Thoughts

Too many people seek out stuff that actually doesn’t matter that much. And that seeking stops them from playing a bigger game.

  I’ve just got back from a week on the beach in Fiji. But wait – it’s not what you think! I went to plan and write my next book (ok, with a little surfing thrown in). I had a hugely productive week, and I’ve come away feeling pretty good about where I’ve got to. […]

  You’re more resourceful than you think. In my younger days, I was sent to work in Leeds in the UK by the global accounting firm I worked for. Coming from sunny Perth in Australia, it was quite the cultural and climate contrast! Never one to turn down an opportunity to explore a new environment, […]

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 […]

I was in Bali in June last year, chasing some much-needed sun in the midst of the dark New Zealand winter. I took a surfboard with me, of course. Like about one million other people who had the same idea that I did. I’d never surfed in Bali before, so I didn’t really know what […]

The late novelist David Foster Wallace tells a wonderful story about ‘incuriosity’ in his commencement speech This Is Water: There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys, how’s the water?” And the two young fish […]

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, […]

  I’ve recently returned from my annual windsurfing trip to Gnaraloo, in the North West of Western Australia. Eventful as always, this year provided something extra special… I was sailing out to sea at high speed, about 500m from shore, and was looking for the next swell to ride back to the reef. It was […]