When things go wrong it is, perhaps, human nature to seek the source of the fault, to lay blame, to want to know why it happened and who or what was responsible. It’s an all too easy road in organisational life, especially with the pressure to deliver results. Yet, it’s a road that can make...
In most well-intentioned organisations we strive toward building a culture founded on strong, well considered values and ethics. We consider the questions, who are we and how do we want to be? This motivation to build something meaningful to the majority typically gives rise to traditions. The habits, behaviours, practices that support the building of...
You may not believe in miracles. You may find yourself constantly amazed and in awe of the incredible wonder in our world. Maybe the night sky evokes wonder in you. Maybe seeing the light shining and sparkling through your child’s eyes activates that deep sense of awe and wonder… As adults, it can be hard...
When things go wrong we can often get caught up in ‘panic mode’ For example, losing a credit card. Clearly a big issue if indeed it has been lost because of all the subsequent implications and risks. The question though is how does panicking help the situation. It clouds clear thinking. It creates stress which,...
Developing a coaching style in our leadership is a sure-fire way to developing and empowering others and to increasing capability and capacity in our teams and organisations. Moreover, it builds trust and relationship. Some leaders find this shift in practice relatively easy to accomplish. For others it takes a little more time and effort, not...
As we head into a new year we may be reading about the challenges leaders have identified as most important for the year ahead. These will often be couched as the top five/ten leadership dilemmas for 2025. Though given the climate organisations are operating in – social, environmental, economic, political – there are many more...
The idea that there is a price to pay for everything can feel a little harsh and yet if we think about it, it’s true. Not necessarily in the sense of money but in the sense of consequences. Every choice we make, every plan we set in motion, every relationship we invest in sets off...
Curiosity doesn’t tend to be top of the competence pile when it comes to leaders or employees but perhaps it should be for it is a quality that drives the best possible outcomes and fuels progress. Of course, curiosity is a mind-set and it often gets parked in the interests of speed, efficiency and meeting...
Frederic Laloux, author of Reinventing Organisations wrote “an organization cannot evolve beyond its leadership’s stage of development.” This is a powerful and indeed significant statement when we consider our levels of investment in leadership. Investment not just in the obvious sense of ‘training’ but, in particular, in the deeper sense of what we really mean...
A recent blog from Seth Godin spoke of working to make things better being achieved in small steps rather than big bang, improvement coming incrementally and by repeating and repeating the steps. Of course, we can give impetus to those steps in the objectives or intentions we set…a process that’s a regular feature of organisational...