It’s your dream job. You have said so publicly and often, which
hasn’t gone down well with previous employers. It’s high profile with
a very competitive salary. But it’s only for nine months! It doesn’t
matter how successful you are in this period at the end of it you will
be gone. Your replacement has already been named by the incoming
chair. This is not the best time to be joining...
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Your blogs - Blair McPherson
Blair
McPherson
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20 Aug 2020 - 13:17
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18 Aug 2020 - 09:33
null Boxing Clever
” Everyone has a plan until they are punched in the mouth.” Mike
Tyson was not known for his wit and wisdom but his ferocity. His
comment was therefore probably just a statement of the obvious that
when it came to the fight whatever cleaver tactics his opponent had in
mind they were still going to get hit very hard. Yet the comment is
memorable because in life so many carefully...
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wrote a new blog post
14 Aug 2020 - 14:41
Statistics may never lie, though everyone knows they can be
economical with the truth. Everyone being managers and members. LA
leaders and chief executives struggle to persuade the local media and
a sceptical public that the authority should not be judged solely on
it league position.
Using a football analogy helps explain how things may not be as
simple as the league table would...
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wrote a new blog post
13 Aug 2020 - 11:32
If HR are were to adopt a gardening metaphor it would be weeds
are just flowers in the wrong place. This is not what a
manager who has been asked to consider someone on redeployment wants
to hear. Nor is it the response a manager with an incompetent or
“difficult” team member is hoping for. The implication in both cases
is that the manager just needs to...
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15 Aug 2020 - 13:02
null Don’t Oversimplify
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wrote a new blog post
08 Aug 2020 - 13:36
Following on from his successful book “The Food Myth” Tim Spector has
written , “ Spoon-Feed: Almost Everything We’ve Been Told About Food
Is Wrong”. On reading it I was struck by the similarities between
dieting and budgeting. Between loosing lbs and losing £s. Between
cutting down and cutting. Between crash diets and dramatic budget
cuts. Between the the special diets promoted by...
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wrote a new blog post
24 Jul 2020 - 12:23
In the years immediately after England won the World Cup the
then manager Alf Ramsey could do no wrong in the eyes of his players
but as the winning team was replaced by a new generation the manager’s
word was no longer law. At the start of an England training session
Alf brought the new younger members of the squad together and
suggested they get a hair cut. They just...
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wrote a new blog post
22 Jul 2020 - 10:35
We need to talk about how we talk about Black Lives Matter (BLM) in
the work place because the subject still has a faint air of menace
about it. If people are reluctant to talk about diversity for fear of
saying the wrong thing then organisations will have a tick box
approach to diversity which looks impressive but doesn't change the
culture. This all to common superficial approach...
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wrote a new blog post
09 Jul 2020 - 11:32
null Alien Encounter
If aliens from a distant and previously unknown planet landed seeking
asylum and only to be allowed to integrate into society, HR would have
no problem adapting equality and diversity policies to include Little
Green Men. After all colour, race and sexuality are already covered.
From HR to all staff
In view of recent “new arrivals” there maybe a need for some
minor tweaks to...
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wrote a new blog post
13 Aug 2020 - 05:56
To anyone observing it was a very heated argument. One member of the
team was criticising another and not holding back. The other responded
with a few well chosen remarks of their own. Voices were raised. It
looked and sounded ugly. The boss did not intervene. So is this what
is meant by a dysfunctional management team? Not according to the boss.
According to the boss this type of...
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wrote a new blog post
05 Jul 2020 - 19:06
Time travel doesn’t require a time machine. You can’t go forwards
into the future only backwards into the past. Time travel is not open
to everyone but every generation has individuals who do. You can’t
visit any period in history the way they do in the books and films.
Each time traveller can only revisit their past. The way it works is
you die then you are reborn on the same...
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wrote a new blog post
01 Jul 2020 - 12:57
null Champions League
Black Lives Matter is making us rethink our approach to Equality.
Most organisations have management steering groups to monitor their
equality strategies and action plans. But the agendas lack passion,
fail to inspire and reflect the slow bureaucratic approach to change.
Moreover, the groups tend to comprise of managers nominated as
representatives of their departments rather than due...
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30 Jun 2020 - 20:08
null Hot Hand
An expression in basketball to describe a player on a hot scoring
streak who feels and appears unable to miss. But for every up side
there is a downside, the top striker who just can’t score, the
international goal keeper who suddenly can’t be relied on to catch a
cross. The pundits tell us it’s down to confidence and affects people
at whatever level they play. What’s not clear is...
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wrote a new blog post
27 Jun 2020 - 11:07
Is managing a football club so different to being a senior manager in
a Local Authority?Both are challenged to motivate talented
individuals. Both have a vision and a plan for the future whilst being
required to deliver improved performance in the short term. In both
cases recruitment and retention will reflect and determine progress.
The amount of money available and the priorities...
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wrote a new blog post
26 Jun 2020 - 14:02
Football managers like Jurgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho and from a
previous generation Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough are stand out
managers with impressive track records. They are extreme characters,
neither heroes nor villains although to the partisan they are both.
Their high profile and willingness speak their mind, their tendency to
court controversy, the level of scrutiny their...
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wrote a new blog post
14 Jun 2020 - 15:26
Sometimes you have to play up and sometimes play down your abilities.
The scene is a golf club, the context a new manager trying to
break into a close knit group of colleagues , the method, pretending
he is a novice golfer and letting the leader of the clique give him
tips on how to improve his game, with remarkable successful results!
Getting on and getting things done both...
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13 Jun 2020 - 20:57
null Big and Scary
It’s big and it’s scary, it’s in the room and ignoring it won’t
make it go away. An Elephant in the Room is an expression to
describe a big topic everyone is ignoring, pretending it doesn’t exist
because it is too scary or too difficult to deal with. Racism like
sexism, ageism and homophobia-discrimination is a big, scary topic.
The killing of George Floyd and the subsequent...
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wrote a new blog post
10 Jun 2020 - 10:04
I WAS AT ONE TIME THE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF RESOURCES IN A LARGE
COMPLEX ORGANISATION. FINANCE, IT, PERSONNEL AND TRAINING FELL WITHIN
MY REMIT. THIS LINE MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENT REFLECTED THE THINKING AT
THAT TIME THAT THE PEOPLE WHO WORKED IN AN ORGANISATION WERE RESOURCES
IN THE SAME WAY AS MONEY, EQUIPMENT, BUILDINGS AND INFORMATION. IN ONE
SENSE THIS WAS POSITIVE AS IT PLACED A...
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wrote a new blog post
09 Jun 2020 - 09:53
Human Resource staff make people behave and they don’t like it. They
are the ones that tell you that even if you think the jokes are funny,
you still can’t tell sexist, racist or homophobic jokes. This is one
function that goes all the way to the top. The HR people, the
compliance people, are telling everybody how they have to treat each
other and a lot people don’t like it,...
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wrote a new blog post
09 Jun 2020 - 09:47
When this pandemic is over you will know a lot more about your
staff/ managers . A crisis brings out the strength in some and the
weaknesses in others. It will not necessarily have been the most
experienced or knowledgable who remained calm and inspired confidence.
It will not necessarily be those with the formal qualifications who
showed themselves able to adapt quickly to the new...
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