Author Archives: Curious and Interested

About Curious and Interested

Former Leader and Manager now writer and coach. Enquiring, Curious, Buys more books than can ever read but still reads a lot. A sucker for gadgets...Ipad, Kindle, Chromecast, apple watch. I aim to improve understanding and cause reflection. Not claiming to be the expert.

Resilience training – bleeding heart soft or army tough?

Posted on October 22, 2010 by Curious and Interested

I was reading an article that HBR does on leadership lessons from the armed forces and came across this blog on Resilience Training in the U.S. Army. Resilience, optimism and positivity are inter-related and I have personally sponsored such training … Continue reading →

Posted in Behaviour, Happiness, Leadership, Optimism, Positivity, Resilience, Skills | 1 Comment

How can service areas like HR increase their influence?

Posted on September 29, 2010 by Curious and Interested

I know what it’s like to work in a service division (I spent 13 years in Human Resources or Personnel as it was sometimes called back then), rather than in the front line business functions of sales, manufacturing or product. … Continue reading →

Posted in Decision Making, Leadership, Management, Motivation, Sales, Skills | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The biggest mistake a leader can make

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Curious and Interested

In this video from a number of leading academics, and posted on HBR site – see  http://bit.ly/auBQct they identify what they believe to be the biggest mistakes leaders make. It is an interesting selection that includes the following; a) self-interest … Continue reading →

Posted in Behaviour, Leadership, Skills | Leave a comment

Six Keys to Achieving Excellence

Posted on September 20, 2010 by Curious and Interested

Tony Schwartz is president and CEO of The Energy Project and has written a number of books. In this article he offers his view regarding how to develop skills to an excellent level. This extract from his HBR article includes the … Continue reading →

Posted in Behaviour, Motivation, Skills | Leave a comment

How do you foster innovation?

Posted on September 17, 2010 by Curious and Interested

How do you foster a culture of innovation? Here’s 50 ways to make a start…from ideas champions at http://bit.ly/cxHcGP .  Of course the foundation for innovation is the organisational culture which is needed to support the level of creativity and risk … Continue reading →

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Getting Things Done

Posted on September 13, 2010 by Curious and Interested

For those struggling with overload at the moment a you tube video called Getting Things Done by David Allen (author of a book by the same name and a website at http://www.davidco.com/ ) may hold some ideas on how best … Continue reading →

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Why do leaders need to focus on building trust?

Posted on September 2, 2010 by Curious and Interested

A UK study http://bit.ly/dCgVbt has found as little as 10% of employees trust what senior managers are saying about the performance of their business. In the absence of trust leaders will miss out on so many more aspects of employee … Continue reading →

Posted in Behaviour, Decision Making, Leadership, Management, Teamwork | Leave a comment

Seven Deadly Sins of Setting demands (or goal setting)

Posted on September 1, 2010 by Curious and Interested

During my development as a leader I was urged to set BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) and whilst this can be useful in generating new thinking (e.g. a 40% increase in revenue is not going to be achieved with a … Continue reading →

Posted in Choice, Decision Making, Leadership, Management, Strategic Planning | Leave a comment

Creativity is having great ideas that add value

Posted on August 31, 2010 by Curious and Interested

TED.com has a number of wonderful presentations and this one from Sir Ken Robinson is “an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.” He challenges the way we’re educating our children and … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Decision Making, Innovation, Leadership | Leave a comment

Diversity in decision making is good

Posted on August 28, 2010 by Curious and Interested

On HBR Blogs Tom Davenport asks..Does Better Judgment Come With Age? see http://blogs.hbr.org/davenport/2010/08/does_better_judgment_come_with.html Tuesday August 24, 2010 To quote “Building good judgment in an organization is not as simple as giving our youngest leaders silver-haired counselors. It’s the result of drawing … Continue reading →

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6 Questions to Help You Build Trust on Your Team

Posted on August 26, 2010 by Curious and Interested

http://blogs.hbr.org/frontline-leadership/2009/05/6-questions-to-help-you-build.html In Patrick Lencioni’s book the Five Dysfunctions of a team his model states that trust is the important foundation for a functional team and I have to agree with him. In a trusting relationship there will be god opportunity … Continue reading →

Posted in Behaviour, Leadership, Teamwork | Leave a comment

Matt Ridley: When ideas meet and mate – video presentation from TED

Posted on August 18, 2010 by Curious and Interested

At TEDGlobal 2010, author Matt Ridley shows how, throughout history, the engine of human progress has been the meeting and mating of ideas to make new ideas. It’s not important how clever individuals are, he says; what really matters is how smart the collective brain is. Continue reading →

Posted in Behaviour, Choice, Happiness, Innovation | Tagged | Leave a comment

Reflections on Leadership experiences

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Curious and Interested

Recently I left an organisation after 11 years in a leadership role that included great financial, sales and customer results. At the end of that time I look back and reflect upon those things that I am most proud of … Continue reading →

Posted in Behaviour, Happiness, Leadership, Management | Leave a comment

RSA Animate – The Secret Powers of Time

Posted on August 12, 2010 by Curious and Interested

RSA Animate – The Secret Powers of Time. Professor Philip Zimbardo conveys how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act … Continue reading →

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Chris Anderson talks about free in a digital economy

Posted on July 30, 2010 by Curious and Interested

Have you considered just how much is available free on the internet? We know Google offers searches for free and yet they make a lot of money from ads but can others find a way to convert Free to some … Continue reading →

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Dan Ariely shows us how we are “Predictably Irrational”

Posted on July 29, 2010 by Curious and Interested

Dan Ariely is one of my favourite authors and this clip is a good summary of his first book highlighting how we are “Predictably Irrational”.  The clip is from ted.com which has an amazing array of wonderful presentation which are … Continue reading →

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Creativity and Innovation as CEO requirements

Posted on July 24, 2010 by Curious and Interested

A global CEO study by IBM discovers from talking one-on-one with 1,130 CEOs, GM’s and business leaders. About 60% of CEOs polled cited creativity as the most important leadership quality, compared with 52% for integrity and 35% for global thinking. Creative … Continue reading →

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Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Curious and Interested

Ok more from Daniel Pink on what science knows about motivation and what business ignores Check it out on YouTube:

Posted in Leadership | Leave a comment

When estimating even CFAs can get emotional

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Curious and Interested

McKinsey research shows that equity analysts have been overoptimistic for the past 25 years. They have forecast, on average, nearly double the actual earnings-growth rates with their estimates ranging from 10 to 12 percent annually compared with actual growth of … Continue reading →

Posted in Investment | Leave a comment

Cave men traits – hard wired into us as humans

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Curious and Interested

We joke about our cave man heritage, the hunter deep within our genes as well as other characteristics to explain or excuse why we get easily distracted when having conversations with our spouse whilst the TV is on.  It was … Continue reading →

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