Latest Articles
Learning to manage our fears is a process
I was walking our dog this weekend as I usually do most days. It is a bit of time to reflect but as it was a Sunday, my daughter was able to join me. It was a treat. On a normal school day, my daughter will leave home to catch the bus to school at 07h20 and only...
How teams can find their purpose
There is a moment that I watch for when I am working with a team to transform how they behave and work together. Truth be told, there are a number of ‘moments’ that unfold, all part of a process that builds a team, enabling them to become far more effective together....
How teams learn to be highly effective
In my work facilitating behaviour change from within teams, I have learnt that what helps a team become highly effective is when team members can acknowledge their ‘journey’. That may sound ‘soft and fluffy’ or even completely irrelevant, and I am often asked how...
Enabling remote culture change with leaders and their teams
In enabling culture change with teams and their leaders for the last six years I pay close attention to how a team behaves. Prior to COVID 19, I would normally be with a team on site but when COVID 19 disrupted my business so significantly I had to adapt to enabling...
Transforming remote leadership teams through vulnerability, trust, and authenticity
Recently, I worked with a remote leadership team who took a risk with vulnerability. Vulnerability is key to remote teams resolving business challenges Their vulnerability was achieved in raising and diagnosing key business challenges, discussing the issues deeply and...
When ‘soft and fluffy’ is business critical for leadership teams
To provide a little bit of context is important. I do not do ‘hypothetical’ when I work with teams. The invaluable pillars of trust and credibility have some very tangible links to context. So, I use live business issues as the context to support teams in their...
How vulnerability enables teams to be highly effective
If you have read any of the books by Dr Brené Brown or watched her TED talks you may recognise the following quote from her extensive work researching this very topic. ‘Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change’. It is a powerful statement...
How active listening has become a distraction…
What I mean by active listening is the type of listening which builds understanding of different perspectives, evolves a topic under discussion, connects those involved, informs, provides insight, enables awareness, and diagnoses a problem. Innately sustaining trust...
How much should you let intuition affect your decision-making?
Data, evidence, discussions with colleagues, previous experience, management theory – these can all be things that leaders turn to when decision-making. However, we all have built within us a very useful tool in decision-making which often gets ignored in the c-suite...
How to make 2020 the year of employee wellbeing
Last year the World Health Organisation officially recognized burn-out as an ‘occupational phenomenon’ which is affecting employee wellbeing. Whilst research by Gallup says that two thirds of all employees regularly feel burnt out. The WHO defines the problem:...
How to be a leader in a VUCA world
Perhaps the most contentious General Election so far this century, the President of the US undergoing impeachment proceedings, the world living under the threat of climate disaster… could the world be much more Volatile, Uncertain, Complex or Ambiguous than it is at...
How to say no positively
Saying no can be one of the most stressful things about leadership. In fact, ex British Prime Minister Tony Blair put it, ‘The art of leadership is not saying yes, it’s saying no’. It can be really hard to say no, even when you know you should. We might find ourselves...
Five things good leaders do to foster innovation
If someone asked one of your employees whether your business really does foster innovation, would their answer be the same as yours? Sometimes leaders have a view of the culture of their organization which isn’t replicated by all of the people within. It might not be...
Why team building activities don’t need to be enjoyable to work
Is it time for some team building activities? Maybe there has been some conflict between members of your team. Or maybe there is no conflict but there is no collaboration either. Perhaps your departments are operating in silos, or worse still working against each...
Build better teams and reap the rewards
Whilst we don’t know the impacts things like climate change will have on our businesses, we can help prepare our people by considering how to build better teams making them better able to handle change. Whether your business is going through a merger, a restructure or...
Can you prepare for change when you don’t know what’s coming?
We are living in times that threaten unprecedented change. With political chaos in the UK, it seems we should be preparing our people to cope with any eventuality. But how can you prepare for change when you don’t know what you are preparing for? At hugely unsettling...
How everyone can GROW to be a leader
In times of change and uncertainty, it is only natural to want look to a leader for guidance. However, navigating through change, and mitigating any adverse effects can be a big job for one person. That’s why we should be empowering all of our people to GROW to be...
Why mindfulness at work really matters
For a lot of people their job is much more than just a way of paying the bills. Your work can so often be tied to your vision of your worth, and many people want to be satisfied as well as salaried. Research shows us that mindfulness can be hugely effective at...