We’re 2 months into the new year and if you’re like most it probably feels like the break over Christmas is a distant memory. I’ve fallen into a familiar trap over the last couple of weeks and now it’s time for me to eat my own dog food. I’ve been going at quite the pace and treating my days and weeks as if I was running a marathon like a sprint. The problem with that of course is that it can be exhausting and my energy levels never really get a (more…)

Happy New Year!!! Over the holidays I spent a few days building a French Drain. We bought our house about nine years ago and the back garden has never been right. Because of the position of our neighbours property and the slope of the ground, when it rained, we always ended up with a completely waterlogged back garden. Well after nine years I decided to do something about it. (more…)

Towards the end of the year I always find my mind wandering back to the year gone by. I look back on those things that have gone well, the things I’ve accomplished – how have I moved my life and career forward? – who have I connected with, and what could I learn from or do better?

I find this exercise invaluable because (more…)

It has been interesting chatting with people over the last few weeks about how they really didn’t like the idea of working from home when we went into lockdown and now they don’t want to go back into the office – they prefer to work from home! The human psyche is very interesting, isn’t it? Initially when things change we push back against it, it causes stress, worry and concern. This is perfectly natural because, believe it or not, we’re designed (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…)

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…)

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…)