THE IMPACT OF THE INFORMATION AGE ON HAPPINESS

I think that many in the modern Western World have trouble accepting their life's lot. And by that I don't mean meekly accepting a position but remaining honest enough with yourself to set realistic and achievable goals.
For me many people attach the same emotions they feel for real events to what has appeared on their television or games console screen. Soaps can become as much part of their life as the woes of a neighbour. I believe this is because soaps and some games, unlike films which have a beginning and an end, are constant in life and have a longevity that makes them difficult to distinguish from reality.
This is really the crux of the matter for me. In the past, prior to the information age, people achieved the best they could in their area of the World. They knew how to measure their achievements and put them into context. Now because they have access to modern celebrities and sports stars the bar on realism has been raised and people have difficult distinguishing their lives from those who appear in the media. The more naive assume that they are only successful when they have matched their celebrity lifestyle. They become over ambitious and dissatisfied with  their personal achievements and unrealistic in their expectations. They are unhappy with their considerable personal progress and crave more.
People in poorer parts of the world often appear more content with their lot because they have not been continually influenced by the media. They understand relative success and failure far more clearly than many in the media oriented Western World. Those who are happy live for the present, learn from the past and challenge  themselves with realistic goals and are very content when they achieve them. Perhaps we should consider the impact the media makes on our own happiness?

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOOD LEADERSHIP AND EFFICIENCY

I was shocked the other day when asking a group to tell me, as a percentage, how efficient they thought they were at work? The average from the group was 45%. So how are they getting away with being 55% inefficient? Surely they should be on half pay!
Poor leadership is the answer. Whether it be self leadership or leadership from superiors it was leadership that was at the heart of the issue. People need direction, they need guidance but they also need supervision, training and mentoring to perform to their optimum potential.It is here where the  main problem lies.
Too many of today's modern leaders do not perform their team development function effectively. They  allow their personnel to work at levels well below their capability and do not empower their teams by challenging them. Personal development, mentoring  and supervision all take time and all too often today's leaders are too busy to do it. Yet by doing it they create time and space to focus on other important issues as their workload is reduced by competent, satisfied team members who feel challenged and who are enjoying their work. The team performs close to its full potential and everyone gains it really is that simple.

KNOWING WHERE YOU STAND AS A LEADER

Leadership as a term is as broad as it is wide and hence all encompassing. It exists  in every facet of life from self leadership through to multinational corporation and even national leadership and it exists at different levels in an organisation. But how do we know how good we are as leaders and hence where we might need leadership development? Could you turn an ordinary successful organisation into an extraordinary successful organisation?
Leaders are successful in myriad ways and what suits one situation may not suit another. Leadership in times of plenty is simpler than leadership in fallow times. Self analysis through reflection is essential to understanding your personal leadership style,strengths and areas for development but to quote Donald Rumsfeld "There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know." And that is the issue for without a real depth of leadership experience and knowledge we cannot gauge whether we are performing at our optimum leadership level and hence are we leading  our organisation in the best way they deserve.  Internal 360 degree feedback is useful,  mentoring helps but an external leadership audit can be really effective in leadership development terms.