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For many of us, robots used to conjure up images of humanoids in sci-fi movies, and we thought them to be Robots are creepy? Not at all. We need them. But now that they have become so ubiquitous, this is no longer the case.   More and more companies are embracing the robotics revolution, introducing […]

Generosity is an interesting beast so WHY SO STINGY. As a charity CEO, I have seen it expressed in many different ways. The best kind of generosity comes with warmth and good old NSA – no strings attached. This kind of generosity is glorious to witness and is the backbone of charity work all over […]

Culture and Talent Retention is a real challenge and employees are looking for organizations that inspire them, uplift them and create opportunities for growth and progression. Of significant importance to retaining people is the ability of an organization to create alignment between what they say and what they actually do. Misalignment of value systems is […]

In April, 2020 I wrote an article describing four possible scenarios for how the The Coronavirus Scenarios could play out: “Much Ado About Nothing”, “The Camel’s Straw”, “Spain Again” and “Walking the Tightrope”. At the time the cumulative number of global cases was 2 400 000 and deaths 165 000. Seven months later, the figures are 60 000 000 and […]

Odds are good that you’re doing 10 SMALL THINGS YOU SHOULDN’T SWEAT AT WORK things to proactively manage how you present yourself at work: writing concise emails, speaking up in meetings, and trying not to make your sentences sound like questions. But when you’re in the first phases of your career, sometimes understanding office etiquette […]

Without exaggerating, there are literally hundreds of ways of becoming more self- aware, and hence be more Adaptable to embrace and think through opportunities and / or adversity. As a Preferred Partner in South Africa for the Six Seconds EQ Worldwide Network (in 174 countries), we talk about ‘emotions driving people, and people driving performance’. […]

Ultrafast Computers Are Coming: Laser Bursts Drive Fastest-Ever Logic Gates. Go Digital What Happened? We are on the cusp of creating ultrafast computers that can operate at speeds much faster than anything we have today. How? By using laser bursts to drive the fastest-ever logic gates. This breakthrough was made possible by clarifying the role […]

Brands don’t have values or Employee Motivation. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pull the rug out from under you so quickly, but it needed to be said. Before you close this article thinking “that’s absolute rubbish”, just wait a moment. Dust yourself off. Sit back down, have some coffee. Ready? Brands do not have […]

A couple of weeks ago I was in Orlando for a talk and I knew the THE 3 C’S OF ELITE TALENT DEVELOPMENT. The night before I was sitting at the hotel restaurant grabbing some dinner. Out of the corner of my eye I saw that there was a basketball game on the tv at […]

This year I am participating in the One Foot Forward Challenge to raise money for Black Dog Institute. They bring together the strength of a medical research institute and a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to improving the lives of people affected by poor mental health. Their mission is to enable mentally healthier lives through innovations in […]

A framework from my book Humancentric for how to create Relationship and Intelligence in businesses in the fourth industrial revolution. How do we focus more on people than technology? When we do our research behind all of the aspects of business, we need to focus on the context we are in, the relationships around that […]

In other words, workers burned out by the “hustle culture” so recently prevalent have decided to either quit their jobs — or perhaps even more damaging to businesses — disengage themselves from where they are working.   In a brilliant article in a recent edition of the Wall St. Journal, Lindsay Ellis and Angela Yang reveal that what we’ve […]

One morning when I was on my way to school, my life changed for the better with The Power of a Vision. I was 14 years old and an eighth grader at the time, and my school was on the other side of Matlala River in Limpopo. It was quite a long walk through the […]

Speakers in the virtual space during this pandemic we have heard the word pivot frequently. And now it’s typical to hear phrases like “all Zoomed out”. In the world of events and training we are seeing a mixture of virtual, hybrid and face to face. No one expected this pandemic. While we continue to navigate […]

We’re 60 days out from a new year and a new year and 10 things to do in the next 30 days ensure 2023 is your most EPIC year yet. I don’t know about you but I plan on making 2023 a year of EPIC achievement, EPIC health and EPIC experiences.   Having an EPIC […]

The pandemic may be easing up in many parts of the world, but its effects will forever shape how we live, work and shop so here are 3 Strategies to Reach Post-COVID Customers The past two years have brought unbelievable challenges and changes. Throughout the uncertainty, people have evaluated their priorities and lifestyles. A full 50% […]

I was concerned about working virtually and leading through adversity so In March 2020, when the world shut down and my live event calendar was wiped clean   As my speaking business went online, I wondered if it would survive the transformation. Would I still have an impact? Would I still matter? I’m sure you […]

Boost Your Optimism and have Positive affirmations for anxiety are often used to reinforce positive thinking among people, especially during times of stress. These positive statements help us manage our anxiety levels to live a daily life without having to worry about anxiety and depression ruining our usual daily routine. It can really be tough to […]

