What’s your mission?
Who are you? What difference can you make? Why are you here? Some people just know. Others are on a voyage of discovery. Open-minded exploration is fundamental to happiness. Pay attention and see patterns in your life. What central themes recur? When you pursue a...
Don’t step on my Blue Suede Shoes (but don’t mind if I step on yours…)
What do Wynonie Harris, Arthur Crudup and Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton have in common? – They all did the hard work but Elvis got the credit (and the royalties). In the 50s, black american rock and blues music was segregated to the R&B charts. These served as...
Choosing an executive coach for women
I believe all senior women should have executive coaches. They have complex lives and are still likely to be so in the minority at the highest levels that a trusted relationship is essential. Yet women take up developmental opportunities less than men – often because...
Leadership Minute: Optimism and Leadership
There are many benefits when people experience positive emotions, that’s what science tells us. Indeed, optimists make better leaders, except in one critical area… François explains it all in this Leadership Minute.
Don’t stand so close to me…
No, not the song by The Police, but the joys of commuting. Averil looks at the psychology of being squashed in a light hearted way on BBC Radio Scotland.
Women in the press . . .
Only last week I brought to the office an article written in the ‘80s about serious work with stressed execs in the public sector. My colleague and I were referred to as ‘executive sweets’. How attractive we were mattered more than our professionalism. The editor of...
Loving in the workplace
As all the red roses droop, the hearts and balloons are put away for another year and the public displays of intimacy are past, we are thinking about what it takes for leaders to foster true relationships in the workplace. Do we set a calendar date to tell people how...
From Adam Smith to Holacracy : The Art of Measurement.
If you want to change the way organisations are run, you can’t simply walk into a room full of successful executives and tell them they’re wrong. You need to ‘show them the money’. For the past few years, there has to be a groundswell of new organisational models...