Blog

At last some good customer service

By

On Thursday night I flew into T5 Heathrow after a long and tiring business trip. I’d paid extra for my meet and greet car parking service so you can imagine my dismay at hearing that I had to wait an hour for my car to be delivered! This was in stark contrast to my recent … Continued

PM – it is really the what and the how

By

Although I’m not an advocate of ‘paying’ for the demonstration of particular behaviours or competencies without a commensurate contribution or output, research suggests that employees deliver more consistent results when you emphasise the “how” as well as the “what” . Chris Edmonds brought this to light in research he featured in his Cool Culture blog: … Continued

From Jim Collins’s new book – a different Hertzberg?

By

Factors that serve to demotivate employees are stronger than those that motivate them. For decades, “good” managers have concerned themselves with how to motivate employees – how to encourage their employees to give their best. New research from Jim Collins, co-author of Good to Great and Great by Choice, offers a new perspective (from the … Continued

Weather Experience

By

Comment on Drayton Bird’s blog: Did I ever tell you about the time I was asked to join a BBC committee all about the future? It was all about predicting what was going to happen in the 21st century. Total wankfest, as you’d imagine. One meeting was enough. What a shame they’re increasing the TBQ … Continued

Leadership Lessons from Grey’s Anatomy

By

Thanks to Erin Duggins for this… In a recent showing of Grey’s Anatomy, there was a prevalent theme regarding leadership, and to what degree those with the best technical capabilities can rise to the occasion and make the best leaders. The Grey’s Anatomy writers used a fictional “Gunther” exercise to exemplify this leadership theme. The … Continued

Do Teddies Have a Place in the Boardroom

By

By Lucy Kellaway from the FT Last week I gave a talk to an audience of four dozen colleagues plus two teddy bears and a rabbit with one eye. The subject was: Who reads the Financial Times? And my thesis was that our readers are odder than you’d think. We now know, following the storming … Continued

Happiness – lessons from an economist

By

This was filmed in April 2011 and talks about some of the issues that are being talked about after the riots. It seems we have the answers available to us. We just need to implement them.