Text Think Different written on a pinned white sticker This week's 8am Saturday post is coming to you more like 10:30am, as I did my start of the weekend a little differently this week. I totally acknowledge that many people have to stick to conventional routines of...
Are you, your business, your organisation, truly honest with your clients/customers about what you are truly offering them? Have you ever gone into a supermarket/grocery store simply to buy milk or bread and found you had to walk right to the back of the store for...
This week a group of four people (I was one) came together to look at bringing a new business concept to the UK. The person behind this had spoken to each of the three of us a few times in recent months and had now flown to London to discuss. We had two and a half...
This week it was an enormous pleasure to meet the King of Permission in person, better known as Carl Richards, who has recently moved to London. A few years ago Carl, through one of his alter egos, "The Sketch Guy" (his NY Times column for a decade and more), he wrote...
Yesterday's post on: "The Power of Subtlety" made points that I come back to over and over on this site, fundamentally that a core aspect of leadership is how you show up, the energy you bring to any conversation. Managing your energy is therefore key. Part of this is...
Subtlety in leadership is in your presence and your being. It is in how you make people feel, at least as much as what you say or you do. still from the movie 1917 I write often in my daily posts about topics such as Presence and on "being" a leader, not "doing"...
Over the years sometimes I've been asked to lead client meetings in hotel conference rooms in basements with no natural light. Sometimes "needs must", but when a group is looking at brave and transformative ideas, always find a venue away from the office that has lots...
On Thursday afternoon last week in Cayman, I had two hours to sit and prepare my notes for facilitating a full-day meeting on that Friday for a client leadership team. I've had a great week in Cayman on so many levels and at the same time by Thursday afternoon I'd had...
Last Sunday I was Refereeing a swim meet in Cayman at this pool. As one heat was ready to start and the ten-year-old girls were in the pool ready to start their Backstroke race, the starter made an error and announced the race as a Breastroke event. Fast as you like,...
What does it take to make major changes in group behaviour, whether it be a shift in what is societally acceptable, or perhaps for a company introducing a new product to a market when customers are rooted in using the old and established offerings? ..in the 1970s,...
Often when we are in conversation with someone it is a two-way thing, we share thoughts, ideas with each other and bounce things around. In short, both people are looking to share what is on their mind, they are there to both listen and talk. However, sometimes we...
Writing this at 10pm on Monday, my first working day on this one week trip to Cayman. I've just finished 10 meetings/calls/catchups spread over 14 hours. By midafternoon and meeting number 7, I was asked: "doesn't that tire you?" My answer was that no, it energises...
Today a story about the power of not simply believing in people, but actually telling people you believe in them. I constantly am in awe at the difference this can make. People can grow so much in their confidence to act once you have first checked in on their...
“Not all those who wander are lost”JRR Tolkien Today a story as a reminder to consciously look for new perspectives, literally and figuratively. All too often we get stuck in what we know, what we are familiar with. In our businesses, we do the same, we also recruit...
The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.Warren Buffett How often do you say "No"? I am home in Cayman for a week from today, and on each successive trip, I am learning to say...
Bridget Riley, "After The Bridge at Courbevoie" "Perception constitutes our awareness of what it is to be human, indeed what it is to be alive."Bridget Riley This week I visited the Hayward Gallery to see the Bridget Riley exhibition. Her huge abstract paintings of...
"Price is what you pay; Value is what you get"Warren Buffett Today let me tell you a story about a time when I nearly paid the price of focussing solely on lowest cost rather than investing in value until I had a sudden moment where I realised that investing an extra...
Image by Carl Richards of Behavior Gap a master of simplifying #OpenLeadership is simple. It is a practice of embracing change as constant, encouraging individual thought, relying on intuition more than data, fluidity more than hierarchy, trust more than fear, and...
The new triple bottom line - see "Leading from Purpose" In 2020 I will be writing regular posts featuring businesses that are truly Purpose-led and are highly and sustainably successful. This is all part of a mission to build bridges to CEOs, and specifically to...
