Blog

Are you truly dedicated to constantly learning? It will help future proof your career!  Have you heard of the five-hour rule?  It’s a system utilised by many well-known leaders to enhance their learning. From Mark Zuckerberg to Bill Gates, the world’s smartest – and arguably busiest – people find one hour a day each working week and set it aside for deliberate learning:   Bill Gates reads 50 books per year  Mark Zuckerberg reads at least one book every […]

All organisations are made up of talented individuals with a variety of different skills. From IT wizards to super talented creatives, scientific genius’ to standout salespeople; everyone comes with their speciality skillset.   Unfortunately, even the smartest individuals with advanced skills and great achievements can find their career coming to an abrupt halt for no apparent reason.   So, what could be the reason for hitting a metaphorical wall in your career aspirations?  One factor could be due to the way your brain functions: the […]

Creating a successful team isn’t easy – it takes good leadership.   The current Deloitte research suggests that companies are continuing to move from a traditional hierarchy in business towards a team-based model of operation.   This move reflects the nature of work today; as repetitive individual tasks give way to a preference for solving complex problems in creative ways, it’s much more beneficial to use the ‘hive mind’ – benefitting from a combination of experience, skills, capacity and insight that a group of […]

Even in the 21st century, there are still many more men in C Suite roles than women.   And yet those women in top roles show high levels of success; seeming to deploy a range of abilities that their male counterparts do not.   So, is it time to encourage men to embrace their inner female to effect more successful results in the […]

“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” Harry Truman  Those of you who know me well will know that I’m an avid reader. As I travel a lot as part of my job with Excel, I spend more than my fair share of time in airport lounges and what better way to pass the time than with a good book.   And […]

How to move from being a colleague to becoming a leader?    It’s elating; that feeling when you’ve just achieved a promotion.   At last, a chance to implement your plans, to see your ideas come to fruition and the opportunity to lead your team to great things.  And then it hits you. You’re going to have to manage the same people who used to be your colleagues.   The ones who you’ve – let’s be honest – spent more than an occasional five minutes gossiping with by the coffee machine, or had a few nights out with celebrating. […]

Resilience; what does it mean to you?  Resilience centres on the ability to adapt in the face of adversity, disappointment or uncertainty. It could be small scale such as managing stress in your day to day work, or more significant such as making difficult decisions that could affect both the future of your business and your employees.  Resilience allows you to adapt your plans, be flexible […]

Why do people resist change – even if they know it’s the best option?  No matter the size and scale of the change – from implementing a new piece of software to making sweeping changes to the whole company, improving customer service or downsizing the business –  it’s crucial for leaders to ensure that change is managed well.  It’s fine to have strategic ideas at management level, but without the enthusiasm […]

Curiosity is a crucial ingredient in making a leader successful.   The ability to build a high performing team and lead organisations requires many attributes including sound judgment, confidence, authenticity and the vision to take your company forward. And the greatest, it could be argued, is to have curiosity.   As learning and development consultants here at Excel, we sometimes find that clients on our programmes have many great leadership traits. However, some don’t […]