Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort felt by a person who holds two or more conflicting ideas, beliefs or values at the same time. Leadership is about people, so understanding people is clearly key. For self-leadership, then, self-awareness is key. As humans we seek...
One of the biggest compliments you can receive if you are listening to someone is when you ask them something and they reply: "that's a great question!", well, at least unless it is someone looking to then duck the question! Anyway, if they take the question on board...
Education systems are in crisis, including the devaluing of any type of critical thinking. Challenge and encourage both critical and contextual thinking.
A Southwest Airlines flight was delayed several hours and the gate agent decided to have fun, take the time with the passengers and play games,…
When I saw this brilliant graphic on Cognitive Biases from Design Hacks the other day, all I could think was "Wow! We do truly have so many biases." Over the last few days, I've written around the exploration of bias and one or two ideas of how we can activate tools...
Over the last two days, I have written first a (very) long read about Heuristics (in "You cannot eliminate your biases", then yesterday a shorter one on a tool to answer difficult questions by imagining the reverse. As those who read my daily writing often or who know...
A large number of questions might be illuminated — if not answered —by imagining the situation in reverse. If Britain had no nuclear deterrent, would there be much clamour to obtain one? If Scots were independent already, what sort of union would they seek? Which...
What are your biases? You might say: "I'm not biased". Don't believe me? Try answering these three questions, known as the Cognitive Reflection Test. (1) A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? _...
Building a base of clients with fewer people making referrals. We all know the best way to build a client base is with referrals from people who already know you, right? Sure, so logically to be introduced to new clients, we need to talk to everyone we know and ask...
Taking time to walk to a lunch meeting yesterday I constantly listen to leaders who feel they don't have enough time. If I suggest to them that we take a walk rather than meet in their office, they oftentimes look at me like I'm crazy. Until that is, we actually go...
The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command...And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed - if all records told the same tale - then the lie passed into history and became truth. George...
"...the more we care for our colleagues, the better the Timpson key-cutting and shoe-repair business seems to perform. Over the past five years, we have opened 1,000 new shops, sales and profits have doubled" James Timpson of Timpson, in the Sunday Times August 25,...
Being an editor can give us more awareness in our lives. Chip Conley, in his focus upon Modern Elder, talks about how in the first half of our lives we focus on accumulating, but in the second half, we can turn our focus to editing. From a place of awareness, we...
the Open Leadership model Saying you are vulnerable is not the same as being vulnerable. The four core qualities of #OpenLeadership are: Be HungryBe HumbleBe BraveBe Open Linked to that is Chip Conley's idea of being a "vulnerable visionary" a leader who expresses...
Ockham's Razor is one of my favourite coaching tools dates back to the 13th century yet feels incredibly applicable to the world we live in today. "All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one" I've been coaching for many years and am often...
Helping customers find simplicity in a complex world. Inspiration Yesterday I had the privilege of watching an audience with the author Matt Haig at the Edinburgh Book Festival. His writing style is often simple and concise. When asked about this, he noted...
In our busy lives, we all sometimes need to find a "moment of zen". This picture is of "Monarch of the Glen", by Landseer. I wondered what it is that makes a picture of a deer so powerful and famous, until, that is, I saw the picture hanging at the National Gallery of...
Encouraging CEOs and other business leaders to shift focus from Profit to Purpose, People, Planet. "Yes, being all about Purpose, People and Planet is all very well, but CEOs only care about profits!" When talking to people about the new triple bottom line and putting...
In January this year, I wrote a series of articles around rethinking the purpose of the corporation, then moved towards rethinking the "triple bottom line" (that dates from 1994) to the "new triple bottom line", expressed graphically above. The article that...
I recently watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Tarantino and agree with Tom Shone of the Sunday Times that Brad Pitt was the heart of this movie and that he did it so simply and subtly. "Once Brad Pitt stopped “acting”, he became a great movie star...{years ago}...
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...
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...
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...
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. 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...
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...
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...
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...
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"....
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...
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...
"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...
We live in uncertain times. In such times, continue to invest in growth and improvement. We live in uncertain times. For business leaders in the UK in particular, we have a Prime Minister who seems committed to driving us off a cliff edge of "no deal" Brexit come...
Do you dread getting into disagreements? What if I told you that the highest performing teams have the most disagreements? What would it take for you to want to have more disagreements? What if I told you that you could actually look forward to disagreements, even...
Leadership is about people and so about communication, so take this one as a blunt and strongly word tip for us all. Don't be sarcastic in writing. Just don't. Please. Ever. Sarcasm in writing runs a high risk of being misinterpreted I wrote about the “7%-38%-55%...
It is a beautiful day today, yet here I sit with the commitment to posting every day. Hmm. Sometimes we all need a day off, so tomorrow I shall return with a longer post, and also note that there will be a few more "long reads" coming up in the month of August....