Nigel Cumberland Quotes

113 Sourced Quotes

Do you have what it takes to succeed in life, in work and in your relationships?

Nigel Cumberland
Do you ever consciously try to sense your gut feeling by asking yourself, 'What do I feel about this person, situation or decision?' Trusting your gut can help you in the workplace and beyond. The danger is when you let external noise drown out what it's telling you, letting other people's views and opinions take priority over your own.

Nigel Cumberland
Good decision-making is like playing chess and you must avoid making hasty decisions without thinking of how that particular decision will impact on different aspects of your work and organization. The worst kind of decision-making is to decide to delay a difficult decision until later or to pass it to someone else to have to make. You will never excel and be valued by your colleagues if you get into these habits of procrastination and passing responsibility to others.

Nigel Cumberland
It is better to struggle at work you really enjoy than to succeed in work you find boring and which fails to excite you.

Nigel Cumberland
It's easy to laugh at someone like celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay who swears and shouts in his kitchen, but to ensure a successful life you must avoid making others sad, unhappy or fearful. To do this, you have to learn to keep your emotions in check.

Nigel Cumberland
Humans do not seem to like changing and the majority of people with whom I have worked actually hate leaving the status quo of their comfort zones.

Nigel Cumberland
An effective HR professional would probably be a mature person, one who has lived and who has been "knocked about" by life. Because if you have not experienced life, how can you share that experience with people?

Nigel Cumberland
Some people seem to operate on an auto-pilot and when they become emotional they immediately react. What triggers you to react in a potentially negative way at work?

Nigel Cumberland
Very few people can succeed in their careers without having to manage, supervise and lead other people...virtually everyone is part of a team, and at some point in their working lives they must take a leadership role – if only to chair a team meeting or a project in their boss' absence.

Nigel Cumberland
It is not just a question of needing courage to do something. There may also be a cost of not acting in the first place and sometimes doing nothing is not an option, with the challenge being to minimize the potential risks of any choice you do make.

Nigel Cumberland
But how do you come 'offline' when so much of our daily lives is moving 'online'? Every month new sites and online services are launched. If you need to check anything – about a new school for your children, medical treatment, tourist destination or recipe – you go online. Bill Gates put it so well when he called the Internet the 'town square for the global village of tomorrow'.

Nigel Cumberland
Being a person that others can trust is one of the most sought after qualities in the workplace today. So many leaders and their staff have shown in the recent global financial crisis a lack of trust and integrity amongst themselves and with their clients and other stakeholders.

Nigel Cumberland
The new disease of our age is being OK doing everything at exactly the same time.

Nigel Cumberland
Mastering and navigating around office politics is never easy and there are times when you may simply be on the receiving end of some negative gossip or rumours.

Nigel Cumberland
Be able to sell ice-cubes to Eskimos – you may have to!

Nigel Cumberland
Diversity is a very popular business topic today while the negative side of diversity, discrimination, remains a touchy and sensitive topic. Even in organisations which follow the letter of the law in terms of not discriminating against any individuals, it is common for people to show prejudice and bias...Have the courage to stand out from your colleagues by being very open to and comfortable with all kinds of diversity amongst your colleagues and stakeholders. When you sense someone is being ignored or marginalized spend time with them and bring them into discussions encouraging them to speak up as needed.

Nigel Cumberland
If you don't know where you are heading, no employer is going to hire you to give you a lift to 'Don't know where land'!

Nigel Cumberland
There may be moments in your life when you have to choose between 'being liked' and what you really want to do. Imagine your future spouse is a vegan and does not enjoy being with people who eat meat. Could you imagine putting aside your beliefs and feelings, to show support, love and understanding for your partner's?

Nigel Cumberland
Unless you think that the majority of people are living successful lives, chances are that at some point you will have to act differently from those around you. Success can take many forms and it is often about standing out from the crowd or being above average, spotting when the crowd moves one way and making sure that you move the other.

Nigel Cumberland
The most powerful way of being able to listen to your own intuition is by being silent. Find a quiet space, slow down and calm your mind. Your goal is to eliminate all that noise going through your head – all those thoughts that appear from nowhere.

Nigel Cumberland
Unless you work in a cave as a solitary hermit, your entire working life will involve connecting with various people...Do not wait until you have a particular issue or problem before re-connecting with someone.

Nigel Cumberland
Success requires a focused attention of your time and energy. This is true no matter what you want to achieve – to change the world or simply change apartments. All success stories come down to one person having a focused aim – so focused at times it can look like an obsession.

Nigel Cumberland
Employers are not going to hire a candidate who is stressed by cashflow and family problems. With this kind of baggage around your neck, you will choke your job-hunting opportunities.

Nigel Cumberland
You might look at someone successful and think they got lucky – a case of being in the right place at the right time perhaps? The truth is, every piece of good fortune is the result of hours, or even years, of hard work and preparation.

Nigel Cumberland
Employers do not wish to hire victims, rather they try to hire balanced and flexible people who do not blame others for their situation.

Nigel Cumberland
Leading a group of people in a team involves so many variables including each team member's personality, expectations, experience and ambitions. Putting a group of people together can produce all kinds of outcomes – sometimes negative...The role of a team leader or manager is to minimize any potential negative outcomes while maximizing the positive potential of the team.

Nigel Cumberland
Too many teams are dysfunctional and are plagued with poor communication, lack of direction, selfishness and little sharing – they are teams only in name. To create a high performing team the key is to align all members of your team so that each member is moving in the same direction and understands their role and contribution. A good analogy is to think of a team of rowers where if the each rower is not totally aligned with all the other rowers the boat might go around in circles or even capsize.

Nigel Cumberland
Thinking and doing the opposite of what the majority is doing isn't about being different for the sake of being different. There are lots of times when the well-trodden path is the right one to take. Your challenge is to know when it will be in your interest to do the opposite.

Nigel Cumberland
Life is too short to spend too long at work and also to waste your time while in the workplace.

Nigel Cumberland
Thankfully, life is a university. Everything that you do or experience can teach you something, triggering inside you new thoughts, insights and realizations. You might be inclined to forget or ignore experiences that did not go well. Don't. Learning from your mistakes and things that cause you pain is invaluable. The greatest lessons can come from the lowest moments in your life.

Nigel Cumberland