Imagine you’re at the bottom of a tall mountain; what do you know of what can be seen from the top? Now imagine you’re half-way up – you can see the path below you (and could act as a guide for it) but cannot see the summit. If you’re at the summit, you have the perspective to be a guide for anyone coming from the base of the mountain to the top, and can also see the landscape for a considerable distance around. It’s a (somewhat hackneyed) analogy of sorts for a management career, isn’t it? Continue reading “Leadership and the importance of multiple viewpoints”
Author: Ger
The importance of effort
It seems obvious, right? Without effort, nothing of value happens. I’ve been batting around thoughts on focus, attention and potential in my head for quite a while now, but the thing that I believe we often overlook is how important it is to first make an effort. Continue reading “The importance of effort”
Hitting the Reset Button
How many days have you had that have passed in a whirlwind of activity, stress and noise, and looking back you felt you could have done better? How many conversations have you been through that at the end you felt you might have let yourself down?
We all have behaviour patterns that are unhelpful, and we sometimes engage in that behaviour to the detriment of ourselves and others. However, every day is filled with opportunities to reset.- 86,400 seconds each represent an opportunity. If we’re awake for 2/3 of that time, that gives us more than 57,600 opportunities to stop and hit reset when things are not going well. We just need to recognise those opportunities and take them.
On trusting the team
(First Published during the 2018 Six Nations, image (c) times.co.uk)
Along with a large number of my fellow Irish, and no doubt, a good portion of the French rugby-watching population, I dug my nails into the sofa on Saturday, as Ireland and France had their first Six Nations Rugby clash for 2018. While not on the scale of a SuperBowl, as the first Ireland game in the tournament it would be a key indicator of how things might play out for Ireland. As an away game in Paris, against a relatively untested French side, it was always going to be interesting to watch. Continue reading “On trusting the team”
An interesting year for salmon fishing
I have been fishing for salmon (and trout, and any other species I can fish for legitimately) for most of my life. I’m not particularly good at it, but most years I get a few salmon on the fly. For the past 15 years or so, I’ve returned all of them. Continue reading “An interesting year for salmon fishing”
What I learned from playing poker online
During a period of enforced absence last year, I distracted myself at times by playing virtual poker with people online – not for real money, I hasten to add.
Looking back on that experience a few things struck me. If they appear obvious to you, I apologise in advance.
What I’m reading
Books I’m currently reading or re-reading, books I recommend and those on my backlog in Kindle. I’m always on the lookout for new books, and welcome recommendations. I recently found a potential goldmine on Patrick Collison’s site – hundreds of books with no categorisation, which makes it challenging, but interesting to explore.
Currently Reading/Re-reading
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- Peak – Anders Ericsson, Robert Pool
- How to think like a Roman Emperor – Donald Robertson
- The Lazarus Heist – Geoff White
- Scary Smart – Mo Gawdat
- Noise – Daniel Kahneman, Oliver Sibry, et. al.
- The Experience Machine – Andy Clark
- The Body Keeps the Score – Bessel van der Kolk
- Set Boundaries, Find Peace – Nedra Glover Tawwab
- The Strategy Book – Max McKeown
- he Dream Machine – M. Mitchell Waldrop
- Strong Recommendations (YMMV)
- Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain – Lisa Feldman Barrett
- Power Failure – The Rise and Fall of General Electric – William D. Cohan
- Talking to Strangers – Malcolm Gladwell
- The Wisdom of the Bullfrog – Admiral William McRaven
- Atomic Habits – James Clear
- David and Goliath – Malcolm Gladwell
- Courage is Calling – Ryan Holiday
- Discipline is Destiny – Ryan Holiday
- And the Next Question Is… – Rachel Alexander, Julia Russell
- Why We Sleep – Matthew Walker
- Stillness is the Key – Ryan Holiday
- How Women Rise – Sally Helgesen & Marshall Goldsmith
- Behave – Robert Sapolsky
- Quiet Leadership – Dr. David Rock
- The Happiness Advantage – Shawn Achor
- Bad Blood -John Carreyou
- Shine: Using Brain Science to get the Best from your People – Ned Hallowell
- Your Brain at Work – David Rock
- 21 Lessons for the 21st Century – Noah Yuval Harari
- Talent Wins – Ram Charan, Dominic Barton, et. al.
- That Will Never Work – Marc Randolph
- Zero to One – Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
- Life 3.0 – Max Tegmark
- Principles – Ray Dalio
- The Lean Startup – Eric Ries
- The Undoing Project – Michael Lewis
- Measure what Matters – John Doerr
- The Obstacle Is The Way – Ryan Holiday
- Team of Teams – Stanley McChrystal
- Turn the Ship Around – David Marquet
- Make your Bed – William H. McRaven
- Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion– Robert Cialdini
- Tribe of Mentors – Tim Ferriss
- Tools of Titans – Tim Ferriss
- The Phoenix Project – Gene Kim, Kevin Behr
- Anything You Want – Derek Sivers
- The Effective Executive – Peter Drucker
- Choose Yourself – James Altucher – needs patience but has some really good points in it
- Trust me, I’m Lying – Ryan Holiday
- Superfreakonomics – Steven Levitt, Stephen Dubner
- Norse Mythology – Neil Gaiman
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – Patrick Lencioni
- Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman
- Work Rules! – Laszlo Bock
- Nudge – Richard Thaler, Cass Sunstein
- Bounce -Matthew Syed
- Storyworthy – Matthew Dicks
- The Culture Code – Daniel Coyle
- The Fifth Risk – Michael Lewis
- The Fourth Age – Byron Reese
- Outlaw Platoon – Sean Parnell
- Homo Deus – Yuval Noah Harari
- Invisible Women – Caroline Criado Perez
- The Wisdom of Psychopaths – Kevin Dutton
- Black Box Thinking – Matthew Syed
- The Hard Thing about Hard Things – Ben Horowitz
- Getting to Yes – Roger Fisher, William Ury
- The Ride of a Lifetime – Bob Iger
- The 4 Disciplines of Execution – Sean Covey, Chris Chesney, et. al.
