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.
The craic will be mighty!
As this goes out at 8 a.m. on Friday 3rd November, I'll be waiting to board my flight to head down to Kilkenny for the weekend for my favourite event of the year, Kilkenomics. I'm booked for twelve panel discussions to listen to brilliant minds from around the world...
The craic will be mighty!
The craic will be mighty!
Know when to Hone
Definition of HONEhone/həʊn verb: hone; 3rd person present: hones; past tense: honed; past participle: honed; gerund or present participle: honingsharpen (a blade)."he was carefully honing the bladerefine or perfect (something)...
Perks and perceived benefits
What are the perceived benefits of the NHS? UK residents benefit from access to the NHS (National Health Service), through which all received universal health care "for free". In short, people don't pay for medical care (although clearly it is funded by taxation)....
Coming home to Cayman at last!
Grand Cayman (c) Courtney Platt February 27th 2020. My third visit in three months to Cayman, but that was the last day I was in Cayman. As I flew back to London I could already sense that the pandemic would be upon us and that would be my last time visiting...
I had a cloudy day
Last Saturday I had a "cloudy day". I learned this term later on in the weekend by reading a series of tweets from Carl Richards that I'm sharing today as I feel they are perfect in expressing how I too felt. From the start of the day on Saturday, I felt really down....
Blind spots and telling the time
What time do you see on that clock? Take your time, then say it out loud. What time did you say? If you are from the USA, Cayman (and the English-speaking Caribbean), more often than not you will have said "3 pm". However, anyone from non-US-centric countries, will be...
Another insight into what makes Katie Ledecky great
Katie Ledecky after her incredible anchor leg swim in the 200Free Relay in Tokyo To me, Katie Ledecky is simply the #GOAT, the greatest swimmer of all time. I've written on this blog several times in the past about Katie to seek to understand a little about her and...
Interrupting is simply assaulting someone’s thinking
Moisture Festival 2010, photo by Michelle Bates One of the positives for me of the way we are now meeting and connecting is that a vibrant group has come together under the banner of "Caymanians Overseas", which (for Caymanians Overseas OR in Cayman, meets weekly on...
Make the choice to pause
This week's WhatComesNextLive conversation was with Alasdair McGill. As he spoke about building his business, he talked about how, at a certain growth stage, they made a conscious choice to pause their growth. During this pause period, they took time to relax,...
Culture is a Keystone for your Business
Arches are beautiful and date back millennia in architecture. However, structurally they depend on a Keystone in the centre at the top for them to fulfil their function in creating a door or entryway. We need to build a foundation in any structure, then to lift up the...
Those who know it do not speak about it
Verse 56 of the Tao te Ching translates to: Those who know it do not speak about it. Those who speak about it do not know it. Anna Kiesenhofer winning the 2021 Olympic Road Race My Twitter profile reads: Sounding Board, Dad, FINA Referee (not in that order). Measure...
How would you live if your life was always on the front page?
When all of your actions are, in some way, on the "front page", negative impressions are bound to happen unless you choose to live an innocuous life. Another gem from sketchplanations This gem of an image from Sketchplanations really resonates with me, as I've been...
How to ask a great question
In my career as a coach, one of the best compliments I can ever be given is to ask a question of someone, then, after they pause, to hear back "that's a great question". Two recent occurrences come to mind which, together, have set me to musing on "how to ask a great...