Blog
Take a look at recent insights in leadership, strategy and more.
If you use your authority, do you diminish your strength?
Quite often it's appropriate, necessary even, to use whatever positional authority we have to get something done. Indeed we probably have a duty to do so. But perhaps there is a cost... Could be we use up some of the goodwill in the relationship and so our natural...
Obsessed with detail?
Running events with large groups of people, attention to detail counts: Getting the room right, making sure the sound system is set up properly (often overlooked by venue owners), people's individual needs are properly catered for, and a whole host of other factors...
Why just being present results in natural leadership
Whether to lead or to follow is sometimes a choice we need to make, or so it appears. In fact, just being present may be the best option—not having need of the situation either way. Connect that with something else and it all makes sense... It’s often said that when...
If in doubt, build the community
Frequently we face complex problems and it may not be obvious how to solve them. We may need large numbers of people to collaborate to achieve a change in business as usual. Even with sophisticated organisational techniques, it may not be clear at first what...
Can you find clarity in clear ambiguity?
We’re accustomed to wanting clarity. We’d like things to be clearly in focus. We’d like a single right answer. But sometimes... The best we’re going to get is clear sight of the inherently multi-faceted nature of the situation—the different considerations we need to...
Looking for the right words? Maybe you don’t need to.
We all face these situations... Something difficult needs to be tackled with another person. We think they'll be sensitive about it—either because they won't like what we have to say or because something upsetting has happened. And so habitually we think about the...
How nurturing should you be with members of a team?
Where do you draw the line between helping team members step up to their role and not overdoing it so that they end up depending on you? How do you decide where the right balance lies? Does it depend on the organisation? Some businesses are, by nature, very demanding...
Agile organisations need agile people
Many leaders want their organisations to be more agile, to be more responsive to change and opportunity, to be lighter on their feet. Part of that is to do with processes and systems—slimming them down probably—but as well that... Agile organisations need agile...
Getting unstuck
A reminder of something simple and perhaps basic but really important, which has certainly helped me... To succeed, yes, we need a vision and a purpose and goals and priorities and all that. But when we’re stuck; when we’re down, we sometimes can’t do any of it....
How nurturing should you be with members of a team?
Where do you draw the line between helping team members step up to their role and not overdoing it so that they end up depending on you? How do you decide where the right balance lies? Does it depend on the organisation? Some businesses are, by nature, very demanding...
Which comes first: Evidence or belief?
We’re probably programmed to need evidence before we’ll believe something. That’s the “benefit” of a Western education. But is life really like that? For many things, especially where we have some influence over the outcome, we may be more likely to discover the...
Risk-free innovation—is there such a thing?
Thought-provoking experience recently... Organisation declines to do something new because success is not guaranteed—yes, guaranteed. To be fair... If you set-up a service to deliver or support innovation and growth, then how do you get paid if the innovation isn’t...
Is it attractive to admit a weakness?
There something appealing about a person who is clear about what they're good at and what they're not so good at. For example... Watching a film of David Ogilvy, sometimes referred to as "the Father of Advertising," it's striking how disarming he is when he says he...
Top-down or bottom-up?
Which is the best way of running organisations? Answer: Neither. We need both, if we want the best results and an engaged team. Top-down for direction and accountability, bottom-up for energy and resilience and adaptability. We need to keep the two in equilibrium, and...
Are you pushing away the very thing you’re trying to achieve?
You might be. Or you might be pushing away the very people you hope to attract. You see... It’s all very well setting an intention about what or who we want—and we do need to do that—but we also need to shed those pieces of ourselves that aren’t consistent with that....