360-degree appraisals provide feedback to employees not just their supervisors. They can be horizontal, among colleagues who work together at the same level, and/or vertical, from those at lower levels commenting on their bosses. Sounds like a good idea, yes? After all, each one of us can benefit from holistic feedback to become more self-aware, […]
These days I am being invited more frequently to help align family members within their businesses so they can lead the organisations they own more effectively. I am encouraged by those who reach out to me for such assistance, as it speaks of being realistic about the importance of cohesiveness among them and of feeling […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mikeeldon02.jpg546427artkenyahttps://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngartkenya2022-04-28 13:30:072022-04-28 13:30:07Avoiding family wars that ruin businesses
In my consulting work, I engage with staff at all levels, from those who occupy the chairperson’s seat in the boardroom to those who work on the shop floor and in the fields. As I converse with them and study them I see a whole spectrum of diameters in their circles of influence — not […]
Socrates reminded us that “an unexamined life is not worth living.” But who should be doing the examining? Too many of us have never considered the possibility of it being ourselves, of imagining that we have the capacity to self-examine, and acknowledging that it is an important skill to develop. When we are growing up […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mikeeldon02.jpg546427artkenyahttps://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngartkenya2022-03-17 09:12:172022-03-17 09:12:17Reviving the neglected art of self-exploration
In PwC’s 2020 global economic crime and fraud survey, Fighting Fraud – A never-ending battle, fraud was identified among the top concerns. So the ability to identify fraud perpetrated from either within or outside the organisation and then to deal with it swiftly and fairly is critical. In one large local company on whose board […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mikeeldon02.jpg546427artkenyahttps://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngartkenya2022-03-04 15:32:472022-03-04 15:32:47How firms can handle integrity lapses by staff
In 2011 I wrote a column on how I had been collecting moments of personal transformation in people’s lives. I did so through having participants in some of my workshops share such moments with each other as a way of opening up and also showing they were as likely to continue experiencing such moments in […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mikeeldon02.jpg546427artkenyahttps://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngartkenya2022-02-03 11:20:352022-02-03 11:20:35Uplifting tales of personal transformation moments
(Dr. Chandaria wasn’t able to join us for a while, so I filled in by offering some background on him and on our efforts that led to the launch of KEPSA.)
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mikeeldon02.jpg546427artkenyahttps://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngartkenya2022-01-29 12:21:112022-01-29 17:03:53Dr Manu Chandaria Wisdom Session with Irene Gathiaka & Mike Eldon
When I was an undergraduate student in London in the mid-1960s I enjoyed extraordinary benefits from a number of summer vacation internships I undertook through AIESEC, the international association for students of economics and commerce. One was with Quaker Oats, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the heart of the American Mid-West. There I mingled with staff […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mikeeldon02.jpg546427artkenyahttps://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngartkenya2022-01-20 13:43:512022-01-20 13:43:51Lack of curiosity holds you from your potential
This article was first published in November 2021 in the London Business School THINK magazine. Mike Eldon graduated from the LBS Sloan Masters Programme in Leadership and Strategy. An LBS Sloan Fellow recalls being thrown into his first leadership role and going on to transform the organisational culture. Three years after completing the LBS Sloan […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mikeeldon02.jpg546427artkenyahttps://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngartkenya2022-01-19 13:14:412022-01-19 18:56:44Managing change in Kenya
Some of us struggled more than others in 2021: some with their health, some with their livelihoods and others with both. For me, as readers of this column are aware, my severe encounter with Covid-19 meant I was out of action for quite some time. But here we are at the beginning of a new […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mikeeldon02.jpg546427artkenyahttps://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngartkenya2022-01-07 07:57:442022-01-07 07:57:44Do your part to end civic illiteracy ahead of polls
In a recent article about that wonderful book Influencers, I mentioned an example of influencing that reminded me of my hospital experience earlier this year. A large medical centre’s service quality scores had been steadily decreasing, I wrote, as patients and their families felt they weren’t being treated with care, dignity or respect. So a […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mikeeldon02.jpg546427artkenyahttps://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngartkenya2021-12-23 12:29:202021-12-23 12:29:20Are you generating good customer experiences?
