Opportunity To Do What You Do Best!

Sometimes people don’t do their best not because they don’t want but because condition for that to happen is not being created – mostly by the leader.

It is being a while since I published my last post. I am under job transition and this subject came up during one of my sessions as part of getting to know my stakeholders – and I thought it worth sharing with you.

Sometimes people don’t do their best not because they don’t want but because condition for that to happen is not being created – mostly by the leader.

Continue reading “Opportunity To Do What You Do Best!”

What You Think You Deserve vs. What You Have Earned. A Tale about Hard Work

My personal experience has taught me that if I haven’t received from life what I think I deserve, it is most likely because I need to do a better job at earning it.

I was resting before my next fight during my latest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament when a mother of one of the kids, who was competing in the children’s competition,  approached me, looking quite desperate, looking for feedback she told me that she needed my help.  Her son had just lost his first fight against a more skillful kid and she insisted on showing me the video of her son’s fight to see if I could give her tips on how to improve his technique.  Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a sport that does not believe in talent. One improves by training constantly. There is no secret formula for overnight improvement, just like life.  I looked at her and noticed that she was very concerned and recommended that she should have a talk with her son’s coach to understand the process and let him take care of his progress.  She replied, “I want to help him but I do not know how”.  I am also a father and completely understood her position.  We do not want our kids to go through unnecessary hardship.

Continue reading “What You Think You Deserve vs. What You Have Earned. A Tale about Hard Work”

A lesson in change

This has been a real lesson in stepping back, taking time and remembering to breathe. It has reminded me that professionally and personally it’s fundamentally important to create space. Only then can we achieve the perspective we need on what we’re working towards.

This week is a big week for me. We are moving house, have said goodbye to builders who have been preparing our new place and are expecting our second child in less than two weeks. All the things you’re told not to do together, we’re doing them.

This has led me to reflect on resilience and leadership. With a heavily pregnant wife much of the heavy lifting (literal and metaphoric) has fallen to me. At times I haven’t held up as robustly as I would like to think I would be able to.

Continue reading “A lesson in change”

Carillion: just an isolated symptom or the first case of corporate Ebola?

We need to remind our firms’ leaders and managers that their principal accountability is to create and sustain a values-driven, high-performance work climate.

Carillion – the politicians’ view

“Carillion had a ‘rotten corporate culture’” screamed the headline above the article in the business section of BBC’s news website on Wednesday, May 16th, see  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44129678.

The article remarks, “In a damning 100-page report, the Work and Pensions and the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy committees said:

The Big Four accountancy firms were a “cosy club incapable of providing the degree of independent challenge needed”

Carillion’s collapse had exposed “systemic flaws” in corporate Britain and showed regulators were “toothless”

And warned “Carillion could happen again, and soon”

Furthermore, the two committees called Carillion’s rise and fall “a story of recklessness, hubris and greed“.

Undoubtedly, these are strong words.  Despite emanating from two bodies representing a larger group of people, MPs, in whom the public have lost trust and respect, they should not be disregarded as an example of the pot calling the kettle black, of people throwing stones in glass houses.  They beg a broader question being posed.

Continue reading “Carillion: just an isolated symptom or the first case of corporate Ebola?”

IF YOU DON’T WANT TO, DON’T…SAY NO!

Are you a “Yes-all the time-round the clock-person”? , Do you feel bad when you say No, so you immediately go to a “but” that opens a lines of real or unrealistics reasons to eventually say Yes?, Do you know why do you do it? Want to experience the “FREEDOM” that saying “NO” can bring to your life?, then let me share what I did to stop feeling guilty by really wanting to say no, and always ended up saying yes to everyone.

Continue reading “IF YOU DON’T WANT TO, DON’T…SAY NO!”