Leading the way: Tackling stress from the top
It is the norm for physical health issues to be discussed openly in most organisations, but mental health remains very much a taboo topic. We’ve witnessed people from all parts of society speak up about mental health, except in the business world. So it’s up to business leaders to ensure that it can be talked […]
Merger of cultures: The costs of getting it wrong
You cannot open a newspaper at the moment without the latest merger and acquisition (M&A) processes or predictions jumping out. With the very public tussle over the Pfizer takeover bid for British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca hitting the headlines daily, it has bought the issue to the fore even more. With the economy improving and greater […]
Female power and utilities executives ‘have no voice’
Only 4% of executive board positions in the world’s largest power and utilities (P&U) companies are held by women, according to a new report. The research, published by professional services firm EY, found that this lack of diversity is damaging business performance and leaving female executives struggling to be heard. “Diverse boards deliver for companies; […]
Interview: Dr Nick Udall, Chair, Global Agenda Council on New Models of Leadership
Who is Dr Nick Udall? Dr Nick Udall is co-founder and CEO of nowhere, a founding member and the current Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on New Models of Leadership. Nick is also the author of Riding the Creative Rollercoaster (published by Kogan Page). 1. What defines a successful culture of […]
Building HR readiness – are you ready?
Frank M. Horwitz is Professor of Global HRM specialising in emerging markets. He is Director of the Cranfield School of Management’s Executive MSc Programme in International Human Resource Management. He has lived and worked on four continents. Human Resource Readiness – what is it? How ready are our people to create customer value in a […]
Risk appetite – to hire exceptional candidates, we must tolerate uncertainty
You’re down to the final two candidates, Steady and Star, for a high-stakes job. By now they’ve been through a number of exercises which reflect a thought-through person specification. Choose Steady and there’s good evidence existing performance will be sustained but dramatic improvement is unlikely. Choose Star and the organisation could improve radically, but it […]
Lean meetings – bringing agility to your business meetings
We’ve all participated in a “bad” meeting – they’re all too common in the corporate world today. But, why do good meetings go bad? Often, it’s due to the way a meeting is structured: too many agenda items, or a vague agenda. Maybe you joined because the boss called the meeting, and you felt compelled […]
What do we do next? The only leadership question you need to ask
Andrew’s insight in this article is based on three years spent with the Royal Navy, examining their attitudes and. From this experience he wrote a book, Royal Navy Way of Leadership. Every time we put ourselves in dangerous situations there are leadership lessons to be learned. Mountaineering and military operations are some of the best places […]
Top 10 leadership articles from February
21st century leadership is a tough nut to crack, and a whole different ballgame for many leaders who have built-up notions of success based on the latter half of the 20th century. Science and psychology are bringing new insight to bear and it's essential we get rid of pre-conceived notions about what makes a leader […]
Breaking through the leadership development fog
Although current economic news is finally sounding a more positive note, the challenges of the past five years have provided a stern test of leadership for many businesses which continues today; this week the CIPD suggested that wage rises would remain below the rate of inflation unless and until productivity improves. A 2012 review by […]
Leadership vision for the future – faith, hypertext and clarity
Last year, there was a fire in the warehouse right next door to TelecityGroup’s Paris operation. This was a massive conflagration – I’ve still got some footage of it on my phone – which threatened to close down all the businesses in the vicinity. The firefighters who arrived on the scene advised our staff to […]
Leadership – too much, too soon?
As we get into the swing of 2014, it’s a different business landscape than that of the start of 2013. The news agenda is a lot more upbeat, with positive statistics around economic growth, decreasing rates of unemployment, and UK businesses successfully leading the way with entering into new markets. Recruiting leaders – tough nut […]
Ethical leadership – do things right, do the right thing
Andrew's insight in this article is based on three years spent with the Royal Navy, examining their attitudes and. From this experience he wrote a book, Royal Navy Way of Leadership. Work is all about execution. It’s about getting things done, meeting the deadline, collecting the money, changing the organization. The discipline is there every month […]
Engaging the Millennials: one HR director’s modern approach to technology
Businesses have found themselves grappling with a workforce that has increasingly become saturated with millennials, or Generation Y. While preconceptions, whether accurate, positive or otherwise, have been assigned to this group of workers, the certain thing is that they aren't going away – in fact, they'll only increase in number for the foreseeable future. The […]
Do you need an HR department?
Andrew's insight in this article is based on three years spent with the Royal Navy, examining their attitudes and. From this experience he wrote a book, Royal Navy Way of Leadership. I have spent the last three years writing the Royal Navy’s leadership manual, now issued to 15,000 naval staff. One of the things that struck […]
Getting HR the boardroom impact it deserves
Boards need your help Hand on heart, in the last 25 years has HR moved closer to having strategic boardroom impact? In my opinion, no. Yes, HR has flourished, developing new tools and insights and becoming a vital partner in operational delivery and corporate change. But so has finance, and look at what hasn’t changed: […]
How to smash leadership barriers
It has become a common mantra that it is vital to develop leadership in our organisations. Many firms spend thousands of hours and millons of pounds trying to develop their leaders. But when would-be leaders return to the workplace, they find the all the inspiring ideas about leadership are impossible to put into practice. Why […]
The key to 21st century leadership
Despite the IMF forecasting an increase in the UK’s GDP by 1.4% this year and 1.9% in 2014, and initial green shoots of recovery that are beginning to appear, it is clear from the CEOs we speak to that today’s climate is anything but comfortable. Finding strong business leaders has always been a challenge. It takes […]
Leadership figures in focus – Napoleon Bonaparte
Professor Stephanie Jones is co-author of the upcoming book Napoleonic Leadership – A Pact with Power, to be published by SAGE in London in mid-2015, to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon as a leader was complex and is a challenge for us to understand, despite dozens of new studies appearing as […]
Simon Sinek – how do great leaders inspire action?
This article is a summary of Simon Sinek's TED Talk, which asks how great leaders inspire action. His talk is the most-viewed of all time – many millions of people have tuned in. How do you explain when things don’t go as you assume? And, more importantly, how do you explain when others are able […]
