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...
You may have seen this too, receiving utility bills that regularly change the period you’re being billed for (28 days and then 165 days on a recent bill) making any comparison of consumption on a like for like (year on year) basis obscure and difficult. In a world which is complex enough, transparency is important...
If you have a garden, yours, like mine, is probably looking more than sorry for itself after several weeks of heat. Faithful watering (watering can only) is keeping its fatigue at bay, hopefully. Pondering the garden has got me thinking that leadership is much akin to gardening, not least because it requires us to consciously...
As a football fan, immersed in the World Cup (albeit at a distance), teams are much on my mind. Sure, I’d love my home nation to succeed but my interest feels more elemental than the partisanship of fandom. We’ve witnessed some stellar football. Some big names stepping up in tight corners and saving the day....
The idea of paying it forward has been on my mind this week, prompted by attending the 19th birthday celebration for global business giving movement B1G1. azzur has been a member since 2013 and makes a donation for every person who completes leadership or team development with us. Our giving aids education (unsurprisingly), empowering women,...
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...
Last week I had a day in London with 3 separate face to face meetings…and I have to say it was a treat! Nothing noteworthy there you might say but for me there was. It was powerful. Being ‘out there’ – away from the laptop screen – seeing and being with real people. Why? Because...
It’s been a week! Days of working to get different software systems to talk to each other and ‘conversing’ with chatbots, trying to penetrate the rigidity of their scripts, to access help. A life on repeat. Eventually a breakthrough has been made. Everything looks like it is synced (fingers crossed). As frustrating as the process...
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...
The glue that holds the world together is relationship…between humanity and nature, between nations and peoples. The relationships in organisations, in community groups. In families. Between friends. These are such a fundamental part of human existence that perhaps we give them less attention, put in less effort than they undoubtedly deserve. Relationships have been much...