Blog
Take a look at recent insights in leadership, strategy and more.
Separating learning and evaluating
Learning something isn't the same as accepting it, necessarily. We don’t have to commit to agreeing with something before, or even as, we learn it. And often we can't evaluate some new piece of...
We want a thriller not a thesis
Like it or not, we find it hard to engage with dry, factual, objective communication. We need the information, of course, but nevertheless we find a “thesis” hard to access and to assimilate....
To be a critical friend you need to start by being a friend
The phrase “critical friend” is sometimes used to describe the role of a trusted adviser and, in particular, one who is prepared to tell you something you might not really want to hear—but do need...
Does delegation go up or down?
Does delegation mostly go up or down your organisation? Seriously. The art of effective delegation is perhaps the poor relation of management and leadership practice—not very exciting to study—but...
Much easier to shut down initiative than get it going
I think we underestimate this asymmetry. The taking of initiative by team members can be a fragile thing. It’s much, much easier to shut it down than get it going in the first place. The truth is we...
If in doubt, communicate
Sometimes we wonder whether we should say something or not, probably because it's sensitive in some way. I've always reckoned that if we're unsure whether to take a particular action or not, we...
New Year every month?
How often do you review your goals (assuming you set some in the first place, of course)? Obviously, it’s traditional to set personal goals at the turn of the year and it’s a good idea. It’s a good...
Resolution wasn’t built in a day
Our inclination is to think that it should be possible to resolve issues, disagreements, and even conflict in one go—in a day perhaps. Sometimes, no doubt it is, if we can bring enough goodwill and...
The value of validation
Of course, it’s good to make up our own mind about whether something we’re doing is right or not. Nevertheless, a bit of external validation is still very welcome. We can seek it out ourselves, for...
Connection or fluency?
Which is more important: being fluent or being connected with your audience i.e. the other party? Traditionally, we pay a lot of attention to being fluent, even organising many aids to make sure we...
The problem of filtering
Sometimes we need to conduct a relationship through a third party. For example, we might be supplying something to our customer's customer, and need to discern indirectly what they require....
Dangerous questions
Been reading Daniel Kahneman’s excellent and very useful “Thinking, Fast and Slow”... He says: If asked a difficult question we don’t know the answer to, we will normally pick an easier one we do...
We want you to step up (except when we don’t)
Leaders in businesses and organisations often say they want their people to step up and take more initiative. Unfortunately... Some, in the next breath, will say they want certain things done a...
Taking people along with you
It's remarkable how often this comes up as a theme: the challenge of getting a group of people on board with a course of action. Our natural inclination is often that the hard task in a situation is...
If we let go of the big goal…
It's seem slightly paradoxical, doesn't it? If we put our big goal out of our mind and just focus on getting small things done, it's easier to take those minor steps—to do the mundane. And so we...