the only sure way to become more lucky in life is to kiss a leprechaun. And considering St Patrick’s Day is just around the corner you might be in luck!  I’m kidding of course.

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If I were to ask you to define ‘credibility’ you might say something along the lines of “I know it when I see it”, just like you know you ‘like’ someone.  It’s a hard one because it’s such a subjective term but don’t dismiss the importance of ‘having credibility’ in your chosen area of expertise because credibility is positively correlated to success in every area of life. (more…)

1.    Determine the objective of the meeting and the outcomes you would like to achieve

Once you know what your objective and your outcomes are, you can quite easily create an agenda.

Sometimes it is worth holding a team meeting just for the social side.  Don’t underestimate the value of giving people an opportunity to unwind during a stressful project.

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Leadership strategy is not aligned with business strategy…

The biggest impact on both an organisation’s current business strategy and on the business futures it needs to create is the way a leader leads his/her team…and the way his/her successor leads their teams (Berger, Carrasco, Madala, & Painter, 2011). (more…)

Not having a clear development plan for each leader…

For most people who want to develop their career they would look at the qualifications needed to excel in that role.  For example, if I was a junior project manager I might focus on getting a PRINCE2 qualification or work towards gaining the points needed to sit the Project Management Institute (PMI) exam and gain accreditation.  However, what does a development plan look like for a leader? (more…)

Focussing only on the intellectual competencies…

Management is largely about the ‘head’; it’s planning and control, systems processes, problem solving, written communications, and so on and it’s really important for organisations to have people who excel at these functions. There’s no doubt that in order to be competent at any of the above there is a certain level of intelligence (IQ) needed. However, this is management. (more…)

Sending employees on 2 or 3 day leadership training courses…

If you’ve ever been on a 2 or 3 day training course I’ve no doubt that you learned a lot of valuable information and that the course was a great buzz…a fantastic cerebral hit!  You’ve probably come away from the course motivated to make loads of changes and become a truly great leader. (more…)

The following series of blogs details the 5 BIG Mistakes that organisations make when developing their leadership talent that is costing them in productivity, staff engagement, staff satisfaction and staff retention; never mind the escalating costs of replacing individuals and getting them up to speed to do an effective job. (more…)