It’s not every day Leaders Can Build Relationships Through Transparency or you see a CEO dancing on TikTok. But being vulnerable and transparent is one of the reasons Ali Bonar has seen incredible growth and success with her company, Oat Haus.   Consumers are moving more towards sharing real experiences and less about hiding behind the perfect […]

Few months ago, I was supposed to go somewhere with someone and realized What Drives You. We’d agreed to meet at a particular spot but I was trying to renegotiate our meeting place so I can avoid having to take multiple local taxies. And so this person exclaim in total shock…and said, “Nicky, you mean […]

Ways to Use Authenticity is so much more than “being yourself”, and how you can use it as your new career playbook. It was a teeny bit embarrassing. I had just kicked off one of the most important negotiations of my career. I was brand new in the COO role for my company, and one […]

Unveiling the Secrets of Successful Keynote Speaker Booking: Insights from a Meeting Planner To learn more about booking a keynote speaker tailored to your event’s specific needs, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Our experienced team is ready to provide expert guidance and help make your next event an unforgettable success. A Meeting Planner’s Perspective […]

Things that were no-brainers in meetings two years ago are now fraught with public health and Meetings Etiquette concerns. How do you ask whether someone is OK shaking hands? How do you indicate that you yourself aren’t comfortable—or that you are? How do you indicate someone is too physically close for comfort? Before walking into […]

Practice These Resilient Skills to becoming a Resilient Leader When my friend Petra was diagnosed with cancer, not once, but twice, life gave her no choice but to be strong. When she went into remission for the second time, she decided she was going to wake people up to the precious gift of time. Through […]

Sharing a grand vision is important, but often employees want to know they’re being led by someone who also has two feet firmly on the ground with BEER AND BASEBALL Many years back, I sat in an audience, watching my CEO hitch up his pants in between sentences, sip from his water, and mumble about […]

A study of 70 top European Organisations shows that that the 10th reason they Choose One Pitch Over Another is the paper proposal. That’s not to say the paper proposal is not important but most people are neglecting the #1 reason. I share it at the biggest sales conference in Europe. “I’m not sure our […]

Acceptance – Cave In or Lean In?: “When you argue with reality you lose – but only 100% of the time.” Byron Katie I love Katie’s words because they speak to the simple truth – we can’t change reality. Yet there are times in our lives when we don’t like or want the reality we […]

We are all ordinary and can ACHIEVE THE EXTRAORDINARY. Every single one of us is an ordinary person who has a set of talents, opportunities, challenges and experiences to work with. Whether we turbocharge those into greatness or lie on the couch is usually entirely up to us. But to start with, we are all […]

Worrying is psychologically debilitating and The Opposite of Worrying Planning Recently, I helped a client eliminate the worrying component in his narrative which was causing serious procrastination. This is not unusual, and here are some thoughts for those who find themselves trapped in this wheel of hell. I understand worry intimately. I know those who […]

Clarity Certainty and Hope. Many have spoken about VUCA times, where it all becomes Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. We had a large taste of it in 2008, during the global financial crash, but the Coronavirus has really challenged every nation, and every person. We will share some thoughts and insights that may help you […]

Be a Force for Good in the wake of some of the recent events in the world and in light of so much of what we’ve all been through the past few years, I’ve been finding it challenging to focus on the good stuff and Be a Force for Good, even though this is at […]

It’s a great time to have Rules For New Entrepreneurs —in the last decade, technology has leveled the playing field and propelled an entrepreneurial revolution. As an entrepreneur, you now have more access to information that enables you to make intelligent choices quickly. You have an advantage over big businesses in that you’re lighter, more […]

‘There is no remote work for A TECH-DRIVEN WORLD POST-PANDEMIC. There is only work, THE NEW RULES’ futurist Mike Walsh said during a session on the future of the industry at the Schwab Impact conference. The pandemic has forced the working world to evolve technologically much faster than at any time in recent history, effectively […]

Last month, something happened to me at an event that hasn’t happened in well over a decade and How to Overcome the Fear of Public Speaking.  I wish it were something cool like audience members throwing money and candy at me as they cheered “Bravo!” and “Encore!”  But that’s never happened, and probably never will.  […]

As a keynote speaker on the topics of leadership, connection, resilience, and relationships, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about Choose Compassion Over Empathy over the past year and Why Leaders Must Choose Compassion Over Empathy. In fact, in my virtual presentations on personal connection, I quickly became aware of the buzzwords associated […]

In business, I have learnt the incredible value of Lessons in building business dashboards that eliminate unnecessary data (ruthlessly) and focus only on imperative and useful stats that help you make informed decisions quickly. In my average week, I refer to two central dashboards. One the shows the health of my business and the other […]

