-
Are you comfortable being challenged as a leader?
Most leaders would answer yes. The better question is whether the people around them believe it. Leadership requires making decisions in the absence of complete information. Every day, leaders form conclusions about customers, employees, competitors, market conditions, priorities, and risk. Those conclusions become assumptions, and assumptions become the foundation upon which decisions are made. There…
-
A Blank on the Map: The Cost of Premature Certainty
In Blank on the Map, explorer and mountaineer Eric Shipton describes an expedition into a region of the Karakoram where the maps contained large areas marked simply by what was not known. There were mountains, valleys, rivers, and glaciers already there, but they had not yet been explored or accurately recorded. The blank existed on…
-
Everyone Sounds Smart until Presented with a Blank Page
We live in an age where confidence often passes for competence. When someone speaks with authority — especially a respected leader or familiar voice — we rarely pause to ask how deeply they actually understand what they’re talking about. We also live in a culture that rewards sounding smart. Yet we don’t always stop to…
-
Misleading Surfaces & the Myth of “We’re Doing Fine”
In Mission Blue, the compelling documentary that follows oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle’s lifelong crusade to protect the oceans, one moment in particular stayed with me. A voice noted that the ocean, from the surface, always looks the same. Calm. Blue. Infinite. But beneath that glassy surface, ecosystems are collapsing. Coral reefs are bleaching. Species are…
-
How Do You Achieve REAL Adoption versus Forced Compliance
In the past two weeks, I’ve been in conversations with people about their desire to change others. These well meaning folk seem to think that TELLING is a viable solution to effecting sustainable change. Some think that the forceful approach is best. One gentleman told me that he was tired of all talk and no…
-
Business Survival is no Longer for the Fittest but the Wisest!
As published on page 13 in today’s Business Newsday, Trinidad and Tobago April 5th 2012 and online here http://www.newsday.co.tt/businessday/0,158061.html “I really admire how you read so much Giselle. How I wish I had that kind of time available – I would do just as you are and probably read just as much,” said a department…
-
Only Ask the Question if you REALLY are Ready for the Answer…
Just had an interesting exchange with a security guard in Port of Spain. I parked adjacent to this building, let into the lot by someone who was on their way out. Only after did I realize that people parking on this side would have remote controls for the gate. As I was leaving I walked…
Clarity BEFORE Execution. Structure BEFORE Speed
If you could better understand one thing about your business right now….
Most costly decisions begin with
an inaccurate understanding of the situation.
I help leaders understand what is actually happening before major decisions are made or
resources are invested in solving the wrong problem.
Giselle Hudson | Pre-Decision Diagnostic Advisor | Sensemaking for high-stakes business decisions 