Category: Professional

Leaders need help to be effective helpers

Leading is a lot more to do with accepting and giving help than we often realise. Many of us carry in our heads an image of how leaders should behave that is at odds with how people actually influence us (aka lead us).  Our model for leadership is rooted in a presumption that they should …

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Half-price goats and propositions

Just before Christmas I opened my inbox and was disturbed to see this intriguing offer from Oxfam. It was part of a drive to boost sales of Oxfam gift cards. These are cards that you give to someone to explain that as a present to them you have given a gift to a needy person …

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The Guardian on authentic politicians …

The Guardian had an interesting feature today on authenticity in politics written by David Shariatmadari which examines why the media profiles of politicians like Johnson, Sturgeon, Trump and Corbyn seem to have connected with the public.  The word he picks out is authenticity and he pulls out elements of the definition in straight talking and …

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What does being an authentic leader actually mean?

If you put their policies on one side for a moment, what do you think of the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and David Cameron? Who is the better leader? Maybe you consider the answer to be obvious or maybe you think that the question gets to the heart of some of the bigger leadership issues in our …

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Listen up: you need a contact strategy

 It amazes me that in late 2015 so many organisations do not understand what it really means to manage customer relationships – 20 years since the CRM acronym started gaining currency in marketing circles. This week I have been inundated by the ‘communications’ of some companies who have not thought at all about what it takes to …

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