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...
Richard Barrett posed this question in a recent article, and it got me thinking. In his article (available on Substack) he says that ‘action is making the invisible visible’ and with this I agree. Of course, there are many steps between the connection with the invisible and the materialising of that into action. Or at...
Stability has been on my mind in recent days given the apparent instability of the world around us. I imagine it’s much the same for you. For most of us stability is important. Part of our sense of security. When it is in seemingly short supply anxiety can take hold, distracting us from what needs...
Some people do of course…dance well in the unknown. Most of us have been conditioned to want a bit more certainty or control and so leading in the twist and turns of the reality we find today can be deeply unsettling. It can create almost a rigidity as we seek to hold on. We may...
There is a leader within each of us who has been waiting. She leads with compassion, emotional intelligence, creativity, and intuition. She builds through collaboration, holds space for complexity, and moves with the flexibility that generates genuinely new outcomes — not just faster versions of the old ones. In most organisations, these qualities have been...
Our conditioning dictates that the goal is the thing, not the process of getting there. I’m as caught in this groove as the next person. So, we might just pause (even though there’s stuff to do) and think about what we’re missing out on in this goal rush. And the impact of that. In being...
We might interpret gaps as negatives, a lack of, a hole to be filled, a deficit. Gaps in a usually busy diary might cause anxiety. Am I needed? Working hard enough? Is there a problem? We can obsess when others have knowledge or skills we feel we don’t. A gap. I am learning to think...
Are you in a rut? Is the way you lead pretty much the same as it was five years ago, give or take a few minor adjustments? Spotting when we’re stuck can, at times, be tricky. Relentless focus on delivering the goods means modern leaders have little time to look up, out, and ahead. Or...
For 25 years or more I personally have sought to better understand this wake-up call. Can you hear it? Or are you hitting the snooze button? Anyone who considers themselves to be a leader is being asked, called, prompted, cajoled, maybe even forced into living up to that function from a higher vantage point. Who...
‘It’s not only moving that creates new starting points. Sometimes all it takes is a subtle shift in perspective, an opening of the mind, an intentional pause and reset, or a new route to start to see new options and new possibilities.’ Kristin Armstrong Life and work dictate that we’re always moving, on to the...