Top Project Manager’s Advice on Wasted Meeting Time
7 December 2016Dr James Brown is a world-class project manager who spent many years with NASA. Much of his time there involved working on the space shuttle programme. I had the good fortune to meet him some years ago at an American conference and was delighted to reconnect in Auckland a couple of months ago. He was […]
Friendliness and generosity pay
30 September 2015This time my contribution isn’t really about time management, although the ‘takeaway points’ apply to all businesses. Instead, I just have to tell you about some exceptional service. I’ve just finished three weeks of very busy work in the UK, staying at a number of different hotels, many of them once large heritage homes now […]
How To Get Engagement From Your Staff
16 September 2015Are you interested in getting full and involved participation from your people? Instead of telling someone to do a task, ask them how they think it should be done. I first read the following story in Les Giblin’s excellent book ‘How to have confidence and power in dealing with people’. He gives credit to […]
Don’t be so available
9 September 2015How much assistance to your staff is too much? Surely good staff management and delegation is to be available when people have questions? Not necessarily. Actually, being ‘there for my staff’ 100% of the time is neither good management nor good delegation. Instead, it causes bottlenecks, frustration, low morale, and blocks your people from learning […]
Practical Tips to Streamline your Business
8 September 2015My WebTalkRadio podcast this week is with Allie Egginton, who has over 20 years of experience in organisation and system implementation/training working with a variety of businesses; including a national financial service provider, various charities, accounting practices and training companies. Some people have a natural ability to not only see the way a business can […]
A NASA engineer says: ‘Know what to ignore’
17 September 2013A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr James Brown from Florida. (You can hear it here ) James was a NASA engineer and project manager for 16 years, including many years working on the space shuttle programme, has received several awards for his work, and these days lectures around the […]
Why kids need to be resilience proofed
9 September 2013Over-protected children grow up to be weak adults I was enjoying a meal recently with a small group when (not surprisingly) the conversation turned to the current economic climate. The party included my oldest son, a Lt Colonel recently back from a two-year stint at Puckapunyal, Victoria and currently working on some very high-level New […]
What my daughter learnt about Mandela's leadership style
17 July 2013As I write this article, Mandela is on life-support. Maybe he will have passed on by the time you read it. However, his generosity of spirit has influenced, and will profoundly influence, for many generations. In his honour I’d like to share a story. It was a hot Monday afternoon in June 2007. Gazing up […]
The nicest airport toilet in New Zealand (at least today:-) )
15 February 2013Yesterday I had an awesome day in the small regional town of Masterton, close to the great wine region of Martinborough and only 1 + 1/2 hrs from Wellington. I’ve worked there quite a few times over the last few years and every time discover unexpected delights. Three things I want to share with you […]
To Lead Others, First Know Yourself
11 February 2013I was having a conversation with my friend and US leadership specialist LaVonn Steiner. ‘Robyn’, she said, ‘my topic of leadership has many aspects that will help your productivity readers. Why don’t we write a book together?’ And so ‘Getting a Grip on Leadership – How to learn leadership without making all the mistakes yourself’ (Reed, […]