Coach Gregg Popovich running a timeout for the San Antonio Spurs Imagine that coach watching the game. Naturally, he can see many things he could advise individuals and the group to do, to change, to stop doing. However, the best coaches do one thing consistently in...
The secret to doing good research is always to be a little underemployed. You waste years by not being able to waste hours. ~ Amos Tversky Michael Lewis, author of such books as Moneyball, Liar's Poker, The Big Short and more, wrote "The Undoing Project" about the...
As the image above notes, "Reflective thinking turns experience into insight" As a Sounding Board to Leaders, what I do for clients isn't rocket science. I take time with people. I listen. After listening, I reflect back to them what I heard them say, sometimes with...
Collaborative Leadership: "the process of engaging collective intelligence to deliver results across organisational boundaries when ordinary mechanisms of control are absent" Oxford Leadership - Collaborative Leadership White Paper, 2011 The other day a dear friend of...
I recently learned a powerful lesson from someone close to me who has a disease that they are choosing how to address. They shared with me that they learned from their doctor that this was not something you "fight", as to approach it from a "fight" mindset means that...
The V&A Museum opened in Dundee in 2018, design by Kengo Kuma Today am inspired by a conversation this week about brave thinking and big ambitions. I love to work with brave leaders. One of the four characteristics of people who choose to work with me (see the...
A few days ago I shared learnings from Mike Driver in : "Where Entrepreneurialism comes from". Basically Mike said that it can't be taught: "“..entrepreneurialism can’t be taught and the library full of books attempting to teach it are a waste of time. Short of...
David McWilliams, here seen at the best party of the year for Economist and Economics geeks, Kilkenomics, is one of my favourite writers. Today I share his latest post, "Can Bernie Sanders fix the broken American Dream?" and a few bullet points on why I love the way...
"..entrepreneurialism can’t be taught and the library full of books attempting to teach it are a waste of time. Short of travelling back in time and putting your childhood self through some sort of trauma you cannot ‘become’ an entrepreneur." The 17th and closing...
picture credit Sloww.co Today I am reminded of the difficulty of seeing ourselves how others see us and the power of critical thinking both for that and to truly see and understand others. These are universal challenges for each of us. For those who lead others, the...
The model above is referred to as the "Competence Model". I wrote a long personal story about my father trying to teach me how to drive to illustrate this in depth. You can find it at: "Zen and teaching your son to drive". Today some thoughts on how it feels to be at...
“Before you play two notes, learn how to play one note, y’know? And don’t play one note unless you’ve got a reason to play it.” ~ Mark Hollis Yesterday Mark Hollis died. He was the leader of Talk Talk. Their music really touched me in different ways, then he stepped...
"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards" ~ Soren Kierkegaard Today a simple thought around living life. Learn from the past, analyse it, study it all you will so you can learn more about yourself, others, your business, your leadership....
So, as I approach my 500th consecutive daily post, today the magical secret of how to write. How to write? Stop not writing. Thanks to Anne Lamott on Twitter for this ultimate in concise wisdom. She goes on to say: How to write: Stop not writing. Get and keep your...
Recently I wrote : "Cascading Leadership – a new way for transformative change". That post is a synthesis of many years of learning and practice in supporting transformative change. Please do read the full post, but for today I highlight: "Which comes first, to Engage...
A few weeks ago I wrote "Purpose, People, Planet - the new triple bottom line". That article is a synthesis of learning from many years of building businesses and supporting leaders of businesses and other organisations. In short, I said "we need a new triple bottom...
What do you see in this picture? Two black men in hoodies, yes? What is the first impression that makes on you? Today I'm going to talk about biases around gender and race. Sure, everyone reading this will say, I'm aware of bias and I'm not biased. Well, sorry, but we...
Work Hard.. by Being Still What do you mean Tom, are you talking in riddles? Perhaps, but as Seth put it in a recent blog: "For most of us, hard work is measured in insight, emotional effort, and connection. It’s been a long time since the economy fairly rewarded...
This week I am at the Modern Elder Academy at a week-long workshop entitled "The Psychology of Presence". This is a week I am taking to "deepen my practice" in my work. What do I do? Fundamentally I listen, ask questions, reflect, sometimes (only sometimes) advise,...
"we risk being deafened by the negativity all around us here in London" Part of a message I received from a friend in London as I am in Baja at Modern Elder Academy. Later that morning, as I sat on the terrace with the Pacific in the background, I had a call with...
"Look for the spaces between" This week I am at the Modern Elder Academy in Baja. On the first day, one of the directors, Christine Sperber, took time to give us a "level set", positioning the week for us. One key phrase that resonated for me is that she encouraged...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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
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...
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...