"Live in the now to provide for the future" Exquisite. I love distilled beauty in writing, and gosh how much I love anything that can relate to leadership and business. This hits the mark on all levels for me! People are my library, and today I am most thankful for...
Taken after a photo shoot, looking over the Thames to Temple. London is such a city of both tradition and permanence as well as dynamism and growth. Yesterday I had a wonderful experience with a highly creative photographer, Simon Edwards, as we walked around London...
In yesterday's post, I wrote around the phrase: How you do anything is how you do everything The post asked of each of us the question: "what do your actions say about your Leadership?", considering that everything we do is indicative of who we are, our values mirror...
Fergus Conolly is the author of "Game Changer" and someone I follow closely around his learnings on elite performance across multiple sports. He recently shared an article from The Observer about Marcelo Bielsa, a legendary coach now leading the once great Leeds...
Today a reflection of preparing in advance so that we can discard what we prepared. I then share similar learnings from an interview with the director and writer of the latest Mission Impossible movie. I love movies and recently watched this movie. It was terrific,...
In my role as an experienced coach supporting leaders to reach their peak, I'm highly focussed on limiting beliefs, choice of words, and also where language is phrased negatively rather than positively. It is a little absurd then, that I have often used a certain...
In supporting leaders over many years, I love to distil to simplicity, to allow them to focus on their priorities, their message, their context. As Da Vinci said: "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" At the same time, sometimes we need to consider more than...
Continuing a theme from this week's post "Beautiful words bring dimensions of meaning", today considering the Japanese art of Kintsukuroi and lessons that leaders can learn from it. So many entrenched organisational paradigms look to avoid breakdowns, mistakes, even...
What is the dent you wish to make in the universe? How can you make that dent into a crater? My answer today? Surround yourselves with people, thoughts, ideas that stimulate you to live your own purpose and you'll make your dent a crater. Let me give you my own...
At the heart of my writing is a passion to elevate Leadership, and so much of that comes from understanding of self and others. Words of such richness of meaning can also facilitate awareness and understanding of other areas, fields, dimensions. I frequently say “a...
Seth Godin writes daily and has over 1,000,000 followers on his email list. I write daily and have around 1,000 email followers. Metrics. For many years a part of my work was engaged with digital marketing. So much of that was about building traffic to websites,...
This is post 300 Today is the 300th post on this site. With no plan in mind, last year I felt powerfully drawn to writing again after a long break. Not only this, I decided to commit to posting daily. I'll tell the story, then reflect on some unexpected serendipities...
Petrichor - the smell after rain hits dry ground From the Greek, Petros, meaning stone, and Ichor, meaning “the fluid that flows from the veins of the gods” Today my mind goes to this beautiful word, and, inspired by the word, also to how I felt after the rain came...
Today a guest post from Bruce Peters of Beyond Teal, who is based in upstate New York. His post is on leadership lessons from elite sports, a recurring theme on this site. Thank you to Bruce for allowing me to share this with you here. Bruce is a remarkable human...
Some Scots for you in the title today. “Whit’s fur ye’ll no go by ye” Translation: What's for you will not go by you. My Scots grandmother or, in more recent times, a dear friend (also Scots, naturally!) would use this to remind me to have patience, to relax, to be...
Today I woke up to see this story of a 21 year old Swedish woman taking a stand against deportation of an Afghan from her country by standing up to prevent her flight from departing. Her name is Elin Errson, and she literally took a stand for what she believed to be...
This is a repost and update of one of my earliest posts on this site, "Presence…and Vulnerability". Why a repost? My current musing is on Romance, Beauty and business. Yesterday's post, inspired by the "Business Romantic", Tim Leberecht, had me think about being human...
So, the last two articles I wrote here have mused on romance, idealism, romanticism and magical reality. Leadership: Romance, Life in Full Colour and Magical Reality Life in Full Colour - Cry, Heart, But Never Break In (so far) nearly 300 daily articles on this site,...
I believe the future of leadership is #OpenLeadership and self-knowledge is a key part of the foundation to this, so sometimes I step into choosing to share where I am on life's journey and what I am musing on. Specifically, I am musing yesterday and today on the...
Today I'll muse on life, art and how what I have learned links to leadership in business. Romantic Idealism. First, I'll look being a romantic and idealism in leadership. Next, I'll explore what I mean by "Life in Full Colour" and then taking risks in leadership....
"A leader is someone others choose to follow" ~ (me) People follow leaders who are "keepers of the vision" and who create and maintain a space where people feel inspired and also stretched to be their best to be part of achieving that vision. What if, however, a...
Modern Elder Academy – apply now ! Join @chipconley and the faculty and be among the first leaders to experience this. Act now, space is…
In the last year, I've had the opportunity to talk to several thought leaders, speakers, writers who I have very much admired and respected for many years. Two of those people are Nilofer Merchant and Chip Conley. Nilofer I just talked to for the first time recently,...
Are you or your business lucky ? do you benefit or suffer from coincidences? I don't believe in luck, I believe in serendipity. Serendipity is not luck, it is not coincidence. Serendipity is something you can choose to create for yourself and in the way you lead and...
Today a Leadership lesson at two levels around the use of Idioms. Level One: Leaders, avoid USING clichéd idioms. Cliché : "a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought." Idiom: "a group of words established by usage as having a meaning...
Musing on silence. Do find time to rest and recharge and find silence at this time of year
In the early 1990s, we saw the beginnings of the widely available internet. Dial up only, super slow, very expensive. At one point I read an article in, I recall, Time Magazine, about the explosion of use of the internet by people, often older generations, seeking to...
Bravery in leadership can often mean acting rather than waiting for others. It also has matters of degree in whether or not leadership puts yourself at risk. Two quotes I have always looked to are : “Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do...
You can tell a story in different ways, through all of our senses. How do you tell yours? Let me show you some storytelling I witnessed in one day in London last week, then a TED talk I recently saw that is masterful in this regard. First, on a gorgeous summer's day...
One turn of phrase around telling people something over and over is to say you "repeated ad nauseam", or literally until you were sick. One of the simplest to address gaps I see in leaders around engaging their people is to assume they have communicated their message...
"Never make a point without telling a story, and never tell a story, without making a point" ~ Ed Percival Another lesson from the master, Ed Percival. A hugely important part of leadership is about engaging your people. People connect to stories, so don't just give...
Today I sit on my terrace early in the morning, preparing in my own way for coaching calls with two new clients from an organisation I am supporting as they bravely transform. While sitting quietly as I tend to do before such calls, I opened my online notes of "things...
Up until about a month ago, once a week I posted "Writing I Love", then chose to stop setting a regular schedule for it and simply to allow #Flow, with that last post being one I wrote the day Anthony Bourdain died. More recently I wrote "Leadership – The impact of...
What is your one thing you will to today that scares you?
My question today for HR leaders (and resonant for all leaders who see these "big trends" and feel they will inpact their organistion) is simply this. Are you brave enough ?
A dear friend recently counselled me: "Patience, my friend, is when nothing happens and you are ok with it." I loved this. That friend also noted to me that in so many areas of life (including in my roles with clients as a sounding board, coach etc) I am patience...