Blog
Take a look at recent insights in leadership, strategy and more.
Enabling learning—it’s all about the egos
Read the literature on organizational learning and you’ll find convincing descriptions of how fear or embarrassment impedes learning by individuals and teams. When something doesn’t turn out as expected, it’s a very human reaction to seek to cover up the failing—to...
Being principled – are you a softer target or a tougher one?
We might worry that operating in a principled and compassionate way makes us vulnerable—vulnerable to those who are happy to trample others in their quest for success; individuals who don’t care what happens to the people they encounter along the way. My experience is...
Don’t say you’re not breaching a confidence. Keep it to yourself
If you state you’re withholding information, you create a barrier between yourself and the people you are with. You break the connection. If you must have secrets, keep even that a secret. Of course, you must respect confidences, and not share what you’re not meant to...
Don’t like change or don’t like feeling unsafe?
We hear it so often: “People don’t like change.” That isn’t quite right: After all, most of us would like a doubling of our income, or the gift of a free holiday with everything taken care of. We like that kind of change. Really, it’s that we don’t like feeling...
How unconscious is your leadership?
We tend to think of leadership as something we do consciously. In fact, it's not really like that at all. After all... As ground-breaking doctor and hypno-therapist, Milton Erickson said "what you don't realise is your life is mostly unconsciously determined,” meaning...
Postpone the analysis, stay in the moment
People interacting with one another have sensory experiences involving images, sounds and feelings. Yet we’re often tempted to reach for analytical models; to turn the flesh and blood experience into an intellectual exercise and try to manage relationships at that...
The importance of a specific goal, and a small step towards it
He travelled 18,297 miles round the world on a bicycle and beat his target of 195 days by 8 hours. His target was in reality an arbitrary estimate based on 100 miles per day with an allowance for unforeseen difficulties. In so doing, he smashed the previous world...
Giving yourself permission
Author and speaker Sonia Choquette give a fabulous demonstration of giving yourself permission to be yourself and do essentially anything on stage. The 700 or so people present respond wholeheartedly. In fact, the more Sonia is herself, the more the audience responds....
The leader: Master or servant or something else?
The notion of the "servant leader" conveys the important idea of the leader serving the people he or she leads. That's a useful shift in perspective from the more traditional idea of leader as master and the led serving the leader. But perhaps servant leader isn't...
Are you a shadow of your future self?
We’re probably familiar with the old expression “a shadow of her former self”, implying a temporary or even permanent decline from earlier capability and presence. But perhaps the change is in the other direction. Perhaps you are now a mere shadow of what you could...
The power of metaphor
He visibly changed in front of our eyes... From a barely there, fidgeting, rather evasive character, he became a solid, three-dimensional, distinctly present person with solid eye contact and a strong voice to match. What made the difference? Thinking of a metaphor...
How demanding is too demanding?
In some relationships, being demanding is (arguably) required to achieve the highest performance—for a coach with an athlete, for a leader with a team, or for a customer with a supplier. A little discomfort may be needed for the greatest achievement. Deliver the...
Will they do better with an adversarial approach?
Some prefer an adversarial approach to doing business. They think they’ll do better if they have more room to maneuver at arms length; more opportunity to a present favorable message if they withhold information; more opportunity to attack and defend. Sometimes both...
The making of Gold Medal performance
Watching interviews with Gold Medal winners and other Olympic high performers, it's striking how most of them seem thoroughly pleasant and even ordinary people - very far from the sometime stereotype of winner as warrior. In short, they are profoundly human. Sure, in...
The difference between dialogue and discussion
Reading David Bohm's book "On Dialogue," which, not surprisingly, has a particularly helpful exposition of the difference between dialogue and discussion... (David Bohm was a renowned physicist of the twentieth century who also made great contributions to wider...