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Be prepared for Remote Selling – How to Become A Technical Set Up Boss As any Boy Scout (or Girl Guide for that matter) knows, you should always be prepared – in fact that is the global motto for the Boy Scouts and one that I feel should be adopted by all business professionals as […]

I am as outraged as you are when I heard the news of the violent death of Uyinene Mrwetyana in September last year, the heartbreak and the anguish felt physically unbearable.  I was overwhelmed by grief and outrage. I was consumed with terror for our daughters.  As I started to catch my breath and look […]

Vancouver, Canada  | Disembarking   On a beautiful sunny morning, the Captain brought Seabourn Odyssey alongside Canada Place in Vancouver at 7am. Long before the ship is cleared and guests are allowed to disembark, the activity begins.   A massive fuel barge is brought alongside to refuel (bunker) the ship, and the quayside is lined with […]

Is Complacency Putting You Risk? Lessons From a Fighter Pilot Flying taught me a valuable lesson about life: complacency can cause serious problems for ourselves and those around us. In this newsletter, share a personal story about the dangers of complacency including the following topics: Complacency Consequences What leads to complacency? Signs Complacency is Creeping […]

Three small steps to help you use New Research Authentic Leadership as your strategy to improve engagement and retain your talent. It seems just about every day your news feed has a new article talking about the (admittedly catchy) “Great Resignation. And geez, so sorry about adding yet another. I’m guessing just about every leader […]

For Africas growth path it is important to recognize that lessons learnt in a particular place and time in history are not automatically transferrable to another part of the world. However, the growth of Africa mirrors to some degree that of Asia over the past 40 years. The development of the four main Asian Tigers – […]

An event in Costa Rica is known worldwide for its lush nature that attracts millions of tourists. Still, the country has diversified what it offers to stay current in an increasingly competitive international market, aiming to develop its appeal for corporate event production. This country has great potential due to its favorable geographical location, pleasant […]

In today’s fast-paced, rapidly changing world, with such high expectations of #leaders, the challenges for leaders are high demanding and complex and HOW TO AVOID BURNOUT.   Know the most effective leaders are the ones that prioritize #selfcare. HOW TO AVOID BURNOUT – VIDEO It is only when you take care of your emotional well-being, […]

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 […]

I once saw a cartoon meme that really caught my attention. A Father was chatting to his son. He was explaining the difference between being interested in success at school versus being committed to success at school. So Are You a Chicken, or a Pig? “Take your breakfast as an example, my boy,” the Father […]

An interesting story of the emergence of Ferrero and Lessons Leading to Success, the famous world company with a turnover of more than 10 billion dollars, producing popular sweets and famous chocolate eggs with funny toys inside. It all started shortly after the end of World War II in a small provincial Italian town. Michele Ferrero […]

Whenever I speak about my entrepreneurial journey on Digital Inclusion, I often start by stating that I’m from Terry, MS. The big city of Terry with a population of a little over one thousand residents and only stop signs, no stoplights. I open with that statement because I want anyone reading or hearing about my […]

17The Wonderbag is up for yet another accolade; the Food Planet Prize rewards excellence in environmental-based food innovation.   South Africa (14 September 2022) – Wonderbag, a South-African-based startup founded by social entrepreneur Sarah Collins, has developed a simple yet pioneering cooking tool that continues to cook food which has been brought to boil by conventional methods. […]

Think Yourself Thin reaches no.1 Best Seller rank on Amazon VANCOUVER, July 19, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ – Nathalie Plamondon-Thomas, inspirational speaker and Life Coach, tops Amazon.com bestseller lists with her new book Think Yourself Thin. In Think Yourself Thin, Nathalie combines her experience in life coaching, fitness, nutrition and Neuro-Linguistic Programming into a system that shows you how to reprogram […]

What’s Your New Year’s Addiction? Here are 6 Simple Steps To Avoid Changing Who You Are and Instead, Changing Your Addictions. It happened for years. Too often I would come home from work, open the refrigerator, then the freezer. I’d sigh and think, “F*ck, I have no idea what to make for dinner.” Sometimes I’d […]

The Status Quo of Crisis Preparedness Puts You at a Disadvantage—and It’s Time For That To Change. Over the last couple of years, I’ve found myself increasingly frustrated with my industry, the crisis management profession. To put my frustration simply, the status quo of crisis preparedness and crisis management no longer suffices and, as a […]

