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.
Listen to the poets
In the last week on this daily blog, I've been inspired by Carlo Rovelli, Elif Shafak, Rick Rubin and others, leading me to encourage you to "Be curious and learn widely" as I wrote two days ago. Today sharing with you the TED Talk by David McWilliams, given earlier...
Listen to the poets
David McWilliams’s core message is “Listen to the Poets, not economists like me”, so I smile noting I’m in Kilkenny at Kilkenomics, listening to economists!
How to make a difference rather than simply making a point
The key to storytelling to not only make a point but make a difference is all in telling the right story in the right way to make the right point to be truly in service of the person with whom you are sharing it. As I have written around multiple times (and yes, by...
Which is better? Repetition? or Variety?
Do you prefer all your M&Ms the same colour? or love the variety? Do you prefer repetition or variety? Yesterday I took the same Sunday ride route, tracking my heart rate and performance against the previous week to assess how my performance had changed. Of...
I’ve forgotten how to travel
This weekend I've spent literally hours preparing for an upcoming trip to Cayman. Yes, the amount of paperwork and tests now needed to travel in the age of Covid has added to this, but it occurred to me this morning that I've forgotten how to travel. A few short years...
Pausing, Together, Patiently
Yesterday I was on a group call around the theme of "the Power of Pausing". As I listened to the esteemed panellists, I recognised that their themes were all around pausing as individuals. It occurred to me that we can also choose to pause, together. I then thought of...
If you want to change the world start with yourself
"What do you have a burning desire to change in the world?" This was a question posed last week in a workshop I participated in. What came to me was: If you want to change the world, start with yourself.Gandhi Whatever we seek to change external to ourselves is and...
Creating a Healthy Tension through setting your Values
The four core attributes for #OpenLeadership The graphic illustrates the four core attributes or values of a leader who wishes to choose #OpenLeadership. Now let us look at how these create a healthy tension by taking them into two sets of two BRAVE and HUNGRY...
Follow the Energy
In working with leaders, I often refer to the "Three Tenets of Leadership" of: Set and Hold the ContextManage the EnergyCoach, Don't Play For more on what I mean by these three tenets, read the earlier post: "Managing Energy – learning from comedians" So much of...
Why consciously silent co-working feels different
Today's (Tuesday 10th August) post has been written while part of Writer's Hour from 8 to 9am on Monday 9th. After this hour I then moved on to an hour of "Silent Co-Working", in which I listened back to some of the interviews done last week of four amazing women...
My most commonly shared Leadership lesson
Coffee and bacon rolls at Nat's Kitchen by Banstead Woods. Glorious! I have written repeatedly around what I call "Proactive Resilience", otherwise known as "Drink before you are Thirsty" or "You can't pour from an empty cup". Variations on this theme are also my...
Slowing down and enjoying the wildflowers
I took this photo two days ago, when a friend came out from London to "fill their cup" (see this recent post "are you tired or are you depleted?") by taking a walk in the country. Over the summer, this area has had much cooler and wetter conditions than normal, which...
Noticing what your body tells you
Self-awareness and self-responsibility are at the core of self-leadership, which is at the very foundation of being a leader, as how we show up makes all the difference. Today then, a story linked to this. This week I attended an evening workshop (zoom, naturally)...
Are you tired or are you depleted?
"You can't drink from an empty cup" This adage around self-care seems simple enough, but in these continuing ambiguous and volatile times we live in, today I'd like to ask you to consider whether you are tired, depleted, or perhaps both, and to be able to distinguish...