Restraint. It’s a hard quality to apply, especially for leaders when taking action is both and expectation and the norm. Decisiveness is a much-admired leadership quality, driven by an instinct to intervene, to act and fox. For some this is seen as the proof of a leader. And yet we know leadership, like life, is...
“Where people of goodwill get together and transcend their differences for the common good, peaceful and just solutions can be found even for those problems which seem most intractable.“ — Nelson Mandela The common good emphasises collective well-being, shared responsibility, and the ethical pursuit of societal benefit over individual gain. Leading in support of the...
You may have seen this too, receiving utility bills that regularly change the period you’re being billed for (28 days and then 165 days on a recent bill) making any comparison of consumption on a like for like (year on year) basis obscure and difficult. In a world which is complex enough, transparency is important...
I sometimes look back on my career and think did I ever master anything and does it matter. I was a skilled generalist leader in my corporate career but didn’t really become a specialist until I became an OD consultant and coach. Provoked by another discussion though I found myself reflecting on the value of...
The past week has been one of new experience. Some planned medical stuff shifted/reduced the boundaries of what’s physically possible, thankfully temporarily. In this discomfort zone (and acknowledging an awful lot of help in the ‘baby’ stages of recovery) it has been about relearning how to be in my environment and with each stage of...
“We are discussing no small matter, but how we ought to live.” Plato I’m returning to the topic of ethics with a deep sense of curiosity about what it means to discuss ‘how we ought to live’. Many of us will baulk at the idea of the word ‘ought’ in that it immediately curtails, or...