What are the warning signs of an empty resilience tank? HOW TO KNOW WHEN IT’S TIME TO PAUSE   In my experience, there are four primary indicators that tend to show up each time my resilience tank is running low. They don’t always show up in the same order but, without fail, they will show […]

Lucy Bloom is often asked how to crack the speaker circuit by aspiring professional speakers at least twice a week, so to save you buying me a coffee, here are my top ten tips for how to get your story on the stage, paid. 1. We all have a story to TELL but are you […]

Native Americans Voices in Corporate America: Inspiring Change and Inclusivity Introduction The corporate world has increasingly recognized the value of diversity, inclusion, and fresh perspectives in today’s globalized and dynamic business landscape. Indigenous voices, often underrepresented and underheard, offer unique insights and experiences that can enrich corporate America. In this Native Americans article, we will […]

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 […]

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 […]

This expedition was the first in a series of five Beyond Engulfing Magnificence Expeditions with Jacques Marais. The idea was to mountain bike the edge of the incredible Namib Desert from Serra Cafema on the Angolan border to Swakopmund along the coast of Namibia. I’m on the edge of a gigantic granite outcrop. Ep.2/9 | Engulfing […]

A sales slump is a time in which a sales pipeline loses its momentum, leads slow down, or stop coming in altogether, opportunities that are already in play begin to stagnate, and deals that we were sure to win we either lose to a competitor or to a lack of decision-making readiness from the customer. […]

‘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 […]

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. […]

Most people experience discomfort and they run. Hunting Discomfort may be the experience of pain (and that’s… unpleasant), but on the other side of that pain are breakthrough results. If you’re committed to breakthrough results, hunting discomfort will get you there, even to give a TED Talk. Everyone knows that giving a TED Talk is […]

Do you remember what life was like right before you received the message of biggest trap in business that confirmed your appointment as executive? Or before you started your own business? Or before you took over the family business? Opportunities lay ahead like an orchard of fruit trees ripe for the picking and everything that […]

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 […]

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 […]

Life has suddenly become potentially very thorny. The goal posts have shifted completely and now the Necessity is the mother of reinvention.  The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust us all into a strange new world.  The rules of engagement have been turned completely upside down.  There is no more ‘normal’. We don’t even know where or […]

Is email is killing your company your primary method for communicating with your colleagues? Then you have picked up a dangerous habit that is killing your company. Here’s why. 1. Email exacerbates knowledge hoarding What is your companies most important asset? Knowledge! It might not be booked to the balance sheet but your value is […]

WIFU: What’s in it for you, to read this? If you are ‘time-poor’,  and therefore don’t have time to read this article right now, then simply use the acronym: BOOST©  to ask yourself five questions:  B = Bed- Do you wake up refreshed?    O = Oxygen- Do you get enough oxygen to your brain throughout […]

Wartime British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, said, “A lie travels halfway around the world before the truth has time to put its pants on.” Now, with the proliferation of social media, and twitter in particular, a lie can circumnavigate the globe before the truth even realises it’s not wearing trousers. And it took another […]

Eddie Botes, Leadership and Culture Speaker wrote this article, Critical Thinking for the Adaptive Leader. VUCA is an acronym that is now well established as a description of the business world that we currently operate in. In a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous world, there is no going back to the familiar and predictable world before the global financial […]

Yet Mr Gates’ programme itself is not inherently evil and why you can do better without slides. Ouch!’Death by PowerPoint.’ That’s the commonly used term. Jim Nelson, a man who served as a translator between the American and Russian troops in Bosnia, tells a story about the Russians watching with bemused fascination as their unlikely […]

We all know remote working and the loneliness in your team has had a large impact on our mental health with loneliness being cited as the most common emotion being experienced by entrepreneurs, leaders and employees. This can cause us to withdraw and be less committed, creative, collaborative and attentive, and both the quality and […]

It’s hard to believe twenty years have passed since I was honoured and humbled to carry the 2020 Olympic Torch Hindsight to Rekindle Embers of Hope, on the day of the opening ceremonies of the Sydney 2000 Olympics; one of only 26 people before Cathy Freeman lit the cauldron in the stadium. I’d been privileged […]

