10 actions for effective planning: Nothing helps move things along better than a good plan. It helps the people who have to work under the plan. It leads to better use of resources. It gets things done faster. It helps anticipate... [more]

Edition 03/12

Dear William, as another week slips by, here are 10 things which caught my attention and may have escaped yours. Please don't keep these to yourself, forward to your colleagues so they can subscribe and join our 50,000+ readership. If this email does not appear to be displaying properly please click here to view it in a web browser.

16 January 2012
On this day in 1707 The Scottish Parliament ratified the Act of Union, paving the way for the creation of Great Britain.

10/10 is our training and mentoring programme covering all 10 actions of effective leaders. Delivered over 10 days in 10 months, the programme covers all the leadership actions needed in today’s challenging business environment. [more]

Follow @askten on Twitter and receive interesting facts each day. We don't follow back, but we do donate £1 to charity for every follower we keep.

1. In past ten years the median remuneration for a FTSE 100 chief executive rose by an average 13.6% a year, from £1m to £4.2m. Over the same period the average annual rise in the FTSE 100 index was 1.7% and average employee earnings increased by 4.7% a year. Telegraph

2. Birmingham was named in a list of the top 20 holiday destinations. Britian’s second city was singled out for its dining scene, which includes the famed “Balti triangle”, as well as three restaurants with Michelin-starred chefs. The New York Times

3. A seven-million-year-old tooth shows that pre-human 'hominids' had adapted to life in Europe, eating grasses and seeds, not fruit. The discovery could rewrite our ideas about human evolution. Mail

4. A new Facebook app lets you share one final text or video message after death. After three 'trustees' have confirmed your 'passing', a final message will be posted to your wall. Observer

5. Apple boss Tim Cook is poised to become best-paid CEO in America after the company granted him a million shares, worth $376 million, as an incentive to continue filling the shoes of his former boss Steve Jobs. FT

6. The Mafia has become Italy’s biggest business after its annual turnover reached €140bn, 40% more than the Italian oil giant Eni. Mafia groups make joint profits of €100bn, or 7% of Italy’s GDP, and have cash reserves of €65bn, making them Italy’s number one bank. Confesercenti

7. Christian Ronaldo’s transfer from Manchester United to Real Madrid in 2009 for £80m is still the most expensive involving a British football club on one or other side of the transaction, according to the BBC. To read the top 10, click here.

8. Last year Tony Blair’s company, Windrush Ventures, declared an income of £12m, but paid just £315,000 in corporation tax, after writing off ‘administrative expenses’ of nearly £11m. Mail

9. At least 30 hospital trusts spend less than £5 per day on food and drink for each of the patients in their care. The lowest spender was the Western Sussex Hospitals Trust, which forks out £2.57 per patient per day. Telegraph

10. The use of the word 'fall' or 'the fall' to mean autumn is commonly assumed to be an Americanism, but in fact it is found in the works of Michael Drayton (1563-1631), Thomas Middleton (1580-1627) and Sir Walter Ralegh (?1554-1618). Follow @askten on Twitter for more facts each day.

10 things from last week in the city:

Statistic of the week:

1. Ratings agency Moody's is maintaining France's top AAA credit rating for now, three days after it was downgraded by another agency. 2. The sinking of the Costa Concordia could cost parent firm Carnival up to $95m (£62m; €75m), the firm said. 3. Mortgage lending in the UK picked up slightly towards the end of last year, mortgage lenders reported. 4. Tottenham Hotspur de-listed its shares from the stock market  as it looks to build a new stadium. 5. The Item Club announced that Britain was already in recession and predicted unemployment would rise by a further 300,000 to just below three million people. 6. US insurance broker Aon, sponsor of Manchester United, said it plans to move its corporate headquarters from Chicago to London.  7. Antonio Horta-Osorio, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, said he does not want to be considered for an annual bonus for 2011. 8. The Royal Bank of Scotland said it is to cut a further 3,500 jobs in the UK and elsewhere as it shrinks its investment bank. 9. The Bank of England held UK interest rates at 0.5% and no new quantitative easing measures were announced. 10. Troubled photography firm Eastman Kodak unveiled a new plan to transform the company into a digital player, sending its shares soaring.

56% of women, and 48% of men, feel optimistic about 2012 for themselves and their families, but only 15% of women, and 14% of men feel optimistic for Britain. 64% think the Olympics will have a positive effect on public mood; 68% think the same of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Observer

Leadership tip of the week:

Poll of the week:

How to manage your pet peeve: What's your work pet peeve? Perhaps you're irked by people showing up late to meetings or you can't stand your colleagues' liberal use of "Reply All." Though these things bother you, it may be impossible to get rid of them. Instead, learn to manage your pet peeve: (1) Anticipate. Sometimes you'll be able to foresee events that will trigger your pet peeve. Think through how you will handle these situations so that you are not caught off guard. (2) Laugh. If you can get some distance from your pet peeve, you're more likely to see the humor in it. When you get annoyed, try to observe how silly your anger may seem. (3) Reward. On those occasions when you manage to not get annoyed by your pet peeve, reward yourself for good behavior.

Only one in four people who voted Lib Dem at the last election still support the party. And it isn’t attracting many new supporters, to compensate: only 1% of people who voted Labour or Conservative 2010 would now vote Lib Dem. YouGov

William Montgomery recommends:

Quote of the week:

Why do some companies prosper while others fail? Despite great amounts of research, many of the studies that claim to pin down the secret of success are based in pseudoscience. The Halo Effect is the outcome of that pseudoscience, a myth that Philip Rosenzweig masterfully debunks in The Halo Effect. The Halo Effect describes the tendency of experts to point to the high financial performance of a successful company and then spread its golden glow to all of the company's attributes - clear strategy, strong values, and brilliant leadership.

“The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to stop the man touching the equipment.” Warren Bennis

Learning and development with TEN:

TV of the week:

10/10 is our training and mentoring programme covering the 10 actions of effective leaders. Delivered over 10 days in 10 months, the programme covers all the leadership actions needed in today’s challenging business environment, including, but not limited to, learning, strategy, creativity, goals, time, emotions, motivation, change, communication and responsibility. Each day commences with a group discussion on the book and film of the month (which participants review prior to the session) followed by a three-hour module on one of the 10 actions and individual mentoring sessions. This programme is ideal for those about to take on a leadership role or those wishing to improve their current leadership capability. [more]

Putin, Russia and the West. Four-part series looking at the West’s fraught relationship with Russia and its all-powerful Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin. Thur 19 Jan, BBC2 9pm (60mins)

10 actions for the coming week:

App of the week:

10 actions for effective planning: Nothing helps move things along better than a good plan. It helps the people who have to work under the plan. It leads to better use of resources. It gets things done faster. It helps anticipate... [more]

10 most popular New Year resolutions: Have your team been set objectives and have they themselves set New Year’s resolutions?  Then look out: the chances are they will need all the help they can get to achieve them! [more]

Named Apple's iPad App of the year and one of TIME's Top 50 Innovations, Flipboard creates a personalized magazine out of everything being shared with you.

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William Montgomery, leadership consultant and CEO of TEN, compiles this free weekly newsletter. If you found this newsletter useful, please feel free to forward it to anyone you think may benefit from it. If this was forwarded to you, don't miss another edition by SUBSCRIBING on our home page. To be removed from our database and future editions, click UNSUBSCRIBE alternatively edit your PREFERENCES.

If you want to improve your leadership or the leadership of your team, business or organisation, call +44 333 666 1010.