Category Archives: Careers
The Princess & The Pea
Filed under Careers, Leadership, Talent, Talent Management, Uncategorized
FREE Career Advice in Real time!!
Are you frustrated with your career progress? Are you confused with what steps to take next? Join us on Purple Cloud Careers, https://www.facebook.com/purplecloudcareers a page dedicated to troubleshooting careers issues and sharing information. Please like us and join us in the conversation…..
Please NOTE!!! Every Tuesday from 18h00 -19h00 we will be discussing careers and their problems in Real Time ….
We all have careers – whether we are self-employed or work for others. Our career is the tool we use to earn our daily bread. It is also the way society defines us whether we like it or not ….the first thing people ask as is “What do you do?’ A career serves as a means for self-expression and self-actualisation. Finally we spend most of our lives working therefore it makes sense that we take time to think about what we want to spend our lives doing and how we want to do it. .
Career Intelligence is the number ONE skill required for success in this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous workplace. Whether you are 20 something at the Exploration Career Stage, a 30 something at the Establishment Career Stage, a 40 something at the Maintenance or Transition Career Stage and even a 50 something Plus at the Disengagement Legacy Stage, career tips, tricks and tools will help improve your work life and thus increase the quality of your life
Come and join the conversation and share your wins and your worries with us …. if you cant make the time just drop your query on the Purple Cloud Career Page and we will respond to you asap …..
Filed under Careers, Leadership, Talent, Talent Management, Uncategorized
Begin 2014 on a Positive Note …. and get the results you deserve….
Filed under Careers, Leadership, Talent, Talent Management, Uncategorized
Nelson Mandela May you Rest in Peace
There is not much to say to Nelson Mandela except ….. Thank You….
Filed under Careers, Leadership, Talent, Talent Management, Uncategorized
Continuing on the Ant Story ….
Ants come together without much supervision and accomplish tremendous tasks such as moving pieces of food that are about 30 times their individual sizes. When they are disturbed they re-organize and continue on the line they have created.
For more leadership lessons from the Ants check this article out…
http://blogs.hbr.org/2010/10/business-lessons-from-the-ants/
Filed under Careers, Leadership, Talent Management, Uncategorized
The Ant and the Corporation …. Talent Management Gone Wrong ….
Talent Management is more than just hiring more people, deploying them in clearly defined jobs, measuring their performance and rewarding them; talent management happens when people’s ability, particularly people’s managerial and leadership ability, is optimised to create the most strategic value ……by integrating the recruitment, the training and the retention tactics to maximise investment…
Here is a story of how talent management can go very, very wrong ……………
Filed under Careers, Leadership, Talent, Talent Management, Uncategorized
Are you in a corporate leadership position or leading your own business??
Then you must be feeling the pressure of Competition, Change and Chaos, continuous, challenging and unrelenting ….
Here is a great tool to help relieve your stress….
Did you find this helpful??? Leave us a comment …
Filed under Careers, Leadership, Talent, Uncategorized
The 5 Levels of Leadership in Toastmasters
Last night I was award the Golden Gaveller Award by my Club, the Golden Gavel Advanced Club. It was truly an honour but also a surprise as I did not expect it. Thank you Golden Gavel for this honour.
It got me thinking about Leadership and Toastmasters. For the first ten years of my TI life, I was unaware of the benefits of the leadership track in TI. I was only interested in speaking, connecting and bonding with those like-minded individuals who have the same passion for self-development as I did. Because I enjoyed the common ground found at meetings I powered through various committee roles, including President, as there was no one else to do it, without paying heed to any learning, and thus missed out on a great opportunity to grow and develop true leadership.
I look back amazed at how much I have grown… but also how much TI has grown. Without a doubt this organisation has become a world leader in both communication and leadership development. With an excess of 270,000 members scattered across 14 global regions, found in almost every country on the globe, it is truly the best investment (each meeting costing the price of a Big Mac and Coke) you can make in yourself. By attending a meeting at one of the 13,000 clubs, you are immediately part of a series of learn-by-doing workshops, which form a sustainable education programme that is based on life-long, sound bite self-learning,
That is not all!! There is more…. Much more… becoming visible only when you truly get involved in the leadership track which begins with completing of the Competent Leadership Manual.
We know that we live in complex world spinning out of control, everyone trying to do things cheaper, faster, better in order to compete for survival. We also know that many of the challenges facing the world today are the result of poor communication and toxic leadership. Every man and his dog talks about leadership! Everywhere you look there are books and seminars on leadership. Hundreds and thousands of rands and especially dollars are spent on leadership development – yet every day in every way we are live with the results of appalling leadership.
Why ?
