Call it gravitas or charisma – it’s the quality that distinguishes statesmen from politicians

A while back, I wrote about an essential quality that distinguishes exceptional leaders from the second tier.  Originally I produced a small pamphlet on the topic [now posted as a blog entry], and it has been one of the most… Continue reading

When what you say has the opposite effect

On another forum, Stan Washington, a US-based specialist in ‘resume’ writing recently made a plea for people who are speaking to people looking for their next Senior Executive job, to avoid saying “Don’t be frustrated!” It’s a classic example of… Continue reading

Psychodynamic confidants in fiction – Deanna Troi – Star Trek

I realise that this is a bit of a side-issue, but a few people express surprise that my role exists, and so I thought it might be amusing to point out that it is far more widespread than you might… Continue reading

BBOTW – “What the dog saw” by Malcolm Gladwell

My Business Book of the Week* (14/08/10) is Malcolm Gladwell’s “What the Dog Saw“. “Malcolm Gladwell is the master of playful yet profound insight. His ability to see underneath the surface of the seemingly mundane taps into a fundamental human… Continue reading

An appreciation of one of those people who touched my life without knowing, and led me to work as a psychodynamic ‘confidant’

I’m not sure whether you are familiar with the book by Mitch Albom, “The five people you meet in Heaven“, but the essence is that we never quite know whose lives we have (perhaps quite coincidentally) touched and yet, in… Continue reading

How psychotherapeutic confidants enhance Boardroom decisions

Tales abound in the popular press about the ‘problems’ of psychotherapy, psychoanalysis and psychiatry. The latest appeared on Sunday in the New York Times and is a rather remarkable story of a woman who has spent 45 years seeing a… Continue reading

Every once in a while, you read something SO profound…

Every once in a while, you read something SO profound, that you want to soak it up. You want to read it, not once, not twice, but several times. It says something that you only wish you had the power… Continue reading

How childhood experiences can undermine executive performance – how one boy fell victim to his mother

When negotiations between companies heat up, you need all the intelligence that you can muster. It’s easy to obtain financials and other data, but how do you get inside the psyche of your opponents? Many managers, these days, rely on… Continue reading

When someone loses balance, work quality and impact suffers

What do you do when you realise that someone has been all consumed by their work? They may not see it as a problem at all. Their focus may still be on their role, they may think that their work… Continue reading

Using an empty chair to turn negatives into positives

We’ve been working together for a couple of years, and along the way seen Beverley’s organisation grow from 30 or so people to 60. You wouldn’t expect it to have been plain sailing, and certainly a fair bit of the… Continue reading