Transparency Is Key to Building Trust in Business - When an engine exploded on Qantas flight QF32 on Nov. 4, 2010, endangering the lives of 469 passengers and crew, the plane’s captain, Richard de Crespigny, didn’t curse, panic, or pray. Instead, he relied on the supreme trust he had...
Why Warmth Is the Underappreciated Skill Leaders Need
When it comes to success in leadership, there has never been just one playbook. Some leaders are extroverts, natural mentors, and charismatic speakers; others prefer to lead by example and take a more hands-off approach. There is, however, one simple fact that leaders...
Companies are encouraged to get ever-larger, yet is there really much evidence that big is often better? Big certainly makes a few people richer, but that's not quite the same thing. For years, indeed, Microsoft was famous for using its size to bully the reluctant into using the often...
Many years ago, I was elected president of our company’s field leadership association. Brimming with new ideas about how to make our company better, I attended a strategic planning meeting between field officers and company executives and felt my innovative contributions were dazzling. On the drive home I asked...
The Big Lies of Strategy by Roger L. Martin - You don’t need a 100-page strategic plan. Strategy is actually about making five specific choices. - THOSE WHO KNOW ME WELL know that I have a love/hate relationship with all things strategic. On the one hand, I hate ‘strategic planning’...
The Collapse of Strategy and Its Implications - “Strategy” might be one of the most elemental parts of a business. And the most misunderstood. Perpetuating the problem is the proliferation of corporate strategy groups and “strategy” job titles that involve very little strategy in the economic sense of the term...
9 Types of People Who Never Succeed at Work - Social skills are becoming more critical than experience and knowledge for success in the workplace. Harvard economist David Deming studied workplace tasks from 1980 to the present day and found tasks that emphasise social skills grew by a whopping...
It's not fear that gets in the way of daring leadership. It's our armour. I’ve spent twenty years studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy, and I recently completed a seven-year study on brave leadership that was built around the following driving question: What, if anything, about the way people are...
I often tell my clients that a daily practice of self-reflection strengthens self-awareness and will enable them to make better choices. Leaders who work with me to shape and commit to such a practice are better able to tap into their highest potential for creativity, vitality, and success.
We loved this Fast Company article because it is interesting to look at the perception difference between children and adults. When adults are asked to draw a leader, they draw a man. But what about kids?