One day last week I was at theRSA for a meeting and the coffee cup they gave me was this one. Today a quick tip/reminder of a simple technique to get to the source of any issue or problem. Simply ask WHY five times. This technique was developed by Toyota as part of...
"He who avoids shadow avoids what is the glory of art"Leonardo Da Vinci What can leaders and businesses learn from art, artists, and also those who design art exhibitions? I often quote Da Vinci with "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication". Last week I viewed an...
So, having been home in Cayman last September and then once again in December, I'll be over for work and open for meetings January 20-24 and then again February 24-26. I always love to work with clients and on projects in support of businesses, individuals and Cayman...
"He simply picked us and joined us"Seth Godin on Chip Conley This week Chip Conley and his friend Seth Godin are collaborating on a series of mini-blogs on Chip's "Wisdom Well" site. This week I was also on a video call with a client who is looking to mine their...
"Showing up on time is one of the greatest liberating acts you can give yourself"Tom Hanks, in his acceptance speech at the Golden Globes, Jan 6, 2020 I like to be on time. In fact, I like to be early. Being early has power in many ways Early is on time, on time is...
Image credit: Getty Images “Before you play two notes, learn how to play one. And don’t play one unless you’ve got a reason to play it.”Mark Hollis Last week I came across a recent article on Mark Hollis, front man of Talk Talk, who passed away in early 2019, titled...
This morning the latest periodic #OpenLeadership newsletter was sent out to subscribers, entitled: "Could you go slower?". It is a "long read" that I wrote over the holiday period, I hope you enjoy it. For today's daily post, though, I did things a little differently...
Next time you're afraid to share an idea…remember someone once said in a meeting "let's make a film with a tornado full of sharks" In the USA Discovery Channel has a "Shark Week" once a year where they put on nature programmes about Sharks, you guessed it, for a week....
I'm a believer in #OpenLeadership and, in particular, Leading from Purpose (see my core post on this here). For 2020 I've also decided to seek out case studies of successful businesses and write around them under the theme "Purpose-Led" with the first one this week:...
On this site, I mean 😉 I'm doing the holiday season differently, taking a few days overseas on a break from today. I also just wrote a LONG read newsletter to go into the #OpenLeadership archive after it goes out on Monday, January 6th. If you'd like to receive then,...
The new triple bottom line In 2020 I will be writing regular posts featuring businesses that are truly Purpose-led and are highly and sustainably successful. This is all part of a mission to build bridges to CEOs, and specifically to address the doubters that believe...
Bob Marley, live at the Lyceum 1975 For New Year's Day this year, I'll be up quite early and volunteering at a ParkRun. At other time's of the day, I'll do what I typically do on the first day of the year, which is to take it quietly and, with that, listen to music....
In this last week of the year, I have been writing some simple daily musings on themes such as slowing down (here and here) and being patient (here and here). Today, inspired (as I often am) by the thoughts of my friend Chip Conley, I reflect on what happens when we...
Yesterday I mused about patience in "Being Patient can be a Practice", musing that, at this quiet time between Christmas and New Year: "I find myself struggling today to “do nothing” and, on a broader sense, to “be patient” and allow time for things to emerge and...
It is the Sunday morning between Christmas and New Year. For me consciously a super quiet couple of days planned this way. As 2019 comes to a close I have much to be thankful for and much to look forward to in 2020, yet still, I find myself struggling today to "do...
...literally, slow down and look at the flowers. Over the last few days I've been taking time to slow down, as with yesterday's post" Slow it down". Last night I arrived back from Scotland to my apartment in London. It took me a while as I busied myself with "life...
Edinburgh, December 25th, 2019 For a few days, I am taking time to slow down. On the morning of Christmas Day, I walked to the top of a hill and looked over this view of Edinburgh, the city where I was born and lived a total of about 12 of my first 24 years of life....