Now that we’re over the worst of the pandemic (well, in New Zealand anyway) it’s important to start to look to the future. Whether you’re in business for yourself, part of a team, or leading a team, creating a compelling future is vital for getting up and running after a significant change. Whenever I need to create a new direction I always return to a tried and tested formula; I call it the R.I.D.E. formula and, even though (more…)

I hope you and those close to you are safe and well. These are challenging times and they are certainly invoking a lot of different emotions for people. As a leader, all we can do is provide support to our teams and encourage them to make themselves the priority. If your experience is anything like my own, you probably jumped into the response to the pandemic with a sense of gusto and challenge; however, as the weeks (more…)

I’m sitting on Tauranga beach writing this and with St Patrick’s Day looming I can’t help but think about the impact that one man has had, not only on the lives of every Irish person, but also on generations of Irish people all over the world. The story of St Patrick is an interesting one and one I recommend having a quick look at. When St Patrick was converting Irish people to follow God he was called upon by the king of Ireland (more…)

There’s a little story that David Gill shared with me last year and I had to share it wider. David is a passionate people leader and he shared that he recently had an opportunity to go out on a tug boat in Wellington harbour and guide a ship into port. This is something that he has always wanted to do and he absolutely loved it. He then went on to draw an analogy to leadership that is so relevant for today’s environment. (more…)

It’s the beginning of another year and of course I’m going to talk about goal setting. It’s such an important part of our personal and professional development, and is an absolute must in your leadership toolkit. How many of us set goals for the new year, start off with a hiss and roar but have nothing to show for our efforts a couple of months later. We’ve all been guilty of it because goal setting alone isn’t enough. (more…)

I was giving a workshop on communication a few months ago and I shared that the only real way to build relationships was through face to face interactions. One of the participants absolutely stumped me when he vehemently disagreed and proclaimed that in his last role he worked from home and through email and social media formed some the best relationships of his life. I had to agree that the world is changing and that it is possible to form a relationship over the internet but (more…)

There is a famous quote from the bible, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12:31) and while it sounds like a good idea, I don’t recommend it. I might be bringing upon myself the wrath of Christians everywhere but that’s not my intent. I understand the intention behind the statement and, in the perfect world…with the perfect person, it would be great advice. But it’s not a perfect world and I haven’t yet met the perfect person. Why I don’t recommend treating your neighbour as you would yourself (more…)

Feedback is one of those things that is talked about a lot in organisations but is rarely done well. Sometimes, if you can believe it, it’s not done at all! No feedback at all is so much worse than “negative” feedback because without any feedback you don’t know if you’re hitting the mark or not. I put “negative” in double quotes because I believe feedback is just feedback…there’s no such thing as negative feedback, there’s only the meaning you put on it. All feedback is useful and there are certain things you (more…)

When I first arrived in New Zealand my boss was a relatively heavy smoker. It wasn’t unusual to find him outside dragging on a cigarette before coming back into the office to get back into his work. I often found myself joining him as we engaged in some conversation about an existing challenge we were facing into and although I never smoked, just the change of environment helped move the discussion along. After that brief five minutes outside we often came up with a solution or at least steps (more…)

What if I was to tell you that you are not really who you think you are? It sounds like a line straight out of The Matrix, but for the majority of us, it’s true. It’s like a big secret that we carry around about ourselves and we think we’re the only one who knows it. The truth is, we all carry the same secret and we hope that no one else will ever discover it; it’s like a little game that everyone is playing, the person with the best poker face wins…or is the ultimate loser. You see, as human beings, we all share the same (more…)