DrContrarian

Of all the tings I don’t get in this world, this particular (myth) confounds more than most. What is time? And can you really ‘manage’ it? Of course time cannot be managed. It cannot even be properly understood. We perceive it to be and record it as a linear experience that somehow passes us by with supreme consistency. It is how we measure everything, even our lives; yet the great philosophers and the great scientists still grapple with the concept. We all labour under serious fallacies when it comes to the concept of time, but when a Manager pronounces that a certain individual cannot manage ‘time’ we nod sagely and thankfully – glad that it is not us. Nobody can manage time. Some people might struggle to prioritise – but in the absence of some great Ultimate Truth that definitively determines that one task is more important than another – not many people can point a finger at those who get it wrong. Others simply work more slowly, but that is no sin eit...

Too often I am asked about how one goes about building trust or winning someone’s trust. I then proceed to give advice, but to be perfectly truthful; I find it hard to trust anybody outside of my very immediate circle. Nobody knows you and nobody owes you. Andy Grove was famous for his paranoia about the competition – even when Intel had ridiculous market shares of 80%. You have always been a little suspicious. Maybe you have even known it, but were too afraid to admit to yourself. That little voice inside your head has become a chorus that you can no longer ignore. Management is played by a set of rules that you are not always privy too. Have you wondered why you don’t get ahead faster, why you don’t get the plum projects or why the new guy seemed to fit in better than you did? You have a sneaky suspicion that some other guy – or gal – who is doing the same job, earns more money than you do. You may have sought some answers from your manager. Or you may have blamed your inexperien...

Happy Birthday to Moonyeen. Blessed with a glorious day & some great friends for company, it was a great celebration today of the miracle that is Moonyeen, born 44 years ago!

People usually take pride in saying that they are ‘not good with the detail’ but they really ‘get the big picture’. The uninitiated managers suffer from the misguided belief that it is somehow admirable to admit to being a ‘big picture’ thinker. They believe of course that the big picture is more conceptual, more strategic and more important. The Brotherhood of Management knows better. There are only a handful of people in any organisation who need to get the big picture – and you are almost certainly not one of them. Brothers should never admit to being better at the detail than the conceptual, for it is necessary that not all workers pay attention to the detail. It suits the Brotherhood if workers are concerned with the big picture items because it is in the detail where we can lay the landmines that trip up the unsuspecting. Nothing could be further from the truth that you should not sweat the small stuff. It is all about the small stuff. The devil is truly in the detail and if you ...

Belief generates attitude. Attitude generates emotions Emotions generates performance. Performance generates results Results reinforce belief, completing the cycle

There are so many books, blogs, speakers and gurus that emphasise a few ‘mantras, millions of titles, the same old story: Believe in yourself Follow your hear and your passion and success will follow (i.e. don’t do if for the money) Stay true to yourself/Stay true to your brand Stay focussed/ Be disciplined You must have a unique selling proposition/ a niche Have a goal/ set your objectives (and write it down and read them every day) Over the coming weeks I want to debunk some of these myths/ beliefs, but for today, all I want ask is whether all these people could possibly be right, or whether these observations are simply obvious and logical (very hard for the guru followers to argue with) and that we started to believe these things through sheer repetition, rather than because of any veracity.

It would be disingenuous of me to state that I am (want to) debunk this as a myth, because I am not going to completely go the opposite way and say that you should NOT believe in yourself. But I would like to put it into perspective. Self-doubt is a good thing. Roger Federer continues to play tournament after tournament and cherishes every win exactly because he has a little of doubt as to whether he will succeed. If he had no doubt, he would stop playing because there was no joy in winning and no challenge to conquer. It is exactly because there is a risk of losing that people go out and play. No sane adult will go to Little Athletics meetings and race against the toddlers. If it was only about the importance of winning, that is what we could do. But winning is made desirable and special exactly because it is about overcoming the fear of losing and conquering the self-doubt. If you find yourself in a state of complete and utter confidence (and you are being truthful) then you are n...