Life is full of risks. Risk is the chance that something will go wrong – from mere inconvenience to catastrophic loss of life and property. Humans have managed risk pretty well over the millennia. We know that, because we’re still here. Leaders have led teams who have worked to get…
123. How do you get Courage?
Great leaders model courage. They have that ability to overcome fear, and step into danger when needed. Real courage is it’s not an abstract thing. It shows in your actions. Or doesn’t. Courageous leaders inspire trust, with or without fanfare. People follow that. Pretending to be brave doesn’t cut it,…
122. Are you an Explorer?
All great leaders are creative. So, in turn, are their teams. Not in the narrow sense of art or music or design, but the broader sense of original thought. A problem with the perception many have of creativity, is that it’s just about arts or entertainment. Nothing can be further…
121. How do you Improve?
Great organizations don’t pretend to be innovative, or delegate it to specialists. Great organizations don’t put their Communications teams in charge of “Continuous Improvement” or create separate departments. In Great Organizations, every team drives improvement, and every team member in those teams has a part to play in improvement. Some…
120. Where is Best?
You’re at work, and you want to be curious and creative. What could possibly go wrong? One thing that often goes wrong is called the Best Practice trap. The plausible yet dangerous assertion that performance will improve if you just find “Best Practice” and copy it. That conformity can replace…
119. Why be curious?
All great leaders are creative. I’m not sure if creativity can be taught, but it certainly can be practiced. Creativity isn’t just about inventing something new and unique, its about combining existing knowledge in new and creative ways. At it’s heart it’s about being curious. You can’t expect to be…
98. How Brave are you?
“Change Management” is often described as if it’s like building a wall. One brick put neatly on top of another. “Define the problem” “Implement the solution” etc…“tick the box”. Anyone who has led real change knows it isn’t like that. Real change only looks certain in hindsight. You don’t know…
81. Are you an imitator?
A rabbit’s owners wanted it to help them. So they convinced the rabbit to copy how they buy food from the local supermarket. It did well. It could put items in the trolley, go to the checkout, pay, and even carry them home. Sadly the rabbit wasn’t much help to…