Deliverable Me

I felt hope draining out of the room

It was a defining moment in the workshop. We had reached a crunch point, and hope in the room that we could get through this was fading. I was running a two-day workshop with about fifty engineers and scientists, discussing the handover from their prime supplier. It was a complex, multi-million dollar project. The problem […]

Seeing through the mask

Leading in a transparent way generates trust. Transparency lives before people with integrity. But transparency is what a lot of so-called leaders shun. Transparency is a vulnerable place, and for some, that is too dangerous. They would rather hide. Either behind unnecessary secrecy, using information as a weapon, or behind a mask. The problem is […]

Whatever you do, do it with all your heart

I came across this quote recently via Bernadette Jiwa on her blog, The Story of Telling: ;In the past jobs were about muscles, now they’re about brains, but in future, they’ll be about the heart.” It comes from Minouche Shafik, the Director of the London School of Economics. I love the quote because it is…

Everybody wins

I felt like I had stepped into another world … and in several ways, I had. Here I was, with my adult son, Ben, visiting us from Los Angeles, and both of us, albeit strangers, were being honoured and celebrated by strangers. We had come to Princes Park, the home of Dartford Football Club. Dartford […]

Big Rocks

I put together this video as part of our Living as if Your Year Matters course: It reminded me just what a genius the late, great Stephen Covey was. I think I came across this in his book First Things First, which remains every bit as relevant today. What do you think? Leave your thoughts below.

Stepping over the dead bodies

“They are stepping over the dead bodies,” I told him. My friend and I met at a business conference last week, and he was giving me his reflections on the new organisation he had been hired into recently as a senior strategist. He spoke about patterns his colleagues no longer seemed to notice. “You still have fresh […]

Learning from Failure

Here’s an experience this summer in which I didn’t come out of very well. Or did I? You be the judge. I was shopping for summer shoes. So I found a pair I liked in an M&S outlet. So I took these shoes to a stool to try them on. The right shoe did fit me […]

Secrets of an Outstanding Project

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to interview a couple of my clients from the British Antarctic Survey: Linda Capper, who is the Head of Communications, and Andy Jeffries, the Programme Manager for the new polar research vessel, the RRS Sir David Attenborough. I was honoured to be invited to the launch of the […]

Transparency and Vulnerability

In my last post, I began to explore radical transparency from a the example of a client organisation. To lead transparently generates trust. This kind of leadership shows up before people with integrity. Lead transparently and you generate trust. Click to Tweet However, a lot of leaders baulk at precisely this invitation to transparency. It […]

Deliverable Me

One of the joys of being a parent and, in my case, a grandparent is that you can indulge in watching some really good kids’ movies. And way up there in my top 10 is Despicable Me. We watched it again over the holidays. I love the movie, the storyline, and … I love the […]

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