Ways To Win

We, the keepers of our culture, keep score. We like to measure our progress. Come out on top. Be first. We like to win. In our attempt to find a way to do that, we have learned to measure and value things in ways that are often disproportionate to their benefit to us. How we…

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Priorities And Metrics

We often default to using narrow parameters to qualify worthiness or quantify excellence. We focus on a company’s revenue or an entrepreneur’s net worth, count the number of books an author sells or followers an influencer amasses. What we choose to measure has a direct impact on what we then prioritise. And of course, what…

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The Power Of Identity In A Competitive World

Nobody who read the pre-match reports or the post-match statistics would have predicted a one-all draw. Iceland, a country with a population of 334,000, was fielding a team of semi-professional players, in their World Cup debut against Argentina, one of the world’s best footballing nations. There was no way Iceland could compete with the experience…

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How Are You Measuring Your Lead?

As a society, we have become obsessed with getting and staying ahead. We have become addicted to winning, and thus to comparing ourselves to others—not just in business, but in life too. But being ahead, either materially or psychologically is a slippery slope to a mindset of never enough. A culture designed to separate us…

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12 Lessons From The Biggest Hit Of The Year

Ed Sheeran’s hit song, ‘Shape of You’ was the most streamed track of 2017. The official video is expected to reach three billion views within a year of being uploaded. There’s a lot we can learn from this video where Ed and his co-writers talk about the process of writing a hit song. 12 Lessons…

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A List Of Alternatives To Winning

Alternatives To Winning Caring Helping Being human Growing wiser Inspiring others Righting wrongs Upholding values Giving generously Learning patience Prioritising values Practicing empathy Building community Leading thoughtfully Acting with integrity Exploring possibilities Encouraging progress Making a contribution Teaching perseverance Fostering collaboration Experiencing fulfilment Working towards mastery Changing how people feel Questioning the status quo Putting…

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Keeping Score

Kill rivals, don’t collaborate. That’s what “fire-in-the-belly visionaries” do. The recent article in the Financial Review was reporting remarks from a speaker at their innovation summit. In his opinion, Australian businesses are too friendly. If we are to survive, we need to behave more like Amazon and Uber—”hyper-competitive, Darwinian killing machines.” A reminder of how…

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Why We Need To Redefine Greatness

By most conventional measures of success Uber is a great company. From a standing start in 2009 to a valuation of $70 billion early in 2017, the ride-hailing app has become the most valuable private technology company in the world. Uber has achieved the kind of growth many companies dream of and yet the recent…

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Success Is…

Not surprisingly there’s been a lot of talk in the news lately about winning. It’s a subject that’s never far from our minds, especially if we’re leading or building a business. Conventional wisdom dictates that someone has to come out on top, and if we believe this is true we want it to be us…

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The New Rules Of Winning

Just three months ago Volkswagen surpassed Toyota to become the world’s largest automaker. It’s clear that selling more cars in order to beat that competition had been the company’s goal for some time. As we’ve seen in the past week biggest doesn’t necessarily mean best. When we use shallow metrics to judge our performance we…

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