As a forensic and cybersecurity researcher, I spend some of my free time on television watching documentaries like CSI Miami, Blood Relatives, Evil Killers, Murder Comes Home, Diabolical Deadly Love, and 48 Hours to mention but seven. These shows are not only interesting but teach a lot about the psychology of the killers and criminals – why do people commit crimes. Why do people live double lives? Why do seemingly good people during the day, turn into monsters at night or at their homes when they know no one is watching? Each of the show starts with the context of…
Welcome, 2021! Say no to resolutions
Your best decision in 2021 is to avoid making any resolutions. 2020 proved that annual resolutions are a waste of time. If you learn from experience, you know that the Coronavirus pandemic rendered resolutions useless. Some resolutions like traveling to new places became difficult to attain. In these dynamic TUNA – turbulent, uncertain, novel, and ambiguous – times, you need to embrace priorities. As the new year starts, what are your two or three priorities to guide your decision making? Start by brainstorming or using any such tool for idea generation. The easiest one is to ask a simple question…
The duties of a board chairman
The primary duty of the board Chairman or Chairperson (in gender equality speak) is to manage the board effectively. Individual board members are very weak before the executive team. Only a board is working as a team with one voice, can provide effective oversight and sustainability to the enterprise. To do this, Board Chairman must recognize that s/he is not a boss nor a commander BUT a facilitator. The Chairman must set a tone that enables the directors on the board to conduct effective meetings. One of the critical skills all Chairmen need is the ability to listen by giving…
The best of WhatsApp: President Xi Jing Ping of China said
As a small child, I was very selfish, always grabbing the best for myself. Slowly, everyone left me and I had no friends. I didn’t think it was my fault and I criticized others. But my father gave me 3 sentences to help me in life. One day, my father cooked 2 bowls of noodles and put them on the table. One had an egg on top while the other bowl had none on top. Then he asked me to choose a bowl of noodles. Because eggs were hard to come by those days, I chose the bowl with egg!…
Who is a leader? Do you comfort the afflicted?
One of the most prolific sayings goes: wherever there is a leadership vacuum, a new leader emerges. What explains one person, of so many people, emerges and challenges the status quo? How come such a person gets accepted and rallies so many others behind him or her? People tend to follow someone with character, a track record, tenacity, and courage to challenge the status quo. Such people are willing to go an extra mile than the rest to provide a vision and a clear roadmap to go there. One of the qualities of great leaders is their ability to share…
Here is how to fix your team cohesion
Are your staff working as a team or a bunch of individuals? During these times of the pandemic, many institutions have taken drastic measures to reduce operational costs through undertaking projects like strategic redeployment and staff rationalization initiatives to optimize their human capital resources. But cutting costs through staff terminations without a deliberate focus on growing revenues is never a great solution to win. Great leaders focus on growing revenues by challenging the staff to work as a team to explore new opportunities and better ways of delivering value and cross-selling. Then consideration to identify the weak links for re-training…
