Leadership

Harry S Truman, former President of the United States is reported to have had a plaque on his desk which read, ‘The buck stops here’ sometimes referring to it in his speeches. The point he often made is that ultimately the leader has to make…

What character traits make a great leader? Decisiveness, confidence, intelligence? (more…)

Mike was adamant that his idea was a good one, and he was determined to make it work in the office. What he hadn’t bargained for was the reaction his team displayed when he announced his ‘great initiative’. The team were distinctly underwhelmed by it…

  Who wouldn’t want their team to exhibit excellent work? The main reason I see managers complain about the quality of work produced by their teams is because we rarely talk about what excellence looks like and how we would know if it actually occurred.…

There are many leadership ideas out there that seem, at times, to be over-complicated and a bit unwieldy. Often, management is quite a simply design with some detail woven in among the fabric of complexity. But if we were to really examine the roles of the…

Boy, how times have changed! We were discussing the Sinclair C5 in the office this week and many here had never even heard of it, let alone seen one! Launched during a by-gone age (1985!), it became an object of media and popular ridicule during…

Since Steve Jobs’ sad passing, I have been doing a lot of reading about his style of management, ideas, creativity and concepts. He will always be remembered as a genius in my eyes, and has left a big gap in the world of creativity. I…

Have you ever driven into a fog bank that suddenly reared up in front of you? You immediately slow down, gripping the steering wheel tightly. If you are traveling with someone, conversation is abruptly stopped. You switch on your lights and peer through the murk…

You wouldn’t normally put the actor Robert Redford at the top of your pile of management advisors, but he has a surprising literacy when it comes to identifying system improvements and corporate power politics. Harvard Business Review commented that ‘Redford’s multi-faceted approach to change includes…

I was asked an interesting question via email this week that made me stop and think. The question was, What leadership qualities are most needed in today’s time of great change? I believe leaders play a vital role in each and every business today, and…

In his great book “21 Indispensible Qualities of a Leader”, John Maxwell describes what he considers to be the essential elements that make a great manager and leader. He has studied management for nearly 25 years and has come up with this list of qualities…

On our Management Open Courses, we often find the most interesting discussions revolve around the section on Leadership styles, because many people have heard about them but haven’t really learned enough about them to build their knowledge and awareness of how to change styles when…