It was 1986. It was a cold January morning at Cape Canaveral. Engineers had been frantically preparing for the launch of the space shuttle Challenger. On board the space shuttle were 7 crew members. Just as in all previous launches, safety checks had to be done prior to the launch of the mission to ensure the [...]
Why do most teams and organisations under-perform? Even if you hired all the right people into your team, your team might still under-perform because of one reason. When I say “under-perform??? I mean the teams or organisations fail to perform their best beyond what they are already doing today. So what is the primary reason that [...]
It does not matter if you are a team manager leading a team of 5 or a Division Manager leading an organization of 500, the challenges with team and people management are fundamentally the same. It does not get any easier with a smaller team. All you require is a couple of difficult employees or staff [...]
This article first appeared in the the HR & Education Section of Singapore Business Review portal on 20 March 2013. http://sbr.com.sg/hr-education/commentary/top-3-secrets-high-performance-teams Productivity is a big buzzword everywhere today, and companies are always looking for ways to increase productivity through their employees. One effective way to increase productivity is for employers to look at creating high performance [...]
A lot has been said about Leadership. Tons of books have been written about Leadership and everyone has an opinion about what effective Leadership is all about. All you need to do is Google “Leadership??? and look at the number of hits Google returns. Every time I ask this question: “What is effective leadership???? I get [...]
Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, is consistently ranked as one of the world’s wealthiest, successful and most influential persons. One of Buffett’s famous quotes is “Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing". Buffett should know it better than anyone else. He has seen his wealth skyrocket from practically nothing back in the 1950’s [...]
Do you know how your Leadership Styles affect your team's performance? This is a question that stumps most people I know. And the reason is because most of us are not aware of the leadership styles we use on a day-to-day basis. Most of us have no idea how we come across to others during the [...]
Last week was a sombre week for Singapore. The entire nation literally came to a stand-still as the nation mourned the passing of our Founding Father of Modern Singapore, the late Mr. Lee Kuan Yew. Having transformed Singapore from mudflats into a modern, thriving Metropolis – all in one generation – is a feat that no [...]
Are you a Leader or a Manager? If you are in-charge of a team of people, then should you function as a Leader or a Manager? The differentiation between Leadership and Management was started by Professor John P. Kotter some years ago. According to Professor Kotter, the difference between Leadership and Management are obvious and should [...]
When an employee resigns and leaves your organisation, do you know the real reasons why? There are literally dozens of reasons why employees leave an organisation. Some of the reasons could include poor working conditions, poor compensation and benefits or a bad boss. However research by Leigh Branham and the Saratoga Insititue found that there are [...]
