A useful book on communcation
Conversations for Change: 12 Ways to Say it Right When it Matters Most
by Shawn Kent Hayashi.
Shawn introduces some highly useful and important ideas that contribute to effective communication – essential for building trust and buy-in from your people. It contains useful metaphors and concepts that any leader or manager will find highly relevant, practical and easy to implement.
Those ideas include:
Why emotional intelligence is so important in leadership – According ...
The Power of Habit
Charles Duhigg has written a powerful book that is a must read for anyone serious about leadership and success.
In The Power of Habit, he documents how our everyday actions are governed by habits and how changing even one habit can have a massive domino effect. One case study worth mentioning concerns how Alcoa, a US Aluminum manufacturing company turned around the company culture with just one small change.
In 1987, at a time when people were more focused on maximising profits than ...
6 Lessons in Influence from a Karate Master
My karate teacher (sensei), Masataka Mori is a 9th Dan and the chief instructor of the International Japanese Karate Association. Even though I haven’t trained with him in years, he will always be my sensei. If he walked into a conference full of hundreds, or even thousands of people, you would instantly know who trained with him. They would be the ones standing and bowing towards this one man. This would include anyone on stage. Such is the respect he commands.
Here are six ways ...
6 Lessons in Influence from a Karate Master
My karate teacher (sensei), Masataka Mori is a 9th Dan and the chief instructor of the International Japanese Karate Association. Even though I haven’t trained with him in years, he will always be my sensei. If he walked into a conference full of hundreds, or even thousands of people, you would instantly know who trained with him. They would be the ones standing and bowing towards this one man. This would include anyone on stage. Such is the respect he commands.
Here are six ways ...
Assume Success
Here’s a quick tip on how you can be a more astute and successful leader (and person).
Whenever you set a goal or start a project, assume you’ll succeed. Then look for evidence – small and large – to prove you’re headed in the right direction.
The brain scans our environment five times per second picking up clues to tell it how to respond. If you prime your brain to notice evidence of success or failure that’s what you’ll see. You’ll then look for ...
Assume Success
Here’s a quick tip on how you can be a more astute and successful leader (and person).
Whenever you set a goal or start a project, assume you’ll succeed. Then look for evidence – small and large – to prove you’re headed in the right direction.
The brain scans our environment five times per second picking up clues to tell it how to respond. If you prime your brain to notice evidence of success or failure that’s what you’ll see. You’ll then look for ...
A sum of small conversations
I’ve been speaking a lot about the power of conscious and unconscious communicatioins in driving people’s performance. The effect of small gestures and asides have a powerful impact on others that extends far beyond what you might think it possible. Recently though, I remembered my experience with a former manager and it brought home to me just how insidious those conversations can be, especially if coming from a leader, manager or someone in a position of authority.
Years ago in ...
Five Ways to be a Smart Leader
I feel a bit silly here. Since my book was published, I’ve been writing and speaking a lot about different aspects of leadership but still haven’t shared the actual model that was the framework for my whole book!
The SHAPES model shows the interrelated pillars of leadership excellence, inside a context for integrity that translates into success when action is taken. There are too many nuances for a single blog, but I’ll start with one element. Since it is intuitive to start at ...
The Importance of Random Acts of Kindness
Take a moment and write down how many people you’ve come into contact today. How many people you have connected with. How many you have spoken with (even for a moment) looked at, stood or sat near, emailed, or in some way communicated with.
Then think about this.
Every single one of those moments was an opportunity to make a difference to that person.
Every single one of those moments was a chance to not only make their day a little better, but to increase your own happiness.
Human ...
Monty Python Goes to Canberra
I don’t think anyone’s surprised to find that Edelman’s 2012 Trust Barometer revealed that only 33% of Australians trust government to do what is right and 60% of Australians do not trust government leaders to tell the truth.
In their rush to tell us they’re the better woman or man to run the government, political leaders like Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard appear to have forgotten that what’s is really important to us is well…us.
Power is a demanding mistress ...
