Tag: book (Page 1 of 2)

The Bus Metaphor

22/01/2020 / Eva Esposito

The right people in the right seats on the bus: this is the metaphor from the first Jim Collins best-seller ‘Good to Great’. In that book – published in 2001 – the author identifies what leaders need to do, in order to see their teams and organizations excel. And he uses the power of an image to communicate the following concept.

According to Collins, leaders who are able to transform their organizations begin not by setting a direction, but by getting the right people on the bus – and the wrong people off the bus.

Actually great leaders understand the following three simple truths:

1. If you begin with “who,” rather than “what”, you can more easily adapt to a changing world.

2. If you have the right people on the bus, the problem of how to motivate and manage people largely goes away, because they will be self-motivated by the inner drive to produce the best results and to be part of creating something great.

3. If you have the wrong people, it doesn’t matter whether you discover the right direction; you still won’t have a great company.

Assembling the team is the first crucial point. Then a leader has to develop a vision (the direction of the bus), to remove obstacles to high performance (that is, maybe people are not exactly in the right seats and need to be assigned to the right role) and to help people with diverse talents and interests building trust in each other.

It is an hard work, but leaders need it to accomplish objectives with the right people.

Image source: Flickr

Learning the Growth Mindset

03/10/2018 / Beatrice

Ever heard of mindset? This word is becoming more and more common in the modern world because experts in many fields such as sports, parenting, business, school and relationships are becoming aware of the importance of mindset in facing life’s challenges. In her insightful book “Mindset: The new psychology of Success”, Carol Dweck talks about the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset through real-life examples and then gives us the tools to apply a growth mindset in all aspects of our lives. Basically, people with a fixed mindset believe that you either have it or you don’t: natural talent is the only possible way to succeed. On the other hand, people with a growth mindset believe that their talents can be developed (through hard work, successful strategies and input from others).
Many studies have shown that having a fixed mindset can help us to reach our goals and to do so with greater ease and enjoyment: we can actually appreciate the process of learning, regardless of the outcome.

Be sure to check out Dr. Dweck’s book, it is sure to give you a new perspective on how to go about life and how to interact with others, whether they be your children or you colleagues.

https://hbr.org/2016/01/what-having-a-growth-mindset-actually-means

The musicianʼs relationship to time

11/08/2016 / admin

In his book “Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life“, the great music educator Wynton Marsalis explains how swinging can alter how we experience change.
The musicianʼs relationship to time can be of ultimate assistance to us in:

1) adjusting to changes without losing your equilibrium;
2) mastering moments of crisis with clear thinking;
3) living in the moment and accepting reality instead of trying to force everyone to do things your way;
4) concentrating on a collective goal even when your conception of the collective doesnʼt dominate;
5) knowing how and when to expend your individual energy.

Wynton Marsalis, “Moving to higher ground: How jazz can change your life”

Image source: Flickr – music2020 – (CC BY 2.0

Personal Confidence & Motivation

26/11/2015 / admin

Do you have the self belief and confidence to make a difference? Do you “just know” that you’ll succeed no matter what? Do you know what motivates and gets you going? And do you know how to tap into the motivations of other people?

In Personal Confidence & Motivation written by Sean McPheat (Founder and Managing Director of management development specialists, MTD Training) you’ll find the answers to all of these questions and much more besides. You’ll understand how to build your own confidence levels and how to generate confidence in an instant. You’ll then move to the topic of motivation and you’ll be able to really understand this area of personal development.

Image Source: Flickr – Run On Beat by Run on Beat

The Origins of Loyalty: Kindness Over Toughness

05/11/2015 / admin

True loyalty originates from kindness, not from fear!

Indeed, according to Daniel Goleman, one of Linkedin’s most appreciated INfluencer and author of “A Force for Good”, if you want a loyal team, you must choose kindness over toughness.

Discover more here!

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Reading in electronic times

28/05/2015 / admin

Andrew Piper, Associate Professor in the Department of Languages, Literature, and Cultures at McGill University, is an expert on the changes brought about by the e-books and has published a… paper book on the subject (you can see where this is going already).

In this article, published by the Slate magazine, he resumes his book, Book Was There: Reading in Electronic Times, in which he examines the history and future of (e-)reading, the differences between reading on a tablet or an electronic device and reading a paper book, and how reading a paper books connects our bodies as well our minds to the topic.

The hard truth about soft skills

30/04/2015 / admin

54 lessons organized in 8 chapters, each of them covering an aspect where soft skills play an important role: career management, getting the job done, communication, handling critics, office politics, self-promotion, dealing with differences and leadership.

In her book “The hard truth about soft skills – workplace lessons smart people wish they’d learned sooner“, Peggy Klaus, tells us about the importance of soft skills on workplace, trying to understand why they are still so often ignored, although they are fundemental in our everyday work. The problem is semantic? What is soft cannot be considered serious? The matter is that most of us think that they are about touchy-feely people skills?

Among the 54 lessons pinted out by Klaus on the basis of her work experience:

1. Knowing yourself is as important as knowing how to do your job
2. Learn when to stick and when to shift or the details will hang you
3. Know where to draw the line between self-improvement and self-destruction
4. When it comes to gossip, learn the art of deflection
5. Don’t take it personally
6. Your procrastination is trying to tell you something
7. Keep your visibility when you are not face-to-face

15 Best Leadership Books a Leader Should Read

26/03/2015 / admin

According to John Coleman, ‘broad reading habits are often a defining characteristic of our greatest leaders’. Actually reading has shown to lead many benefits in leadership development: it improves communication, emotional intelligence and organizational effectiveness and reduces stress.

Unfortunately, nowadays business people seems to be reading less, maybe because they are not sufficiently convinced of the importance of reading, they don’t know what they should read or because they think they don’t have the time.

In this article on Lifehack, Joe Vennare identifies some 15 best leadership books especially would-be leaders need to read to define leadership and how applied it, communicate and motivate teamwork, and keep going on.

2014 Reading List

03/12/2013 / admin

The theme of Diplocalendar 2013 was inspired by Mark Twain’s quotation that: “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them”.

Diplomats, like many other professionals, must read, understand, synthesise and make sense of newspapers, magazines, emails, official reports and so many other things related to their daily work. But there is so much else to read both for pleasure and to deepen our knowledge.

There is no specific selected book for the month of December, but a list of suggested readings for 2014. Consider them as our … Christmas present.

Thinking Skills in the Information Age

11/09/2012 / isdistage2

Thinking skills are applicable in any branch of life. If used skillfully, they can help you perform better in your job, better in your team and better in your organization.
Bookboon provides a collection of valuable free ebooks for Professionals. “Thinking Skills” is one of these books and provides useful suggestions to improve these skills.

The book can be freely downloaded from the Web at: