I was reading some philosophy this morning that prompted me to reflect on the nature of communication and, particularly, on the need for greater discernment in how we receive and interpret the “data” of our lives. The need for greater ‘sensing’. By data, I don’t mean simply facts, figures or words. I mean the whole...
Fifty years ago the UK was about nationalised industries and state control. Leaders found their best selves through outward-bound development – physical challenges often in heavy drizzle and muddy ground. Over the past few years the UK has been moving back to nationalisation. Rail has gone first. Then steel. Maybe water will be next then...
Whenever a discussion about personal power comes up in a coaching session it can trigger many different questions. What defines my power? To what extent does my power affect someone else’s power? Is it a zero-sum game? What is ‘power’ anyway in leadership? Typically, in exploring power we enter the territory of respect, expertise, charisma,...
Wisdom in leadership is vital, and elephants are famed for being wise. Packing your Exec group with wise leaders is likely to bring huge rewards because wisdom isn’t just a factor of experience, though of course that helps, wisdom is an expression of consciousness. And by that, I mean a deep sense of knowing and...
There is a leader within each of us who has been waiting. She leads with compassion, emotional intelligence, creativity, and intuition. She builds through collaboration, holds space for complexity, and moves with the flexibility that generates genuinely new outcomes — not just faster versions of the old ones. In most organisations, these qualities have been...
I’m just emerging from a 48-hour leadership retreat where we blended spontaneous creative thinking, deep reflection, cultural immersion, personal reflection and growth and practical project scoping — all while strengthening a working relationship that will matter deeply in the years ahead. I call it leadership alchemy. Sound appealing? When we consciously step away from operational...
It’s the same with love. Both are fundamental in being human. But not, it seems, in being a leader. And yet, in my experience of working with leaders both heartfulness and love are present but rarely acknowledged and certainly not openly discussed. Think of the power that exists in both. Heartful leadership holds compassion in...
Dashing heroes and defenders of the good are a thing of fairy tales, legends and of Marvel comics! Epitomising the upholding of good over evil, moral standing and care for the underdog they give a powerful insight to an aspect of leadership that is (very often) all too absent in our public leaders. In the...
You may recognise this phrase if you’ve ever done a slightly edgier personal development programme. From experience, when the activity is explained it can make the heart quail (mine did/does), at least a little (even for those who can dance, though proficiency isn’t the point). Yet, slowly, embarrassed shuffling becomes something freer, more essential, as...
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the call of surrender and how it brings the opportunity, indeed the requirement, to let go and accept what is. In the past few weeks, I have learnt even more. It cannot be half hearted, intellectually driven or conceptual. True surrender requires everything of us. It wants us...