Thoughts

Rules. We live by them. We need them, actually. Otherwise, we’d be overloaded with decisions. Like having to think about which way to veer when we meet a car coming the other way on the road. Sticking to the left is a useful rule. Some rules are not so useful. Some rules limit us too much, […]

Last week, I was reminded of the awesome, and underutilised power of leading with questions. A colleague and I spent two days together with a group of up-and-coming leaders. They’re an energised, talented group, hungry to learn and to make an impact on their organisation. A joy to work with. As facilitators, my colleague and I […]

I’ve been working with a senior leadership team of late that has, shall we say, quite a forceful executive at its head. Having been in the role just over 18 months, he’s been instrumental in reshaping the direction of the organisation and lifting its performance. Things are tracking well, morale is lifting across the board, […]

When people face something big and scary, they’ll often say “I need to muster up the courage to tackle that.” Kind of like courage is something that’s scattered around the place in small bits, and they just need to gather up all of those small bits and create a big courage ball. Then they’ll be […]

  When you’re considering how to generate your next career opportunity, the challenge is often about knowing where to look. Here are some ideas about how to go about it in a clever way that maximises your reach, and your time. Most people think too narrowly when they’re looking for the next role. It limits […]

People often say to me “you’re so lucky, you’re always on holidays!” Well, it’s probably true that I do take more time out than most people. But it has nothing to do with luck. It’s by design. If you’re like a lot of people, you can get to the end of the year and wonder, […]

As we near the end of 2016, I’ve summarised a few gems that you might find useful to dip in and out of: My Top Five Most Popular Blog Posts of 2016 A Map to Change: How to make a behaviour change by getting ‘under the hood’. Shine A Light: Show people their potential and […]

Opportunity abounds. We just need to cultivate our own agency to attract it. In my MBA class the other night, the students and I were looking at the forces and trends shaping the future of work and careers. The discussion naturally led to what the implications were for them, and how they might act or […]

Recently I was working with a group of about 20 people at a residential workshop. It was morning tea time and we were all gathered in a room relishing our caffeine top-ups. As facilitator, it was my job to keep people on time. I considered how I’d let them all know when it was time […]

When I was about 14 years old, I joined my school’s Army Cadet corps. It was attractive because I’d heard they did cool things out in the bush. I was having a bit of a hard time at boarding school, and I thought it would a great respite. It wasn’t what I expected. The rule-bound […]