As babies, as young children, and young adults we (hopefully) are taught, eventually, to have and value our independence. Psychologically this is a vital part of our development as we learn to become our own person, find our own sense of self and identity. We separate from the parental guardrails and make our way in...
The legend of King Arthur and his round table is a powerful one and like all myths, legends and fairy tales, it contains many archetypes and principles that are both timeless and great sources of wisdom. One that feels most prescient for today’s world is the expression of cooperative leadership and for this the round...
If we look across our team or our organisation most people know what they’re doing – there’s a reassuring competence. The work gets done, results get delivered. What may be missing though is whether people know why they’re doing what they’re doing. What’s the higher purpose for their endeavours? We know that purpose, why the...
Okay, so Covid hasn’t gone away but we are learning to live with it in a world of work that is immensely altered for many organisations and their people. Though there has been a return to the office for many it’s on a hybrid basis. The centre of gravity has shifted somewhat from a fully...
The number of leadership archetypes that exist within our cultures is extensive. We have the hero knight, benevolent king, the powerful protector, the tyrant, the gracious queen, the sage and the maverick plus many more. More often than not when we speak of leadership we are often referring to a hierarchical position, someone senior or...
It isn’t too much of a stretch to assert that our world is going through incredible transformation (not all of it good). For example the breakdown of established institutions, destruction of our planet, developing the technology to save ourselves or destroy ourselves, increased human connection as we start to really see the impacts of our...
As leaders these days we are rightly expected to be well versed in fairness. Ensuring that we make fair decisions, create fair opportunities (as well as equal access) for our colleagues and co-workers, and that we address any inequities that may come to our attention. But have you ever considered what fairness really means? The...
One of the things I’ve noticed as restrictions on our day-to-day lives begin to ease is how noisy the world has become, or at least my sensitivity is heightened. Whichever, it’s had me thinking about noise at a number of levels…the noise, for example, the media created around our PM’s wedding – where it might...
Two years ago hybrid probably conjured mental images of cars powered by both electricity and fossil fuel. More recently hybrid is the word on most leaders’ and employees’ lips as a descriptor for our workplaces going forward. What’s interesting here is that if we strip back to the basic meaning of hybrid – anything of...
It has long been said that we in the UK do know how to bring a certain quality to important moments in the life of the Nation or the world. Of course, we have a lot of rich history and access to all sorts of symbols of pomp and circumstance to draw on given that...