Why stories matter
First of all, apologies for being so late with my blog posts, I have actually already read 3 books in the past months but somehow my time management has gotten the better of me. Not a great story to tell but, Justin Lee has actually this covered: how you are actually supposed to tell stories […]
How to negotiate
I’ve always treaded negotiating as it seems to be either a very delicate dance or outright war in people trying to get what they want. So I was particularly intrigued what insights I could gather from the book Never split the difference: Negotiating as if your life depended on it by Chris Voss and Tahl […]
How to improve performance in real-time
This week I have further reflected upon the Measure what matters, in particular the question: how do we know that we are on the right track even when we have set our mission, objectives and key results? In order to reach our Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), these should be supported by what John Doerr […]
How to measure what matters
In Measure What Matters: OKRs – The Simple Idea That Drives 10x Growth, John Doerr explains why measuring what matters helps you to plan, track and achieve success. It makes intuitive sense anyway: if you are not measuring your progress, how would you know that you are really hitting your goals? In a sea of […]
How to develop leadership mindshare
One of the key organisational capacities that makes a difference is how we embed leadership “mindshare” in the organisation. This relates to also how we embed visionary thinking and enable broader mindsets across the whole organisation, including how we invest in individuals. According to Johnson and Suskewicz in Lead from the Future, “Visionary organisations create […]
Indistractable: how to master the fight for attention from within
If you could buy a proven time management framework that gets rid of most of your daily distractions, how much would you be willing to pay? In this case, it’s as much as Nir Eyal’s latest book Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life” costs. Nir’s framework draws upon a wide variety […]
How to become a Catalyst for change
Have you ever been in a situation where you have a particular idea but you are failing to get traction? So you go, ok, I’ll just have to explain it better, gather more information on this issue, and talk more about it and present it again and then people will support it. You do that […]
How to make great thoughts into a daily practice
The way we choose to see, act and be is what our world becomes. This is the underlying truth of Stoicism that seem to be popping up across newspaper outlets, an ancient philosophy and practice that great many leaders of our time and of the past have practiced. If you think it sounds too soft or […]
The art of reframing obstacles
With many of us waiting for life to return to somewhat normal, I finally got a new book “The Obstacle is the way: The Ancient Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage” by Ryan Holiday. It’s exactly what I need to be reading now; a practice-oriented book that digs into your perceptions, assumptions and ways of […]
Want to learn to lead during coronavirus lockdown? Develop emotional intelligence
By now, most of us have heard of the actual skills that are required to succeed in today’s work place: the “soft” skills like listening, detecting moods, reading power relationships, collaborating and influencing. For a long time, many of these skills were not recognised as core competencies because they exist under the surface and have […]