- Money – Yuval Noah Harari
- Rebel Ideas– Matthew Syed
- Wilful Blindness – Margaret Heffernan
- The Power of Habit – Charles Duhigg
- Deep Survival – Laurence Gonzales
- The Future Leader – Jacob Morgan
- Reinventing Organizations – Frederic Laloux
- Extreme Ownership – Jocko Willink, Leif Babin
- The Dichotomy of Leadership – Jocko Willink, Leif Babin
- Gates of Fire – Steven Pressfield
- AI Superpowers – Kai Fu Lee
- The Bomber Mafia – Malcolm Gladwell
- Emotional Intelligence – Daniel Goleman
- Mindset – Carol Dweck (again)
- The Pathfinders – Will Iredale
- Indistractable – Nir Eyal
- Time to Think – Nancy Kline
- Good Strategy, Bad Strategy – Richard Rumelt
- Site Reliability Engineering – Betsy Beyer, Niall Richard Murphy, et. al.
- Misbehaving – Richard Thaler
- Meditations – Marcus Aurelius
- And the Next Question Is… – Rachel Alexander, Julia Russell
- Leaders Eat Last – Simon Sinek
Waiting to read (Kindle or print to-read list)
- Administrative Behavior – Herbert A Simon
- Everything – ok, not quite everything, but there’s a lot out there 🙂
Recently finished
- Leadership, Strategy and Tactics – Jocko Willink
- AI Superpowers – Kai Fu Lee
- The Unicorn Project – Gene Kim
- Principles – Ray Dalio
- The Lean Startup – Eric Ries
- Freakonomics – Steven Levitt, Stephen Dubner
- Gravitas – Caroline Goyder
- Discipline Equals Freedom – Jocko Willink – this is a really interesting book – it’s like listening to the Jocko podcast in written form 🙂
- Extreme Ownership – Jocko Willink, Leif Babin
- Start with Why – Simon Sinek
- Radical Focus – Christina Wodtke
- Ego is the Enemy – Ryan Holiday
- CyberWars – Charles Arthur
- Trust me, I’m Lying – Ryan Holiday
- Superfreakonomics – Steven Levitt, Stephen Dubner
- Fooled by Randomness – Nassim Taleb
- Norse Mythology – Neil Gaiman
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – Patrick Lencioni
- Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman
- Work Rules! – Laszlo Bock
- Nudge – Richard Thaler, Cass Sunstein
- Bounce -Matthew Syed
- Tribal Leadership – Dave Logan, et. al.
- Storyworthy – Matthew Dicks
- Born a Crime – Trevor Noah
- The Fifth Risk – Michael Lewis
- The Innovators Dilemma – Clayton Christensen
- Can’t Hurt Me – David Goggins
- The Fourth Age – Byron Reese
- Leaders: Myth and Reality – Gen. Stanley McChrystal
- Homo Deus – Yuval Noah Harari
- Invisible Women – Caroline Criado Perez
- Machines like me (fiction) – Ian McEwan
- The Wisdom of Psychopaths – Kevin Dutton
- Black Box Thinking – Matthew Syed
- The Hard Thing about Hard Things – Ben Horowitz
- Zero to One – Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
- That Will Never Work – Marc Randolph
- Getting to Yes – Roger Fisher, William Ury
- The Ride of a Lifetime – Bob Iger
- Call Sign Chaos – Jim Mattis
- How The Mind Works – Steven Pinker
- Why I’m no longer Talking to White People About Race – Reni Eddo-Lodge
- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in World That Can’t Stop Talking – Susan Cain
- Option B – Adam Grant, Sheryl Sandberg
- Ahead in the Cloud – Stephen Orban
- Discipline Equals Freedom (updated) – Jocko Willink
- No Time Like the Future – Michael J. Fox
- Barbarians at the Gate – Bryan Burrough, John Helya
- Deep Survival – Laurence Gonzales
- Think Again – Adam Grant
- How to be an Antiracist – Ibram X. Kendi
- Mindset – Carol Dweck (again)
- Competing in the Age of AI – Marco Iansiti, Karim Lakhani
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – Patrick Lencioni
- Misbehaving – Richard Thaler
- Nice Girls Don’t Get The Corner Office – Lois P. Frankel
- Meditations – Marcus Aurelius
- Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit – Mary & Tom Poppendieck
- Practical Cloud Security – Chris Dotson