Graphic highlighting the "triple bottom line" concept of People, Planet, Profit As regular readers of my daily posts know, I am focussed on #BeautifulLeadership, asking leaders: "how can your leadership, your business, be more beautiful?" This immediately brings up...
OpenLeadership
Top 5 Posts and searching for themes
Daily posting here now means there are well over 450 posts on the site. Each post is already tagged and categorised, but with so many posts, the easiest way to search for terms and themes will be via the search bar, so we've upgraded this to a custom google search as...
Give handwritten thank you notes
In 1989, when I was 24, I moved to the Cayman Islands. Sending faxes and making phones calls was still eye-wateringly expensive, so I sent aerogrammes, short, handwritten letters, to stay in touch with family and friends. These days the art of a handwritten letter or...
Give people the gift of listening
Truly listening to others can be the greatest of gifts. Recently I wrote: "What is your one-word theme for 2019?". After writing this, I instinctively offered to a few groups the opportunity for them to have me support individuals with a one hour call to get to their...
Mary Oliver, Poetry and Beauty
Yesterday Mary Oliver died. A quote from her poem "The Summer Day" inspired my very first daily post, "Life is Wild and Precious, Be Present" : “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Today a short...
Comfortable in your own skin
Just over a month ago I wrote first about Steph Curry and his actions to empower girls. Today I find myself sharing another example of leadership off the court from this athlete, and again from an article he wrote in The Players Tribune, a quite remarkable publication...
Charles Dickens and income inequality
On 10th January I wrote "CEO Pay and Ugly Leadership", referencing wise thinkers past and present and noting: "Leadership where CEO pay keeps climbing to ever higher heights while average workers real pay has been dropping in the modern world for some time. Not...
Billy Connolly – Lessons from a Master
BBC just put out two one hour shows called "Billy Connolly Made in Scotland" (link here for those in the UK). Billy Connolly represents a line in the sand. Comedy in the UK was either before Billy or after Billy. He is, simply, the "Big Yin". Today sharing one...
Should you be patient or impatient?
As a Leader, should you be patient or impatient? Patient or impatient - with the speed your people and your business are moving at? Patient or impatient - with yourself, your family, your friends? Patient or impatient - with the speed of life and work in general? It...
The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them
Trust is at the heart of every relationship in life, personal and professional. How do we build trust? Sometimes we need to take a lot of time and patience to build trust, we analyse, assess, look for evidence and proof points. Sometimes, though, perhaps Hemingway's...
All things come to those who wait
Today, on a quiet and grey winter Sunday morning, I am taking a "slow day". I know myself to be someone instinctive and intuitive, who often moves fast from decision to action, that when I "light the blue touch paper" I move fast and people move fast and act fast in...
Keep the road under the show
Today a reflection from a learning from the latest Facilitation Shindig in London on the phrase: Keep the road under the show The photo above is from the 2018 movie of Mortal Engines, the Philip Reeves book series. In Mortal Engines, Reeves created a dystopian world...
Exploring Beauty – John O’Donohue
Yesterday I wrote: "CEO Pay and Ugly Leadership" in which I shared the words of Alan Moore: “Beautiful Businesses Leaders respond to a higher order calling of service to a greater good. Their leadership is framed by values and informed by purpose.” To act on that...
CEO Pay and Ugly Leadership
"Beautiful Leadership is a choice, so is Ugly Leadership" I wrote these words recently in: "Be careful of toxic language" Two days in "Our Clarion Call to Beautiful Leaders and Makers", I shared Alan Moore's thoughts on Beauty in Leadership and Business, including:...
Be so good they can’t ignore you
Today I'm recommending to you to choose to "be so good they can't ignore you", and to back that up by having people in your life, including mentors, that believe in you even more than you believe in yourself "Be so good they can't ignore you" ~ Steve Martin Steve...
Our Clarion Call to Beautiful Leaders and Makers
A walk in Snowdonia: Image by Julian Calverley Over the last several months I've begun a collaboration with Alan Moore. This has, as a first step, extended to a nascent "Beautiful Community". Thsi will be the first "pebble in the pond" creating a ripple that will...
At risk versus taking risks
Risk. Understanding Risk is core to Leadership Today some simple thoughts around what Risk means to us individually rather than as leaders of organisations. Specifically, around what it feels like to be "at risk" and how that impacts our ability and willingness to...
