Posts Tagged ‘leadership’

Choosing to be great

Posted in Event Review, Leadership, Management on February 3rd, 2012 by Paul McArdleBe the first to comment

The summer break was a good time for a bit of rest and reflection, especially given the down-and-up year we had in 2011.

Naturally for me, part of this time was spent with a couple of books borrowed from the growing office library – a couple others much harder going than this one here:

The Book

What we thought

Great-by-Choice
Great by Choice
Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck–Why Some Thrive Despite Them All”

by Jim Collins and
Morten Hansen

Thumbs up
More food for thought
I’ve posted separately about why we read, and review, so many books (and about the links above)…
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Having previously read Built to Last, “Good to Great” and “How the Mighty Fall” by Jim (and others) I was not disappointed with a few more points of insight the authors have added with this latest piece of analysis. read more »

Implications of the “Letter to a Future Leader”

Posted in Book Review, Leadership, Personal Development on May 12th, 2011 by Paul McArdleBe the first to comment

Had almost reached the end of this book and was thinking that (whilst it did contain some worthwhile information), it did not totally do it for me….

The Book

What we thought

Know How
Know-How:
the 8 skills that separate people who perform from those who don’t

by Ram Charan
Thumbs up

Solid, not stellar –
but the letter’s worth reading!

I’ve posted separately about why we read, and review, so many books (and about the links above)…

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…and then I reached his “Letter to a Future Leader”, included at the end of the book (p265) …

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Leadership Lessons in Dance

Posted in Article Review, Leadership on February 24th, 2010 by Paul McArdle4 Comments

Have seen this posted about before, but never taken the time to look – it was an Anthill article “The best three-minute video about leadership you will ever see” that prompted me to hit play.

A bit weird and wacky, but relevant to us – even in an industry that could be thought of as boring:

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Not sure about “the best” tagline – but this video is very instructional, and entertaining at the same time.

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Food for thought

Posted in Article Review, Recruitment, Roles & Responsibilities on January 31st, 2010 by Paul McArdle9 Comments

(Excuse the sad pun)

This week we went out for lunch with one of the guys in the office who was celebrating his birthday.  One of the small things we do in the company to celebrate the uniqueness of every individual (that’s a tick – thanks for suggesting it those years ago, Ricky).

Anyhow, as we were waiting for our meals to arrive in the local steakhouse and conversation drifted to some of the more detailed technical nature of software development, my mind began to wander (yeah, that’s a cross) and I pulled out the latest copy of INC, which had just arrived in the mail and started to browse (yeah, another cross)!

An article in the magazine caught my attention, as it provided a few pointers about the workplace culture that we are working to cultivate internally.

Given that I have been asked a couple of times this week by candidates for our Chief Software Engineer position about our culture (how it is now, and how we want to evolve it, over time), I thought it would be useful posting this (though I know it does not absolve me of the crosses above). read more »

What’s required of our CEO?

Posted in Role of CEO on January 4th, 2010 by Paul McArdle13 Comments

This post is the 2nd draft, and is still a work-in-progress.  Check back later for updates!

As part of the Autopsy 2 process, I have been working one-on-one with the firm Shirlaws.

One facet of their engagement has been to work with me on improving my leadership.

Their approach (which I accept) is that the disappointments that have come our way have been ultimately my responsibility (whether it’s been because of the “wrong people on the bus”, or the wrong culture, or insufficient direction, or whatever).

The corollary of this is that it’s also my responsibility to fix whatever’s broken.  This I am in the process of doing (following on from the Autopsy 2 process).

Part of what they are helping me to understand is that the CEO should have 3 core enduring roles, which should continue to be my focus well into the future.

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How can we be better product designers?

Posted in 02 - People & Culture, Book Review, Design, Event Review, Methodology, Requirements Gathering on December 28th, 2009 by Paul McArdle1 Comment

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Here’s an interesting video (runs for an hour) promoting a new book “Glimmer:  How Design Can Transform Your Life, and Maybe Even the World” by Warren Berger (and Bruce Mau).

Seems like an interesting book, so have thrown it in our shopping cart, and will review it sometime in 2010.

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Great People Decisions

Posted in Book Review, Recruitment on December 20th, 2009 by Paul McArdle3 Comments

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In 2010, as a result of our Autopsy 2 process, we have identified that we need to make two key appointments in 2010:

GM of Design, Development & Delivery.

GM of Marketing & Sales

We need to do this for a number of reasons – not least of which is to ensure that the company can become sustainable over the longer term, and to allow me to spend more time focused on other aspects of continuing to grow the business.

These appointments will be key positions for us, moving forwards. Hence this book was very timely….

1)  Binary Review

… not to mention a great read!

The Book

What we thought

GreatPeopleDecisions

“Great People Decisions”

by Claudio Fernandez Araoz
Thumbs upVery thought-provoking
Full Disclosure – yes, that’s a tracked link to Amazon shown above. We buy quite a large number of books on a wide range of topics, all relevant to our business in some way.  If you did happen to purchase the book from Amazon, they’d throw a few shekels our way, which would help us to buy (and hence publish reviews of) even more books.  Hence, Karma would return the benefits to you…

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Dealing with Paradox

Posted in CEO's Philosophy, Personal Development on November 11th, 2009 by Paul McArdle13 Comments

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In the book “The Myth of 9-to-5” the authors note that it is a mark of growing maturity when an individual can reconcile the truth in two apparently paradoxial points of view.

Given this is aligned with my own personal philosophy, and the fact that I’m likely to need to refer to this point again-and-again, I thought it would be easier to extract this point to a separate post (here). read more »