Blog REACH 6:40 pm 10-September-2011 by Geoff We recently attending the VitalSmarts REACH conference in Park City, Utah. At a Crucial Conversations workshop we attended, my favourite line in relation to our inability as humans to speak up is "If you cannot talk about it, you cannot fix it!"  ... Read Full Article and 0 Comments or Add Comment Values 10:51 pm 20-November-2010 by Geoff In a recent two day training program in NSW for a 200 year old multinational company, I came across an interesting quandary. The company was steeped in cultural values, one of the biggest being respect. The company also struggled with accountability. What was most interesting in this company was that respect and lack of accountability were interlinked. Most managers felt unable to confront lack of accountability without appearing confrontational and breaching their value of resp... Read Full Article and -1 Comments or Add Comment Flying Start 12:58 pm 6-February-2012 by Geoff Inside and in the foyer of our office building there are TV screens playing financial news and results. It's not that I don't have an interest in financial results, it's just that it is so depressing! Not the news so much as the words and demeanour of the news people. Words like depression, cutback, gloomy, slow, crisis, shrinking, poor etc. seems to pervade every sentence. Before coming to the office if I had read the local newspaper, watched the news and listened to this when I arrived he... Read Full Article and 0 Comments or Add Comment Regulations 11:18 pm 13-May-2011 by Geoff The more I see the power of self regulation, the more I believe it is the way of the future. Many companies still believe in regulating their people. Lots of regulations, rules, compliances and controls. The more rules and restrictions, the more people will find short cuts! On one hand we want performance but on the other we put up barriers to slow people down. Companies like South West Airlines look for ways to allow their people to self regulate, make decisons and solve their own probl... Read Full Article and 0 Comments or Add Comment Gratitude 9:36 pm 19-January-2011 by Geoff A close friend and very clear thinking person recently recommended in a leadership session a daily 10 minute 'walk of gratitude'. The process is that you spend just 10 minutes walking [or maybe doing something relaxing] and just be grateful for anything and everything that is good about your life. The interesting part for me is this is the opposite of our tendency as humans to become self absorbed. We can become focused on ourselves and then miss opportunitie... Read Full Article and 0 Comments or Add Comment The 'Gerber' Method 11:42 pm 11-December-2010 by Geoff In business if all else fails then go back to the basics! Michael Gerber's books 'E-Myth Mastery' and 'E-Myth Manager' say it all. Maintaining a successful business requires two elements - leadership and structure. Whilst you can have leadership without structure, without leadership there is very little of anything! Structure - Ensure that every function in the business is 'owned' by someone! The old adage "If everyone is accountable then no-one is" applies in this case. Every aspect of the ope... Read Full Article and 0 Comments or Add Comment Motivation and Ability 11:09 pm 6-December-2010 by Geoff The 'Influencer' program from VitalSmarts talks about people doing things for two reasons - they want to do and / or they can. In other words they are motivated to do something, or they feel they are able to. Similarly a normal human trait is that if we feel unable to do something then we are unwilling to try. If we don't feel that we have the ability then as humans we will normally not be motivated to do so. Conversely when we are not motivated to do something, if asked about this we will no... Read Full Article and 0 Comments or Add Comment High Performance 11:30 pm 4-December-2010 by Geoff After recently discussing with a client their high performance model, I realised that it may not actually be one! If you look at companies that implement and fully realise high performance models like Southwest Airlines, what you notice is that their model is based primarily upon intrinsic motivation. They focus on getting people who love what they do, and the companies' have a system that allows people to be remunerated in an environment that emotionally rewards them every day for d... Read Full Article and 0 Comments or Add Comment Energy 11:23 pm 20-November-2010 by Geoff I just finished a book after being recommended to read by a close friend. The book is called 'The Energy Bus' by Jon Gordon and it absolutely blew me away! I loved it! The power of positive energy in organisations is undeniable. Skill and experience are vital to success but the power of passion and energy will always make the difference. The two terms that I love the best from the book were 'Energy Vampires' who thrive on sucking the life out of organisations. The second was the critica... Read Full Article and 0 Comments or Add Comment Motivation 11:14 pm 20-November-2010 by Geoff After recently running an Influencer program in Melbourne I saw an interesting correlation between motivation and ability. A term used in the training program is the 'Fundamental Attribution Error'. This refers to the common mistake that we can make in assuming that when someone does not do what they should be that they are not motivated - they just don't want to!  Motivation and ability are very closely linked. When people feel they lack the ability to do something then they ar... Read Full Article and -5 Comments or Add Comment «Previous Page · 1 2 3 4 · Next Page»