Leadership – service provider or security pre flight specialist?
I recently had the displeasure of being subjected to the pre flight security at Terminal 5. On the best occasions this is not fun, but a necessity. On average I travel through an airport approximately every six weeks. Not a lot some might say? Irrelevant of how you perceive the frequency, this last experience got […]
International Women’s Day – A Celebration of Female Leadership
On the 8th March to celebrate International Women’s day perhaps it is appropriate give credit to the many female Heads of State, CEO’s, Owners and Mothers. How interesting that the world has a strong representation of female leaders, 22 countries in total including Denmark, Poland, Bangladesh, Lithuania, Brazil and Norway. This is quite a sizeable […]
You scratch my back and i’ll scratch yours – the law of reciprocity
In Robert Cialdini’s Influence: Science and Practice (2009), he describes the powerful rule of reciprocity as one of “the most influential dynamics of human behaviour, the reciprocation rule essentially states that if someone gives something to us, we feel obligated to repay that debt.” Reciprocation, “the quality or state of being reciprocal: mutual dependence, action, […]
Are your employees not performing because they are suffering from poor or lack of sleep?
According to the National Sleep Foundation “more than 40 percent of adults experience daytime sleepiness severe enough to interfere with their daily activities at least a few days each month – with 20 percent reporting problem sleepiness a few days a week or more”. A goods nights sleep and the preparation for sleep is as […]
How compatible is your company motto with decisions that affect customer loyalty?
Continuing the airline theme by taking a look at our own national airline in terms of the company motto and how poor decisions within the organisation affect customer loyalty. As seen on the Ba.com website: “At British Airways our promise of ‘To Fly. To Serve’ embodies who we are and what we do. We want […]
Ryanair – a fine leadership cock-up
The purpose of my blog is not to run Ryanair into the ground, though I am sure there are a number of people out there who would willingly do that. Anyway time will tell? As my mum always said “All good things come to he who waits!” I was listening to a well-known radio station […]
Spotted Dick or Spotted Richard?
Can someone tell me what happened to debate? Is the current state of lack of initiating, wanting and allowing debate a result of the mobile phone and its many apps, twitters, instagrams and the like, or is it the fear of being politically incorrect and the consequences of that? The benefit of free speech is […]
In pursuit of perfectionism
Perfect or perfection is often thrown about in the business world as a desired state. This might be voiced as an exclamation – “Oh perfect!”, as a statement, related to a particular desired outcome – “That is almost perfect?” Clearly from the last sentence we can see that something is missing, not aligned correctly, has […]
Enthusiasm – a leadership characteristic
“I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration to work together.” Queen Elizabeth II One of my clients some […]
Challenge or stress – it’s a fine line!
The dictionary defines stress as “a pressure or tension exerted on another object; a demand on physical or mental energy; or forcibly exerted influence usually causing distress or strain.” In short stress is any factor, positive or negative that requires a response or change. In medical research it is widely recognized that chronic ongoing stress […]