The invaluable lesson ‘Exposure’ was one of the significant events that rolled into town with the covid circus. The carpet was pulled back to expose things like pre-existing leadership ineptitude, business weaknesses and relationship flaws. Unhappy employees became unhappier. Unhappy couples separated. Unhappy clients cut ties. The character of political leadership was revealed. Two areas […]

Do your Data-Driven Marketing efforts feel like a shot in the dark? It doesn’t have to be that way.    With the power of today’s abundance of data, brands can use a measured and data-driven approach to build an agile and compelling customer experience.   According to Tiffany Perkins-Munn, Head of Data and Analytics at J.P. Morgan Chase, […]

Business success isn’t only reserved for large corporations with seemingly unlimited budgets to design customer experience. There are countless stories of small businesses that have grown to incredible heights simply by treating customers in a way that made them want to share their experience with family, friends, colleagues and on social media and encourage them […]

Let’s imagine for a moment that you are a gardener. Do any of the actions below seem like a good idea and Why Being Too Helpful Is A Bad Habit For Leaders?   Planting a seed and then digging it back up from time to time to check its progress Forcing open a flower bud […]

Other than a brief period when I was in the Middle East, for the past 13 years I have not had an office out of which I worked. I have however, been part of teams that have worked closely together every day and Living in an online world: Virtual Collaboration and Virtual Teams One year […]

There’s one thing between you and the results you want – Discover what discomfort is stopping you to be it a higher functioning team, more leadership, more money or just more joy and happiness – you know what it is? That’s right, discomfort. If you’ve read anything about the upcoming book (or listened to me, […]

This morning I woke up with a feeling of total despair as An eagle eye in trouble times…, the feeling of not doing enough. Not having enough, not knowing where to start and not knowing where I wanted to go. This uneasy feeling of negativity was so out of character and my first reaction was […]

Over the last year as You Want to Be an Authentic Leader, you’ve worn countless sweatshirts on Zoom calls, taken meetings while walking, and even brought Fido, your adorable Shih Tzu, into a few calls. Well done. However, and I hate to break it to you, that doesn’t necessarily make you an “authentic leader”. The […]

Like so many around the world, we are also taking this time to venture near – to Discovering our doorsteps what beautiful destinations we have close to us, some that we had overlooked for the more exotic. Every week we’ll be sharing a new destination in Turkey, trying to unravel the mysteries – one road […]

Punch-drunk public runs out of faith in its leaders, article written by Tony Leon who is a Political Commentator in South Africa. Cascading corruption, sky-high unemployment, and state incompetence. This daily diet of misery is now so mundane and common that what once induced shock and outrage in us is shrugged off. We have, as […]

What’s on your resilience resume? For most people in North America, this week marks the first anniversary of the pandemic changing our lives. It started with disbelief, upheaval, and constant change and progressed to the monotony of sameness. Regardless of the phase, there has been a consistent undertone of uncertainty as to what comes next. […]

You CAN Make Meetings Productive with most meetings occurring online, I’m hearing about the frustrations of time wasted during meetings from leaders and teams’ members alike. Meetings are running overtime. The structure is lost. People can’t make it to their meetings on time – even virtually! Some people talk too much while others never utter […]

Kirsten Landman Does It, and has completed the Dakar 2023 Malle Moto, coming 2nd in the women’s classification, 12th in Malle Moto and 71st overall! Saudi Arabia (16 January 2023) – Kirsten Landman has completed the Dakar 2023, and she has done it unsupported. We want to take the chance to wish her our congratulations! South […]

The Best Employees are the Ones Who Understand the Bigger Picture   We often talk about the best leadership qualities, but we should be talking about the best qualities of an employee. The best employees are the ones that know their efforts contribute to something bigger than themselves. They see how their work has an […]

A common problem new pilots struggle with is avoiding a PIO or pilot-induced oscillation. So how do we Stop the Cycle as We’re all familiar with the concept of overcorrecting in a car. A deer runs out, you’re driving tired, you’re near the edge of the road, and you yank the wheel the other direction […]

THE ACCELERATION OF RISK as a few months ago, the National Safety Council had me as the closing keynote speaker for their massive annual conference – and I spoke to a few thousand safety professionals on issues surrounding new, emerging, acceleration of risk.   Including a story of what happened when Rosie the Robot from […]

Toward the end of 2020, I made a resolution to cut down on my intake of fast food. I was almost resolute never to bring another juicy slice of pizza to my lips ever again and Making Organizational Changes Stick I had always known the truth – it was counterproductive to my gym routine and one slice […]

When you think of Kauai, you think of delicious island-style food and freshly-pressed juice combinations – all the taste without anything that sticks to your hips or taxes your health and Your best life!. Well, now you can take some of it home! Put together these delectable dishes in your own kitchen with Your Best […]