Blog

This time I want to talk about focus. As leaders its part of our role to focus attention and that can be done in many ways – focussing on ourselves, focussing on others and focussing on the wider world. This article The Focused Leader (hbr.org) sums it up nicely: “Every leader needs to cultivate this … Read more

What have you learned today? There is a quote from a JFK speech that he never actually gave, which is “Leadership and Learning are indispensable to each other” (Remarks Prepared for Delivery at the Trade Mart in Dallas, TX, November 22, 1963 [Undelivered] | JFK Library). Great leaders know that they never ‘make it’; instead, … Read more

Anyone else have imposter syndrome? – Good thing or bad thing? Either way – confession – guilty as charged! Many of you will know what this is, that sense of thinking that people have an exaggerated view of our abilities; a bit of fear of being exposed as a fraud; and a continuous tendency to downplay … Read more

Authenticity is a deeply underrated leadership quality. As you read that, I wonder how many of you inside your head went ‘well I’m authentic’! This article (Managing Authenticity: The Paradox of Great Leadership (hbr.org)) talks about the fact that “No leader can look into a mirror and say, “I am authentic.” A person cannot be … Read more

This blog is inspired by conversations I’ve had recently with organisations about the amount of pressure being faced, and the risk of how that could manifest (is manifesting?) itself in behaviours. The following HBR article How to Deal with High Pressure Situations at Work (hbr.org) talks about four ways of which we can manage the pressure: Know … Read more

My inspiration this time has been various conversations about being tired (code for knackered!) in run up to the festive season. Me included! This can really drain our resilience, so we need to think about what fuels our resilience; I therefore thought I would share the following article: The Secret to Building Resilience (hbr.org). The secret is that … Read more