"You cannot fix a problem that you refuse to acknowledge." – Margaret Heffernan, Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril Choosing Not to See Think about how many people you know who wear glasses or contact lenses, or who have had ophthalmic surgery. Or the 20 million people worldwide every year who […]
As some of you may know, we have discussion forums in the Mind Tools Club. A while ago, I started a conversation about mental health. One of our members, whom we'll call George, replied to say that he was recently diagnosed with a mental health concern. Since then, George has been very generous in sharing […]
Career Skills, Communication, Leadership, Stress, Team Management, Uncategorized
"Digital" has been creeping up on us. I remember when typewriters became electronic, and then they gave way to word processors. Memos were replaced by emails, and phone calls were superseded by instant messages. Each small change made communication a little bit easier, and now a large part of our lives has been transformed into […]
Politics. Love it or hate it, you can't ignore it – especially in these turbulent times. Catalan independence from Spain. U.S. President Donald Trump's next nugget on North Korea. U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May's daily declaration on the benefits of Brexit. Whether your political views are red, blue or orange, it's hard not to be stirred into […]
There are lots of reasons why talented people move from one job to another – more money, better opportunities, greater responsibility. But one key reason that is often forgotten is the appeal or "magnetism" that senior managers have to prospective employees. This is the idea behind Roberta Chinsky Matuson's new book, "The Magnetic Leader." In […]
The Impact of Dress A few years ago, I was helping one of our directors open a new business in Jeffreys Bay, a well-known surfing town in South Africa. One of my colleagues and I had to conduct interviews to appoint frontline staff, administration staff, and a manager for the establishment. Both of us like […]
In Dianna Booher's view, you can't separate leadership and communication. Indeed, she believes that learning to communicate "is the essence of leadership and the reflection of your thinking." So, if you're a poor communicator, you’ll always be a poor leader, regardless of the merit of your ideas. Put like that, this soft skill packs a […]
Communication, Expert Interview, Leadership, Project Management, Uncategorized
Four Steps to Connection It really irritates me if I sit in a class or lecture and the facilitator only knows two people's names. It feels as if they talk to those two people only, and the rest of us are like extras on a movie set. After lecturing and facilitating for a few years […]
#MTtalk, Communication, Inclusion, Leadership, Uncategorized
Strange but true: I had both the best and the worst managers of my career – so far – at the same company. Not only that, but they managed me one after the other. It happened at a time of huge change, as the organization underwent a major restructure. None of this, of course, helped the […]
Career Skills, Change Management, Leadership, Stress, Team Management, Uncategorized
"The servant-leader is servant first... It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first." – Robert Greenleaf Whenever I hear the phrase "servant leadership," I think of Nelson Mandela, or […]
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