Insights & Articles
Encourage initiative if you want to go far together
I wonder whether paradoxically getting too involved in your own business could actuallydamage it. The proverb, “If you want to go fast, walk alone. But if you want to go far, walk together” can be applied to business
Requiring respect at work counters toxicity and builds health
Mental health problems at work are infectious. Of course they are not physically infectious, but depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorders spread between and within organisational boundaries through social contagion.
Deciding when to go
In this series on coaching managers in SMEs I have moved up the ladder of seniority. This time I look at when to leave as the leader of the company. You mentioned that you would need at some point in the future to consider stepping aside to allow someone to bring different skills to the company. You are creative, have ideas, and enjoy initiating new things, but you don’t think you are so good at keeping things going over the years.
The Development Bank of Rwanda and African Management Institute Enable Rwandan Businesses to be Resilient to Risk
Following the training, 94% of them reported an increase in revenue, 79% reported an increase in profit and 68% reported to have created jobs.
The opportunities and threats of taking charge.
Taking a management role will offer a chance to develop greater self-reliance and heightened judgment. Leadership requires being comfortable with paradoxes and trade-offs. You have to balance short term and long term results.
Moving from an operational to a strategic role
The third coaching letter in a series offered as part of AMI co-founder and chairman Jonathan Cook's regular columns in BusinessLIVE, responding to real questions managers in small or medium enterprises have asked.
Does being promoted to a management position suit you?
The second coaching letter in a series offered as part of AMI co-founder and chairman Jonathan Cook's regular columns in BusinessLIVE, responding to real questions managers in small or medium enterprises have asked.
Times like these demand that business leaders be coaches
At the best of times most of us need prompting to do the things we actually want to do. Most of us need a coach, mentor, engaged boss or patiently honest friend to nudge us to become what we could be at work.
Leaders see beyond what is to create what might be
I wonder what it’s like to work in the Post Office. What set me wondering was fetching a parcel on 12 May, posted in London on 1 November last year. On the one hand I was impressed that it reached me after six and a half months of travel. No one stole it. It wasn’t buried in a storeroom and eventually destroyed. It reached its intended destination. I didn’t realise this was still possible with the SA Post Office.
Customer service is the manager’s responsibility
I heard of a rural hospital that closed its doors to visitors on Freedom Day. A public holiday affords workers a rare opportunity to visit their loved ones during the week. In this case a man travelled overnight to see his father, only to be turned away: “It’s a public holiday; we’re closed.”
Viva the little people who create jobs and serve their communities
Dunvegan, a suburb east of Johannesburg, is bisected by a road with two large traffic circles. The circles feature attractive, well-designed and lovingly maintained gardens. That is both welcome and surprising, as the local government is not particularly known for its public gardens.
Practising respect can counter workplace toxicity
Will Smith’s Oscar slap has generated a huge debate about toxic masculinity, with some decrying his hitting Chris Rock on stage as an example of how men are programmed socially to be violent, some supporting his courage in defending his wife, and others looking for re