Tag Archives | management

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Response flexibility

I am trying to improve my response flexibility. I came across this phrase last year and it has really stuck in my mind. Response flexibility is about creating a gap between a trigger and the response to that trigger – allowing you to make a conscious decision about who you respond. “Between stimulus and response […]

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Meetings are what you do

It’s all too easy to bash meetings as a manager. They can eat into your day and make you feel like you haven’t completed any “real” work. It’s what good leaders do But what can be more important than speaking with your employees and managers, checking in to make sure all is ok, communicating progress, […]

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Find progress in practice

We live in an instant gratification world. Many of the millennials that I know expect to have all the same “trappings of life” that their parents spent several decades to acquire.. now. We are bombarded with images of success, talent, and athleticism. We see musicians with no more natural ability than ourselves playing in front […]

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Passion is a force-multiplier

Take two people. One has more skills and ability, but the other has incredible passion for what they do; an energy and intensity that is contagious. They know that they’re not as good [yet], but their desire to get better and their work ethic makes up for any deficiency. Who would you rather have on […]

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Perpetuating Incompetence

Ignorance begets Confidence There’s a cognitive bias known as The Dunning-Kruger Effect that describes how people who are very bad at something, actually think that they are quite good because they don’t know enough to understand just how bad they are; they overestimate their performance. “The trouble with the world is that the stupid are […]

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Meanwhile – how to use it for action

“Meanwhile” is a great word for helping you (and others) focus on action. Use it as a reminder that although one path may be blocked, there's usually something else that you can be accomplished. It also reminds you that not everything stops while you are waiting, or procrastinating with or without good reason. For example: […]

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The non-customer

In marketing, we are all told to clearly identify our ideal customer.   We segment, differentiate and profile the people who we think are most likely to buy from us.  Typically in any single industry, we have identified the same group of people as our competitors.  That’s how it happens right?  We all do the […]

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Avoiding the Peter Principle

In hierarchical business structures, people will be promoted as long as they continue to work competently.  This is the primary theory behind the Peter Principle as formulated by Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in 1969.  It goes on to say that eventually they will be promoted to a position that they are no longer competent – their […]

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The Pivot

Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.   – Friedrich Nietzsche You have this great idea.  It’s massive.  One of those $100M ideas.  Are you sure that you have it 100% right?  Positive?  What if you were 90% right – that would be ok wouldn’t it? […]

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