I coach already thriving leaders ready to step more and more into Open Leadership. The #OpenLeadership model Occasionally I dip into Seth Godin's daily posts and select one to share. Last week he wrote the one below, where he notes: "It turns out that the people with...
Whilst I froze my Facebook account in 2016, I do still visit occasionally to keep up to date with the goings-on of friends and family, particularly back in Cayman, where it still seems widely used. The other day it popped up a "memory" for me of a post from a client...
Bonne Fête Nationale (as of the time of writing, I get that it publishes Jul 15th, sorry!) to my french family and friends. On this day that celebrates so much for France, one thought for me is simply this. Think Independent Thoughts. My "six most dangerous words in...
Today's post is personal and in the moment. No leadership lessons today, simply sharing feelings of despair, yet also feeling wonder and awe in witnessing resilience. Out of the huts of history’s shameI riseUp from a past that’s rooted in painI riseI'm a black ocean,...
First, thank you to Sketchplanations for their latest visual: "Context is King", so concise, so clear. Last week I started working with a new C-Suite client. As I outlined to them, one of the first things to establish in our relationship is the Context for it, what,...
Presence is a key skill for leaders. I seek to learn often and from varied sources around this. One of those sources is Marina Abramovic. Presence, specifically the ability to be 100% present for others, is a key skill for leaders. I seek to learn often and from...
Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: the potential for greatness lives within each of us. - Wilma Rudolph One of my frequently used phrases is: A leader is someone others choose to follow...
The final step in the process of taking a diamond from the earth to a finished gemstone is polishing. In the language of the trade, "the more sparkle and brilliance a diamond has, the more beautiful it is, and the higher its value will be. It is this step of polishing...
Valuation model (c) ShirlawsGroup I've been working with a client for about a year now on building their business ready for "What's Next", ie for succession. As part of that, key to the process is developing a Valuation strategy to lift both their profits and their...
Today a reminder to myself as a coach. No matter how much expertise and experience I have, the highest value I can give is to suspend ego and listen deeply to understand another person. From that place the deeper shifts and insights are possible for them.
A few weeks ago I had one of those Forrest Gump moments. I stopped, paused, then thought to myself, instead of stopping: “yes, I’ll keep…
I write to share what I learn, and at the same time, I have another reason, as I noted in: “Write to discover your thoughts”.
I am not for sale, neither is the respect and attention of my audience. I wanted the thousands of regular readers to know that.
Leaders have a responsibility to be understanding and lenient with those who work for and with you, and to behave well despite the temptations of…
In these pandemic days that we live in, sometimes I feel a surrealness to life, particularly when I am at home for a day or two then venture out and then remember these extraordinary times we live in as I walk into a store and don my face covering. These are, indeed,...
The "Insights" page that hosts all my daily posts begins: People are my library, my daily writing practice inspired by what I learn: ideas, inspiration, wisdom, and sometimes some eclectic whimsy for good measure, all centred around #OpenLeadership I write to learn...
My thoughts around Leadership often circle around and around some core themes and look at them differently (or even simply repetitively) as I turn my focus to one or another. At the moment one such theme is around how we may be fully present and listen actively and...
Earlier this week I had kind of a "Bill Hicks" sort of day, existentially pondering on the point of life and where we find meaning. Thinking of the mighty Bill Hicks I remember two things and both of them re-centre me, always. First, life is about the difference we...
I love ideas, hence though I love reading, listening, and watching to take in ideas, there is nothing like being with people and talking about ideas. Writing this feeling like my week is starting slowly for me, and with a simple realisation stemming from that. To...
We are all informed by our influences, so our originality is increasingly in our connected world about our "unique prism" on how we view those influences. As you can see from my website tommccallum.com, I work with clients who are already successful yet hungry and...
Let me begin by sharing with you how I am feeling these days. I'm frustrated. "Ok, you may say, about what?"I'm frustrated at not being able to travel. "yes, we all are, I can identify".I'm frustrated at not being able to travel as I am nearly 5,000 miles from home....
My awesome friend Kay Scorah, see her appearance on WhatComesNextLive here This is my friend Kay Scorah, who sometimes humorously calls herself "the Witch of Noticing". She is a wise woman indeed, as well as a force of !@$!@ nature and one of my absolute favourite...
How can you see inside a conversation? This week my guest on WhatComesNextLive was Noelle Dye, a self-titled "explorer of human experience" and a truly wise woman it was a privilege to spend time with. I began these weekly "shows" as a way for others to see inside the...
From James Clear of Atomic Habits , via George Mack's "Clouds and Dirt" newsletter I know someone who still manually runs an anti-virus programme on their computer every day, also defragmenting their hard drive. This is so outdated that I'd imagine anyone younger than...
My thoughts today came after reading a piece by Arthur C Brooks called: "Dads just want to help", with a subheader that begins "Sacrificing for their kids makes fathers happier". This last weekend was Father's Day. My most valued and important role in life is being a...
All in all, though, there is value in the craftsmanship that goes into something that remains valued many years after it was designed and created.
Feedback is a gift. It lets you know precisely what the other person wants or needs. After you receive the gift, it’s up to you…
Today a simple reflection. As my friend and mentor Suki Laniado Smith often taught me: “Culture isn’t one thing, its the only thing”, as similarly…
Seven Leadership Archetypes (graphic representation (cc by) Tom McCallum) Chip Conley and I have both have in common that we have shifted our roles from being entrepreneurs and CEOs to supporting CEOs as leaders. I love the way Chip thinks, so today sharing a recent...
Friendship Pyramid I loved a recent tweet from Taariq Ismail, which I've cut and paste here. He begins: In Arabic, there are 12 levels of friendship. Most of our 'friends' are level 5 or below, and many of us don't have a single level 12 friend Here are the levels:...
“The biggest fear most of us have with learning to say NO is that we will miss an opportunity. An opportunity that would have catapulted us to success, or that will never come again. And most of the time*, that simply isn’t true. I’ve found that the first part of...
From an earlier post: 6 Components of Wisdom Love this from Chip Conley (past guest on WhatComeNextLive here) on his Wisdom Well blog ..let me introduce you to the Miami Heat who recently got knocked out of the NBA playoffs. At 40 years old, Udonis Haslem makes $2.5...
From the movie "Catch me if you can", story of world class "con man" Frank Abagnale, who then became a world-renowned expert on forgery. I am sure he ticked all five boxes in these questions! Loved a post on LI this week from Justin Megawarne who posed the question:...
You can see the Caribbean is a big place, plus when you want to travel between islands, air service between islands often meant long days…
In short, I like the image and idea of desire paths to help us consider this, as well as those thoughts from Aaron Williams of…
One key role for me with my clients is to help them see outside the hard sciences to the soft ones, to how people respond,…