What Can We Learn From The Apprentice?

This is the title of a piece in a LinkedIn conversation.  Here is my perspective:
I think we need to be careful about what we learn from The Apprentice and other reality shows in the ‘business genre’.
‘Cost control’ is paramount in some organisations and in really simple tasks that only have to work in the very [...]

“Partnership working?” What the hell is Partnership working”?

This has been my favourite tweet of the last 24 hours!
It caused me to pause and reflect.  It made think about how poorly it is defined and what a mess most partnerships are.  Many people find it a Herculean proposition to drive change in a single organisation.  What hope for progress in a partnership?
Yet few [...]

BGT Still Providing Management Lessons

One of my very early posts featured Paul Potts on Britains got Talent.
Well BGT proves itself to be the reality show of choice for the progressive managers looking to learn.
Forget The Apprentice and Dragon’s Den.  For lessons in authenticity, body language, hidden talent, and managing expectations.
Watch the video on youtube here.

Making Partnerships and Alliances Work

Great blog post on this topic in today’s Washington Post.  They offer 8 Is for making partnerships work that are worth considering:

Individual excellence. Both parties must have strengths on their own, because weak players cannot prop each other up.
Importance. The relationship must have strategic significance. If it is just casual, don’t bother.
Interdependence. The strongest and [...]

In order to get something different, you must do something different …

For many years I have done very little to actively seek recommendations or positive feedback from clients.  My belief was that my clients are all too busy to appreciate being asked to write about the joys of working with me.  I have happy clients.  None have asked for their money back (although most of my [...]

Are You Ambivalent?

Many managers I meet are, at best, ambivalent about management.  Few are passionate about it.
Why do we get into something we have so little passion for?
Why do we expect to be good at it?
Is it just a necessary evil en route to more power and money?
Need help to get passionate about management?
Get in touch!

The Sorry State of Management?

Yesterday I trained a group of around 20 managers all of whom were members of the Chamber of Commerce. It was a free ‘taster’ session – a 2 hour glimpse into the power of real management development to improve performance and relationships at work.
Feedback from the group was VERY positive! There was consensus [...]

Conscious Capitalism

I have been watching a movement develop over recent years called ‘conscious capitalism’ or ‘conscious business’.  It provides a different take on what it means to be a ’social enterprise’.  The idea is being pioneered by amongst others, John Mackey, CEO of Wholefoods Supermarket.  In a recent speech he says:
A Conscious Business is one which [...]