WRITING

Reflections And Insights From MARTIN

Burnt Out? Stressed?

A college professor stood in front of his students picked up a glass of water and asked “Is this heavy?” No – seemed the obvious answer. Then he stretched out his arm, still holding the glass and said; “What if I hold it for an hour, or a day –

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Leadership; your choice, no excuses. Simon says!

“Every single one of us has the choice to be the type of Leader we wish we had” – a great quote from the great Simon Sinek. I heard him on a recent TED broadcast. It reminded me of my own experience working with and for Leaders. Let me use

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Don’t do it

“Mighty stuff Martin. Can you give me a call on ***” Thus read a direct message I received on LinkedIn last week. From a 1st degree contact. It looked important, maybe even a bit urgent. I called as soon as I could. “Hello, is that Jim (not real name)?” I

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Manipulate or Influence

I have a session coming up shortly on Effective Influence so I’ve been doing some reading. I came across an article titled ‘Psychological tricks to manipulate people’. The title made me uncomfortable. Whether you are a high powered Negotiator, work in Sales, provide Customer Service or you simply need to

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Be on the look out …

“Make someone’s day” is a great recommendation. I read it in the book Fish written by Steven Lundin. He says it doesn’t have to be a life changing gesture. For some people at some times the phrase ‘How are you’ could change their life or make their day if used

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Have you tried to contact your own organisation?

I just wanted to reclaim points due on my Credit Card loyalty scheme. Simple? Yes, maybe. Easy? Not with ‘XYZ Bank – Reward Scheme’.   No obvious link on the XYZ Home Page to their Reward Scheme dept. Tried their Search function. Had a quick look at FAQs. Still no

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Interviews; Managing Under performance – Fact or Fallacy

Is it possible that our interview candidates are telling ‘porkies’?! Time and again over recent months when asked for their best example of managing under performance I am hearing about the person who wasn’t really lacking in ability or motivation it was just a ‘matter of confidence’. Then we hear

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Rights & Responsibilities

I had the pleasure of attending an Australian Citizenship ceremony recently. Here is the pledge/oath that the new citizens recite aloud:   I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect, and whose laws I will uphold and obey.

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