Daily posting here now means there are well over 450 posts on the site.
Each post is already tagged and categorised, but with so many posts, the easiest way to search for terms and themes will be via the search bar, so we’ve upgraded this to a custom google search as this is more effective at mining the over 278,000 words written. (I also notice that my average post is now up from under 500 words to approaching 700.)
We also put a widget on the right-hand side of the page showing the Top 5 posts of all time on the site for you. This widget is a bit “buggy”, so today I’ll share the true top 5 and a couple of personal thoughts around each one.
First, though, muse a little on searching for themes.
A few thoughts on searching for themes.
Before and after the turn of the year I’ve been writing a lot (and talking to people) about themes for the year, as most recently written about in: “Give the gift of listening“. Depending on what themes we are focussed on, we see different things and see things differently:
- If you have ever gone on a long car journey with young children, they get bored. Ask them to pick a colour. Imagine they say red, then ask them to count the red cards. You’ll be amazed how many red cars you notice when your theme is red.
- You may walk past an apartment block every day and know it is there, but if the opportunity to make your home there presents itself, you will notice it more and differently for sure.
- A client has chosen a 2019 theme of “Brave Opportunities”, so even in the first few weeks of the year, they have come across numerous amazing brave opportunities.
What themes are you focussed on?
As to the many posts and hundreds of thousands of words on this site, my overarching theme is leadership, as well as beauty. Core themes of what I focus on around leadership are best seen in the types of clients I love to work with, themed on the BeMoreYou page.
One keyword on that page which I’m told has me stand out from others doing related work with clients is the word BRAVE. Now imagine you search on that word on this site, you may find a lot of posts.
Enjoy searching here for your own themes!
Now, to the top 5 posts since I started daily posts on October 15, 2017, measured by site views, ordered by number of views.
Leadership lessons from a Swim Referee
Nov 6, 2017
I have been involved with competitive swimming for many years, first as a parent of swimmers, then, for more than a decade, as a referee and official. In November 2017 I refereed at the London Olympic Pool for the first time, inspiring me to write this blog.
It was then picked up by officials from around the world and copied to their national newsletters. So, beyond traffic on my site, this is by far the most read post I’ve written and it has reached a specific audience of global swim officials. I love to mentor, so it is most gratifying to see this reach that audience.
Beyond swim officials, though, this is also relevant to anyone around leadership.
An excerpt from the end of the post after outlining the role of swim referee at several layers of context:
..I learned to distil leadership down to three key focal points, so let me now wrap up this post by linking this to Leadership and being a swimming Referee :
Hold the Context
- Be clear on the Vision – on deck it is ALL about creating an environment for swimmers to excel.. and everywhere you look, everything you see, always make decisions and lead from that Vision.
Manage the Energy
- Start with your own. Be present, calm, self-aware, response-able
- From that foundation, BE, don’t DO. When you are not DOing, focus on BEing and tune into the energy of all those around you.
Coach, Don’t Play
- Getting the point yet ? BE, don’t DO.
- Lead, guide, mentor, and create an environment for everyone to do their job, from officials to coaches to swimmers.
I hope here I have shared a few nuggets of wisdom around Leadership applicable in and beyond swimming.
We are the sum total of our experiences
Jun 15, 2018
The very title of this post seems to speak to people, hence it is widely read from search engines directing people to it.
An excerpt:
A core to #OpenLeadership is, then, self-knowledge, and recent conversations remind me of this quote :
“We are the sum total of our experiences. Those experiences – be they positive or negative – make us the person we are, at any given point in our lives. And, like a flowing river, those same experiences, and those yet to come, continue to influence and reshape the person we are, and the person we become. None of us are the same as we were yesterday, nor will be tomorrow.”
Sometimes we look at past actions and events in our life and judge them, wish they didn’t happen, look at ourselves and wish we had acted differently. However, “we are the sum total of our experiences”, they make us who we are today, they create the colours of our lives. When we choose to ignore what they have taught us, how they have formed who we are, we lessen the richness and fullness of who we are and what we have to offer the world.
Another reminder from a conversation today, from one of my very favourite books :
“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
My spin on this is that when events and changes happen in our life, we have a part to play in this from conscious (and often unconscious) intention and direction we set for ourselves.
Inigo Montoya – Masterclass on introducing yourself
Aug 31 2018
Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to Die.
The Princess Bride is an absolute favourite movie. Spectacularly funny, as per my thoughts above it can also be watched through the lens of various themes. This post riffs on the famous introduction by Inigo Montoya and how we can learn from this in how we introduce ourselves to others. A tongue in cheek lesson from a wondrously funny movie moment!
A Trust Story – Netflix – Context, not Control
Jan 7, 2018
Inspired by the Netflix ‘culture deck’, I wrote this post. An excerpt:
For over a decade, I’ve focussed on supporting leaders and organisations through not just change, but those who work with me are committed to brave and transformative change. Often, no scratch that, ALWAYS that means they absolutely commit to bravely looking at their culture and seeing what they need to change to support delivering on their brave vision.
In all of these years, what does it come down to for me ? I saw the words in that latest Netflix culture page, hence the title of this page :
Context, not control
Even with all my experience as first manager, then leader, then coach and sounding board, ultimately CONTEXT is really the only tool a leader needs to focus upon to effectively lead.
What do I mean ? Well, fundamentally, the opposite of Control is Trust. Trust then means empowering our people, creating a space for them to make decisions themselves, trusting and believing in them, and supporting them to BE empowered and to trust and belief in themselves.
Leadership is about context, not control.
Are you an Old or New Paradigm Leader?
May 14, 2018
This post truly articulates my beliefs around shifts in leadership happening and needed. This then was captured in the redesign of the main website in summer 2018, as shown o the home page. An excerpt:
..the “command and control” structure that drove economic growth post WW2 and that still exists, to a large extent in most organisations, particularly those of scale. Oh, and it still underpins the bulk of most leading MBA programmes. A little scary to think of people in their 20s still being taught this and then going out in the world to lead this way. Much work to do in shifting paradigms for some time to come, then !
New Paradigm leadership :
- Leaders know they cannot and do not have all the answers. “I don’t know, what do you think” are powerful words.
- Leadership does still mean having responsibility for decisions being made, but the leader does not always need to be the one to make each decision.
- Leadership comes from anyone at any level within the organisation, ie leadership is not hierarchical. ““Make it Happen, You have full permission” ~ Satya Nadella
- Leaders recognise that humility and vulnerability, allied to clarity and confidence in their purpose and path, are far more powerful than a suit of armour.
I encourage you to invest some time in considering and challenging your own beliefs, trying to see the goldfish bowl you are in.