A musing Mulcahy – Page 10 – Management, technology, random thoughts

A tale of two (fitness) trackers

I was trying to think what the collective term for fitness watches and trackers might be (akin to a murder of crows, or a sloth of bears) and what came to mind was “a frustration”.

Wearable technology is increasingly becoming part of the world we live in. From ingestible medical devices to AR headsets, from clothing with connectivity to gadgets to make your running smarter, we are buying more and more tech to generate more and more data about our lives. Allegedly at least, making us more productive, fitter and healthier. Continue reading “A tale of two (fitness) trackers”

Where the right things get done – at the intersection of Principles, Mission and Goals.

Peter Drucker writes in his book that doing the right thing is one of the primary attributes of the “Effective Executive“. But how do we know that what we’re doing is the right thing at the right time?

In an ideal world, principles should inform and guide everything we do. We can think of principles as a sort of operating system, the context in which we execute for our organisations. To be principled has a moral, personal meaning, as in the OED definition: Continue reading “Where the right things get done – at the intersection of Principles, Mission and Goals.”

Leadership and the importance of multiple viewpoints

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”

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.

Continue reading “Hitting the Reset Button”

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”