A few weeks ago I met with a very impressive, very humble, and extremely dedicated leader: Her name is Elsbeth Dixon, the CEO of Common Purpose South Africa. In 1983 she completed a BSc in Applied Mathematics at the University of Stellenbosch. She then dedicated even more time to a Honours degree in Operations Research. […]
Recently on our Facebook page, the much debated question of whether or not leaders are born or can be created was asked. I shared an answer there but would like to address this question in a certain way and in more detail in this column. As we sit with top leaders from top brands and companies […]
For the last year I have been working with a group of 70 leaders from a large mining house situated in the Free State. On a monthly basis we spend time together examining leadership from different angles and analyzing their leadership abilities and performance. This group of leaders is a tough bunch. To work on […]
Last week, while working with one of our mining clients in the Free State, I was channel-hopping as I lay on my bed relaxing after a day of facilitating leadership sessions. As I was changing channels, a movie caught my attention. In one of the scenes of Ridley Scott’s “Kingdom of Heaven”, a young blacksmith […]
“How can I help you?” or “What can I do for you?” When was the last time you said that to one of your people and meant it? And what I mean by “meant it” is when was the last time you didn’t just ask the question but actually acted upon what they then requested? […]
It has been my privilege to sit with a large number of top national and international leaders from various walks of life and serving in various sectors of business and civil society. Each has shared something that has assisted all of us, via this column, to improve and grow as leaders. But there is a […]
I have marveled time and again how often people, while driving, will come up behind me, pressing me to go faster, and when I look ahead it is clear we are not going to make it through the traffic light. Often these people will become frustrated or even aggressive if I do not speed up […]
What do Nelson Mandela, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Alexander the Great, Martin Luther King Jnr., Vladimir Lenin, and Napoleon Bonaparte have in common? And then more recently, consider: As we sat together in the Johannesburg Country Club lounge a number of weeks ago, I thought to myself how courageous Graham Briggs, CEO of Harmony Gold, is. […]
Now, more than ever before in the history of our global community, we are seeing our current leaders struggling under the pressures of a dynamic, ever moving environment. We see the practice of “reactive leadership”, which is really another term for “management”, but seemingly not the visionary, proactive leadership every human being on the planet […]
Medtronic is the world’s largest stand-alone medical technology company with a global reach that extends to 120 countries, 45,000 employees, and includes net sales of over $16 billion for the 2012 period. Knowing only this about them, we can already begin to understand what kind of leaders they insist on having in their organisation to […]
