Time for thinking, for reflection, for ordering our thoughts, reprioritising the ‘to do’ list, is often a casualty of the busy-ness of organisational life and its always-on, back-to-back nature. Yet time for reflection is essential to the quality of our leadership decisions and ensuing action. And it’s essential to ensure that pressure remains a useful...
Power is a central theme in our lives yet it has something of a bad rap. With some regularity we see abuses of power – it being wielded in a self-serving and destructive way. Individually we can feel powerless in the face of external factors in the system whether that’s the State, the economy or...
Have you ever thought about why it’s easy to spot those who will one day become great leaders? When younger people enter our orbit in whatever way, we can very often see something in them that tells us they will have an impact. Not necessarily within the hierarchical, corporate and organisation structures. In fact, these...
When we are operating from our wise space, we of course know that whatever is happening in the world, our life, our work, our leadership, there’s always the need for perspective. The value of seeing things from a variety of viewpoints or standpoints enables us to keep a sense of proportion. One of the core...
Integrity is a quality that’s taken as a positive, highly prized and often associated with good leadership. Dictionaries define it as the quality of being honest with adherence to strong moral principles (our understanding of right and wrong). Yet we can be in integrity if our behaviours are consistent with our own morals even if...
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...
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...
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...
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...