Howard Saunders, a leading retail keynote speaker was wrong. FORGET COVID. THIS IS THE KILLER VIRUS. I thought that the crescendo of hysteria that’s been festering like a planet sized boil in the wake of Trump and Brexit would dissipate once a serious crisis came along. It’s like we’d been massaging a giant zit with […]

Leading significant organizational change is hard, A Navy SEAL’s 7 Steps for Using Culture to Drive Change. Though well-intentioned, that’s why over half of major transformation efforts fail. Why?   Many reasons can include but aren’t limited to a bad strategy, a weak culture lacking trust and accountability, poor communication, low levels of buy-in, change […]

Dayne shared, The Future of the Internet Is Video as I was sitting in the back of the room last week listening to Dayne Williams, the CEO of HR tech company PlanSource, kick off the firm’s Eclipse Conference focused on the empowered consumer and trends in the way we’re embracing video. He shared, The Future of the […]

Think about a baby’s laughter. It is one of the most contagious sounds when heard; you are bound to start smiling and eventually, break out in laughter, too. So, How to influence the workplace by bringing the right energy? Imagine if you could be like the baby’s laughter in your place of work. The one […]

A lot has happened in the past few years since my book, We’re Really All In This Together: Creating a Team Culture of High Performance, Trust, and Belonging, was first published in the spring of 2020. I completed the manuscript for this book (which was just released this week in paperback) at the end of 2019. I […]

Lizette Volkwyn is also one of only two certified PEI human lie detector in South Africa! Meet Lizette Volkwyn, an energetic, dynamic and focused South African who believes that all you have to do today is to be 1% better than yesterday. Lizette encourages individuals to strive for self-acceptance and to appreciate their self-worth. She […]

‘Quick! The business is dying! Find me the humblest possible consultant to solve the problem!’ as Experts don’t disqualify themselves. Author Allen Weiss makes this tongue-in-cheek point in his book, ‘Million Dollar Maverick.’ And it’s a good one. As we strive to position ourselves as top-level experts in our industry, a demure and deferring persona […]

I had been begging my dad for ages, and my wall was full of Bruce Lee posters. I wanted to know how to fight! The difference between life and death in a sticky situation could come down to KNOWING what you know. Then one afternoon, he drove up the driveway and said: “Get in, we’re […]

As we have seen ourselves Fast Forward over the last 30 years, massive disruption has hit the $4 trillion transportation industry. Detroit has shrunk into a tiny version of its former self. Air travel has continued to go through the constant boom and bust based on the economy and jet fuel prices, and has yet […]

What are Afformations as I invented The AFFORMATIONS® Method one morning in “The Shower That Changed Everything.” Afformations are positive and empowering questions you ask yourself. The goal is to change your beliefs about yourself by focusing on what is good and right about you instead of what is bad and wrong about you. This […]

Problems, obstacles or roadblocks of some kind inevitably pop up on the way to our goals. I was recently reminded of a story about a dog and rabbit that exemplifies that oftentimes, problems may not be exactly what they seem to be on the surface. It takes courage to look deeper, even though it might […]

Your first time as a manager is a learning experience as much as anything else and what is the best way to build trust? How do you lead your team well? Who should you hire? Where do you draw the boundaries with former colleagues who are now direct-reports? WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO BUILD TRUST? […]

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 […]

Are you someone who starts a whole bunch of projects and tasks yet rarely finish any of them so then How to Finish a Task! is for you? You are in excellent company! A huge percentage (89% according to a study shared in the Huffington Post) of business people don’t know How to Finish a […]

Me to My Husband, Bill:     Bill – look! My phone is blowing UP with all these stories about people getting this flesh-eating bacteria from getting into the ocean! Bill:    You’re kidding. (Not even breaking stride in his email checking) Me:     It’s true! It’s right here. A man who’s about to lose his arm. A 12-year old who is about […]

As a seasoned frontline journalist and broadcaster, Mandy Wiener has a unique perspective on current affairs and A Country Worth Fighting For on how history unfolds in South Africa.   Mandy has had a front row seat to the nine wasted years, the anatomy of the state capture project, the evisceration of state owned entities […]

The Silicon Valley Unicorn craze is slowly fading, and in the dawn of the fourth industrial revolution, all eyes are riveting to startup in Africa, India, and South America as the new battlegrounds, yet people have no real understanding of the challenges faced by homegrown startups in these regions, trying to innovate in harsh environments, […]