Thoughts

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. […]

Want to change how stuff gets done more easily? Try being an ‘experimentalist’. One of my heroes is Leonardo Da Vinci. He valued what he called dimostrazione: a commitment to test knowledge through experience, persistence, and a willingness to learn from mistakes. He was someone who was always experimenting. And as a result, his legacy […]

Last week my family and I went on an amazing road trip through the South Island of New Zealand. We took the back roads, including a spectacular four-hour drive on winding gravel roads through Molesworth Station (check out the pic). Our 17-year-old son drove some of the way. He’s had his license for about nine […]

Following the shocking events in Christchurch in March this year, I’ve been reflecting on ‘being with difference.’ It’s hard for me to comprehend how someone could go to such extremes, and I’ve found myself in a strong state of judgment about the shooter’s behaviour. Probably like most of us. And as I notice my judgment, […]

I’ve been in a few conversations recently where people were experiencing the old ’Imposter Syndrome’. That nasty, frustrating jumble of thoughts and feelings that stops us from shining and leading in the way we really want to. Let’s start with this. If you experience Imposter Syndrome, that says to me that you’ve got some humility […]

We all harbor two things: A desire to be significant Fears about our ability to be significant These two things compete for our attention all the time. Which one do we listen to? The desire, or the fear? Our desire to be significant is…significant. We want to be seen. We want to matter. As we’ve […]

Do you ever get to a point where you say “I just need a holiday!” And then you look at what you’re already committed to, and realise that you can’t book a holiday for another two months? Aaargh! Let’s change that. As we close out 2018, your mind’s probably turning to what next year looks […]

  Courage is one of those qualities that distinguishes the bold from the bland. When what’s right and what’s safe are two different paths, your degree of willingness to be courageous is what determines the path you take. When what you truly want comes with uncertainty and risk, courage is your link between intention and […]

I was watching a guitar tutorial on YouTube a couple days ago. The instructor was really good, both as a player, and as a teacher. (By the way, he’s teaching one of the coolest songs you can play on acoustic guitar, ‘Never Going Back Again’ by Fleetwood Mac). Towards the end of the tutorial, the […]

Last week my family and I went to Java, Indonesia. Our destination was a surf camp that was a bit of a mission to get to – an eight-hour drive from Denpasar in Bali, including a car ferry across to Java, and then down through the jungle from there. We’d heard from friends that the […]