Blog
Take a look at recent insights in leadership, strategy and more.
How do you get someone to listen?
It was an informal meeting in a hotel bar with 4 or 5 people present. I'd been asked to say a bit about this myself. This from someone I'd met only a few hours previously. Nothing very unusual about that. What was unusual was the way my short potted history was...
How do you reach the problem person?
It's so often the way, isn't it? Somebody you're in touch with really sees the change you can help them make in their business. The trouble is... The person who most needs to change is someone else in the organisation, quite probably somebody very senior, perhaps the...
Are you in your vision?
Before we can create something in reality, we must create it in our mind. So developing a personal vision is a vital step in achieving something that didn’t exist before. How clear and detailed does our vision need to be? Clear and detailed enough that if it showed...
The skilful use of time
In relating to other people, time can be an ally, if we use it right. It’s more usual just to react to what happens in the present, transacting back and forth, hoping to make progress in the direction we want to go in, all in the here and now. We want to solve it this...
The unchanging nature of leadership
We’re so accustomed to ever-present change and the need to lead ourselves and others through challenging times, we’re inclined to think leadership itself is a changing field. I am anyway, or I was. Actually, of course, it’s really the one constant... I mean leadership...
It’s not all about anything
In our enthusiasm for an insight or an aspect of a situation that makes a critical difference, we're inclined to think that's the one thing that matters in the end. Of course, it isn't. We say "It's all about the..." "It's all about the relationships," for example, or...
How do you take “no” for an answer?
There something about train fares... We seem to have a remarkable ability to get worked up about relatively modest amounts of money when it comes to train fares. If our request for a reduced fare is turned down (for legitimate reasons, of course, though we don’t see...
Constrained or radical?
If you're on the inside, it can be hard to stimulate change in the wider system because although you have some explicit authority, you're constrained by your stakeholders' expectations. We can't really look to you to show the way on a wider front. If you're on the...
Humility and influence
Do those with the most humility have the most influence? Or is vocalising knowledge and expertise an essential part of gaining the attention required to make a difference? Often it seems that those who have learned the most have the least need to speak, whilst others...
Are we talking about the same thing?
The conversation seems to go round in circles. Actually, it would be more accurate to say it meanders all over the place. The participants do seem to be talking about one subject though. After all, they’re using the same words. But they’re not talking about the same...
Changing what you know
... as opposed to what you know about. It’s one thing to know about something, quite another to know a subject and be able to deploy it in life. Unless you can do (or be) something, you don't know it, not really. There’s a world of a difference between knowing your...
Are you condemning yourself to be wrong?
We see it as all or nothing with political leaders, and others too for that matter. If there’s something we dislike about them or what they’ve done, we’re inclined to dismiss everything about them. Nice and tidy, but a mistake. Because some of what everyone does is...
Clarity or ambiguity—which is your friend?
Most of us have been brought up to seek precision; to look for clarity; the one right answer. So it seems natural to be uncomfortable with ambiguity. And yet... Sometimes ambiguity is our friend. It helps keep people together and, oddly enough, things on track. It...
Profiling—reformer or reinforcer?
There’s a problem with the team. They’re not performing as effectively as we would expect... Tempting perhaps to reach for the psychometric profiling tools to understand who’s doing what and why. But there’s a danger... The results of profiling are almost bound to...
Completely holistic?
Can we ever be completely holistic? Or can we only hope to be more holistic than we were yesterday? Is that even a good idea? It’s generally a worthy goal, striving to ensure our actions are matched to as whole and balanced a view as possible. More chance then of our...