Ashraf Ghani: How to rebuild a broken state

Hans K.C.'s Journal

Ashraf Ghani (pictured above) believes there is something fundamentally wrong with our world today: he believes the world’s current aid system is not working and highly ineffective, that our world’s education system, in a 7-billion-strong population dominated by young people, is still based on that of 19th century, that capitalism and democracy are malfunctioning in many aspects in most developing countries, and that there is a great absence of a strong, international leadership to solve our world’s ages-old problems.

Afghanistan even suffers worse. It is beset by corruption, terrorism (by-products of Cold War, with thousands of combatants trained by both Russia and United States), and an economy largely domineered by illegal drug trading. Despite gigantic potential revenues from mining sector (the country’s mineral reserves are estimated to be worth nearly 3 trillion US$), all these problems, using current problem-solving approach, will take more than decades to solve. And, we must…

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Spurt – a drip under pressure

Krazjim's Leadership Blog

“I was a very defensive kid ‘cause I was really sensitive underneath and didn’t want people to know.  So I came off as very tough and angry.” ~Pink

Times of rapid change, like those experienced during a merger or other corporate shake-up create stress.  When things aren’t “like they used to be”, and people need to learn new stuff, they lose confidence in their abilities.  They’re no longer the “expert” on a topic, or the sole owner of some process.  (Note on Expert:  “An ‘Ex’ is a has-been, and a ‘spurt’ is a drip under pressure” ~KrazJim’s Dad, among others)

When people aren’t confident, they can very easily slip into defensiveness.  As you interact with your co-workers during any time of rapid change, keep that in mind, and give each other a little more slack than usual.  It’ll all work out in the end, and you don’t want your defensiveness…

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Talent Development Program For High Potential Employees

INNOVATION CONFIDENCE

In Malaysia, talent development program for the high potential is on the rise right now. In a forum Talent Development and Succession Planning that I attended recently (April 2014), it was clear that many organizations and companies are now revving up talent program for the high potentials. But why? The obvious reason is to make sure their organizations possess the right people  and at the right place to continue what the present leaders do and take it steps ahead. For business organization it is for growth and for the government for national development.

 

Most organizations (businesses and government) do this program either through retaining the existing talents by providing them developmental “wings” so that they can fly or by attracting external talents to meet the business needs. In general, most organizations use a hybrid of the two methods to ensure steady talent pipelines. Most organizations also noticed the limited…

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iLeadiServe: Treat People as People- “Connect”

iLead/iServe:Servant Leadership Insights

Leadership has everything to do with how you relate to others and the quality of those relationships. The higher up you go in an organization, the less important your technical skills become and the more your interpersonal skills matter.

The ability to make an authenic emotional connection is so often misunderstood because it’s not about being emotional or “touchy feely”.  It’s about making a human connection — one person to another.  Here are a few behaviors that have helped me (a natural introvert) adapt to this critical leadership characteristic:

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Employee Engagement Is Key To Motivate Employees And To Transition Through Change.

HR Inner Circle

[Edited and reproduced from the article “Motivation initiatives worthless without employee engagement” by Hywel Roberts featured in HR Professional]

As businesses try to come to grips with the constant, dynamic flux in the marketplace and in their workplaces, a new breed of leaders are emerging. The winners of tomorrow who can constantly adapt and deal proactively with chaos, and lead their teams through the confusion into clarity. They understand that any attempt to fully engage people first starts with winning them over to your new way of thinking.

A report released recently attempted to separate motivation from employee engagement, and found that any attempts to increase motivation are destined to fail without engagement.

Marketing services agency P&MM makes the distinction in ‘Employee Engagement: The Psychology Behind Individual Behaviours’—a whitepaper that looks at the financial impact of low engagement.

P&MM account director Adrian Duncan told HR magazine that employee engagement and…

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Work-Life Balance

For Progress, Not Growth

The balance of work and life is something many of us are concerned about and struggle with. That is we are concerned about the amount of time (and attention) that work demands from us in our life. Though several tactics have been offered these tend to make the conflict between work and life tolerable they don’t dissolve the conflict.

So let’s give this—the whole idea of work and life being in balance—a bit more critical thought.

How did we come to this view?

Business management scholars define work-life balance in terms of the two needing to be in harmony. This implies the two must be blended into one. But if the one is life (i.e. the whole) and the other is work (i.e. the part) does this not mean that the part must harmonize or be congruous with and within the whole? Yet the remedies offered (e.g. telework, flextime, time…

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The Art of Corporate Endurance

the Net economy

By Eric Knight – The art of endurance is increasingly rare. Over the last 50 years, the average lifespan of S&P 500 companies has shrunk from around 60 years to closer to 18 years.

For each company that has lasted more than a century, there are countless more that have failed. Recall the glory days of Polaroid, Kodak, and the F. W. Woolworth Company …

Don’t just build competencies, build dynamic capabilities.

A firm can buy competencies, but capabilities are harder to develop and are the key to sustaining competitive advantage. more> http://tinyurl.com/p5fq9vd

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