“You can only join the dots looking backwards” ~ Steve Jobs This past weekend I was in San Francisco spending time with friends before heading to the Modern Elder Academy in Mexico for a week. My lovely hosts arranged a relaxed get together on the Saturday night and I...
Friends and regular readers know that I am a HUGE fan of Seth. He has inspired me many times, including to write daily (now at around 500 posts on this site and only getting more and more committed to it!). I also still get his daily posts, one of a very few I kept...
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a powerful tool for understanding what drives us. I've used it often including this post on "At risk versus taking risks". My friend and business hero, Chip Conley, is a leading expert on Maslow through his work in taking Maslow's...
The "Cascade du Rouget" in Dream Valley. Last summer, on the way down from an amazing overnight traverse hiking three mountain passes with my three sons and my friend, the amazing guide Arno de Jong, we came to this waterfall. The term cascade in this form typically...
Tim Harford writes for the Financial Times and is an author of great curiosity about many things. I first came across him as the author of "The Undercover Economist", one of many, many books I've read about and around the topic of Economics. Today, sharing Tim's...
The phrase triple bottom line was coined in 1994, those three drivers being people, profit, planet. However, I believe it is now time for new thinking around the drivers of a corporation and removing profit as a source driver. Bold, yes, but please read on. At the...
Yesterday I wrote "The fish rots from the head", highlighting the importance of addressing cultural issues in an organisation first at the top leadership level, as otherwise if it starts from grassroots it will simply not work, as people will watch the leaders and how...
I am often asked by client leadership what to do first when there is a sense that the culture and behaviours of the organisation need to be focussed upon. In fact, I am often brought in by open and brave leaders who are humble enough to turn the focus upon themselves...
My writing is around leadership and is often focussed on how business leaders can "be more". Perhaps some may find this post title a little "woo woo" for them, but hey, to model the title, those aren't the audience I'm seeking. The people I want to meet, to reach, to...
Yesterday I wrote: "Purpose and the Corporation" and wrote: "I ask businesses I work with to consider a different type of triple bottom line: Purpose People Planet Yes, I always ask them to focus on the Profit they will make, yet Profit, to me, is the outcome of a...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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. Thanks to @alansmlxl for his thoughts on Ma, as well as Stevie Ray Vaughn and @nilerodgers
“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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
"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...
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...
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...
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” Today’s post a process for year end review, and an offer to meet or have a call for…
As regular readers will know, I'm part of a community that is building to create and bring forth transformative leadership programmes under the theme of Beautiful Leadership, inspired by the writings and ideas of Alan Moore of Beautiful Business. This week a group of...
As I write today's post, I am up in Cambridgeshire once again working with a small group on further shaping the concept I wrote about as "Beautiful Leadership" Two linked elements that we have agreed are at the core of this shaping are a) that we are seeking to...