Ah! The football season! Don’t you just love it? Frankly, I scarcely ever watch it, but I have to be careful: I nearly said ‘never watch it’, but I did manage to tune in to watching a couple of England’s magic moments in this World Cup. Naturally, I was duly bored and exasperated in equalContinue reading “The beautiful game”
Category Archives: Weblogs
Authoritarian leaders
We referred to NF Dixon’s classic book, On the Psychology of Military Incompetence, and its distinction between the autocrat and the authoritarian. How further did he distinguish between these two types? Firstly, the autocrat is somebody who may well be strict and a disciplinarian, but this is not a result of emotional disturbance. Dixon expressesContinue reading “Authoritarian leaders”
Leadership and authority
One of the most interesting studies that recognizes that leadership ‘incompetence’ is far more likely to derive from emotional rather than intellectual deficiencies is NF Dixon's classic book On the Psychology of Military Incompetence. Basically, what Dixon found was that incompetence in military leadership went way beyond notions of stupidity or incompetence, though both theseContinue reading “Leadership and authority”
Leading a meeting 3
Remember, the Chair's greatest strength is not in asserting his/her own will and position; it is in faithfully representing the collective will of the meeting, and acting in the capacity of a servant seeking to realize the objectives for which the meeting was called. If staff can perceive that about the Chair, they will listen,Continue reading “Leading a meeting 3”
Leading a meeting 2
To be more specific about leading a meeting, the Chair should consider: *composition of meeting – who should attend – avoid deferring to other people's view of their importance and to the custom of inviting 'stale' people because they've always been invited; how many should attend – this will depend upon what the purposeContinue reading “Leading a meeting 2”
Leading a meeting
Leading a meeting is arguably the most demanding aspect of leadership: one feels, rightly, in the spotlight; everyone is waiting for a 'lead' and one is so conscious of the implications of a false step, a wrong note; and one is fully aware that the general expectation of meetings is that they are unproductive –Continue reading “Leading a meeting”
Motivation with Mark Knopfler 2
We have established that we can learn a lot from studying a successful band/man like Mark Knopfler. We also know before sketching the three core lessons that even doing all the right things does not necessarily lead to success – things go wrong whether you like it or not. As it says in the goodContinue reading “Motivation with Mark Knopfler 2”
Motivation with Mark Knopfler
The word universe means the one song or poem: uni-one and verse – sound or poetry. So sound – so music – so poetry has an inherent capacity to change our mood, and from this our motivational energies. What we listen to, and when, is significant. As Shakespeare wrote in The Merchant of Venice, “TheContinue reading “Motivation with Mark Knopfler”
Kriss motivates
I am frequently introduced as a Motivational Speaker, which I always rebut. I like to say I am not a motivational speaker, but I am an expert on motivation. It seems semantics, but it is not. Motivational Maps, my product and company, have developed a language and a metric for motivation. In a sense, then,Continue reading “Kriss motivates”
South African Motivation
As we know from Bhuddism, it is important not to get too attached to outcomes. As we know from Taoism, there’s yang – success – and there’s yin – disaster, and as things go up, they also go down. Yet it’s hard as a human being not to get excited by events when they goContinue reading “South African Motivation”
The Mapping Motivation Series 