Is your workplace chronically chaotic, a ferocious place riven with conflict? Is it a command and control environment, threatening to you and your colleagues thanks to others’ coercion and Machiavellian-powered collusion? Are you in a defeated-culture, where everyone is looking at compromise – a sad race to the bottom? Or is it a workplace powered by collaboration and consensus? Is it a happy work workplace?
We have talked about being of service in prior posts, today I want to take it a step further and talk about seeing the system. For our techie friends, we don’t mean computer systems or apps, we are talking about the dynamics at play, the situational system. Perhaps an example will help.
It’s not about you. Suppose your boss shuts down your idea. You don’t understand why your boss shut it down.
Maybe your boss is too stupid to recognize your great idea.
Maybe you didn’t communicate it effectively.
To be a competent-leader, you need great management-capabilities as well as outstanding attitudes and consistent-behaviours.
There are those who believe it just is not possible to change someone’s attitudes and behaviours. If someone has bad attitudes, then this is something they are going to live with all their life. And bad attitudes will mean poor behaviours and terrible habits.
This will be the fifth and final article that I am going to write on the subject of resilience. The first three articles attempt to understand the problem from a mental and physical perspective. The fourth article talks about the value of goals, purpose and presence in giving us focus. A focus is essential in helping us to endure life’s challenges and ups and downs.
Are large corporates rotten beyond remedy?
Brexit. Trump. VUCA. Now that we have those buzz words out the way lets discuss what is happening in organisations all around the world.
I recently chaired a panel interviewing inspiring women from different countries and backgrounds who have become recognised technology leaders in their fields. There was a lot of collective wisdom about how these women had navigated their careers and succeeded in becoming technology leaders. Here are three highlights from our conversation with the talented Sabah Carter, CIO of News Corp, Judith van de Pas, CIO of Shell Retail and May Yap, Global CIO of Jabil.
Career paths are not linear
As the saying goes – “conflict is inevitable, combat is optional”.
How often have we been in situations where a brewing conflict has made us nervous, and the general thought that has mostly crossed our mind is to take an alternate route or to lookout for knee-jerk steps to resolve the conflict by patchwork, rather than facing it head on? How often have we found the old text book answers about dealing with conflicts as out of place in practice?
There is a great deal written about how to create success, both for individuals, teams and organisations, but some of our experience suggests that success will come along quite easily if we can just avoid creating the circumstances for failure.
In the world of elite professional sport athletes and teams look for every opportunity to improve physical and psychological performance. Not just for the athletes themselves but for management and operations support as well. Top Formula One teams and Pro Cycling teams expect back office staff and management to pay attention to: Sleep rest and recovery, nutrition, hydration, exercise and mindfulness. These teams provide psychological and physiological coaching and training to team members so that everyone can be at their most effective most of the time.