Did a bit of management training last week. Not for the first time, but it is always good to hear how each company spins it, the different focus of different focus of different organisations.
A first five five tips from my time on the course, though not necessarily from the actual course material:
1. You will got most benefit and best performance by concentrating on developing your strengths, not from compensating for your weaknesses.
2. Only you know your strengths. Other people may know and advise about what you are good at, but that is not the same thing.
3. Even if they ask for specific help and advice, don't provide specific help and advice for your team members. Instead encourage them to find the answers themselves.
4. Being a manager, developing team members, that is just as important as leading the team, providing them direction.
5. An organisation, however large, only needs one leader, but it may require plenty of managers.
So those are teachings, will see if they become learnings.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Friday, May 10, 2013
Mr Wrong
I went to college with Michael Gove. He appeared to be a bit of a pompous snob even then. But at least I thought he was literate.
He attacked something written in the Guardian Education pages by the children's author "Mr Rosen criticised the test on the basis that there was no such thing as correct grammar"
Yet Mr Rosen said no such thing.
Saturday, March 09, 2013
Share Loss
If a share price decreases by 10% in one year then increases by 10% in the next year then the net effect is a decrease – the investor has lost out.
If a share price increases by 10% in one year then decreases by 10% in the next year then the net effect is a decrease – the investor has lost out.
This happens year after year after year.
If the price changes are more than 10% each year then the investor loses even more.
Friday, March 08, 2013
Share This
I thought I had learned my lesson.
No more investing in individual shares, even supposedly safe ones.
Surely the all share index is the safest place to invest.
Bull.
Columnists talk about record highs for the all share index. They are lying.
Since 1999 the FTSE has gone from 6024 to 6224 – without accounting for inflation.
Even in the most basic bank account at 1% per year, the index should be at over 8000 now.
Thursday, March 07, 2013
Europe and UKIP
I love America. However Britain was in, is in, will be in, Europe.
The past: Over many thousands of years all of Europe has shared the same major events. From stone age settlements to Roman invasions to Angles and Saxons and Normans, through renaissance and enlightenment and revolutions, the same groups have spread through all Europe. For better or worse, most of us are even subject to the same royal group, the interlinked descendants of a small number of dark age warrior chiefs are spread across the thrones of Europe.
The current: Britain, like the rest of Europe, is defined by its infrastructure. The very qualities that so appeal to American tourists, our patchwork farms and narrow winding streets around ancient buildings, are the qualities that constrain our development. For all the culture of the Native American they have not left a corresponding network of medieval cities to be built upon and around. The decisions that we must take with regard to balancing of conservation and development are European scale decisions.
The future: New York, with its regular heavy snowfall and freezing winters, is close to the same latitude as balmy Lisbon. In the absence of the warming Gulf Stream we would have a similar climate to Alaska. The melting of the Greenland ice cap may have a drastic effect on the associated ocean currents. While the rest of the world “enjoys” global warming, like the elite enjoy their tropical holidays, Europe may enter a new ice age. Britain is in the same boat as France and Scandinavia. Except that we don’t have a big enough boat.
So why the massive surge to nationalism, to “UK Independence”, to cutting ties with “Europe”? It is just the same players, the murdochs and the bankers, wanting less control over what they do so they can have more control over what we do.
The past: Over many thousands of years all of Europe has shared the same major events. From stone age settlements to Roman invasions to Angles and Saxons and Normans, through renaissance and enlightenment and revolutions, the same groups have spread through all Europe. For better or worse, most of us are even subject to the same royal group, the interlinked descendants of a small number of dark age warrior chiefs are spread across the thrones of Europe.
The current: Britain, like the rest of Europe, is defined by its infrastructure. The very qualities that so appeal to American tourists, our patchwork farms and narrow winding streets around ancient buildings, are the qualities that constrain our development. For all the culture of the Native American they have not left a corresponding network of medieval cities to be built upon and around. The decisions that we must take with regard to balancing of conservation and development are European scale decisions.
The future: New York, with its regular heavy snowfall and freezing winters, is close to the same latitude as balmy Lisbon. In the absence of the warming Gulf Stream we would have a similar climate to Alaska. The melting of the Greenland ice cap may have a drastic effect on the associated ocean currents. While the rest of the world “enjoys” global warming, like the elite enjoy their tropical holidays, Europe may enter a new ice age. Britain is in the same boat as France and Scandinavia. Except that we don’t have a big enough boat.
So why the massive surge to nationalism, to “UK Independence”, to cutting ties with “Europe”? It is just the same players, the murdochs and the bankers, wanting less control over what they do so they can have more control over what we do.
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