Keith September 12th, 2007
Just got a newsletter from Helen Paige of The Paige Group. (We met at KM Australia recently.) She included some great ideas from Seth Godin’s book.
Godin advises us to “Relax. Don’t work so hard. Take a little time off. Chill out!” So how do we get everything done? Godin says, “there’s no correlation between success and hours worked”. He suggests:
- Maybe the new economy does not favour the speed-to-market; first-mover-advantage, winner-takes-all mind set.
- Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate this work ethic.
- Maybe the current marathon work culture is nothing but an excuse to avoid making the hard decisions.
- Maybe work expands to fill the time allotted for it.
- Maybe understanding the key issues and making decisions about how to act on them can be the secret to success.
… which leads to these questions:
- How would you rate your corporate work ethic?
- How is your time-management?
- How well do you understand the key issues your best clients are facing?
Keith March 19th, 2007
British Prime Minister Tony Blair told a self-deprecating anecdote about himself at the Davos Economic Forum. He had decided to overcome his own computer phobia and enrolled for an IT course in his constituency’s community centre. At the final examination, he asked a nervous young man next to him if he was so tense because he was next to the PM. “No,” replied the youth, “I’m tense because I can do this stuff and I’m unemployed; you can’t do it, and you are Prime Minister”.
What makes you digitally literate? Is it just the generation you were born into? I’m convinced that it is not that simple. The quote above is from Patrick Lambe’s book The Blind Tour Guide: Surviving and Prospering in the New Economy.
You can also read the relevant article on Patrick’s site.
In this article, Patrick provides a list of characteristics of the “Net generation” worker, and contrasts these with the pre-Net generation manager. I find it intriguing to try to place myself on this table. I am convinced that it is not as simple as physical age. I can see parts of my world view on both sides.
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Keith February 24th, 2007
To truly show respect to people means to listen to and
value their opinions, engage them in making decisions and
trust them to take risks. People will only share their
knowledge when they feel that they are trusted and
respected.
Keith February 9th, 2007
Mark Schenk at Anecdote posted an article a while ago on the impact of management style on individual creativity and innovation. He included a quote from an article by Teresa Amabile of Harvard Business School on the importance of team leader behaviour.
Teresa found that individual creativity is a critical element of productivity, efficiency and work quality in today’s complex work in organisations. This article gives five key leader behaviours that have a positive influence on people’s feelings – and thus on individual creativity. My paraphrase is as follows:
- Support people emotionally.
- Monitor people’s work in a particularly positive way - give positive feedback on their work, or give them information that they need to do their work better.
- Recognise people for good performance, particularly in public settings.
- Consult with people on the team - ask for their views, respect their opinions, and act on their needs and their wishes to the extent that it’s possible.
- Collaborate - actually spend time working with team members on specific tasks.
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