Would you Pick this Person for Your Team?
When you were at school did you dread those moments of team selection for an afternoon of sport? The time when two gifted players had been singled out by the teacher, told to pick a team, and then given alternative choices to pick from the huddle in front of them. As...
A Personal Journey
On Tuesday September 13th I had the opportunity to queue with thousands of others in bright autumn sunshine in Edinburgh to pay my respects to our late Queen Elizabeth II. The queue moved quickly, was well managed, multi-cultural and good natured. The atmosphere...
Clarity Trumps Certainty Every Time!
Some of the conflicting and difficult to reconcile statements made in the recent Tory Party leadership contest, reminded me of a tragic incident some years ago in the USA. The pilot of a fast combat jet on a training mission at low level pulled the controls for a...
Reaching the Top!
Vince Lombardi, the great American sports coach once wrote: “Hi, the guy at the top of the mountain didn't just land there!”. To those who have done any hill walking or mountaineering this statement is one of the blindingly obvious! The mountain top is only achieved...
The Chemistry of Effective Team Building
We often mistake a group for a team. What is the difference? What makes an effective winning team is that the members will work selflessly for each other and for the team’s objectives. A team like this can consistently out perform what is in effect simply a group of...
Stress – Rocket Fuel for Success or Petrol on the Flames of Burn-Out?
It was Lou Holtz, an American Football coach, who said that ‘It is not the load that breaks you down, it is the way that you carry it.’ Looked at from the right perspective this statement is an encouragement and not some kind of grim warning! What Holtz’s comment...
Success is Built by Failing Forwards!
In his illustrious boxing career, the late and very great Mohamad Ali was recorded as being officially knocked down (that is taking a count) four times. Once was early in his career when he failed to take Henry Cooper seriously and was sat on his pants by Henry’s...
IF YOU WANT TO BE LEGEND!
It was Martha Jane Cannary (better known as Calamity Jane) who remarked "If a girl wants to be a legend she should go ahead and be one." The England woman's football team certainly proved the truth of the statement made by a pioneering frontierswomen, sharpshooter,...
Build a Team or a Group – What is the Difference?
Douglas McGregor, writing over 60 years ago in his pioneering book “The Human Side of Enterprise”, stated that “Most teams are not teams at all, but merely collections of individual relationships with the boss. Each individual vying with the other for power,...
THE PRINCESS AND THE NUN – WHAT DO THEY HAVE IN COMMON?
Above are two very different woman – both sadly now dead. One a Royal Princess, the daughter of an Earl, the former wife of the UK’s heir apparent, mother to two royal sons, who spent most of her adult life moving in the circles of the rich and famous pursued by the...