Posted by: admin in Untagged on
Aug 24, 2010
What's in your knowledge hard drive? On average, it's been estimated that people will work for five different organisations over their working life? With such turnover, how do organisations maintain the critical corporate knowledge needed to remain successful?
In this latest aticle, I've suggested some creative ways that organisations might tackle this challenge.
Posted by: admin in Untagged on
Jul 10, 2010
For students of leadership, I've located a good new resource. As they say on their site "LMKnowledge, the intelligent search engine for decision makers. Are you familiar with wasting time searching for relevant business information? LMKnowledge is the new knowledge portal for first-class online resources and global business articles. It provides you with immediate access to the most relevant sources of business information.
With more than 10.000 searchable professional contributions, the Global Research Team is continuosly reviewing new, interesting sources from different business cultures to inspire, animate and confront you with new ideas."
Check it out.
Bob
Posted by: admin in Untagged on
Jul 1, 2010
For cycling fans, "le Tour", the biggest annual sporting event, is about to start. And for students of leadership, there's an interesting series of articles in my local paper on the Australians in the tour. Today it was on Michael Rogers and his chances for this year's event.
For leadership watchers, it will be very ineteresting to see how he goes. His cycling abilityt is undoubted. However, it's his leadership that will make or break his chances.
As the article stated: "Rogers is excited. He is hungry to produce his best. He knows he has the attributes to race well - he can time-trial and climb. He also has a steady, calm nature to handle the pressure moments that often break others. But deep down, he knows something is missing.
That something is the respect of his teammates, who will be expected to race flat out to help his chances. Without teammates, no rider wins a tour - let alone ''le Tour''. The 30-year-old from Canberra also knows such unconditional loyalty is not given but earned."
Cycling as a team leader in an event such as this - they compete for 21 days over 3,000 odd kms - is a real test of leadership.
In terms of trust and respect - two essential qualities for leaders - Rogers had this to say, ''It was something I had to earn back,'' Rogers told the Herald. ''When you ask the guys to sacrifice their own performance for the leader, a whole lot of work goes on around that. Like in any relationship, there is a need to be trusted. That is something I've spent a lot of time doing ... getting the respect of the guys so they know that when I am there to show - and I have showed this year that I am serious - that if they stand behind me I can win or perform.''
Watch the Tour and stayed tune for leadership results.
Posted by: admin in Untagged on
Jun 30, 2010
My apologies if you have been trying to access the site over the last few weeks, as it was hacked and had to be closed down.
We are now back in business with some new articles to come very shortly.
A new site for entrepreneurs
A new site has started at http://myentredex.com/ - check it out - some good material, blogs etc.
British Institute for Learning and Development
I've just been fortunate enough to be made a Fellow of the British Institute for Learning and Development.
"What To Do When You Become The Boss"
The book is off to a great start as released by Hachette in Australia. I'll be running sessions at the Australian Institute of Management in Sydney and Melbourne to launch this new edition.
Posted by: bselden in Untagged on
Feb 20, 2010
Feedback ...
Excellent, thought provoking, great for getting the true message of what a person is saying, forces us to listen more, looking forward to using it in my coaching. These were just some of the comments from participants at this week's workshop.
Penny Tompkins and James Lawley, authors of "Metaphors in Mind: Transformation through Symbolic Modelling" facilitaed a great development workshop for 31 participants in Sydney. Looking forward to the next one.
Recently reviewed ...
Surviving and Thriving in the HR World, by Jim Suthers.
The future of Performance Reviews?
See my latest article "What have we learnt about Performance Management?" for a comparison of GM and AIG's latest and fifferent approaches to the subject.
Posted by: bselden in Untagged on
Feb 14, 2010
If you are interested in influencing others (and who isn't?) then the latest book on change is a "must read".
This is a great book about change. For those who have read many change books, the majority are developed around a model or framework where the emphasis is on changing the other party. Latting and Ramsey start from the precept that any change must first start with oneself and the need to look inwardly to better identify things that may affect one's influence of others.
See my review of "Reframing Change: How to Deal with Workplace Dynamics, Influence Others, and Bring People Together to Initiate Positive Change." Jean Kantambu Latting and V. Jean Ramsey, ABC-CLIO, Snata Barbara 2009.
