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Going remote during the COVID19 outbreak, is a tremendous benefit to an organisation that’s usually almost 100% centralised. Not for the processes, or because “remote is better”. No, just because of the new set of communication challenges that have to be overcome. A steady stream of challenges is a must for keeping any team sharp, and aligning a team to deal with the a whole new mindset and toolkit for communication is a healthy exercise for the plasticity of the organisation and, more importantly, the minds that make up the organisation....

In times of stability, the default assumption for me is that peers are doing fine. I don’t have to ask probing questions, because obviously everything’s all good. That changes in times of change, turmoil and crisis. There’s a clear challenge, and a shared experience of need. Needing to deal with it, or overcome, or get through. Such a collective experience is a time to develop and demonstrate caring for each other....

This short review deals with the second edition of The Introverted Leader, 2018. I bought this one in the Foyle’s close to Covent Garden in London during my most recent management/leadership book buying spree. Some time in summer 2019. It seemed to be a worthy skim-book to refresh some thoughts, and it fulfilled that promise. The core of this book is about communication skills. It’s a manual for communicating across a sliding scale of introversion and extroversion....

This epic read on business strategy examines what defines good and bad strategy, what powers good strategy, and what strategic thinking is and how to do it. Not small subjects! The value-per-page ratio is high throughout, as the whole book comes in at just under 300 pages. The book is split into 3 roughly-equal-sized sections. Good and bad strategy Sources of power Thinking like a strategist Exploring the definition of strategy might seem bland at first glance....

“Strategic” networking is never about getting a series of gold nuggets out of peers. Other people don’t have answers that will map 1:1 into your world – at least exceedingly rarely. Situations are different. Instead, it’s the little ideas. Tiny seedlings that grow into something beautiful only with careful processing and gene-splicing with other lil’ idea-seeds. That changes how to approach a networking conversation. Don’t go in to get “insights”. Go in to get surprised, taken aback, confused, or worried....