A Key to Optimising Your Human Capital
The perpetual balancing act between selfishness and selflessness, or self-interest and group-interest, is evolutionarily fundamental. So much so that it has been described as “The … Read more
paradox
When will we learn?
When will we learn, or, as Bob Dylan put it, “When will we ever learn?” That is the question I found myself pondering after reading … Read more
Avoid the Unfortunate Consequences of The People Paradox
Have you ever heard of The People Paradox? I hadn’t either, although I was well aware of Lord Acton’s famous quote that, “Power corrupts and … Read more
Mastering “The Paradox of Being Human”
The whole conundrum around the struggle between selfishness and selflessness, with its biological roots – or what Simon Sinek calls “The Paradox of Being Human” … Read more
“The Paradox of Being Human” and Its Implications in Organisations
“The Paradox of Being Human” is how Simon Sinek refers to life’s constant conflict between selfishness and selflessness: between “me” and “we.” We spend our … Read more
The Paradox of Change
“It takes a lot of learning to keep something stuck.” That was what Nora Bateson said at a recent development session I attended. Only a … Read more
Beware WIIFM: Avoid Its Present Dangers
Virtually unheard of ten years ago, WIIFM – the acronym for What’s In It For Me – has become a surprisingly popular term in business. … Read more
The Strange Dichotomy of Organisations and How to Bridge It
Thus, although coming from three totally different perspectives, all three of these writers reinforce one another’s conclusions. This makes their findings more credible, and more significant for you as a business leader. To significantly transform performance and results you have to create an environment that makes the best of your people or – more accurately – that allows them to make the best of themselves. For this you need to consider how you are going to create a system or systems that addresses the physical and psychological needs of your people. Both collectively and individually, because every individual matters.
The Paradox of Management and How to Remedy It
Nor is valuing people as difficult as history would have you believe. In fact it is the core of the ‘Every Individual Matters’ model. Valuing people as assets is the first step in the model and the foundation for building a culture that ensures optimal individual and organisational performance. After all, as Simon Sinek also says, “It is not the genius at the top that makes people great. It is great people that make the guy at the top look like a genius.”
Why you, unwittingly, may be just going through the motions
If you want to change this and turn things around to fully engage employees and optimise their effectiveness you have to find a way of changing the employee’s relation to their work. This essentially means that you have to create an environment where your employee is not working to “make someone else’s goals come true.” The only way you can do that is to create an environment of shared goals, where your goals and the employee’s correspond. That is the necessity. You have to ‘make your business their business’ – there simply is no other way to resolve this fundamental problem.