Belief and Mentoring
I love the sentiment in that picture above. "It would be a stretch for others to believe in you at a level higher than yourself. Your mentors are an exception." Today I've just had two mentoring conversations and so feel like musing on the power of belief in mentoring...
Context, your personal “one-word theme”
My first post of the year was "What is your one-word theme for 2019?" Since I wrote that, several people have told me they will use that to support them in landing on their own theme for 2019. With that in mind, I felt to share some related thoughts from a prior post...
Ma – thinking about the space between
Ma – thinking about the space between. Thanks to @alansmlxl for his thoughts on Ma, as well as Stevie Ray Vaughn and @nilerodgers
Be careful of toxic language
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” ~Maya Angelou For the last several years the UK government has operated their immigration policy under a two-word term: "Hostile Environment". This started out as being designed to make it difficult...
Everyday Leadership and Legacy
Penny McDowall Receiving the Special Olympics North America coach of the year award I just got news from Cayman that Penny McDowall passed away on New Year's Eve. The short instinctive note I sent to her husband Rod simply said: Such a loss, and such a life. An...
What is your one-word theme for 2019?
First of all, welcome to 2019 as today is the 1st of January! Over the last two weeks or so I've mused on a process for first a) reflecting on the last year, then b) being present to where you are right now, then finally c) setting a focus for 2019. Now, you may well...
Are you in the arena getting your ass kicked?
The last few weeks for me have been amazing and wonderful in different ways, and also felt brave and at times a bit scary as I embarked on something new that immediately felt important and that felt risky. I was reminded of the idea of "to dare greatly", and then that...
Anthony Bourdain: Be Open, Be Curious
As we reach the end of another year, we tend to reflect on the words of Robert Burns of "auld lang syne", or "old long since", or simply "of days gone by". In such reflections we tend to reflect on those who have left us in the past year. For me, one of those losses...
We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen
Back in the early 2000s, I took on the opportunity (never a challenge, always an opportunity) to lead a resort in the Cayman Islands. I began by looking to best practice and saw that the top hotel brands in the world had an unerring focus on their internal culture and...
Presence – No Need to Say Anything
I've just spent several days with family in Scotland and reminded of the power of simply being present for people. Today a simple leadership lesson on this from a military leader (shared by Tom Peters) and a reminder of the absolute presence of Marina Abramovic. No...
Be thankful then fully acknowledge
Today in this "pause" period between Christmas and New Year, some thoughts on the power of telling people what they mean to you and of doing that with full acknowledgement and recognition, more than a "thank you". Three thoughts and stories for you on saying thank you...
My client is not in a hurry
Photo credit Rhonda Curry At this time of year, the Western World slows down, pauses for the Christmas Season. We step off our hamster wheel of life and work, of things to do, deadlines to meet etc. In that world, has anybody ever used the line "my client is not in a...
Happiness and Gratitude
For this post to go out on Christmas Day, a time for gratitude, I am reflecting simply and concisely on Happiness and Gratitude, starting with this image, then the thoughts of the Dalai Lama on "Compassion as the source of happiness", and finally to share with you a...
Signifier of Intent
"how you do anything is how you do everything" When, years ago, I was intensely involved in the development of self and my skills in learning to be a coach, I heard this phrase and it deeply resonated with me and still does. I've already written around this phrase...
Bravery – How to play with fire
An English language idiom is: "don't play with fire, you might get burned" Let's flip that today, inspired by this quote from Steven Kotler: "As children, we are taught not to play with fire, not how to play with fire." I saw this quote out of the blue the other day...
Command, Control.. and Care
The opening words of the homepage on this site are: Who are you without your title? Command-and-control leadership is losing its grip. A new way of thinking is emerging: leadership that embraces change as constant, encourages individual thought, relies on intuition...
Gratitude in threes. Serendipity, Bruce and Roma.
Yesterday I wrote the second in a series of posts sharing my ideas around a way to reflect on the year that is coming to completion such that you can truly set up a theme to focus on for 2019. As part of reflecting on the year just past and before looking ahead to the...
Reflections. Where are you today?
Reflections. Where are you today? Learnings on how to reflect at year end, inspired by the great Alan Watts
Day by day, nothing seems to change
“Day by day nothing seems to change” Today’s post a process for year end review, and an offer to meet or have a call for…