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...
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...
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...
If you search the term "slow down" on this site, you will find at least thirty articles. In our high-paced world, often when I support leaders I am looking for them to slow down for, as you'd imagine with so many articles written around this, many different reasons....
I recently wrote "Slow Motion Multitasking", musing on the value of slowly moving between tasks and projects. Today a simpler thought around our choices around pace in this so, so fast moving world we live in, about the power of going slowly. I sense, from inspiration...
Microsoft just became the most valuable company in the world. This made big headlines, though very few people know the name of their CEO and few of the articles truly got into why his radically different style of humble leadership has been at the heart of that...
Today a Guest post reposted from his site, by my friend, the very sage Bruce Peters, in response to my recent post "Listening for Energy". From Bruce Peters: I've been derailed from writing for some time. It’s so much easier for me to write and, indeed, speak in the...
As I write this, today I was working with a CEO around where they plan to take their business in 2019. They have a big and bold transformative vision, and today it felt a little, well, too much for them to get from where they are to where they wish to go. I put to...
My definition of wisdom: "Wisdom is something concise that, once you hear it, you feel you always knew it" Today wisdom from Muhammad Ali, Alan Moore, and Seth Godin. In August 2018 I wrote: "Can Business be Beautiful and Profitable?" at a time when Alan Moore and I...
Interior of Sagrada Familia I love cathedrals and other major centres of worship, such as Sagrada Familia, Hagia Sophia, Durham Cathedral and many others. A key aspect of such buildings is that almost all of those who were part of their construction knew that they...
I have designed my life to allow "intellectual crop rotation" and "slow-motion multitasking". The Gif above is the famous slow-motion walking scene that opens Reservoir Dogs. To me, this is the single most memorable and seminal moment in a classic movie. The...
Humility and what we choose to ground us. Ancient poetry is one for me, and you?
Listening for energy. Tai Jin, one of your most powerful tools to develop as a leader.
This photo is of Dr Taylor Burrowes giving her TEDx Talk in Cayman in April 2014. I thought of Taylor today, somehow inspired by David Ross, a renaissance Kilmarnock man who posts every morning on Twitter as he wakes up about his face, hair and voice. Up. Face like an...
Be brave enough to keep it simple. How can you be brave enough to get your entire strategy down to a few words. Sharing my…
"It's simple, but not easy" Yesterday I wrote "To be truly radical is to make hope possible", and closed that post by saying today I'd write a little about what it takes for radical change. I love radical change, transformative and brave. Incremental change is...
Kindness as Leadership. Learning from Mr Rogers
Be nice. Concise wisdom from @JeffDSachs #BeMoreYou
"Do work that you're proud of - work that matters for people who care. It's all about connection, empathy and making a difference." ~ Seth Godin Seth Godin inspired me to post daily. With well over 7,000 daily posts already he has moved way beyond the "marketing guru"...
(c) Florian Radarte "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" also goes along with "a change is as good as a rest" I wrote some time ago in "Stop the “Busyness”": "Put simply, for leaders, less is more. Simple, yes? But how many of you just skipped over this and...
"Awareness is the greatest agent for change" ~ Suki Laniado Smith "Leaders who focus on building both internal and external self-awareness...can learn to see themselves more clearly — and reap the many rewards that increased self-knowledge delivers" ~ Dr Tasha Eurich,...
Again and again, I share learnings from leaders, writers, artists, often around themes core to leadership such as presence. Today some Wisdom from the sagest bear of sage bears, Winnie the Pooh. Not for the first time, this is a post inspired by Georgie Loxton. With...
This week I've been home in Cayman. Seeing my boys, clients, friends. There are so many wonderful elements of living on that small island of only around 60,000 people, and at the same time, there is an element of "big fish, small pond" mindset, particularly when it...
The Golden Rule states: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The Platinum Rule: "Treat others the way they want to be treated." The Golden Rule is cited so often it seems like a wonderful and positive aspiration. However, the first time someone tells...
I had lunch recently with an investor who expressed frustration about founders of startups and scale-ups. They are not a fund partner, nor VC or from the Private Equity world. No, they actually built a business of value and lived it for the whole journey through to an...
"Our world seems like a heap of fragments and it is hard to see how they cohere. Wisdom has been replaced by knowledge and knowledge has been replaced by information. Pieces of data. Chunks of data." Iain McGilchrist, author of "The Divided Mind", speaking in the...
So, to that beautiful quote, but first, to “repetition, repetition, repetition”. I work with leaders around the world and often around communicating and engaging their…
Today a story about self-awareness, the value of slowing down, and walking the dog.
You can see from the front pages of this site that I look to work with visionary leaders to see beyond their vision, to "work with them to bring out their unique gifts." Benjamin Zander is a legendary classical music conductor, he sees his role as "to awaken...
Is being a parent Profitable? No. Is being a parent Difficult? Sometimes, sure. Is being a parent Important? Absolutely. To me, it is the most important and valuable work I've ever or will ever do. As I write this post the last of my three sons has headed out of...
What can Don Quixote teach us about leadership? Reflecting that you don’t climb Everest in one go. You have staging camps to acclimatise, assess the conditions before moving on. Same in business. — Sacha Romanovitch (@romanovsun) September 13, 2018 Today I saw this...
image credit itsquiz Recently I was on a coaching call with a client in a senior leadership role. On our last call, they told me of two questions they ask whenever they check in with one of their team. Simple, yet brilliant in that simplicity and how they support the...
**Guest posts welcome at any time, I love to collaborate and to share learnings!** Today a guest post from friend and past colleague, Alan Wick. Alan is a great coach, passionate about empowering entrepreneurs. He listens and talks softly, and at the same time...
The view from the Eurostar area at Gare du Nord, and beyond those trains is the Thalys fast train and about 15 more platforms and then 8 mentor lines underground. Loved most of my life in the Americas, European rail infrastructure so different. Impressive....
Ed Percival. Yoda, Obi-Wan, #BeMoreYou, Shaman, Discordian Pope. Last week Chip Conley posed a question to our Modern Elder group of: "What are the best qualities of a mentor and who's been your best mentor in life so far?" The second part of that question is easy for...