The Mind

We live busy lives; or do we make them busy? We have much to think about; or do we avoid not thinking about anything? The brilliant Alan Watts shared much wisdom during his time here. He passed away 45 years ago yet his insight still rings true; perhaps even more today. In this lecture, he discussed the complexity of our minds.


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Alan Watts – The Mind

We live busy lives; or do we make them busy? We have much to think about; or do we avoid not thinking about anything? The brilliant Alan Watts shared much wisdom during his time here. He passed away 42 years ago yet his insight still rings true; perhaps even more today. In this lecture, he discussed the complexity of our minds.


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As a passionate leader, Kneale Mann has extensive experience as a business coach and project manager in numerous industries and organizations including; human resources, corporate training, financial services, media, real estate, healthcare and more. He is always open to meeting leaders who want to improve their bottom line through strong culture and leadership. knealemann@gmail.com

Say What?

We all know we are flawed and make mistakes. We know we don’t have it all figured out. And we know there's work to do. But part of finding clarity is discovering the joy in work rather than the seemingly unattainable finish line. Purpose can often be more important than making quota or hitting numbers. And how long does the satisfaction from a "sale" last versus following your passion?

Clutter makes us nervous and stressed. It can derail us from our goals. Clarity will help you find your baseline and silence some of that unnecessary noise.

To gain clarity, here are five questions you can ask yourself:

1. What do you stand for?
2. What will you not do?
3. Why do you do what you do?
4. What are you prepared to do?
5. What will you stop doing?
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Kneale Mann | People + Priority = Profit
New Book out in 2016 – Details soon!

Digital Silence

Two Eyes One Keyboard

It is fascinating to read the blogosphere and the Twitter stream. Both are crammed with endless opinions and insight, useless links and life changing information. As the cliché goes, we all have an opinion and that doesn’t mean we’re right, we just have one. Many have been vocal about our collective impatience with taking chances. We push companies to get deeper into the social web, embrace digital business intelligence and try stuff but we are often quick to scream #fail the moment there is a misstep.

It is imperative to have a plan, a policy and some guidelines when you are navigating the online world but these don’t have to be encyclopedias filled with legalize no one understands. It is critical to remind stakeholders that if they reference the company on any of their profiles, they represent the company. But it doesn't have to be a restrictive environment that stifles creative thought.

Not a Digital Issue

No matter what spaces you interact, business decorum shouldn't be loosened but you can still be personable. Find your voice, find your company's voice but don't be irresponsible. There are countless examples where people have shot from the hip in a moment of emotion and that causes damage.

Any one of us two billion people online has a choice to share our voice. But what if we chose to find our silence for a while?

Listening is Frowned Upon

Some will claim that’s lurking and we should let others know we’re in the channel. With more than 600 million Twitter search inquiries and half a billion signing onto Facebook daily along the multitude of monitoring and analytics options, we can’t be tweeting all the time. We need to find time to invest in the immense power of data mining now at our keyboards.

And if we are researching, reading, listening, watching, consuming, does that mean we aren’t interacting with each other? If we want others to pay more attention to what we want to share, we need to find equal time to take in what others are sharing.

Some say the two sides to a conversation are talking and waiting to talk. Do you spend time in digital silence?

Kneale Mann

image credit: photobucket

Silence May Not Be Golden

Have you ever been in a business meeting where there have been people who have said nothing? Of course. If you know me, you know I'm never that guy. Ha!

They may quietly take notes, smile and seem to be paying attention.

They usually are, but as someone who is never short on conversation I find these people amazing yet puzzling.


Is it their choice to say nothing?
With strong personalities present, are they afraid to contribute?

It’s one thing to be polite and pay attention to a presentation but this is pointed at those who rarely if ever utter one word in any meeting. Perhaps you should wonder why they are in the meeting in the place or more importantly whether there is a deeper issue. Are great ideas being lost in the back of the room?

Some people prefer not to lead discussions or speak with ease and that’s okay. But in a co-creative workspace, it requires contribution from everyone.

It's important to decipher the reasons why they remain silent.

A common perpetrator is the highest ranking official in the room who makes it clear they are not interested in ideas or a democratic creative process.

I know this is shocking but some managers actually do not want others’ opinions. In other cases - though rare - those in management positions do not possess the skills or training to actually coach people.

Some people are shy, some are polite and some are respectful of authority. Some feel the only way to survive these types of situations is to sit quietly, nod and take notes.

Do you know the real reason for their silence?

@knealemann
Helping you create your best business
marketing and social media strategy.

image credit: outinc.ca