‘My boss is an idiot’. You hear people complain about their boss all the time. No wonder. Most people are entirely unsuited to management. The range of skills to be applied and the personal qualities required to apply them make being a manager a hard job to perfect, yet most new managers arrive in their
Your boss is not your friend. The people in HR are not your friends. Your friends are your friends. Don’t get these mixed up. The biggest mistake inexperienced bosses make is to try to be liked by their staff. By all means be friendly but don’t fall into the trap of thinking you can be
The word that best sums up the stock-market is febrile. A market index such as the FTSE 100 or the S&P 500 jump around like a compass needle, swinging back and forth searching for the correct direction. Only it is like a compass where the location of magnetic north jumps keeps changing, sometimes moving substantial
At the launch of Radio 1 in 1967 all the DJs turned up in casual clothes and all the musicians turned up in suits and ties. Getting on a plane one evening I sat next to a passenger who’s first word to me was ‘Lawyer?’. ‘Accountant.’ I replied, adding ‘Good guess.’ I was dressed in
I once met a colleague on his way to an interview for the job of Chief Executive at his organisation. He was the internal candidate. Unsure of what conversation to strike up I expressed the view that I wasn’t sure if being the internal candidate was a blessing or a curse. His view, as we