My Library
People are my library, my writing inspired by what I learn: ideas, inspiration, wisdom, and sometimes some eclectic whimsy for good measure, all centred around #OpenLeadership. At the heart of all of this is that I write to share learnings and to discover my thoughts. Over the years i have written (mostly) daily, over 2000 posts and 1,000,000 words (that last part blows my mind, tbh!). Enjoy browsing.
Being in the moment
The older I get the more I feel able to take time to be in the moment, rather than rush through life from one thing to the next in a drive to achieve. Yesterday I had the joy and privilege of being in the moment quite a number of times. First, I met the one-year-old...
Being in the moment
The older I get the more I feel able to take time to be in the moment, rather than rush through life from one thing…
8 Questions to Ask Someone Other Than “What Do You Do?”
Thanks to Dan Pink for sharing an article on Twitter that hits a topic I love to address. A while ago I wrote: "What do you do?", in which I noted: "..when you meet people in the UK, the first question they always ask is “what do you do?”. I know this is relatively...
Creating cultures: Seven tools
Businesses have cultures culture whatever you do. It’s a bi-product of procedures, processes and behaviours. A great "how-to" on building cultures. My absolute favourite shoes, my "172s" from Seven Feet Apart. Today is a guest post from Matt Bagwell, co-founder of...
To gain clarity, get clear on what you DON’T do
Clarity comes from focus. “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.” ~Henry David Thoreau As a sounding board to leaders and leadership teams, frequently I support them with clarity leading to alignment, from where they can...
Fear is the mind-killer
A key passage from Dune around transcending fear, then close with my favourite quote of all time, from Marianne Williamson. In my mid-teens, I read Dune by Frank Herbert, to this day one of my favourite books. It is one of those books that is regarded as "unfilmable",...
Best TV series ever
Best TV series ever. A bold statement made simply to share something with you, particularly for UK viewers, who may not have heard of it or, if you have, not watched it as you felt it was too focussed on non-UK material (and there's a clue!). So, almost exactly...
You don’t need credit
Take no credit: Real leaders don't care about receiving credit. Here is a lesson we all need to learn a little more. Yes, definitely me. Over a year ago I reworked this website, right now I'm doing it again. As with last year, I am again seeking professional outside...
Never make a point without telling a story
Yesterday I cried. A grown man at the cinema on a Sunday afternoon. Yes, I cry at movies, I love to get drawn into a story. This one was beautifully told and spoke deeply to me at multiple levels. I then went on Twitter to share and both the writer and director of the...
Be a generalist… and a stoic
A generalist is a person competent in several different fields or activities. I believe that Stoicism is a fascinating and valuable field of study for any leader. I've written about it a number of times, including this post. I also have on my reading list the book...
The power of streaks
Streaks are their own reward. On September 20, 1998, Cal Ripken walked into the office of his boss, the manager of the Baltimore Orioles, and told him he wanted to be out of the line up for that evening's game. That night he chose, himself, to end "the streak"....
Pausing to do the important rather than the urgent
As I wrote about a while ago in: "Why don’t we do the important things?", we humans have a tendency to focus on doing Urgent rather than Important things. This year I planned out to have a quiet month of August so that I would have time and space to focus on important...
Why I am optimistic about democracy, despite “The Great Hack”
If you have not already watched "The Great Hack" on Netflix, I recommend you do so. Now. Many of us are all too familiar with the scandal of how Cambridge Analytica used Facebook user data to influence (fix?) both the 2016 Brexit vote and then the US Presidential...
Power gives you the responsibility to empower someone else.
"I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs that you have een so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else." - Toni Morrison Toni...