Brilliant Project Leader

Tonight’s episode gave us a litany of business lessons, a further reminder of the importance of demeanour but, ultimately for me, one really important principle to focus on: decision making. The teams’ task was to select two urban artists to represent and to mount a one night show and sell to maximise the commission on sales, including to a corporate buyer. Whilst urban, or street, art is a familiar part of modern cityscapes, few of us understand the market, so...

I am not big on following rules, but I guess I have observed and written many of my own over the years.  It all came home to me last week when I got a cold call from “a broker”.  I stopped him mid-flow, not wanting to waste any more of his time or mine: “Rule 1:” I said, “Never buy financial services from a cold call.” “But I’m not selling financial services – this is a fine wine brokerage”. “Ahh…”...

I can now announce the dates for my 2012 Bite Size Seminar Tours.  We may be adding a few extra dates as the year progresses, but here are thrity to get on with.  All of them are on my Event Calendar, and you can download a pdf version here. Date Location Morning Seminar Afternoon Seminar   March 20 London Brilliant Time Management Three Hour MBA March 21 Guildford Brilliant Time Management Three Hour MBA March 22 St Albans Brilliant Time...

A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed by Samad Aidane for his excellent Guerrilla Project Management blog.  Samad was interviewing me about my latest book, Brilliant Project Leader. Samad was a thoughtful and patient interviewer who had prepared well. I enjoyed my conversation with him immensely and I think his work really shows in the resulting interview. He has also edited the sound file carefully, so although it is a long interview, it is easy to listen to. Extremely...

The advance copies of Brilliant Project Leader arrived on Tuesday morning and they are looking excellent. It is published today, on 17 November and Amazon UK are promising availability from 23 November. This is my fourth book in the Brilliant Series, two of which are in the Personal Development category, and two in Business. . “As with all Mike’s books, this provides a clear, concise and practical guide to project leadership. This book has the ability to greatly enhance your...

Last night, Dara O’Briain hosted a humorous look at what candidates need to do to get hired.  But as with all good humour, it was funny, because it was true. Over the course of the series, I have been deriving lessons from the tasks, and Dara O’Briain drew out ten rules. I want to compare what we each learned and make some comments. Rule 1: Sell Yourself I didn’t highlight this in my own list, but let’s take a look...

It is fashionable to slate the candidates in The Apprentice for their failings and weaknesses.  And they certainly do all have them, but I do recall reading in a book somewhere: “Let those without sin cast the first stone” So rather than bitch about the lack of general knowledge and naivete of the candidates, or their lack of skills in this discipline or that, I want to celebrate what they bring to Lord Sugar’s table.  In Brilliant Project Leader, I advocate valuing...

In last week’s analysis of The Apprentice (week 8), I highlighted three people and promised a short blog on each. In the second of these, I want to look at Tom Pellereau’s inability to seize the leadership of a task that Lord Sugar had chosen him to lead, and consider the question: What makes a leader? Tom Pellereau Tom Pellereau is not just smart – he’s very smart.  I’d want him on my team and, indeed, of all of the candidates,...

Readers of my regular newsletters will have got a newsletter titled “Beat Bias” last week. If you didn’t, there is a sign-up box below. If you did get it and the short article piqued your interest, I notice a splendid and very timely article on the Harvard Business Review site.  It is co-authored by Nobel Laureate, Daniel Kahneman. Kahneman, along with his long-time co-worker Amos Tversky, are the most influential researchers in the area of cognitive bias – I would...

In this week’s The Apprentice, we saw two teams do almost equally badly – one had to win, but neither deserved to. Something seems to happen to people when they become Project Manager on this programme and most of them lose their ability to communicate fully. I wonder if it is those that retain that ability who are most likely to progress in the process. Neither of yesterday’s PMs would qualify. We had Vincent leading Logic – or the “Dog...