Over-night you have become a leader of a virtual team! How do you do that? Well first of all;
• Don’t panic and admit to the team that you are all learning together – take the pressure off.
• Get your own home-working plan together (See my blog on working from home here).
• Learn from others who have done it before.
• Get support – set up a small group of colleagues on the same learning curve with a space to connect and share (social media or video conference).

There is a big difference between working from home on the odd day, and working from home on a semi-permanent basis. Having had a home office for over 15 years, I remember it took me some time to figure out how to make it work well. Here are some of the things I learnt about the physical space, routine, social and motivation aspects of working from home. I hope these might help you find your home-working way more smoothly;

For pretty much all of the 90s I worked for the Motorola Corporation. Those ten years of varied, challenging and global change leadership experience were pretty much the bedrock that my last 15 years have been grounded in. Motorola was not perfect, but it was innovative and humanely people-centric. If the business had not contracted as it did, I would probably still be there.

During the ritual winter clearing-out of my office, I came across some Motorola paraphernalia. One thing in particular made me think; “Individual Dignity Entitlement” (IDE) was a very controversial, global Motorola process. I am told there was even a Dilbert cartoon about it!

The Institute of Directors are hosting events throughout Scotland in support of the Publication of  "The Game Changer" by Alistair Gray. 

The next will be held at Cairn Energy’s offices at Lothian Road in Edinburgh on Tuesday 26 November at 1800h. Attendance is by registering via the IoD website. Here is the link to the event.

This is my homage to the stand-out bosses I have worked with over my many years' of leadership development and coaching. These extra-ordinarily talented people have taugh me much about what it takes to be a great boss.

“Thank You Driver”

In my home city of Edinburgh, we have the friendliest, most helpful bus drivers I have experienced. This is pretty important in a city that is always full of visitors and tourists. It wasn’t always the case though. So what changed to make our drivers so great?