I recorded the final modules for the first year of our Active Manager Programme last week, and one of them was about making better decisions.
One of the mistakes we make is that we can remain locked in the past, using the same old data or the same old processes. Even more important, we have outdated assumptions.
Read MoreSo, the very first question to consider is – whose life are you living? What constraints are you allowing others to place on you? You might have a partner who is more risk averse than you. Clarity requires a conversation about how you can accommodate their need for comfort with your need for challenge. But don’t just be silently compliant.
Read MoreYou need to let go of the idea that working harder is going to make your business more successful, along with working harder means working longer hours. Instead, you need to learn that working fewer hours on a small number of important things will take you further and faster. And to do that, you need to get clear about where your efforts will get greatest return.
Read MoreI’m learning the solo from Hotel California. Everyone knows it. It’s genuinely iconic, and it’s bloody hard to play. There are two guitars, played by Joe Walsh and Don “Fingers” Feldon. Actually, there are 8 guitars on the track, but one is more than enough.
Read MoreBusiness confidence stays in the news. The latest GDP report shows the economy growing at its normal rate, though in my experience GDP figures are 3 months behind the SME economy.
No one knows whether the loss in confidence will impact growth. Generally, expectations of slower growth are a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Read MoreFor years the question has been “How can I make people more accountable?” I always thought this was the wrong question because it was about the person asking the question and how they could get others to do what they (the questioner) wanted. Accountability is something others put on you, responsibility is something you take.
Read MoreBecause they are the best-trained. Forget Beauden Barrett, the key guy is Steve Hansen (and before him Graham Henry). Since they’ve been involved, All Black coaching teams have taught their teams how to train (learn).
If you want to perform better, train your managers in learning how to learn, and learning how to teach.
Read MoreI was having a conversation with a Breakthrough member and another guy at our Challenger workshop the other day. The member was talking about how valuable the Breakthrough programme has been in terms of business growth (oh alright, I prompted him). But then he spontaneously said, “Actually the most valuable part has been the effect on my relationship with my wife.”
Read MoreA couple of weeks ago I ran into a client from my time as a partner in a large business consulting firm. Rieny Marck and I worked together 20 years ago, and he was reminiscing about the Lumley Insurance journey.
I did some work with them over the space of about a year, starting with a vision and strategy session and then working through a detailed opportunity assessment and priority process. He still recalled the methodology I used, and my reference to something I called the “zone of sensible excitement”.
Read MoreMy GP is a fascinating man. He knows all these obscure things and treatments. He always likes to see me because I have exotic symptoms that he regards as a test of his trivia trove (and they are trivial). One of his trivia titbits is that there is a part of the brain called the locus coeruleus which is responsible for filtering out unwanted sounds.
Read MoreMy youngest son is a wonderful musician, already better than I will ever be. He was born with musical talent (he owes me for that), but he learned to be a musician, and he owes a great teacher and a determined mother for that.
Mrs T said he had to practice for 30 minutes a day and every night his mother made him practice for at least that (sometimes with a timer and often with a lot of resistance).
Read MoreAfter 15 years I’ve worked out what we do here and why it works so well.
I’ve always practiced “outside in” – bringing the world to my inbox via subscriptions to bloggers, periodicals, newspapers and book reviews. This has its downside as a couple of them are American magazines (The Atlantic and New Yorker) and I can lose up to 20 minutes a day Trumping.
Read MoreI don’t know if you’ve noticed, but sh*t happens. Often. All the time, to varying degrees. We’re rolling along happily, and then avvompha! We get knocked off our stride.
Last year we were working on a big initiative. Great opportunity, wonderful relationship yadda yadda yadda. The great opportunity got smaller and smaller until it was whatever the opposite of opportunity is.
Read MoreGood intentions, we all have them. We begin the new year full of vim and vigour and a whole lot of resolutions to do things better, differently and with more conviction. But it is normally a matter of weeks (if not days) and we are right back to our habits of 2017.
We’re working too many hours, feeling stressed, eating the wrong things, skipping workouts, missing time with the kids, cancelling date nights, and so the cycle continues.
Read MoreIt’s all very well to set Most Important Goals. They establish what we rationally consider to be our priorities. They represent our beliefs about what’s important – they're our convictions.
But priorities are only meaningful if they involve choice and sacrifice. In those moments when honouring the priority involves inconvenience, disruption, additional effort on the part of yourself or others, then your commitment to priority is tested.
Read MoreWe played our last gig of the year last night – it was really great. The crowd loved it, we played pretty well and the energy was high. I got some very nice crowd response to some of my solos on the guitar, which always feels good.
Interestingly, I still feel that my guitar work is not where I want it to be.
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