October 2017 - Tom McCallum

Take time to think

by Tom McCallum | Oct 31, 2017 | Open Leadership, Self-Knowledge

“Leaders of industry are extremely bad at thinking”, are you?

What happens when we find silence?

by Tom McCallum | Oct 30, 2017 | Energy, Self-Knowledge

I recently read Silence in the age of noise by Erling Kagge, and a couple of themes came out for me. One was that while yes, we can find near-absolute silence by heading out into the wilderness, silence is available to us at any time, in any place. The key is to...

What does silence mean to you?

by Tom McCallum | Oct 29, 2017 | Energy, Open Leadership, Response-ability, Self-Knowledge

In my last article, Power of Silence, I began to muse on silence and what being silent opens up to you. In chatting about this with my wildly polymathic friend Maeve Gillies, she sent me this link to a musical work by John Gage called 4'33". Over four minutes of...

Power of Silence

by Tom McCallum | Oct 28, 2017 | Energy, Open Leadership, Self-Knowledge

I'm exploring the concept of silence, including reading this book : The author once spent fifty days walking solo across Antarctica with no radio and I'm fascinated by his observations on silence. To me it is far deeper than being in nature, it is about silence within...

Pesky Humans and Kilkenomics

by Tom McCallum | Oct 27, 2017 | Energy, Open Leadership

In workshops, leadership off-sites, retreats etc, a few themes typically emerge when wrestling with the toughest of issues. One of those is around people. I often lighten the tone when leading these by saying something like: "wouldn't your business be simple if it...

Pendulum Leadership

by Tom McCallum | Oct 26, 2017 | Energy

A pendulum is a favourite device for me as a coach. So often I find people beating themselves up around their behaviour, and, more particularly, how when they choose to change a behaviour they often "overcorrect". Imagine a pendulum that swings to the far end of its...

Ok is not ok

by Tom McCallum | Oct 25, 2017 | Open Leadership, Self-Knowledge

Thank you to Alton Byrd for posting this online. Alton was one of my first sporting heroes, the greatest player I ever saw in British Basketball. He and I were both fortunate enough to be taken under the wing of the late, great Ed Percival, who Alton calls his rabbi,...

Realising Potential

by Tom McCallum | Oct 24, 2017 | Self-Knowledge

My purpose in life is Making Potential Possible. Like any such intention in life, there is a strong element of service to others, and also a mirroring reference to what we seek for ourselves. Seth Godin recently wrote : My purpose in life is #MakingPotentialPossible....

What a Fool Believes about Bitcoin

by Tom McCallum | Oct 23, 2017 | Energy, Open Leadership

It seems everybody is talking about investing in Bitcoin. The current craze to invest in cryptocurrencies is very much an example of the greater fool theory. "But what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away." https://youtu.be/qKYQNtF11eg...

Try something new

by Tom McCallum | Oct 22, 2017 | Self-Knowledge

Take a chance and step outside your comfort zone. Try something new today. https://youtu.be/F6sV-tvUOHQ Recently I ran a workshop in Edinburgh called UNTHINKABLE. From this, I was inspired to write a series of articles on Linked In on the theme of #Open Leadership,...

Who are you NOT to be ?

by Tom McCallum | Oct 21, 2017 | Self-Knowledge

In a similar way to feeling inspired (as I wrote here) by the line from Mary Oliver : "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" This quote from Marianne Williamson is a touchstone for me in many ways. In my years as a leader and...

Presence…and Vulnerability

by Tom McCallum | Oct 20, 2017 | Self-Knowledge

The new paradigm of leadership has presence and vulnerability at the core. https://youtu.be/Ks-_Mh1QhMc One of my favourite TED talks of all time is this one from Amy Cuddy. I recalled this as I was going to write about the power of self-awareness of the body,...

Never in the history of calming down…

by Tom McCallum | Oct 19, 2017 | Response-ability

Never in the history of calming down has anyone ever calmed down by being told to calm down.

Doing from Being

by Tom McCallum | Oct 18, 2017 | Self-Knowledge

Before I started to really look into the Japanese concept of Ikigai, "A reason for being", I had already discovered this image as a Linked In meme: I love this visual representation, and at the same time, I recognise how many of us focus on the "what you can be paid...

Make Music

by Tom McCallum | Oct 17, 2017 | Self-Knowledge

Just remember to make the best music you have the ability to make. If you do that, you are a successful musician. It is said that it takes 30 days to make a habit, to engrain something and build neural pathways. From an earlier post, I am committing myself to lead a...

Ikigai, Pleasure and Meaning

by Tom McCallum | Oct 16, 2017 | Self-Knowledge

In this modern world that we make so complex, what does it teach us to take pleasure and meaning from the perfection of one simple task? I've been drawn to the concept of Ikigai for some time. In September 2017 Ken Mogi published "The Little Book of Ikigai" and...

Life is Wild and Precious, Be Present

by Tom McCallum | Oct 15, 2017 | Self-Knowledge

January 2017, a glorious winter's day at the top of a mountain in the Alps with an amazing group of inspiring entrepreneurs, or "Snowhowers", including Dr Rachel Morris, who had been so inspired by this phrase that she used this when she left the mountain as...

UNTHINKABLE – 7: Open Leadership – What is it?

by Tom McCallum | Oct 1, 2017 | UNTHINKABLE

The UNTHINKABLE articles were first posted on Linked In. I smile as I recognise that the speed of change and evolution now means that I've put developing this leadership model on hold for now. I am, however, leaving these 7 articles up as I feel they do...