Archive
vision? leaders don’t need vision
The need for leaders to have vision is a common thread through most thinking, and it has been for a while, but I wonder how many people really understand what it is and perhaps it isn’t really what is needed at all. Read more…
whether we like it ot not, weather will happen
It is back to reality today after a couple of weeks indulging my imagination in providing some holiday humour. I have been asked if my lift party made it back safely. Time will tell and I’ll see how I feel come Easter; perhaps another adventure will beckon? But it is back to reality and for many it is a grim one. Read more…
How many FM companies employ an FM?
It might sound like a daft question, but a couple of things this week have raised this issue and got me thinking about the issue. Read more…
teaching is a two way street
This week I will be wearing my logistics hat again as I am running a warehousing and materials management course and will re-visiting the delights of standard deviations, calculating point loads and similar mathematics along with the more practical side of what mechanical aids to use for various applications. Read more…
acting unethically does not make good business sense
One of the topics I try to deal with in this column is ethical behaviour. Apart from my need to maintain such standards in order to comply with the code of ethics for each of the three professional bodies of which I hold membership it reflects a basic principle that I was brought up to observe. Read more…
use what time you have well to try and make a difference
News over the weekend that Mel Smith had died came as a shock, not least because he was two months younger than me. A reminder of my own mortality was hardly necessary as a year ago I was in hospital having just had a narrow escape from ending my innings, but we all have to accept that our time here is limited. Read more…
build trust from the start by trusting others
Writing last week about some of the old projects my teams and I saw through got me thinking about an aspect of leadership that is pretty fundamental. I’ve written about trust before, but this week I want to look at building that with a new team. Read more…
monday musings of FM in the boardroom
We talk a lot about getting FM into the boardroom and similar ambitions to further our profession and in these aims we are no different to many other specialist disciplines; when wearing my purchasing hat my colleagues there are no different, but when I have my logistics hat on my colleagues there don’t often have that issue, for they are usually firmly embedded at the top table, so how do they do that and what can FM learn? Read more…
could FMs become sought after by other functions?
I’ve been thinking a bit about transportable skills over the last weeks or so, prompted by some mentoring activity for someone who is trying to settle into one discipline, but with a background in an allied, but different field. Such issues will not come as any of my readers from the Facilities Management sphere because many of them, like me, came into FM from other functions. Read more…
would you be a leader or a manager, and does it matter which you are?
I write a lot here on leadership issues; it features a lot in what I do and is something that has fascinated me for many years. This week I was reading in an on line forum where the difference between a manager and a leader was under debate.
That there is a difference between managing and leading I don’t think is at issue, but there is no reason for me why the same person can’t be both, and I would go further and suggest that many of the best leaders are also good managers. Read more…
I support this charity
British Blogs
the Monday Musings column from that consultant bloke 