Will they ever learn?
A.I.G. and General Motors have both just announced cxhanges to their management of people's performance. One appears to be a Performance Measurement System, whilst the other approaches a Performance Management System. See what you think at "Is your performance ranked "A", "B" or "C"?"
Clean Laguage Workshop
I'm looking forward to the Clean Language Workshop to be run in Sydney tomorrow. If you would like a copy of the handouts, please email me.
Posted by: admin in Untagged on
Jan 29, 2010
The Clean Language Workshop is fast approaching - 16th Feb in Sydney.
If you're new to Clean Language or would like to understand more, listen to my good mate Wayne Turmel's podcast at the Cranky Middle Manager site http://cmm.thepodcastnetwork.com/
Wayne interviews Penny Tompkins and James Lawley who will be running the Sydney workshop. They are also authors of "Metaphors in Mind" see their site http://www.cleanlanguage.co.uk/
Clean Language is a great way to improve communication between people and help one another understand what each other is really saying and meaning.
If you plan to be in Sydney on the 16th, book for the workshop by contacting me
Cheers
Bob
Posted by: bselden in Untagged on
Nov 3, 2009
My apologies to anyone who has been trying to get onto the site over the last few days. There was a technical problem and the site has been down.
Aussie bound!
It's also a while since I've written a blog entry and I have to say that I've been a little slack. Perhaps there has been a good reason. After seven years in Switzerland I've finally relocated to Sydney full time, so the last few weeks have been taken up with relocation activities.
The Clean People are coming to Sydney
Penny Tomkins and James Lawley, authors of "Metaphors in Mind" are coming to Australia and will be running a workshop in mid February on clean language - more of that in future posts.
"What To Do When You Become The Boss" also Aussie bound
One of the biggest publishers in Australia had heard some good things about the book. The upshot is that Hatchetts will be publishing the second edition locally. I'm currently working on additional chapter "Talking around the water cooler" (common questions new managers might ask or be asked before they take over their new role).
Posted by: bselden in Untagged on
Sep 15, 2009
I got cleaned!
Attended the Clean Coaching Conference in London over the weekend. Very good material and sessions, all based on the "clean" concept of questioning, used particularly in coaching.
For those unfamiliar with the concept of "clean" questioning, it is a way of helping another person find answers without giving advice. This may sound similar to the contemporary model of "coaching", so popular today, particularly in the business context. However, "clean" is substantially different. "Clean" is as clean as possible of the questioner's assumptions, opinions and metaphors. Furthermore, although listening is an integral component of the process of clean, it definitely does not use techniques such as paraphrasing, summarising etc, for these automatically provide the opinion of the questioner.
"Clean" was developed through the therapeutic approaches and methods of David J. Grove, creator of Clean Language. Grove found that using clean language is a simple method of having the client amplify the metaphors they often use when describing a traumatic experience. The key to Clean Language is to use the client's exact words without inference in a structured process that enables the client to self discover the cause of their problem.
From Grove's initial work in therapy, the concept has now been applied to coaching, communication and as I found at the conference, even market research (with stunning results). In terms of practical and useable (by the layperson) psychological concepts, I believe "clean" is one of the greatest breakthroughs of the last 50 years!
See my reviews of two books on the subject "Metaphors in Mind" and "Clean Language - Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds" for more information.
Posted by: bselden in Untagged on
Aug 17, 2009
Reading a great book on leadership at the moment, "Creating Magic" by Lee Cokerill, former VP Operations at Walt Disney World, Florida. It's early in the book yet, Cockerill has already tackled the thorny topic of the difference between leadership and management. Some quotes . . .
"No one ever explained to me the difference between managing and leading. I wish someone had; it would have spared me a lot of anguish."
"Despite the amazing variety of human beings out there, all everyone wants is to feel special, to be treated with respect, and to be seen as an individual."
" . . . managerial skills are absolutely essential for getting results, but they are not enough to drive excellence. Excellence requires common sense leadership."
One of the other reasons I like this book is that it is written by a manager (and leader), not by a management guru.
Bob
PS. The links are to articles of mine that relate to these topics.
