Blog

Have you asked yourself that question this week? Has that little voice inside your head said: “Why haven’t they done this?”; “why have they done it like that?”; or “if only they would?” As a senior leader, your words and deeds are important. They don’t just communicate, they cascade.  A lot of senior leaders that … Read more

Do you know who you are? Do others see what you think they do? In this hbr article (What Self-Awareness Really Is (and How to Cultivate It) (hbr.org)), they found that even though most people believe they are self-aware, self-awareness is a truly rare quality; they estimate that only 10%–15% of the people they studied … Read more

Are you struggling to display vulnerability as a leader? Are circumstances making it harder for you or have you always been that way? The thought of it feeling completely alien? Either way, I encourage you to stop and think and read Brene Brown’s work! Through her research and books, she has encouraged us to see … Read more

I really enjoy coaching leadership teams and I say teams as opposed to committees deliberately. At the executive level, teamwork isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s the engine that drives organisational performance. How does your executive team operate? Is it more like a collection of high‑achieving individuals or a cohesive, aligned unit? The difference between … Read more

I’ve had a number of conversations recently where people have shared their stories. Their stories about who they are and what they are capable of; always a privilege to hear. And yet, I was struck by the line between humility and self-limiting belief and the degree of awareness about which of those was happening. To … Read more

Are you feeling the pressure around a programme you are delivering or sponsoring? Pressure exposes the truth about a programme. The question is what do you do in that moment? When deadlines tighten or risks materialise, many leaders instinctively become more directive, more command control. It feels fast and it feels decisive; however, it rarely … Read more

As leaders, we rightly pride ourselves on resilience, commitment, and seeing things through. Those qualities build careers and organisations, but they can also lock us into one of the most costly cognitive traps: the sunk cost fallacy. That’s when we keep backing a project, strategy, or relationship mainly because we’ve already invested time, money, political … Read more

Have you ever thought about what shapes how you interpret things? Assuming positive intent can have an outsized impact on trust, collaboration, and culture.  It sounds simple, yet under pressure it’s often the first thing to disappear. As a senior leader, your interpretation casts a shadow or a light on the organisation. Your influence grows … Read more

What differentiates good leaders from great ones? I’m strongly of the view that one factor is the ability to give feedback that improves performance, strengthens relationships, and shapes culture. Feedback is not a task. It’s a leadership behaviour. The higher you rise, the more your words carry weight, and the more intentional you must be … Read more

Think about the best leader you ever had. Now think about the worst. I imagine that you probably felt the difference before you could describe it. I decided to make this the topic of my blogs this week as I have recently been made to remember both. I remember both feelings vividly. One made me … Read more