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...
In our interactions with others we can often assume that we are all having the same experience, viewing the situation similarly and extracting the same data. The reality is we are having entirely different experiences, picking up on very different things, seeing, and hearing, with different (literally) eyes and ears. If we imagine this in...
Skilful communication is one of the pre-requisites of leadership yet a few conversations in the past week have come as a reminder of how hard we can find it to get this right and how often neglected it is in race to deliver targets. Perhaps the problem is that we see it as a given....
Mostly our world seems geared to receive mode. The amount of information we’re deluged with daily is testament to how little we have to do to get information. Or is it? We face a number of challenges here. With so much data coming at us we may become a little lazier, try less to access...
We could be forgiven for thinking big talk describes the kind of boastful and often unsubstantiated, self-aggrandising, other-blaming claims broadcast by leaders in the public eye. Let’s face it there’s a lot of this about and a particularly consistent example across the Pond. However, big talk is about something much deeper and higher and a...
The latest edition of the Edelman Trust Barometer shows yet another drop in the trust vested in business leaders. According to the 2024 report 61% of respondents (32,000 people globally) worry that business leaders are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations (a 2% rise in the...
Most people don’t tend to think about shapes or geometry in relation to leadership. And yet if you think about it we have many linear, square and oblong shapes that pervade our organisational spaces especially in business. The boardroom table, the office desk, the rows of desks. Perhaps it’s driven by space efficiency but I...
Leading by example is one of the oft quoted qualities needed of effective leaders but isn’t it missing something…the word good as in leading by good example? Leadership is a 24/7 commitment, a way of being as well as doing. Everything we do and say, the attitudes we hold, our presence, are being experienced and...