The best leadership books aren’t about leaders. Especially if they’re about the author. “What I did to be successful or rich” will likely feed their ego but not you. It’s not that there’s nothing to learn from Richard Branson or Bill Gates or Elon Musk. It’s just that the chances…
54. Q1: Which problem are we trying to Solve?
All great discoveries start with a question. So too does anything you will create, or be successful at. We want to do something and realize we can’t. We realize that there’s something we need to learn. The greatest achievements in business or in organizations start exactly the same way. Only…
49. Meeting with your Fears
It takes courage for most people to speak up in meetings. It doesn’t take much to convince them to not say anything. It’s easy to not be truthful, when telling the truth needs courage. To pretend that everything is ok when it’s not is the most common lie in meetings.…
42. Know your enemy..
It’s dangerous to think of yourself as just a hunter. No matter what you’re trying to achieve as a team, there are forces which will align against you. You need to assume you’re being hunted. A leader’s job isn’t just to set targets but to know where the team’s enemies…
41. Eat but don’t get eaten
When a bird is hunting an insect to eat, it must watch out at the same time that it’s not being hunted. That’s why bird’s brains, (& our brains too) are divided into 2 hemispheres. Humans (and all sentient beings) have survived and prospered because our brains can do 2…
36. What do you Know?
What you “know” sits inside your head, right? Your own beliefs and decisions are based on rational thoughts and logic. You “worked it out”.. unlike others with a different view who just made it up or aren’t so smart. Right? Wrong. At BalancedKaizen we believe that what we know is…
31. Who are You…?
This series about Felt Leadership is based on Charles Handy’s 4 Organizational Cultures – Person, Power, Task and Role. To make this more meaningful for individuals we picture a leader as a combination of 4 different “people” – Person, Ruler, Worker & Organizer… We call these 4 the “Leadership Team”.…
27. Respect
The final post in our series on making Values work for you covers the 5th most popular, yet most mysterious Value – Respect. Respect is unique as a Value because almost everybody wants it but few want to give it, at least not freely… Respect and Humility are often confused…
17. How do you know what to do?
Strategy is important, but it’s often misunderstood and misused. Having a defined set of objectives & priorities linked to action plans will help you achieve those objectives , but only if it helps you and your people stay aligned, and if it encourages them to grow Knowledge, not just follow.…
11. The Boy who cried Wolf
An important management lesson was written over 2600 years ago. It’s a story about a shepherd boy who gives fake warnings about a wolf attacking his sheep to get attention from the villagers. Unfortunately his fake reports prove fatal later when an actual wolf attacks him and the villagers don’t…