The following captures the thoughts of Paul Mastronardi, Executive Director of Dunlea Centre (Australia’s Original Boys’ Town) on a range of career and professional development topics, as recorded during a question and answer session with Trak Search. It is targeted for leaders and aspiring leaders with the information best used in conjunction with discussions with […]
How to survive with a difficult boss
Most of us have experienced working with a difficult manager and it truly can seem impossible to find a positive in such adverse circumstances. But rest assured there are effective and worthwhile ways to deal with having a difficult boss. While the following advice won’t solve all of your problems or change your manager, let’s […]
Building student resilience through failure & setbacks
To the casual reader there seems to be so many articles these days about the lack of resilience in our young people, with much of the blame being placed upon all of us overprotective parents. The blog by Jessica Lahey refers to a study out of the Queensland University of Technology on the impact on […]
Meetings, meetings, meetings …….can we do better?
Steve Tobak is a management consultant who estimates he averaged 4 meetings per day throughout his 30 year career – some 30,000 meetings! Obviously he’s seen the good, bad and the ugly of meetings and advances the formula of ‘no leader + no documentation + no followup = complete waste of time’. Click this link […]
Are you using Evernote yet? Don’t let a hacker deter you!
Despite all the publicity this week about being hacked (’50m user accounts reset after hacker breach’) Evernote remains one of the best free web-based tools available. I use its web clipping capability to collect a whole range of information. I know of others who use it for collaboration, to-do lists, meeting notes….the list is endless. […]
‘Big Data’ measures & rates education systems around the world
Analysis and actions based upon ‘big data’ is all the rage in most industries. So called data scientists spend their daylight hours data mining in the search for information to support organisational strategic planning and policy decisions. TEDGlobal 2012 featured Andreas Schleicher who introduced a test which measures school systems and student achievement in countries […]
Do you want to work smarter to get more done in your life?
Yes I know, I know. There are millions of articles out there about working smarter. Some people would suggest we’d significantly increase productivity and the quality of work if we simply got on with it, instead of reading so many articles on time management tips. BUT, a recent AFR article by Rachel Nickless is well […]
How to ensure Facebook doesn’t derail your career
Whether for personal use or providing guidance to others, we all need to have some idea of the traps & pitfalls when using Facebook. Social media is such a powerful tool with the benefits far outweighing any negatives, however we continue to see case after case whereby a person has a career setback via social […]
Can team structures inhibit productivity?
In the increasingly complex world in which we now live, it is standard practice to establish a team structure to solve complex issues. Whenever a manager needs to ensure an outcome is delivered which can meet the needs of all constituent groups, the tendency is to form a large team to ensure all voices are […]
Technology: how to learn the basics
When I realised how far behind my children I’d become in understanding and using technology, I forced myself to start reading articles and experiment with different software and websites. So it certainly rang true for me when I read Jason Jones article where he said the most valuable advice he’d been given was to “consider […]
