Author: Brian Smyth

Creativity – key to creating live, intelligent organisations

Creativity – key to creating live, intelligent organisations

Posted by | Nov 22, 2016 | , ,

“Billions of people show up for work every day, but way too many of them are sleep-walking.”      Gary Hamel – Leading The Revolution What a tragedy if so many people spend so much of their lives at work half asleep or going through the motions, looking forward to 5 pm, the weekend, the next holiday or even retirement.  Yet this is how many people live their lives.  What is worse is that this is seen as normal, as being “how life is”,  “as good as it gets”.  It need not be so.  We have so much scope to create...

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The Battle for Resources – Fighting your Corner

The Battle for Resources – Fighting your Corner

Posted by | Nov 7, 2016 | , ,

A key skill any manager or head of a function or department would appear to  need to have is the ability to be able to negotiate and get their share – at least – of available resources for their area. Being able to fight your corner, make your case, convince, out-gun others, and get what you need for your function, for your objectives and for your success are seen as prized and essential skills.  In fact, accommodating, compromising, considering others, listening to others’ needs are not the qualities we want to see in strong leaders.  Nor do such people...

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Your Beautiful Life – A Gift

Your Beautiful Life – A Gift

Posted by | Nov 1, 2016 | , , |

I’m a very ordinary person, middle-of-the-road, always middle of the class. And yet, my life has been far from ordinary. Some time ago I asked myself why? And I also wondered what makes some people’s lives extraordinary. Was it more about them and how special they were, or was it more about the situations that befell them or in which they found themselves? There were certainly periods in my life when I didn’t feel special and the situations in which I found myself seemed anything but extraordinary. One day was more or less like the preceding one and the...

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Managers ..Autocrats or Democrats?

Managers ..Autocrats or Democrats?

Posted by | Oct 25, 2016 | , , , , |

Difference of Opinions on Suitability for Promotion and other things A friend of mine had problems with aspects of how I handled a recent discussion I had with a manager whom I was helping deal with a member of his staff who believed he was fit and suitable for promotion to a management position, a view not shared by the manager with whom I was working nor with the HR Department. My friend’s problems with my handling of it were around a principle that I wanted to put in place in dealing with this issue before getting into any...

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What have Principles and Morality to do with Management and Business?

What have Principles and Morality to do with Management and Business?

Posted by | Oct 18, 2016 | , , |

“Manipulation” The word ‘manipulation’  got mentioned during a recent Coaching programme I was running. The person who raised it  was neither recommending it nor accusing me of doing so. I think the word came into her head because of how effective she saw Coaching as a way of influencing people or persuading them to do things. I, of course, agreed  that it is a very effective approach but not because it is manipulative. But I decided to explore the topic of manipulation a bit more and to try to get to the nub of what’s wrong with it. Values,...

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