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,...
Change and personal development (4)
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...
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...
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
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...
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...
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,...
2 min read
How to think about change
If you’re not doing ‘change’ right now, you’re not in fashion. Whether it’s organisational change, personal transformation (hi Spring!) or even...
4 min read
Before you restructure, read this
In a client mentoring session on Friday, I was looking forward to hearing how a job interview had gone. After an extended secondment and a long...
1 min read
How to stop being a plastic bag
American Beauty is one of my favourite movies. In one memorable scene, we watch Ricky’s video of an empty, wrinkled plastic bag tossed about in the...
1 min read
How to live your values
I’ve had an absolute sh*t of a few weeks. I’ve made some of the hardest choices I’ve ever had to make in my personal life, in the face of confusion,...
1 min read
Just Keep Going
It’s hard to stick to new stuff. We sign up to new things all the time – fitness regimes, ideas, podcasts, committees – and the initial burst of...
1 min read
Commit or Quit
Do you ever sit in a conversation where everybody furiously agrees, leave feeling great about what you’ve decided – but then nothing happens? I see...
1 min read
How to Tame Talkfests: Focus prompts for frustrated facilitators
Man, I get sick of people talking sh*t. To be fair, it’s an occupational hazard. I run strategy and leadership workshops, where people are used to...
2 min read
How to Find your Purpose: 7 questions from Mark Manson
Purpose gets a bad rap. It’s the domain of the out-of-touch woke millennials who spend more time thinking about working than actually doing it… wants...
1 min read
Stop being a hero
Heroes overcome odds. We need to change the odds. I used to think I was a bit of a hero. I was proud of it, even. Beating the odds, I shifted my life...