Recently, someone shared with me some comments that they had heard at the start of my leadership journey. According to these comments, severe concerns were raised about my suitability to become a senior leader in my organisation. In summary, I was too young, too inexperienced; and knew nothing about the journey on which I was … Read more
Over the past few years, I became increasingly annoyed over the use of acronyms in my organisation. I am far from the only person out there which hates acronyms, and Elon Musk’s 2010 email regarding acronyms in SpaceX resonates very strongly with me. “Excessive use of made-up acronyms is a significant impediment to communication and … Read more
A couple of months ago I decided to start a new daily habit of spending at least one hour upskilling myself. Given my interest in strategy and data analysis, I decided to become an Excel superuser. Currently, I would classify myself as an advanced Excel user, with my biggest accomplishment so far being building data … Read more
I spent a lot of time during the last few months reflecting on my own leadership experience. One of my conclusions is that leading from the front helped me achieve success as a leader. Interestingly, the concept of leading from the front is coming back in fashion since the start of the pandemic. Here is why I … Read more
You’ve perhaps been asked to “say a few words” and deliver a short speech at very short notice, and with only a limited amount of time to prepare. This will be especially the case if you are in a position of responsibility or a leadership position. In my leadership journey, this happened so many times … Read more
The festive season provided me with a perfect opportunity to think and reflect of my leadership journey so far. As for most people, 2020 was a strange year for me and I found myself leading a major organisation during a global pandemic. Additionally, this year marks a new phase in my leadership journey as my … Read more
I’ve run a lot of workshops over the last few weeks. Typically, an email exchange takes place between myself and my host regarding the equipment I’ll need and whether I’ll be using slides or not. Most of the time I present, everything happens smoothly and I’m capable of handling any small glitches happening on the … Read more
This Monday I delivered a technical speech to secure help to implement a data project for the organisation I lead. Technically, the speech was good, my objective was clear and so was the central idea at its core. However, a couple of things didn’t go as planned and I ended up learning valuable lessons from … Read more
The way a speaker is introduced can help establish the speaker’s credibility and get the audience engaged even before the speaker begins his or her speech. However, introducing a speaker with aplomb is another speaking skill in itself and one that a lot of people get wrong. Let’s learn how you too can introduce a … Read more
Over the past few months, I’ve increasingly started using Zoom for conference calls and online meetings in my senior leadership role for Toastmasters International. Yesterday, I facilitated an online meeting followed by a series of virtual workshops. Online meetings are a powerful tool to add to your leadership and communication arsenal. Here are some of … Read more