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Using Chaos to Organize large scale programs and projects

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I frequently see and hear about how organizations struggle with the planning of programmes or large scale projects, as is often the case nowadays, they involve the integration of many partners, business units, mavericks, doubters and in summary complexity. The complexity, at first, creates chaos which manifests itself as overwhelming dependencies and uncertain delivery dates. …

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Is Governance a pain in the ass?

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‘Governance’ is a term that is becoming more and more popular in today’s business. Governance, in essence, is the process of policing an organization internally, making sure standards and policies are adhered to, budgets are kept and that decisions are rational and appropriately transparent. Governance is there to ensure your organization complies with Sarbanes-Oxley, should …

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Principle vs Specific arguments

All Featured Articles, Professional / By Simon

I’m constantly reminded how a dynamic of argument and debate is in the wrong place. A recent issue cropped up where a colleague was pushing back to a technical supplier because insufficient information had been provided against a change request. The problem though was that the phrasing of the pushback was principle-based, i.e. he argued …

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Developing a Helicopter Mind – how technical managers can improve their success

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The Helicopter Mind is a concept of thinking and questioning that allows managers to interweve abstract and specific thoughts, and to have the ability to switch between the two modes of thought appropriately and skilfully. An extensive study has shown that managers who have these abilities are more successful and perform better in their roles …

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Personal Resilience in your quest for personal excellence

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Once again I am pointing you to an article on the Leader to Leader Institute website, and this time it covers being ‘prepared to start over – again and again’. I like this article because it talks of personal resilience and learning from personal experiences. I doubt if anyone has had setbacks in their career …

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Perfectionism vs Pragmastism: Career Implications

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This is a debate I often see in technical circles, mostly between technicians and their less technical managers or stakeholders. It’s a debate that often leads to conflict or a reduction in morale or motivation in each party. It has career implications too; as technical leaders aiming to build a career, its something we need …

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Using the Power of Pride in an organization to generate motivation

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Despite Pride being one of the Seven Deadly Sins, it is a powerful if not underused means of getting things done in the workplace. Pride is an emotion of self-respect. It is an emotion that, if tapped into, you can use to motivate others, particularly in technical job areas. I use pride as a trigger …

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The Five Sources of a Leader’s Power, and how (and how not) to use them

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Where does a leader get power from? A leader can use 5 sources of power: here’s advice on when these powers should be used, and perhaps when not

This post is part 1 of 5 in the series How to Use Power

Building Confidence by Public Speaking

2 Comments / Professional, All Featured Articles / By Simon

One of the toughest things I have done in my career is to stand in front of an audience and speak. Not just speak but speak without wobbles, losing my place in my rehearsed patter, or sweating profusely. Is this familiar to you?

This post is part 5 of 5 in the series Perfect Presentations

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