On women in the Kenyan workplace, I am confident that the glass is not only far from empty but that it continues to fill at a reasonably rapid pace. With the exception of the contact sport of politics, there is increasing gender balance at all levels, including in senior management and on boards. Sure, there’s […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mikeeldon02.jpg546427artkenyahttps://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngartkenya2021-12-21 12:03:102021-12-21 12:03:10Women rising in the workplace
In a recent coaching session, my client and I were discussing his initiative to improve the ways in which feedback was being given and received in his work environment. As we shared how each of us approached doing so ourselves and how we encouraged others to offer and absorb suggestions, we emerged with a list […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mikeeldon02.jpg546427artkenyahttps://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngartkenya2021-12-09 11:07:072021-12-09 11:07:07How to offer and receive feedback at workplace
I was recently facilitating a session with a new board, helping align them with each other and with management and become fit for purpose. And as I was listening to their contributions and the reactions from management I could see that the newcomers, with all their fresh energy and enthusiasm, too often were unaware that […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mikeeldon02.jpg546427artkenyahttps://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngartkenya2021-11-25 10:49:362021-11-25 10:49:36Much of how we think is a function of our beliefs
In my last article, I started writing about the lessons from David McCourt’s book Total Rethink – Why Entrepreneurs Should Act Like Revolutionaries. There I focused on what he saw as the personal attributes of successful entrepreneurs, and in this one, I will be reporting on McCourt’s experience regarding the business side of entrepreneurship. McCourt, […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mikeeldon02.jpg546427artkenyahttps://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngartkenya2021-11-12 12:23:442021-11-12 12:23:44Entrepreneurs ought to act like revolutionaries
I’m always grateful when my daughter Amy sends me a book to read, including the most recent one I received from her, Total Rethink: Why Entrepreneurs Should Act Like Revolutionaries, by David McCourt, published in 2019. McCourt has indeed proved himself to be a serial revolutionary entrepreneur, disrupting the telecommunications industry in multiple markets around […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mikeeldon02.jpg546427artkenyahttps://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngartkenya2021-10-28 15:07:202021-10-28 15:07:20Entrepreneurs should act like revolutionaries
Since writing my last article on how to influence change, I have had the privilege of listening to Costas Markides, a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the London Business School and author of several outstanding books on the subject — including his latest one, Organising for the New Normal. He was a delight to […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mikeeldon02.jpg546427artkenyahttps://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngartkenya2021-10-14 11:10:392021-10-14 11:10:39Challenges to change in dynamic business world
Life would be so much easier and less stressful if we could influence others to do what is in their best interest by merely persuading them with logical, rational arguments. But it often turns out to be really hard, often futile, so we just give up in frustration. Efforts to influence others can be at […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mikeeldon02.jpg546427artkenyahttps://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngartkenya2021-09-30 08:01:302021-09-30 08:01:30Are you an influencer?
Eight years ago I wrote a column about Why Nations Fail, the book by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, and more recently I acquired the subsequent one by these two economics professors, The Narrow Corridor. It’s another global analysis of how liberty and wellbeing flourish in some states but degenerate to authoritarianism or anarchy in […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mikeeldon02.jpg546427artkenyahttps://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngartkenya2021-09-16 14:35:012021-09-16 14:35:41Balancing the State and people power
I have written about change quite often in this column, and a few weeks ago I referred briefly to my own change anxiety in the context of my stay in hospital while dealing with Covid. There, during my two-month incarceration, I was moved several times: from this ward to that ward, and then first to […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mikeeldon02.jpg546427artkenyahttps://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngartkenya2021-09-02 16:26:162021-09-02 16:26:16How to manage change during transition period
Making 360-degree appraisals beneficial
360-degree appraisals provide feedback to employees not just their supervisors. They can be horizontal, among colleagues who work together at the same level, and/or vertical, from those at lower levels commenting on their bosses. Sounds like a good idea, yes? After all, each one of us can benefit from holistic feedback to become more self-aware, […]
Avoiding family wars that ruin businesses
These days I am being invited more frequently to help align family members within their businesses so they can lead the organisations they own more effectively. I am encouraged by those who reach out to me for such assistance, as it speaks of being realistic about the importance of cohesiveness among them and of feeling […]
Influencing upwards for growth despite volatility
In my consulting work, I engage with staff at all levels, from those who occupy the chairperson’s seat in the boardroom to those who work on the shop floor and in the fields. As I converse with them and study them I see a whole spectrum of diameters in their circles of influence — not […]
Reviving the neglected art of self-exploration
Socrates reminded us that “an unexamined life is not worth living.” But who should be doing the examining? Too many of us have never considered the possibility of it being ourselves, of imagining that we have the capacity to self-examine, and acknowledging that it is an important skill to develop. When we are growing up […]
How firms can handle integrity lapses by staff
In PwC’s 2020 global economic crime and fraud survey, Fighting Fraud – A never-ending battle, fraud was identified among the top concerns. So the ability to identify fraud perpetrated from either within or outside the organisation and then to deal with it swiftly and fairly is critical. In one large local company on whose board […]
Uplifting tales of personal transformation moments
In 2011 I wrote a column on how I had been collecting moments of personal transformation in people’s lives. I did so through having participants in some of my workshops share such moments with each other as a way of opening up and also showing they were as likely to continue experiencing such moments in […]
Dr Manu Chandaria Wisdom Session with Irene Gathiaka & Mike Eldon
(Dr. Chandaria wasn’t able to join us for a while, so I filled in by offering some background on him and on our efforts that led to the launch of KEPSA.)
