2 min read
How to Be Kinder: A Learner's Perspective
I'm not always a very kind person. Not because I'm not good or generous, or because I don't care about others, but because my natural style is pretty...
4 min read
How to Break Down: A word from the pupae
When it came time to share this week’s What’s On Your Mind episode, I had a complicated reaction. The episode was recorded a little while ago,...
5 min read
Could COVID-19 change relationships forever?
When I receive grateful emails and messages from readers and fans, I sometimes feel uneasy. I received one such email last week, which went as far as...
2 min read
Values-based Leadership: Practice what you preach
On Thursday night, I received the final proof of my new book, ready to go to print on Friday morning. I scanned over the cover, checked the layout...
7 min read
Embrace Meh: 6 surprising benefits of feeling like sh*t
Feeling like sh*t, or FLS, is one of the most common elements of the human experience. I dare you to find someone that’s got through a week without...
3 min read
3 Things You Can Do To Make Your Meetings Suck Less
Because they probably suck… and it’s probably not your fault. Why are so many workshops and meetings that are supposed to be important, so hopeless?...
4 min read
8 Things People Get Wrong About Strategy
Strategy is the Emperor’s New Clothes of the working world. It’s one of those buzzwords that lost much of it’s meaning in the 1980s, but people need...
8 min read
How to Learn From Your Mistakes: 7 Steps to Growth
In late 2019, I interviewed a Mayor on stage at a conference in Australia. His Council had pulled off some seriously impressive work that they were...
16 min read
8 ways to kill stress for good
We’ve been on a stress rollercoaster the last couple of years, haven’t we? We had all that lovely acute stress in COVID, where we smashed into panic...
3 min read
Why are you like this?: How strengths overused become weaknesses
Why am I like this?!" is a bit of a catchphrase in my house. Usually, I’m bemoaning something I’ve stuffed up. Either I’ve messed up my admin, worked...
4 min read
Five Skills for Leading Strategic Conversations
Leadership used to be a pretty straightforward affair. The boss knew all the things, and told all the people who worked for them what to do. Nice....
7 min read
How to Lead Change When People Don’t Care
It's hard to lead change when people are too busy and distracted to care.
12 min read
Boundaries 101: Your guide to personal and professional peace
It's hard to set boundaries. We don't want to let people down or look bad. But when we refuse to draw a line in the sand about what we will and won't...
3 min read
Twelve Books I Enjoyed in 2020
I’m a book junkie - I read over 100 in 2020! Here’s 12 books that I think are worth checking out. Personal development Think Like a Monk by Jay...
3 min read
Five important lessons I learned in 2020
If 2020 had one thing going for it, it was lessons. Buckets of them. We learned, together, about what we were capable of. About what really mattered....
5 min read
Your 2020 digest
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes It would be easy to treat 2020 a bit like a regretful purchase – you know, when you throw the receipt away without...
4 min read
Angry people
I woke up on Sunday morning full of Christmas spirit. Oh wait, no, I didn't. I woke up on Sunday morning full of indignation, which I channelled into...
4 min read
Facilitating difficult groups: 6 lessons I learned the hard way
When I was 22 years old, a graduate policy wonk in my first real job, I was tasked with my first strategic planning assignment. The brief: prepare a...
5 min read
How to move on: 4 steps towards acceptance
I'm a career facilitator, so I built the first iteration of my business by helping others make sense of things. It's clear to me from personal and...
5 min read
10 ways to take charge of your life
There’s no way of knowing what’s coming next in your life - after the last few years, nothing would be a surprise! But there are plenty of things you...
3 min read
How to Plan Your Year When Things Are Uncertain
This is usually the time of the year where I’d have my 2021 on the wall, month by month, meticulously planned out – significant pieces of work, trips...
8 min read
4 Steps to Playing the Long Game
How was your 2020, overall? Mine was a nightmare, to be honest. I worked so hard that I became an insufferable control freak, burnt out and...
2 min read
How to convert a cynic: assume positive intent
As a facilitator, I can spot a cynic a mile away. Their body language is pure resistance: folded arms, suspicious expressions, and deep sighs. They...
2 min read
How to handle uncertainty
Last week, I argued that people don’t actually fear change. As I outlined in this LinkedIn post, we fear what change represents: loss, uncertainty,...