Blog

I lost a personal and professional friendship because I behaved in a way that broke trust. It wasn't intentional. But it was hurtful. It was poor leadership on my part, a failure to listen to the person and the circumstances, I also had way too much of the focus on me and my world not them and their world. Not in anyway #instaworthy. Did we … [Read more...]

Zig Ziglar is quoted as saying, "If people like you they will listen to you, but if they trust you they will do business with you." Trust is a leadership imperative with a commercial upside. In last weeks post, I wrote that leaders must develop the personal disciplines that position them to be the Chief Trust Officer of their organisation. This … [Read more...]

  To be followABLE you must be trustABLE. Leaders trade in intangibles, and trust is among the most valuable currency you handle. When you have the trust of the people you lead, you have the position to set direction, the authority to align resources and the margin to recover from potential error. Trust is a true point of difference for … [Read more...]

I'll admit to being a book lover (I won't admit to taking a bag of books on my honeymoon though ;) ) I love owning them, I love reading them and I love the burgeoning collection I have in my floor to ceiling home library. I secretly yearn for a sunken lounge room resplendent with chesterfields and a corner of full wall glass allowing the natural … [Read more...]

Grown up leadership is interdependent leadership. It’s leadership that is mature, robust and leveraged to the point that the members of your tribe know their best contribution, they do it, and champion the same from others. It’s equal parts humility and ego, ambition and submission, care and confrontation. It’s that beautiful tipping point where we … [Read more...]

For talented leaders with experience and wisdom, the ability to do something is less of a challenge than the courage to do it sometimes. The COURAGE to lead is often more of a challenge than the CAPABILITY to lead. Putting courage IN is both a skill and a privilege when it comes to shaping leaders who shape the future. Over the last week, I have … [Read more...]

I was sitting with Frank one day testing a statistic I’d read. Frank had been leading for more than forty years and I had learnt that only 20% of leaders were finishing well. I had made up my mind that the statistic was wrong and my ambitious leadership attitude considered that to be fake news! “Frank, how many people did you study with at the … [Read more...]

I have a dysfunctional relationship with cars. On one hand my list of saved cars online consists of everything from luxury dreams to more pragmatic family wagons, through to the suite of cars I'd like to own, including a completely done up old school VW Kombi (for summer) and a top of the line Landcruiser Sahara (for weekends.) On the other hand, I … [Read more...]

“Seventeen of France’s 23 World Cup players are children of first generation migrants” Ishann Tharoor wrote in the piece reflecting on both the multicultural nature of the World Cup and the gap between perception and reality when it comes to how ‘European’ the final stages of the tournament actually is. 73% of the team is made up of players from … [Read more...]

Making clarity is a key responsibility of leadership. Stephen is a Senior Executive who was used to taking three weeks to make decisions, slowing down the productivity of his department, and frustrating the team as they worked hard to get the job done. In our very early mentoring sessions, we discussed how he made the decisions and at what point … [Read more...]

I dropped a friend at the airport several hours before they were scheduled to fly recently. Waiting for planes isn’t my idea of a great use of time so I was anxious for them. As we parted ways I expressed my discomfort at being so early and they said, “That’s fine, I’ll people watch. I love seeing the interactions, the emotions, the calm to … [Read more...]

My favourite city in the world is New York City. I've had an unreasonable love affair with her for as long as I can remember. I do everything I can to go there when Stateside and if you ask me, I can give you directions from memory because I've studied the map that much. In my multiple visits, I've still not scratched the surface of what's possible … [Read more...]