Lack of curiosity holds you from your potential
When I was an undergraduate student in London in the mid-1960s I enjoyed extraordinary benefits from a number of summer vacation internships I undertook through AIESEC, the international association for students of economics and commerce. One was with Quaker Oats, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the heart of the American Mid-West. There I mingled with staff […]
Managing change in Kenya
This article was first published in November 2021 in the London Business School THINK magazine. Mike Eldon graduated from the LBS Sloan Masters Programme in Leadership and Strategy. An LBS Sloan Fellow recalls being thrown into his first leadership role and going on to transform the organisational culture. Three years after completing the LBS Sloan […]
Do your part to end civic illiteracy ahead of polls
Some of us struggled more than others in 2021: some with their health, some with their livelihoods and others with both. For me, as readers of this column are aware, my severe encounter with Covid-19 meant I was out of action for quite some time. But here we are at the beginning of a new […]
Are you generating good customer experiences?
In a recent article about that wonderful book Influencers, I mentioned an example of influencing that reminded me of my hospital experience earlier this year. A large medical centre’s service quality scores had been steadily decreasing, I wrote, as patients and their families felt they weren’t being treated with care, dignity or respect. So a […]
Women rising in the workplace
On women in the Kenyan workplace, I am confident that the glass is not only far from empty but that it continues to fill at a reasonably rapid pace. With the exception of the contact sport of politics, there is increasing gender balance at all levels, including in senior management and on boards. Sure, there’s […]
How to offer and receive feedback at workplace
In a recent coaching session, my client and I were discussing his initiative to improve the ways in which feedback was being given and received in his work environment. As we shared how each of us approached doing so ourselves and how we encouraged others to offer and absorb suggestions, we emerged with a list […]
Much of how we think is a function of our beliefs
I was recently facilitating a session with a new board, helping align them with each other and with management and become fit for purpose. And as I was listening to their contributions and the reactions from management I could see that the newcomers, with all their fresh energy and enthusiasm, too often were unaware that […]
Entrepreneurs ought to act like revolutionaries
In my last article, I started writing about the lessons from David McCourt’s book Total Rethink – Why Entrepreneurs Should Act Like Revolutionaries. There I focused on what he saw as the personal attributes of successful entrepreneurs, and in this one, I will be reporting on McCourt’s experience regarding the business side of entrepreneurship. McCourt, […]
Entrepreneurs should act like revolutionaries
I’m always grateful when my daughter Amy sends me a book to read, including the most recent one I received from her, Total Rethink: Why Entrepreneurs Should Act Like Revolutionaries, by David McCourt, published in 2019. McCourt has indeed proved himself to be a serial revolutionary entrepreneur, disrupting the telecommunications industry in multiple markets around […]
Challenges to change in dynamic business world
Since writing my last article on how to influence change, I have had the privilege of listening to Costas Markides, a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the London Business School and author of several outstanding books on the subject — including his latest one, Organising for the New Normal. He was a delight to […]
Are you an influencer?
Life would be so much easier and less stressful if we could influence others to do what is in their best interest by merely persuading them with logical, rational arguments. But it often turns out to be really hard, often futile, so we just give up in frustration. Efforts to influence others can be at […]
Balancing the State and people power
Eight years ago I wrote a column about Why Nations Fail, the book by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, and more recently I acquired the subsequent one by these two economics professors, The Narrow Corridor. It’s another global analysis of how liberty and wellbeing flourish in some states but degenerate to authoritarianism or anarchy in […]
How to manage change during transition period
I have written about change quite often in this column, and a few weeks ago I referred briefly to my own change anxiety in the context of my stay in hospital while dealing with Covid. There, during my two-month incarceration, I was moved several times: from this ward to that ward, and then first to […]