The Importance of Boundaries
In his book Give And Take, Adam Grant describes three types of people [1]: Givers: Those people who give with no thought of reward or reciprocity; Matchers: Those who will only give if they feel they will get something back in return; Takers: Those who take and do not...
Do You Need Every Alert?
Today marks my first full day back at work after a relaxing two weeks of leave. While I was away, I turned off all my alerts for social media, email and other apps on my smart devices. The only notifications I left on were for personal messages...
Become a Chief Storytelling Officer.
For thousands of years, we have communicated with each other through stories. We’ve told stories about our history, our successes and our failures. Leaders need to take on the role of storyteller. I think they should become the Chief Storytelling Officer. As the Chief...
Yes. Competitors Can Collaborate.
Yesterday I wrote about the concept of competing with your own team. Today, I want to take it one step further and talk about how competitors can collaborate. As it happened, yesterday I listened to Andy Penn, CEO of Telstra, address the National Press Club. He...
Are You Competing With Your Own Team?
Competitive people have a desire to win. On the surface, you might not think there is anything wrong with that. But what if the person they are competing with is someone in the same company or organisation? This happens more often than you realise. If...
On Control … Again
Yesterday I wrote about control and influence. A few more thoughts on the subject ... Think about the unhappiest or angriest people you know. What are they trying to control that they can’t? In my experience, the unhappiest people of the world, (including...
Control vs Influence
A myth I often dispel with clients is that we have control over people. We don’t. The only person we have limited control over is ourselves. We can control what we say and what we do. To a limited extent, we can control how we think. We cannot, however, control...
“It’s Time To Learn A Few New Jokes”
In 2012, the University of Melbourne Centre for Ethical Studies produced a report entitled Resilience: Women’s Fit Functioning and Growth at Work: Indicators and Predictors. At the time it was published as part of the Gender Equality Project. The report...
The Power Of A Simple System
In his book Deep Work, Cal Newport talks about Jerry Seinfeld’s simple system for getting work done. It involves putting a cross on the calendar each day he writes a joke and not placing a mark when he doesn’t. As Jerry tells it, once you get a row or two of crosses,...