Category Archive

What proportion of your working week is consumed by creating reports, updates, responses to KPIs and other tasks of that kind? More importantly, what proportion of your working week is spent creating reports, updates and responses to KPIs that actually add value? Yes, we need to keep track of progress – but seriously, how many weekly, fortnightly and monthly reports … Read More

Closely related to the previous “really busy” post, is the “tell me about it” movement. Colleague:  How are you? You:  Really busy. Colleague:  Oh, yeah. Tell me about it. So, two things fall out of this. Firstly, “tell me about it” is seemingly loosely translated to “you think you’re busy … wait till I tell you how busy I am”. It … Read More

In the last Untypical Thought, I called out what I think is a growing trend of people being asked / expected / pressured into working on their weekends and after hours. Whilst it may not be necessarily written into their job descriptions, it seems that many, many people are heading home after a day’s work and getting their laptop out. … Read More

It was Loverboy who, in 1982, had a hit with the song “Working For The Weekend” but, 40+ years later, it seems that their sentiment has been replaced for many people. It seems that for many, there is an expectation that “everybody’s working ON the weekend” … and in many cases, after hours during the week as well. Why have … Read More

I recently read about someone who had just completed 50 years of service for their company. 50 years! Wow! Well done, her. But, upon reflection, I wondered whether I should be impressed or concerned for her and the company she works for. Let’s take the positive approach and consider how much she has contributed to the organisation that she has … Read More

Imagine. Give yourself the time and space to imagine. Use what if to your benefit. Often, we use what if as a negative – what if this doesn’t happen, what if it goes wrong, what if it breaks, etc. But using it as a positive changes your mindset dramatically – what if it DOES happen, what if it DOESN’T go … Read More

How many emails do you get each day? For most people, the answer is “too many”. And, of the emails you get, what proportion are written in black 11pt Calibri (or whatever system font Microsoft is defaulting to)? 80%? 90%? Of the emails that you receive, what proportion of them do you read, digest and act upon? 10%? 20%? It … Read More

Last week, I posted about the equality of importance within an organisation or team and I was surprised by the level of feedback I received. It seems that there are many businesses where the implied (if not, stated) importance seems to be directly proportional to how close someone is to the top of a organisational diagram. Sure, the level of … Read More

A client was telling me about a conversation he overheard in his workplace the other day which brought back a memory of the first day of my second year of teaching – in February 1985. Firstly, the recent conversation as told by my client … “A new employee was being introduced to some of the people she was going to … Read More

There’s a phrase that gets me fired up. Closely related to “same s**t, different day” (tidied up for family viewing), no one ever uses either phrase to inspire themselves or anyone around them, do they? You ask someone how they are and there it is … same old, same old. Ask them how their day is going … same s**t, … Read More