Leadership is not a course you can go on, get the piece of paper and hey presto you are a leader! Leadership is a process, a journey of self-development, passing through a number of levels of leadership. Since I became the division governor, I realised how amazing the TI leadership journey is because it takes you step-by-step through all the levels of leadership …. Provided you follow the manuals and commit to carrying out our responsibilities reliably. Attached is TI Leadership Levels to show how it works:
Three profound things I learn are:
- We don’t recycle leaders – leaders must keep growing, moving to new positions, designing visions, missions and toolkits to get us there, otherwise they become toxic in their style – we take on the leadership job for one year max (three if we are coordinators) and then we move on to make space for new leaders – the minute a leader stays in the same position longer than the required period that is when problems arise, dictatorship sets in. Megalomaniacs suffer from the leaders for life syndrome, and we know what the result of that is.
- Immediate Pasts are the great mentors that keep this global organisation thriving – the immediate past presidents and the immediate past governors are our secret weapon, our Magic Mentors, our atomic missiles… their selfless giving is where servant leadership comes from
- Every level of leadership requires different skills to ensure success
With mounting complexity and interdependence and the increasing pace of change in organizational environments, leadership agility has become a much-needed competency. The ability to connect with others using many methods, is an essential trait for success. Keep learning, growing and adapting. Your journey of connecting with others begins now!
Filed under Careers
People born in November most likely to be serial killers and schizophrenics
by Moyo Roy 2011 September 06 18:15:00
Researchers in the UK who have analysed the birth months of people in 19 separate occupations using information from the last census have come up with interesting results. The results appear to indicate that a person’s month of birth could make them statistically more likely to end up as a footballer – or a bricklayer.
In January, GPs and debt collectors were found to be the professions with the greatest percentage above the monthly average. At the opposite end of the scale, it is a bad month for sheet-metal workers.
A February birth appears to increase the chances of being an artist, and March is good for pilots, according to the study by the Office for National Statistics. April and May are said to have a fairly even spread of professions.
Meanwhile, births in the summer months mean a much lower chance of becoming a high-earning football player, doctor or dentist.
For those born in September the two occupations with the greatest percentage above average were sports players and physicists.
The two jobs least likely to be taken up by September babies were found to be bricklayers and hairdressers, while December is said to be rich with dentists
Certain jobs, notably chief executives of large companies and estate agents, are spread relatively evenly throughout the year. Children born in September are shown to have a significant advantage over August births in the early years of education, almost certainly because they were born at the start of the school year and are the oldest in the class.
Although these trends may be difficult to explain, correlations between birth months and specific health problems have a scientific basis. Researchers believe the month in which babies are born could affect everything from intelligence to length of life.
Spring babies are at greater risk of a host of ills, including asthma, autism, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. They may also be less clever than classmates born in other seasons.
Research suggests many of the differences are linked to a mother’s exposure to sunlight in pregnancy. Sunlight triggers the production of vitamin D in the body and lack of this in the first months of life may have long-lasting effects.
Speaking earlier this year Russell Foster, an Oxford University neuroscientist, said: ‘These are small effects but they are very, very clear. I am not giving voice to astrology – it’s nonsense – but we are not immune to seasonal interference.’
He added: ‘It seems absurd the month in which you are born can affect life chances, but how long you live, how tall you are, how well you do at school, your body mass index as an adult, your morning-versus-evening preference and how likely you are to develop a range of diseases are all correlated to some extent with the time of year in which you emerge from the womb.’
In January, GPs and debt collectors were found to be the professions with the greatest percentage above the monthly average. At the opposite end of the scale, it is a bad month for sheet-metal workers.
A February birth appears to increase the chances of being an artist, and March is good for pilots, according to the study by the Office for National Statistics. April and May are said to have a fairly even spread of professions.
Meanwhile, births in the summer months mean a much lower chance of becoming a high-earning football player, doctor or dentist.
For those born in September the two occupations with the greatest percentage above average were sports players and physicists.
The two jobs least likely to be taken up by September babies were found to be bricklayers and hairdressers, while December is said to be rich with dentists
Certain jobs, notably chief executives of large companies and estate agents, are spread relatively evenly throughout the year. Children born in September are shown to have a significant advantage over August births in the early years of education, almost certainly because they were born at the start of the school year and are the oldest in the class.
Although these trends may be difficult to explain, correlations between birth months and specific health problems have a scientific basis. Researchers believe the month in which babies are born could affect everything from intelligence to length of life.
Spring babies are at greater risk of a host of ills, including asthma, autism, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. They may also be less clever than classmates born in other seasons.
Research suggests many of the differences are linked to a mother’s exposure to sunlight in pregnancy. Sunlight triggers the production of vitamin D in the body and lack of this in the first months of life may have long-lasting effects.
Speaking earlier this year Russell Foster, an Oxford University neuroscientist, said: ‘These are small effects but they are very, very clear. I am not giving voice to astrology – it’s nonsense – but we are not immune to seasonal interference.’
He added: ‘It seems absurd the month in which you are born can affect life chances, but how long you live, how tall you are, how well you do at school, your body mass index as an adult, your morning-versus-evening preference and how likely you are to develop a range of diseases are all correlated to some extent with the time of year in which you emerge from the womb.’
Filed under Careers
