… can speak volumes about their real selves.”
This is part of a quote from the landmark book first published in 1986, by lawyer, sports agent and writer, Mark McCormack – What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School: Notes from a Street-smart Executive
Here’s the full excerpt from which the quote is taken, under the title Reading People.
In the excerpt McCormack mentions the phoniness of former U.S. president Richard Nixon. He met Nixon on two occasions.
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Have you noticed the plague that’s infecting the speaking of . . . well, just about everyone?
Last night while watching Sam Stosur’s sad, first round loss at the Australian Open, I was reminded of a 2014 Daily Telegraph article I had written about Stosur’s body language and speech, entitled The keys to free Stosur – How Sam can banish her Aussie woes.
The article might interest you.
After watching this recent Stosur performance, my views are the similar to those expressed in the 2014 article.
What struck me about Stosur in the match against Dayana Yastremska was her facial expression during the pre-match warm-up, with tight cheeks and pressed lips, as if she was keeping a lid on the tremendous pressure she was feeling.
What stood out during the latter stages of the match – while Stosur sat at her player’s chair between games – was her ashen, hollow face and vacant, haunted eyes, conveying the feeling that losing once again was inevitable.
Yastremska body language conveyed determination and self-possession, through purposeful movement between points, briefly skipping to settle herself before serving and calm, focussed eyes.
Vapid bromides waste of time
Lisa Aronson in ‘The formula for getting the best out of your teams” (December 3) must be in the running for “Trite column of the year”.
The platitudeness phrases/sentences abound: “Teamwork and culture are fundamental to success and creativity”; “Trust to speak openly, honestly and be open to views that initially you may not like”; “It may make you feel vulnerable as a leader, but lean into that” (is Ms Aronson referring to Sheryl Sandberg’s book, without attribution?) Business leaders welcome fresh insight backed by deep thinking. Vapid bromides waste their time.
‘The world is a monarchy – money is the king – and we all pay deference to it’. Ricardo Semler.
Recently I listened to a Tim Ferriss podcast, where Ferriss interviewed Ricardo Semler. In the podcast Semler shared the above quotation.
Semler’s insight coalesced in my mind with ideas from leadership luminary Jeffrey Pfeffer’s article, Why the assholes are winning: Money trumps all and Pfeffer’s book, Leadership BS.
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