While there are plenty of other videoconferencing applications out there, it’s Zoom, like Hoover, that has so emphatically entered the language that it’s been promoted from noun to verb. Hence the title (and the third in my triptych of EM Forster puns, for which I apologise). But videoconferencing in general is my theme. Against the [...]
I was asked on Twitter for my thoughts on how to succeed in job interviews, particularly Civil Service ones, and thought a blog the best way of responding. So here goes. Let’s get one thing clear at the outset: no-one is always successful in job interviews. That’s because there's no guaranteed formula. Someone with a [...]
Hands up who wants to make bad decisions? No-one, of course. But then, they do still keep getting made. What’s going on? Individuals slip up - of course they do. But sometimes they’re trapped in an organisational culture where the chances of slipping up are significantly higher. There might be a number of factors in [...]
There - an object lesson in how to grip an audience with a title. But bear with me. Behind the wordy headline there might be a few nuggets worth reading, not least because I’ve done extensive background research (15 minutes online, which I understand is sufficient these days to support a firmly-held opinion). From this [...]
In parts 1 and 2 of this series of blogs, I discussed the need for leaders to engage with their people, and to have a realisable vision of the future by being what I called a ‘time traveller’. They need to be able both to lead people and to deliver. This time I’d like to [...]
Here’s my second look at the question of what makes a great leader. Previously, I focused on a leader’s personal qualities. I argued in favour of character, and subsequently I realised that some of the qualities I listed set the bar quite high. Some readers’ comments suggested that good leaders might also be flawed personalities, [...]
What makes a good leader? Obviously too big a question to answer in one blog, so I’m going to have several goes at this, spread over the next few months. And I’m going to start with a slightly controversial point: not everyone in a leadership position is actually a leader. Some of them are just [...]
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