A catalyst is a substance that speeds up the rate of a chemical reaction without being changed itself. Good leaders have the same power. Their magic is the power to take others beyond what they thought possible. Limits and limitations that we set ourselves as individuals or in teams are shoved aside in the face of this force of willpower and belief.
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Focus and the art of strategic thought: A common complaint of senior executives is that they don’t have enough time. Particularly they don’t have enough time to focus on thinking strategically. There seems always to be a deluge of things that are important – often defined by others. In parallel there is often a clichéd demand to achieve more with less.
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We don’t ask enough ‘dumb’ questions’. Dumb questions rather than wasting time or being the distraction you might assume are often highly valuable. They’re great and flushing out the assumptions in a situation. Far too often assumptions are implicit and therefore it’s not clear they are assumptions.
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It was cold and the rain continued to fall steadily out of a bruised grey sky as it had done for hours. The river glided by looking sullen. Round the bend upstream I was waiting for a team who were many hours into a leadership project designed to challenge and develop their leadership behaviours. The weather I considered to be in my favour; as I wanted to strip away the team’s veneer of cosy congeniality and look at how they coped under pressure – a part of which involved being fatigued, cold and wet.
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When we think about developing our personal performance we make some calculations. We decide what is reasonable effort; a judgment about the level of effort that will be necessary and the risks associated to failure. Then we compare the effort to the potential gain
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Marginal gains is a voguish mantra for improving performance. Made famous by GB Cycling & Team Sky under David Brailsford it is a philosophy that has its roots in the Japanese manufacturing concept of Kaizen. A hundred things all done 1% better adds up to a lot of change and a lot of additional performance.
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Warner & Swasey were a well-known US tool hire company. In the 1950’s they ran an advert with the tag line, ‘The man who needs a new machine tool, and hasn’t bought it, is already paying for it.’ Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s business partner at Bekshire Hathaway recalled the line and underlined the truth of it.
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Most teams are weak because they have a deficit of trust and inadequate relationships between team members. Almost every problem or performance issue will relate at root to the deficiency of these two qualities.
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In the Armed Forces of the United States there is an award known as the Presidential Unit Citation. It is a collective award given to a unit in the US military of Allied Forces that shows extraordinary heroism against an armed enemy.
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This is a super short précis of 10 characteristics that set high performing Elite teams apart. You can use these as health markers for you to assess the health and performance of your own teams and organization.
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