As the season’s festivities fade into the background, the task of writing thank you letters looms large. Ideally, one likes to have completed the task before the 12th night has passed and all the decorations are safely back in the loft. Only then can we get back to being grumpy about January with its (already) broken resolutions and gloomy weather. But as I was writing my thank y...
Read MoreI was talking recently with someone who was bemoaning the need to be always informed. It made me realise just how unfashionable it has become, when asked for one’s views on a subject, to simply say “I don’t know”. The sheer volume of news and information that bombards us in our daily personal and business life is overwhelming. Whereas in the past we had newspapers and face-to-face mee...
Read MoreI’ve been thinking rather a lot about democracy recently, which is odd as it’s something that one tends to take for granted rather than consider in any depth. However, just like London buses, suddenly three democratic prompts all came along at once. The first was in the form of a rather foolish “entertainer” who seemed to be calling for a revolution to overthrow democracy (as opposed to a...
Read MoreOne of the most extraordinary things about many of us is our ability to blame other people. Eavesdrop on a conversation at a water-cooler, coffee machine, or whilst wandering around a store and, eventually, you will hear someone blaming somebody for something. Clearly, in many cases heaping opprobrium on another individual is appropriate especially if it’s is the goal-keeper of your team and ...
Read MoreI was recently at a talk (about, as it happens, political blundering) when the speaker said that a sign of a good organisation is whether it is leader-proof. It occurred to me then that cult of leadership is indeed beginning to die its death. After having had decades of alpha males running organisations as the Chief Entertainment Officer, people are starting to question the myth, perpetuated by b...
Read MoreI’ve been meaning to write about this topic for a while but I’ve kept putting it off. One day I may seek help for my procrastination problem. To be fair, I’m not quite as bad as Goncharov’s marvellous character Oblomov who spends his day in his dressing gown surrounded by books and dust-covered papers, constantly resolving to start work. The fact is, however, that more and more of us ...
Read More
