Lately our expectations of leaders have gone through the roof. We expect leaders to be strong and brave and kind and calm and smart and curious and inspiring and consistent and composed and knowledgeable and organised and compassionate and friendly and attentive and vulnerable and outgoing and innovative and confident and resilient and driven and […]
Leadership in the Time of Coronavirus
When I was 8 years old the world was gravely concerned about the prospect of a nuclear war, as global superpowers the USA and USSR were locked in a Cold War staredown. Then, when I was 28, approaching the year 2000, there were serious worries about the Y2K computer bug, which some experts said would […]
Want to Be a Better Leader? Stop Doing These 18 Things
There are plenty of things that can hold high potential leaders back from achieving the level of impact they are capable of. Based on my experience observing leaders, working for leaders, coaching leaders and also being a leader myself I’ve identified a number of frequent blocks to progress. If you want to be a better […]
7 Questions to Help Leaders Find Clarity
One of the main differences between the very best leaders and the others is their level of clarity. Effective leaders are clear about a lot of things, including who they are and what they represent. This helps them spend their time and energy in beneficial ways, and they come across as compelling and congruent to […]
How Organisations Can Save Leaders From Drowning
Managers and leaders really do have a lot on their plates in this fast-paced, complex, rapidly changing world. The situation has become so extreme that plenty of leaders are at serious risk of drowning. Each day, in organisations around the world, the people who are entrusted to manage and lead face a lot. They have […]
Feedback: A Gift Leaders Need to Ask For
Christmas has recently come and gone and if this is an occasion you celebrate you probably got a few presents. You didn’t have to ask people to give you anything. They just gave you gifts because that’s the way these occasions work (and hopefully because they like you). Feedback is also a gift, especially for leaders. Actually, it’s […]
Yes it is Lonely At the Top (But it Doesn’t Have to Be)
When we commence our careers we usually work in the fat bit of the organisational structure triangle, somewhere near the bottom, where it’s anything but lonely. Everywhere we look there are people we can talk to, people to ask questions of, people to have a whinge with and people to share a laugh with. Very […]
2 Golden Rules for Influencing Behaviour
Influencing people to take positive actions is an important aspect of leadership and it’s an important aspect of life. We use this skill in all sorts of instances: Maybe you’ve had to influence an employee in your team to change a behavior. Maybe you’ve needed to influence a customer to take some action or […]
Followership – Leadership’s Less Famous Sibling
There’s an enormous amount of focus on leadership, and this is understandable. Good leaders make a huge difference as they improve organisations and the wider world, while bad leaders can leave an ugly mark of bad results and damaged people. There’s much, much less focus on followership, about 1000 times less it would seem! My […]
Humility for Leaders (with Lessons From Donald Trump)
Donald Trump’s approach to leadership saddens me, never more so than when he shoved past the Montenegro president at a NATO meeting recently. If you missed this you might like to check out the short video below. This behaviour would be inappropriate in a schoolyard, it would be inappropriate in a workplace and it is […]
