Thoughts

Over the summer break, I’ve managed to get through a good number of books. The topics cover leadership, organisational culture, the future of work, identity and purpose – all things I’m thinking about right now. I reckon these books are all useful, thought-provoking reads for any leader, change-maker or restless go-getter who’s searching for inspiration […]

  Last week I was part of a panel at which final year MBA students presented their career strategies for their post-MBA life. This was their final hurdle to completing their MBA at the Auckland Business School, and part of a course called ‘Coaching For Change’ that I’ve delivered there for the past eight years. […]

Down the road from my place there’s a takeaway shop called “Mr Pies & Fries.” I’ve never been in there, yet it always grabs my attention. Not because the sign is anything special. It’s because I know exactly what I’m going to get when I do go in there. There’s nothing ambiguous about it. If […]

  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 […]

How valuable are you to your organisation? Or to your clients? You must add some value, right? Otherwise why would they hire you? In a disruptive, fast-moving world, what’s valued today is less likely to be the same as what’s valued tomorrow. Consider the plethora of evidence out there to show us that the jobs […]

A lot of people say that networking is hard, and they’re not good at it. And, we know (or at least, we hear) that a healthy network is good for us. So there’s this tension that we live with. If you’re one of those people feeling that tension, let me help you ease the pain. […]

A colleague asked me recently why I stayed so long with my last organisation, when clearly I was better off as a free agent. It would have been easy for me to rationalise my answers: the job wasn’t done, the market wasn’t right for me to move, I wasn’t ready. But, in truth, I was […]

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 […]