Thoughts

Most days when I’m home in Wellington, I take a three minute walk down my street to the local coffee shop for a fix. And not just a fix of coffee. Also a fix of inspiration. This morning, my good man Roger and I chatted away as he made my usual flat white. And then […]

For years, Nike’s tagline has been ‘Just Do It.’ It encourages us to act, not wait. The promise is that we’ll be better off having acted decisively rather than having waited tentatively. Nike’s message is a good one. If you want to make anything happen, you’ve got to act. You’ve got to have agency. I’ve […]

I’ve been on some great leadership courses throughout my career. I’ve had great teachers. I’ve been exposed to brilliant ideas. And through the shared experience of a course, I’ve developed a rich network of colleagues, many of whom I still connect with today. But none of those courses can compare to the best leadership course […]

You may have noticed that this is the first time that I’ve published something in a little while. That’s because I’ve been in ‘the trough’. The trough is the place between peaks. In surfing, it’s the low point between two swells. It’s where you’re paddling hard, but, to the outside observer at least, there’s not […]

A lot of local councils here in New Zealand have recently declared a climate change emergency in their districts. Now, you might think that a bunch of local councils in one of the world’s smaller countries aren’t going to make much of a difference, especially to the global situation. And you might be right. Then […]

If you’re on a mission to make an outsized difference, you’ve signed up for an exciting journey. And also a challenging one. It’s exciting because you’re doing something worthwhile, something with purpose, something that’s going to really make a dent in the universe. And it’s challenging because you’ll come up against inertia. Including those people […]

If you’ve been reading my stuff for a while now, you’ll be familiar with my ‘Year By Design’ practice. Towards the end of each year, I take time out to deliberately design my next twelve months, so I can maximise how I spend my time and create a life that works for me and the […]

Last week, I was lucky enough to listen to and meet James Clear, author of Atomic Habits. The book’s become a global phenomenon. He joined us at Thought Leaders Business School in Sydney to share some of the core ideas in his book. Here are three messages from James that stuck with me. And I […]

I was watching my son’s rugby game on the weekend. They took a hammering. And I reckon I know what happened. First, there were the ‘set pieces’. That’s where the game pauses for a bit, usually due to a penalty being given, or a try being scored. The team with the ball takes a moment, […]

I’m often asked by leaders how they can harness the collective energy of a group of people to achieve great things. It seems to be a point of frustration and stuckness for many, so I thought I’d share a story about a meeting that I was lucky enough to be a part of last week. […]