Articles

What music would you listen to in stressful work situations?

Music has always been a part of my life, for as long as I can remember. As I got into the workforce, I discovered that soft, classical music tends to help when I need to think. However, for those moments when I am under pressure, but did not want to show too much of the strain around team members, I chose to listen to hip-hop music, to soothe me. That was my attempt to channel my stress through the often-charged lyrics...

There's a wise saying among the Yoruba people in Nigeria where I grew up, which says “eru ob’odo.” This loosely translates to, “the river is never afraid.”

What does this wise saying mean to you? What images does it conjure up?...

Given the increasing number of emails in all our inboxes (mostly junk mail), the reality is that email may not always be the most effective way of communicating. If you are co-located with team members, you could go to their desk rather than send an email. I find that team members appreciate the gesture and often tell you things they would not have written to you in an email...

Alan D Orr in his book, Advanced Project Management, emphasises four key elements required for successful project delivery. I add a fifth element to Orr’s list: I call these five elements the Five Finger Flush for two reasons...

Dr Maxwell Maltz, in his classic book, Psycho-Cybernetics, wrote “the brain and nervous system constitute a marvellous and complex ‘goal-striving mechanism,’ a sort of built-in automatic guidance system which works for you as a ‘success mechanism,’ or against you as a ‘failure mechanism,’ depending on how ‘YOU,’ the operator, operate it and the goals you set for it.”...