Empathy + Compassion

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 […]

The Access Paradox

Open-plan offices seem to be very popular. Part of the rationale for open-plan offices is that they aid teamwork and communications. It’s surprising, then, how many people who work in them, dislike them. Recently I was reviewing the work of an audit into a department where all its members work in a single open-plan office. […]

Living Purposefully

Sometimes we need to lift our heads and figure out where we are going. I was leading a project team meeting the other day, on a project that’s fairly early on in its lifecycle. We focused on how we could work better as a team. We were supposed to return to the strategic intent of our […]

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 […]

Our Mental Scripts

A dangerously underweight fifteen-year-old girl looks into the mirror and sees herself as disgustingly fat. Such extreme conditions as anorexia nervosa are shocking in their effects upon people. However, could we all have milder distorting self-beliefs about ourselves, perhaps? How about this: We walk into a room and believe everyone is looking at us critically? Or, we […]

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 […]

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 […]

Never enough time? It that really your problem?

I was talking with one of my clients the other day, and as I asked how he was doing, he replied with an ironic smile, “Never enough time, Patrick.” “Never enough time.” This cliché rolls off the tongue too quickly when we describe the state of overwhelm. But what we say matters. What we say can often […]

Multiple Priorities? Really? – Updated

Photo by Evan Dennis on Unsplash This article is updated from the version published earlier in 2018. Very likely, the following scene will be familiar to you. I was invited to facilitate a strategic workshop. I was told fairly early on, “We have 32 strategic objectives we need to meet.” “OK,” I replied. “Which one is the […]

Empathy + Compassion

Some of the most influential people I know do more than empathise with me. Empathy is important. But when it comes down it, what truly separates world-class influencers from manipulators? One of the most acutely painful moments in my life made me quite vulnerable. I approached a man who was a leader. Len was also a […]

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