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"....
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...
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%...
Japanese puzzle boxes require three steps to fully open them In coaching, I have learned that there are three "boxes", three levels of Context where one can help a client around their leadership and their business. For simplicity, let's call them: Box 1: Business...
"..the objective of economic policy should be collective well-being: how happy and healthy a population is, not just how wealthy a population is." ~ Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland, TED Summit, Edinburgh, July 2019 As UK government and politics, in...
Today I learned a lesson about telling people what I want. I hope that by sharing this and a few connected thoughts I encourage you to tell people what YOU want. Yesterday my post was: "Business Strategy Coaching – a simple secret" In that post I shared what I felt...
What if I could give you a secret to elevating your business strategy that takes less time, costs less, whilst at the same time engaging and energising your top people? The secret starts with believing that the answers to elevating your strategy already sit within...
Learning something new can give you new found energy. I love to learn, yet not every time I attend a talk or workshop or training to I feel I learned something new. Thinking about this, if training is receiving information, learning is absorbing and embedding it in a...
When it is too hot, come up with creative solutions. wonderful image (c) MarketingMonks So, as I write this to post at 8am it is Thursday July 25th at 4pm and 36c. However, though my post for Thursday July 25th was "Too hot to think", somehow I found a creative...
Do you send emails after 5:30 pm? Suggestions on business email from "It Doesn't Have to be Crazy at Work". "It doesn't have to be crazy at work" is a book full of nuggets of wisdom that can change your life and that of those who work with you. Seriously, every single...
Learn to do something different and add to your current skillset in work or life. This week a friend and his son are taking beginners skateboarding lessons each day. Learning something totally different and unrelated to your work or prior skills in life is now...
"Innovation = doing things differently and doing different things" I distilled this some years ago into my definition of innovation. Innovation at work is really "buzzy" these days, with book after book, TED talk after TED talk about how we can be more creative and...
"Your mind is like a parachute: If it isn't open, it doesn't work." Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 astronaut Today we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, July 20th, 1969. It all began with the open mind and huge vision of one man. On May 25, 1961,...
Connect with others to add meaning and purpose, then create and build the impact of scale. A line from Nilofer Merchant's recent LI article: "Don’t Be The Lonely Only" reads: "when connected people can do what once only large organizations could; the connectedness of...
"You are only as good as your people and you are the greatest asset we have. You are our high performance system." - Chelsea Warr Recently I had a check-in call with a long-time contact who is a shooting star rising up in one of the world's top financial institutions....
A key element of leadership is to stretch and grow (both yourself and your organisation). Sometimes that comes with the risk of failure and so pain. Today a guest post from my friend Christine Locher, fellow coach and all-around learned soul! A key element of...
This photo is of the three bridges across the River Forth outside Edinburgh. Furthest away is the seminal Forth (rail) Bridge, nearest is the brand new Queensferry Crossing, which somewhat hides the Forth Road Bridge, opened in 1964. At that time it was the first...
"Sleep is a natural performance enhancing drug. Tragic how many people think they can get by on 7 hours or less." @DHH My two oldest sons were elite swimmers. As teenagers then university students, it may have seemed to outside observers that they were...
Data = Noise Data + Context = Information Experimentation + Error = Experience Information + Experience = Knowledge Knowledge + Humility = Wisdom Recently Fergus Connolly posted this on Twitter. I love following learnings on elite performance in sport and Fergus is an...
Take a look at the right forearm of this swimmer. One word, written in marker pen: CLARITY This photo popped up this week as a Facebook memory for me from several years ago when this particular swimmer was at an international meet looking to make a time that would...
The market for something to believe in is infinite. Yesterday I had one of my regular catch up calls with my friend Bruce Peters. In life, I love deep conversations that get to the heart of things. Every time I talk to Bruce we uncover new things that get to the heart...
How often are we truly present. Remember to keep the presence of mind in beautiful places, such as out in the water. Treading water in the Caribbean sea. Nowhere to be, nothing to do. First time I've done that in a long time. Realised in the moment that I wouldn't...
It takes more than awareness to lead to action. It takes that continuous and iterative process of alignment and engagement to lead to enrolment. Another short blog from Seth this week: Awareness or action? Some projects suffer from a lack of awareness. If only more...
Business is simple, people are complex This phrase is one I used a lot in working with leaders around transformative change. Business can be boiled down to numbers, process, metrics, budgets. Business can be complicated, but it can also be understood, so distilled to...
I'm in Grenada on holiday right now. In 2004 they were smashed by the same Hurricane (Ivan) that went on to hit Cayman. Due to natural disasters as well as global geopolitics a key industry (agriculture) took a devastating hit and is still, fifteen years later,...
David Epstein's "Range" shows how a generalist can triumph in a world full of specialists. Succeed in any field by developing broad interests and skills. Summer is upon us in the Northern Hemisphere, so many will be looking for books to read. So, I just found out...
British psychologist Raymond Cattell introduced the concepts of fluid and crystallized intelligence in the early 1940s. Over 45? Feeling increasingly irrelevant at work? I recently read a wonderful long essay in The Atlantic by Arthur Brooks entitled: "Your...
Today reposting a blog from Seth Godin. That I write every day is down to Seth, who has done this for literally decades. Inspiration, sir. As I've written about before, "Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication" and "Less is More". Don't overwrite. Simply write....
Today is the fourth anniversary of the passing of Ed Percival, my greatest mentor in life. Ed taught me so much. As a homage to him, the page on this site focussed on potential clients assessing what they are seeking in a coach and how I work with my clients is called...