Author Archives: Marguerite Orane

Be nice and mannersable – it’s that simple

In a Strategy Kickoff event that I facilitated on Sunday, a fairly new member of the team asked the CEO what’s important to him when hiring people:
“Be nice and mannersable”
The room fell quiet, a silent gasp visible from the looks on people’s faces. That’s it? Yes, he answered. That is all.

Daily courage – the missing link in achieving your New Year resolutions

Welcome to the new year!
Many of us are making our resolutions, full of hope – confident that 2023 will be different, better, more – THE year when our dreams come true, when we are the best we can be.

Beware when you compare yourself to others – it’s stealing your joy

This is a very deeply personal post, in which I am opening a very vulnerable space. Note that I may ramble a bit because emotions don’t flow in neatly edited, linear fashion. They are messy.

5 things for a leader to be grateful for in challenging situations

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown” – William Shakespeare

In your quiet moments, do you sometimes feel like this about your leadership? Perhaps you are going through a difficult situation and you feel that you are all alone, or a crisis looms and you don’t know where to turn or what to do.

Ever wondered how to win the war against Murphy?

“I have bad news”

I was in a meeting with my team planning and executing the launch of my mindfulness meditation online programme. This was my first online programme, so there had been lots of learning. We were set to launch the next morning.

3 ways to maintain a practice, like meditation, when you don’t have the time

If this has ever happened to you, read on ….

I slipped up on my morning ritual over the last few days. It had been a super busy week with 3 workshops to prepare for and facilitate, and 2 proposals to write

This one thing will give you an instant productivity boost each morning

You arrive at work, whether at the office or your desk at home. Sleep eluded you last night, you are devoid of energy and dreading the overscheduled work day. But work you must. Yet you know that if you stay in this emotional place, you will accomplish very little, and will get to the end more frustrated than ever.

“Give me the horse” – 3 simple steps to ask for help, when you really don’t want to

5.00 a.m. on a cold, dark November morning in Nepal. Snow gently fell, making the narrow path up the steep mountain that much more treacherous. We had started out at about 4,800m above sea level, the air at this altitude bereft of oxygen.

The One Simple Question To Ask When Making Tough Decisions

Many years ago, when I had my facilitation firm in Jamaica, I read an article in a 1999 edition of the Harvard Business Review entitled: “The Strategic Power of Saying No” by Susan Bishop. It was so powerful that my team and I coined a term – “SPOSN”

The customer is always right … but are your team members?

I’m noticing quite a bit more discord in the workplace nowadays. We can lay it at the feet of the pandemic, and the disruption it brought to our daily living, how we work, our relationships at home and work (in many cases the same during this time) and our mental and emotional state.