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...
As leaders we’re accustomed to the set pieces – the presentations, all-company briefings, big decisions – actions that are ‘on-show’ and probably being rated by those we lead. We know too that leadership isn’t performance. The stuff that happens in the background also has an impact on the culture we’re creating…the character of the organisation...
Restraint. It’s a hard quality to apply, especially for leaders when taking action is both and expectation and the norm. Decisiveness is a much-admired leadership quality, driven by an instinct to intervene, to act and fox. For some this is seen as the proof of a leader. And yet we know leadership, like life, is...
Difference. It’s easy to spot and easy to reject. If we broaden our thinking to the 8.3 billion, and rising, unique individuals on this planet that’s a lot of difference. Difference gets in the way from the macro – nation to nation – to the micro – one person to another. And it isn’t just...
Optimism is dictionary-defined as an attitude or mind-set that things will turn out well. Some of us seem, naturally, to be wired more this way than others. Yet, given current events we might be finding its darker twin, pessimism, in greater supply. So, it was great to discover a different and really useful take in...
Every day I’m reminded, like you probably are, that the ‘rules’ in life have changed. How we communicate. How we interact. How we make choices. How we get things done. Sometimes the convention, and its changed state, are less obvious. We only realise the nature of its replacement when we’ve transgressed and usually suffer some...
Command and control, authoritarian, hierarchical. We tend to think of these as relics of a bygone era… yet despite an overlay of something more inclusive and collaborative, the majority of corporate cultures still operate from these mindsets. The first question is whether that matters. After all someone must make the decision and hierarchy provides clarity....
Looking in, acting out When issues arise asking ourselves if we’re the problem can be useful. After giving it due thought we might be shocked with the answer – discovering we’re the blockage. Not by design, of course. But whether inadvertent or not a blockage is a blockage and something we must clear. How did...
We all know the value of hindsight. That moment when the lightbulb goes on and we can see the thread of the choices we made and the connections that emerged and how that brought us to where we are in the current moment. Sometimes we see the good threads and sometimes we can better understand...
There’s little predictable about our world right now. Conflict. Political uncertainty. Shaky business confidence. You’ll have your own examples. Predictable, stable looks like an ever more distant continent. I confess I am comfortable with predictable (it’s probably the same for you). And yet, volatile is attractive too. Great leaps forward come from volatility. The discovery...