Crispin (Page 3)

In: Career, Career Development

You don’t have to look very far on the internet to come across articles on Jim Kwik, the boy with the broken brain how he taught himself to hack the brain to learn fast. This article compiles input from a number of sources, Jim himself is prolific in self promotion but there are a number of other articles and collectively here is what I have learned. Apparently Kwik suffered a brain injury when he was young, which caused him to have a number of problems learning. When he was in college he was struggling with school even considering dropping out. After spending a weekend with his roommate’s family he was encouraged to write a bucket list. That list helped him realise the only way to achieve it was to improve, so he read all the available texts on problem solving and memory. [F] ORGET The logic is to not letContinue Reading

In: Strategic Growth, Strategy

For those that have not read the Book – Blue Ocean Strategy – How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant. Or the seminal HBR 2004 article ‘Blue Ocean Strategy‘ here is a very high level over view. Blue Ocean Strategies are ones that capture the new and unexplored areas. They unlock new demand and make the existing competition irrelevant. The cornerstone is “value innovation”, a concept which was originally outlined in the HBR article “Value Innovation – The Strategic Logic of High Growth” (Kim & Mauborgne’s 1997).  “Red oceans are all the industries in existence today—the known market space. In the red oceans, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of existing demand. As the market space gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced.Continue Reading

In: Corporate Social Responsibility, Strategy

Ross Levine is Professor of Economic Analysis and Policy at Berkeley Hass. He write in this article that in a time of increased competition and pressures from the pandemic, it might be a simple assumption that firms might reduce their focus on Corporate Social Responsibility. Recent analysis however shows that companies are using Corporate Social Responsibility as a profitable strategy to build loyalty and trust. The paper (Competition Laws, Ownership and Corporate Social Responsibility by Ding, Levine, Lin, Xie 2020) is based on research analysing 14,000 firms across 47 countries between 2002 and 2015. The findings established that higher levels of competition boosts corporate social responsibility. The results were consistent across various firms, industries and countries. “Our empirical findings are inconsistent with the traditional view that competition induces firms to focus on short-term survival and therefore forgo investments that pay off in the long run,” Ross Levine One theory forContinue Reading

In: Leadership

This article based on a new paper from Berkeley Haas School of Business Professor Jennifer Chatman explores the profound and long lasting impact that narcissistic leaders have on their organisations. Narcissists ‘infect’ the culture of an organisation which can dramatically reduce collaboration and the integrity of staff and leaders. This destruction can last for a long time after the narcissist has left the building. Chatman has experience in researching toxic leaders. They found that narcissistic leaders are often confused with charismatic or transformation leaders at the start. However as they continue in the organisation the darker side comes out and the exploitative and self absorbed aspects of their nature sets them apart. Narcissistic leaders are often paid more than peers because they become very good at claiming credit for other peoples work. These personalities are often overconfident, dishonest, credit-stealing and blame-throwing. They believe they are superior to subordinates and don’tContinue Reading

In: Leadership

Humble leaders listen more effectively, inspire great teamwork and collaboration as well as driving focus on achieving organisational goals. According to Jim Collins author of Good to Great, the best leaders display a combination of humility and fierce resolve. They are “modest, self-effacing, understated and fanatically driven by results”. A survey published in the Journal of Management revealed that humility in CEOs led to higher-performing leadership teams, increased collaboration and cooperation and flexibility in developing strategies. New research builds on this explaining that in that humility it is “the integration of self-awareness, teachability, and an appreciation of the capabilities of others. These are traits that allow for inclusive teams and continuous learning that are foundational for creating innovative cultures.” It is not uncommon for some people to misinterpret humility for a lack of confidence or ambition. Rather humble leaders express their confidence and ambition in different ways. They seek to achieve moreContinue Reading

In: Working From Home

Around the world and in every industry the future of work has changed dramatically. Some roles made an easy transition to remote work delivering significant benefits. Other roles were unable to work away from the workplace leading to furloughs and layoffs. Most office worker roles actually made a successful transition to remote work. Forcing an urgent transition to what was previously only a workplace experiment. The success of remote work has seen global surveys of executives confirm that remote work or a hybrid version is definitely here to stay. McKinsey Global Institute have conducted analysis and found that the potential for remote work is “highly concentrated among highly skilled, highly educated workers in a handful of occupations and geographies”. However at least half the workforce has little or no opportunity to work remotely. People who need to work physically collaborating with others, those who use specialised machinery etc. They goContinue Reading

In: Career

Research at Kellogg North Western University proves the old adage “When you’re Hot, You’r Hot”. In a study of creatives and scientists they found that career successes really do come in clusters. While there is no common findings about when people might experience this in their careers, virtually everyone did have a hot streak at some point. One theory is that one great result might lead to another. “If I produced a good work, I feel like I learned the trick,” says Wang. “Now I feel like I’m equipped to do another work that’s just as good or even better.” Studying the academic papers of more than 20,000 scientists, the film careers of more than 6,000 directors and commercial value of artistic works by 3500 painters, sculptors and other artists . “If we know where your best work is, then we know very well where your second-best work is, andContinue Reading

In: Career, Time Management

With everyone working remotely, the demands on the day seemed to increase exponentially. Many people feel like they have lost control of their schedules with video calls back to back from dawn til dusk. Author Cal Newport proposes to time blocks in his book The Time-Block Planner: A Daily Method for Deep Work in a Distracted World. Schedule Breaks It is easy for the day to eat into lunch and coffee breaks when you don’t have to leave the house. Newport suggests that you make sure to schedule time in your calendar for lunch and breaks. Intentionally Allocate Your Time and Attention Set a regular time to plan your week, consider the best way to spend your working hours and map it into your calendar. Schedule blocks of focus time. When you are following the schedule “You know what you’re supposed to be doing, and you don’t want to fallContinue Reading

In: Leadership, Strategy

Bringing cross functional teams together can introduce new problems. When teams can’t decide the team dynamics break down. It is easy for the leaders to blame a lack of trust or poor communication. However the problem is not the team’s ability to work together it is a reflection of the decision making process. In a cross functional team, each member represents their own faction of the organisation. Ultimately this sees the prioritisation of resources and all critical decisions delegated up to the leader. The team are unable to break an impasse and agree on a preferred outcome. The result – team members are frustrated because they perceive the leader is dictating all decisions. “The CEO blames the executives for indecisiveness; they resent the CEO for acting like a dictator. If this sounds familiar, you’ve experienced what I call the dictator-by-default syndrome.“ Bob Frisch HBR November 2008 Putting The Idea Into PracticeContinue Reading

In: Emotional Intelligence, Leadership

Use your emotional intelligence and lead from the heart, with all changes and uncertainty currently going on in the world author Anne Taylor explains that leading through rational, analytical and task driven approaches is less likely to achieve results in these volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous times. What is Leading From Your Heart? Firstly to be clear leading from the heart does not mean, not applying your logical or head based leadership skills. It is about adding skills and increasing your effectiveness. “Courage is about doing something dangerous or facing pain or opposition. It’s about putting yourself out there, trying new things, risking making a mistake or looking silly and feeling uncomfortable“ Anne Taylor Leading from the heart takes advantage of your soft skills and the way you interact with people. Know yourself – start by building the profile of you. If you work in a large organisation you will alreadyContinue Reading