- Talent on tap or trap?
Schumpeter writes in the Economist about the recent US trend of hiring interim executives or ‘flexible boardrooms’ to cope with sudden crises (CEO messes up) or short term problems (need to get through FSA compliance or launch a new product). The practice is more common on this side of the pond but the issues remain [...]
- What matters now
If you want some free inspiration for 2010 check out Seth Godin’s new ebook What Matters Now. 70 top US digirati thinkers have put their ideas down on a page. My favourite is Derek Sivers – Passion – you grow and thrive by doing what excites you and what scares you everyday.
- Digital sparks need apply
We’re excited Psycuity is delivering one of the days of the Northwest Vision and Media i.studio+ programme. The i.studio+ concept comes from the great team at the White Room and is designed to get new staffers in digital companies prepared for steps up the leadership ladder. So if you know any bright digital sparks make [...]
- The workers are revolting!
A PR from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) found that half of the workers surveyed left a job due to bad management, not such a surprising statistic given the lack of understanding of what managers really do. The management guru Henry Mintzberg rails against the over professionalisation of management and abundance of MBAs. I agree [...]
- Doing the right thing
Caterina Fake of Flickr fame muses that working hard is overated. A lot of her early start-up time was unproductive and spent ‘freaking out’ in other words:
panicking
working on things just to be seen to be busy
not knowing what we were doing
fearing failure
worrying about things we needn’t have worried about
thinking about fund raising rather than product [...]
- Are you a pomegranate?
Did you know the boxer Muhammed Ali developed his own theory of personality based on fruit! He categorised people by the hardness/softness of the inside and outside of fruit.
Pomegranate – hard outside, hard inside
Walnut – hard outside, soft inside
Prune – soft outside, hard inside
Grape – soft outside, soft inside
It’s an easy way of categorising people, [...]
- Twitter workout?
A recent study by Dr Tracey Alloway, a Psychologist from Stirling University has shown that video war games could enhance a key element of intelligence that is vital to success in life.
Keeping up to date on Facebook and solving Sudoku may have similar effects, however text messaging, Tweeting and watching YouTube are all likely to weaken [...]
- Captain’s log
Chris Brogan makes some good points about personal responsibility in ‘you are the Captain’.
If you like leadership books one of my best reads is the Art of Captaincy by Mike Brearley, former England Cricket Captain and now a leading psychoanalyst. In cricket the captain’s influence is not measured like batting and bowling averages, but every good [...]
- Fun at LUMS
Ian and Philip were at Lancaster University Management School LUMS today running a workshop on ‘how to recruit and retain the right staff for you organisation’. The Lancaster Forum is an innovative project for high growth businesses in the Northwest who have been on the LEAD programme run by Lancaster University.
We were both impressed by [...]
- Choose your attitude
‘Choose you attitude’ is the mantra of Debra Searle who rowed single handed across the Atlantic after her husband withdrew from the double-handed Atlantic rowing race.
I was lucky enough to listen to Debra retell her journey at an after dinner speech during the CIMA Members in Practice conference. I’ve seen quite a few big name [...]
