I’ve had a few technology challenges this week, more specifically getting help with systems that won’t talk to each other. The frustration isn’t just with the systems, rather the lack of access to a real human being for a support conversation. We’ve all been there. Contrast this with a late delivery and several redirects to...
Clear and effective communication is the foundation of relationship. It’s like the oil that keeps all the parts moving smoothly and sufficiently in the same direction. We are born with the capacity to communicate. Initially through primal, instinctive expression of our needs and eventually through a more conscious use of words, actions, emotions and sensitivities....
Some recent conversations have reminded me again of how communication, the words we use, the energy behind them, and the context in which they’re set can easily undermine rather than achieve our intention. For me this is all about the framing. Time poor, results challenged leaders may feel they don’t have time to think carefully...
Like me, you probably can’t fail to be aware of the shift in the prevailing narrative – sharper, at times brutal. Words like dictatorship, colonialism, imperialism, force, world on the brink, populism, and many others appear routinely in our media and, often, in our day-to-day talk, to describe the shifts we are living through. We...
Some years ago, a good (and older than me) friend was fond of saying ‘the older I get, the less I know.’ Usually, it followed some unexpected and illogical incident or inquiry. At the time I found the statement a little puzzling. How could we know less, surely with age we know more? And yet...
We speak of communities of practice, and some organisations will have a group or communities dedicated to people related themes such as diversity, LBGTQ+ or faith and yet we rarely think about community as the backbone of the organism. Yes, there will potentially be share of mind dedicated to the culture and yet even that...
Generosity. It may seem a little old fashioned, out of kilter with the pace of our world, the attention needed to get things done. Yet it is a quality and an energy that is transformative. Being generous with our time and attention elevates not only the quality and openness of our conversations but also the...
Usually in the workplace the conversations that don’t happen, or tend to be put off for too long, are the difficult/more challenging ones…giving constructive feedback, calling out poor behaviour, introducing a change that’s unlikely to be popular. Each of these, and other personal examples you’ll undoubtedly have, are important. Leaving them to drift can cause...
Our very literal interpretation of the word ‘hierarchy’, and within that the function of leadership, that we see deployed in most organisations misses the true essence of hierarchical responsibility which is much more profound than status, authority over, personal power or control. One of these more profound aspects is the responsibility a leader has to...
‘If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same’ (from Rudyard Kipling’s If) When one of the world’s leading female tennis players lost a major championship recently, she very publicly attributed the loss to her poor play rather than the winner’s skill. Only on reflection did she realise...