LEADERSHIP BEHIND THE SCENES

“I look around and I don’t see anyone “above me” I want to be like.”  Ursula, a talented leader able to deliver both on people and profit promises was explaining to me why she wasn’t looking for bigger/higher opportunities. “It looks like they sacrifice big,” she...

You’re starting a new job and you want to get off to a good start. But in the process of trying to get it right, you’re making a key mistake. “How is the new guy in your office?” I asked a friend a few years ago. “He is trying so hard to prove himself. It’s really...

As you judge your parents so your personal power suffers. The more you want to skip this episode – the more you probably need to listen to it. And let’s be clear! You don’t need to ever speak to your parents again, if that is what you’re worried about. You might want...

Back in 2009 I was watching Celebrity Masterchef religiously. (I have a slight obsession with cooking programs). I remember watching Iwan Thomas Welsh sprinter and Olympic gold medallist enter the Masterchef Final and thinking: well of course he can make it to the...

Have you spent countless hours trying to figure out how to get the best out of your team and how to motivate them? Perhaps there is one specific person that you keep thinking about… If your answer is yes, you have committed one of the classic leadership mistakes. Know...

Want to be a high achiever? Then you need to ruthless in what you choose to bother your mind with and how you set up your daily routines. We are faced with countless choices daily and bombarded with information. Guarding your mental capacity and limiting the amount of...

Did you know that your success patterns as a leader, and your ability to be lead has a lot to do with your childhood? You might find this an inconvenient statement, but that doesn’t make it any less true. What happened to you as a child, good, bad, ugly, joyfull, has...

As a leader, you want to be acutely aware of anything that negatively affects your power, your ability to influence, and have people really come along with your initiatives. (We are talking about the good kind of power used with integrity to do more of the good stuff...

Today is part 1 of two episodes about the “Ejector Seat”. The Ejector Seat is the kind of role in an organisation, where it seems like, no matter how hard you try to find the right candidate, no one is successful. People go off on sick leave, get fired or just leave –...

Sometimes a relationship at work is tricky and everyone says: just talk to them about it. But you can’t. You know that you talking to your boss or your colleague who you are having trouble with isn’t going to lead to a productive conversation and you’re so frustrated...

The higher up you get as a leader, the less time you have to build trust with people. But it's no less crucial. Without trust you can't get thebest out of people or build high performing teams. This episode is about a single detail that helps you build closeness and...

It’s been 11 years of (almost) daily mediation for me. The first 5 years of meditating I didn’t have any children. My time was MY time… It didn’t seem that easy at the time to stick to a routine – but looking back – that was the easy days. Then I had my first-born,...

People are actually OK getting fired. Of course, no likes it. But we get that organisations change shape frequently and that means shifting of roles and responsibilities. But we’re certainly not OK with HOW the ending is conducted most of the time. The how of an...

When new leaders join an organisation they usually want to focus on the future and not get dragged down by past challenges. In their enthusiasm to move everyone on to think about what’s next, leaders often say some very well-meaning but extremely unhelpful words....

Work isn’t just work. Saying “just” about work implies that we shouldn’t be feeling very much about our work, because hey “it’s just work”. But there is nothing “just” about work. Work matters on so many levels and it’s very often absolutely appropriate that we...