On Tuesday 21 November 2017, Robert Gabriel Mugabe officially resigned as the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe. After 37 years in power, the man who became his country’s first democratically elected leader in 1980, stepped down in the wake of a military takeover that has sent shockwaves around the world.
"Many CISOs live day to day under the sword of Damocles”
A controversial quote to begin with, I admit. However, in the past few years, data breaches have become more prominent, impacting businesses, governments, healthcare, and even hairdressers! There is no let-up in sight and business leaders must pay attention to the cyber risks they face.
Organisational culture has a clear impact on a business’s ability to meet financial goals and create an impact on their overall market influence. A system of shared values and beliefs will govern how team members behave within your organisation, from how they dress right through to how they perform in their roles.
I have previously written about personal productivity pointing out that not everything on the ‘to-do list’ has equal impact. I also wrote about planning using your energy levels and briefly touched upon the concept of ‘deep work’.
I think that most people know about these concepts but if knowledge was the only thing we needed, the advice on the internet would have made us all billionaires!
Balcroft has provided operational consulting support to numerous companies across a multitude of sectors and organisations. Whilst we have been extremely successful in achieving the needs of our clients, we have always been faced with a recurring problem within each project. The common theme is the presence of at least one assassin within the organisation.
If you google ‘productivity tips’, chances are you will get lots of tactical advice, hints and tips that can help you cram more into the day.
‘Tidy your desk, work fewer hours, ignore your phone or even take a nap at work.’
My personal favourite is ‘get up early’. Bill Gates gets up at 0400 and he’s a billionaire. Therefore you should also get up at 0400 if you want to be a billionaire. It’s absolute nonsense. There is no correlation between how early you get up and how successful you will be.
This series of articles is best read in order, so if you haven’t read article 1, article 2.1 or article 2.2 yet, I invite you to head over and do that first.
Delegation is a core leadership skill.
If you can’t effectively delegate, you will hit a point where you become totally overloaded and you’ll become ineffective.
But few companies teach people how to effectively delegate. It’s one of those things that everyone assumes you pick up as you gather experience. The problem with this approach is that you’re basically using trial and error until you get it right – if you get it right.
There are two elements to effective delegation.
I have had a few requests from people asking to contribute to this blog. This is the first time that I have accepted though. I think JB (who wishes to remain anonymous) has a strong understanding of what is required to be a great leader and I am happy to have her contribute. Enjoy.