The script for organisational leaders says we should be focused on strategy, the big picture, the long term. And that’s true. Yet it ignores the chaotic, volatile world we inhabit, the one that sees headwinds and crosswinds colliding at every turn. Stable conditions are almost impossible to come by. So, if everything’s changing, seemingly in...
This brilliant question was posed by the wonderful Louise Hallam and it’s a question that has the potential to take us very deep if we let it. When we think about the various development programmes we attend as leaders we are often seeking new skills, new competencies, new ways of enhancing our leadership impact. What...
ragmatic or aspirational is a preoccupying paradox for leaders in these challenging times. Uncertainty brings an urge to control, to proceed with caution, to keep our heads down and focus on the task in hand. It’s a useful strategy, to an extent. Things still get done, the practical day-to-day stuff. Yet it can also be...
According to the New World Encyclopaedia, ‘The word community is derived from the Latin communitas (meaning the same), which is in turn derived from communis, which means “common, public, shared by all or many.”[1] Communis comes from a combination of the Latin prefix con- (which means “together”) and the word munis (which has to do...
Challenging times bring a different energy into our environment – certainly more febrile and tense, and possibly hot-headed. As the pressure increases so does the tension in the air. Nowhere is this more apparent than in our language. Hyperbole infects the things we say and how we say them – often louder and terser. By...
There’s a big focus on the feminine in leadership in these times and rightly so. International Women’s Day brought the focus onto women from a gender perspective – inviting us to think about the qualities and successes of women across the globe. The intensified efforts under the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion banner in organisations is...
What does our Prime Minister stand for? It was a question a friend of mine was asked earlier this week by one of their friends from another European nation. Whilst I’m not aiming to answer this question about a specific individual I want to put it out there as a challenge worthy of reflection for...
It’s a real challenge isn’t it! In these tough times when there’s so much pain and suffering and so many atrocities on every level of human existence. The temptation when we feel pain is to shut down, protect the heart and avoid the causes of the pain. What if we thought about pain differently –...
It seems appropriate in a week when we have just celebrated International Women’s Day to consider the qualities women may bring to leadership be that political, organisational, community or indeed closer to home in the family. Research points to organisations with greater gender diversity in leadership and Exec roles outperforming those organisations with less diversity....
The dictionary tells us that integrity is one of two things – honesty and adherence to a strong moral code and the state of being whole and undivided. This word has often been applied to leadership as has the word ‘authentic’ meaning real and true. When we look around our world today we may struggle...