Blog
Take a look at recent insights in leadership, strategy and more.
Acting today to justify who we were yesterday
We tend to favour consistency. We act in a way that aligns with who we were before. Then everything is nice and tidy. It’s not embarrassing. It might be rather ineffective, or even plain wrong, but it’s not embarrassing to carry on in the same groove. We do all this...
The unceasing merit (and remarkable difficulty) of taking a fresh look
We know new insights come to us when we look at things afresh. But it's remarkably difficult to do that properly. Our minds get very comfortable with a particular way of looking at things, and of looking at people. That's my experience anyway... Just before the...
Asking the right question
There's no such thing as the right question, of course, but some enquiries contribute more to moving things on than others. It's worth thinking about... What's your intention when you ask a question - helping things along in the direction they need to go in for the...
If you’re the leader…
You created everything around you. (You are the person with authority and influence, after all.) If you don’t like it, either you’ve not led very well, or you’re not actually the leader. Which is it?
Knowing your own power
It’s surprising, in a way, how little we know of our own power—our power to impact on other people. We tend not to realise just how impactful we can be. We say things with full force when actually something more measured would meet less resistance, cause less hurt,...
Do you go at the pace of the slowest?
Working with leadership teams, it’s usually the boss who has the most to think about and the most change work to do. They are the main driving force in the company after all. But as well as that... Sometimes there’s someone in the team or the group who, for whatever...
The part that makes the most difference
We spend a lot of time thinking about how to change things around us; how to change our organisation and the people in it. That’s a lot of work. We tend to encounter resistance and often it takes a great deal of energy to make progress. The reality is... Sometimes...
Controlling everything isn’t leadership
It’s management. They say the best leaders are the ones who develop the most leaders, not the most followers. If we want to lead—as opposed to manage—we mustn’t control everything, because then there’s no opportunity for others to exercise their initiative and grow...
How far do you go… to coach an employee?
I often see business owners and managers struggling to secure reasonable performance from certain of their employees - one or two members of staff who, for some reason, aren't effective. Cases where it's not a skills issue, more of an attitude problem. Usually, the...
Love in the language of cricket and Australia
In what’s been said about the tragic death of Australian cricketer, Philip Hughes, the word “love” is prominent. Captain Michael Clarke, for example, wrote “I will love you forever” and many others referred to caring in the same way, both about the man and their...
How challenging can we be?
When it comes to stimulating change in other people, how challenging can we be? How far and fast can we push? How can we best tell when we need to back off? Well, of course, it depends... It depends on the nature and quality of our relationship: Is it a...
You need to not know
Or rather, you need to know you don't know. And you need your team to know you don't know and want their help. How else can they know they need to look out for missing information? They need to know that you will welcome them saying you might have overlooked...
If you give people the same facts…
... you might think they would come to the same conclusions. Actually, of course, maybe they won’t... They might have a different world-view, causing them to interpret the information in a different way. They might have different values, causing them to weigh...
The necessary pest
How do you tell the difference between the troublemaker and the necessary pest? The thing is... We don’t have all the answers. We need other people to tell us when we’ve over-looked something, or need to take a different perspective. Of course, we tend to get this...
You can’t really assess your staff…
... unless you’re sure you’ve provided effective leadership. If you’re looking for the people who work for you to be self-motivated and highly productive, you can’t sensibly begin to assess whether they are or not, unless or until you’re sure you’ve provided good...