Thoughts

There’s a woman I know who has brilliant ideas for how to transform the New Zealand economy so it leads the world in societal and environmental wellbeing. She’s smart. She’s visionary. Yet she’s not getting traction. Why not? She’s a lone voice. Her industry has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Her ideas […]

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 […]

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. […]

When I was about six years old, my grandparents went on a cruise ship from Perth to Bali, Indonesia. That was back in the day when you were allowed to go on board the ship and visit when it was in port. Which is what my family planned to do. Except I was terrified of […]

Over the years I’ve been fortunate enough to observe a large number of ‘fireside chats’: those events where a senior leader comes in and speaks with a group of up-and-coming leaders, usually in the context of a leadership development programme. I’ve noticed two distinct approaches to how the senior leader will show up and engage. […]

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 […]

I’ve just spent the past week meeting with a range of leaders to debrief their 360-degree feedback. They work for the same organisation, which is going through a sustained period of huge turbulence and change (sound familiar?) As the week unfolded, I noticed an interesting theme emerging: the leaders who were rated the most effective […]

In the not-so-distant past, I got feedback that some people around me didn’t know what I stood for. Ouch. No one wants to get feedback like that, especially when you’re in a leadership role. It would have been so easy for me to get defensive and make it their problem. But I sat with the […]

Stories. When you think about it, they’re all around us, and inside our heads. All day, every day. In fact, psychologist Robin Dunbar’s research suggests we are telling stories 65% of the time (a lot of the time, it’s gossip, but they are still stories). We all seem to use stories to communicate and connect […]