Are You Appointing the Best Person for the Job?

Are you really appointing the best person for the job? Tikanga holds the key. Finding the best person for the role has long been the intent for employment specialists and senior executives. Whether you use competency-based questions or the STAR method of behavioural interviewing, you will likely miss one central element. Discovering ‘who’ the person is, gives interviewers the best source to uncover the best candidate.

Fresh Flowers and Great Leadership Teams

Group facilitators work in all sorts of venues, most of them sterile and without inspiration. In my very first workshop, I took a bunch of tulips and asked for a vase. I was given a large jug. In went the tulips. In spite of the mismatch, several participants commented on the flowers. Three things struck me: Participants’ delight in seeing something bright and fresh in the room Their capacity to shift from what was at hand to something immediately in...

The Family Dinner Table’s Influence on Leaders

Who would have thought the family dinner table shapes leaders’ abilities to influence? A microcosm of family life repeated over days, weeks, months and years as we grow up has significant influence on how we are in groups. Whether we converse easily, disagree without offending others, remain silent or dominate, one likely influence is earlier experiences and habits of family dinner time. Last week, I was working with a group of leaders discussing turning points in their careers. One leader...

Leadership is Similar to Sudoku

I love doing sudoku, particularly the tough ones. I love seeing the patterns of numbers emerge from nothing, and logic slowly dawning. Sudoku has simple rules; the numbers 1-9 in each of the 9 boxes, numbers 1-9, horizontally, vertically, and at times, diagonally. Every few months, tougher sudoku become possible as I learn new patterns of thought and analysis. I love the experience of being completely absorbed in the puzzle. I don’t emphasize my failure to resolve a particular puzzle....

Maintain your Mojo to be an Effective Leader

Maintaining your mojo means giving yourself time to rest so that you can continue to be the most effective leader for your team. I’ve met too many executives who continue to work ten-hour days and seven-day weeks. Why is this? Mostly, they don’t want to be judged by their boss or peers as weak or not resilient. The thrill of being on top of something new, making rapid decisions and innovating brings rushes of adrenalin. As inevitable complaints and criticisms...

Know Where You Stand – Emotional Pain and Leadership

Discovering you were closer to someone in your team than they were with you can hurt deeply. This hurts even more when you realise that others knew this before you did. When information within informal networks of interpersonal relationships overrides formal structures, trust is broken. Emotions run high as the true structure of relationships are revealed. You know where you stand, and how close or distant others are in relation to you. Remember Carlos Ghosen, Chair of Nissan, Japan and...