Don't Compromise!

British Airway’s CEO Willie Walsh’s call for staff to work for nothing certainly raises some interesting questions. For many commentators – including Polly Toynbee, Ed Davey, Ken Clarke and Ester Ranzen on the BBC’s Questiontime (watch the programme on iPlayer until 25/6/2009) – the first of these is something to the effect of “Who the **** does Willie Walsh think he is?”. The trigger for the moral indignation behind the question is understandable but – regardless of where the knee is aimed – is a knee-jerk any more helpful than any other variety? (That said, Management Today didn’t appear to be lining up to shake Mr Walsh’s hand either.)

(more…)

In a world where levels of competitiveness are ever-rising under a veneer of good manners and ‘professional conduct’, you might expect the main problem with praise to be its faintness – a reluctance to offer any remark that might be seen as even potentially flattering. Keeping an ear open as you make your way through life, what you might hear just as frequently is actually false praise – the over-inflated language of PR speak where nothing is ever as simply fit for purpose as to be ‘adequate’. (Used selectively, of course, ‘adequate’ can be one of the most damning words in the language, but my focus here is on carelessly rather than precisely deployed language.)

(more…)

As I once wise-cracked in one particularly irritating office situation, “There’s no need to drive me mad: I can walk that far”. Yes, humour is one way of handling anger in the workplace (although it’s much less patronising when your own anger is the target of the witticism). Less wittily, anger management is deeply entwined in Emotional Intelligence – a factor of adult life that became so important in the 1990s that it sprouted capital letters. Either a new – albeit debated – discipline had been born, or more of us had found more things to be angry about.

(more…)

Perhaps – like me – you’ve shared office space with a salesman who says things like “Let’s get ready to rock’n’roll”. Or with people for whom it’s clear that being among the world’s leading insurance providers and property development agencies may – or may not – deliver them financial rewards, but is something they’d enjoy more if it came with more of the roar of the crowd (smell of greasepaint optional).

(more…)

… but no coach or trainer? In its February 2009 issue, Harvard Business Review published an article by Gary Hamel’s Moon Shots for Management, a list of 25 challenges to reinvent management that were compiled from the conversations of 35 “veteran academics, new-age management thinkers, progressive CEOs, and venture capitalists” at an event organised by The Management Lab. A prestigious publication trailering a headline feature that drops those names was always going to attract comment.

(more…)

This is cheeky – a response to a post on another (excellent) blog. Actually one I’ve linked to before, so its ability to stay in my thoughts obviously recommends it: it’s provoked several thoughts, which definitely counts as ‘doing it’s job’. Which, ironically, is what it made me think about. So, which post? – 10 Tenets for the New HR at KnowHR.com. It’s provoked numerous comments already, but I’m going to humbly offer another contender for Tenet 11. (And in the spirit of the original, we’ll finish with a song.)

(more…)

Only a blog about leadership and workplace learning written in southern England could possibly mention cricket twice in less than two months, but the lessons in life for which you are able to enrol do depend partly on the life you follow. And fascinating observations can be had – or read – in unlikely places. The June 2009 issue of Word magazine (a UK popular music and culture magazine) carries an interview with Ed Smith, former Kent, Middlesex and England cricketer, Daily Telegraph columnist, and now full-time writer: his latest book, What Sport Tells Us About Life, is a reflection on the lessons about the wider world than we can learn from the microcosm of sport.

(more…)

… and yes, I’m aware of some of the obvious responses to that, but bear with me … Happiness tends to arise organically given the right circumstances and inputs. (The sheer range of things that can go into it is a testimony to human diversity and ingenuity.) It need not cost anything to create – indeed, it can be a by-product of other activity. Things grow out of it more abundantly than they would in its absence. And to achieve the most with it, you’re best off spreading it far and wide, and just deep enough to still be effective.

(more…)