Last week, while talking about this programme, It struck me that some of the reasons traditional thinking about leadership and leadership development is struggling to equip people to be experienced as effective leaders, is because...

It's not uncommon for people to feel apprehensive or anxious about things like; starting a new job or being involved with a new project team or spending a day with unknown people in a workshop? What is useful
to understand is that when we're faced with potentially 'fearful' situations/experiences, evolution takes over and does our thinking for us. The subsequent outcomes we experience when in these situations, is...

Being exposed to recent news stories from Iran, Afghanistan, Australia and New Zealand highlights the moral views that often emerge when cultures 'clash.' Moral viewpoints also emerge when we have misaligned cultures within our organizations...

In the article, author Art Kleiner poses a question...

The last couple of weeks has seen articles in the New Zealand Herald on the 'capabilities' today's leaders need to have in order to be effective. The most recent article talked about self awareness a capability that is at the heart of the Leadership Mentoring my clients have been benefiting from for a number of years.

3 thing happened...

The relationship between our beliefs and 'reality' is complex and concrete. Often what we believe becomes our reality even when another reality exists. Now, before we decide to take the red pill and join Neo in the Matrix, I'm mentioning this relationship between belief and 'reality' because...

Prompted by some of my clients sales experiences i've developed a 'Black Belt Sales' programme specifically for Australian and New Zealand sales people. For years I have experienced Australasian organizations get 'White Belt' results from american and european sales training programmes. Early in my working career I've even trained people in these 'overseas' programmes. I know the philosophies behind them inside out and they just don't work well in our culture! Here's a few reasons why;

A recent interviewee on a podcast about language and culture said "language in a culture dictates not what you can say but what you MUST say." How true that is. Right now, in your organization,...

A common approach companies take with their strategies is one of "here's the strategy now lets see how we can deliver it" rather than "here's what we're proposing, lets check how we could deliver this" and then modify and or 'resource up' to make sure they do deliver it. Checking 'usability' of your strategy enables you to understand both the...

I'm often involved in mentoring leaders on ways their organizations can use their company history to create an engaging and authentic story of who the organization is, why they exist and what they represent. When they create and enthusiastically tell these stories...

A recent Strategy & Business article by Michael Schrage emphasise this. In the article Schrage uses the term "The passive board," ...

Too many companies protect/police their 'symbolic brand' (brand symbols, logos, fonts, colours, sizing, placement ...) while neglecting their 'experiential brand' (workplace culture.)...

When i've talked about why 'Chiefing' is critical for leaders in organizations looking to engage their people with both the organization and it's strategies, the old saying 'Too many chiefs not enough indians' pops up from time to time, usually said by...

What is not often recognised is that these 'different organizations' require different communication approaches...

Recent listening to a social anthropologist on the increasing numbers of governments and councils 'rebranding' their country, city or region, reminded me of a session i had with an executive group helping them understand what they were taking on as they set out to rebrand their business. I left them with 2 key messages...

When ferries became my mode of transport for getting to town, cafes become my 'second home', and a  great thing about cafes, if you pick the right ones, are their magazine selection. So there I was, in one of my 'second homes'  reading yet another article on why innovation is our way to redemption and saviour from the calamities which have befallen businesses and countries..

I recently posted a comment about John Hoftmeister's (ex President Shell Oil) insightful article on the challenges the oil industry faces trying to be 'heard' when informing people about the valuable role they play in our world, and the positive contributions they make to society...