That’s it for another year. Your tree’s looking a bit sad and droopy (if it’s still there). Maybe you’re feeling a bit sad and droopy too. Or you’re energised and raring to go feeling shiny and sparkly about the year ahead. Or … you’ve got all these feelings going on at the same time….. you… Read more »

Posts Tagged: challenge
Ever wanted the ground to swallow you up?
The lowest, saddest points of my leadership career were when I felt completely useless – drowning in the detail and floundering like a fish in a shark-infested sea. I couldn’t hold my own; stand up for what I believed was right for our customers (because other louder voices had another agenda) and flapping and waffling… Read more »
This sentence changed everything
This year has been a tough one for many reasons. Two tragic events – one family death – my wonderful sister – and one natural disaster (flooding) in our village that, frankly, have been almost too momentous to take in. I count my blessings. Our house was hardly touched in the floods – but… Read more »
Never feel powerless again
I want to talk about #everydaypowerlessness at work – the things which, on the surface, might simply seem annoying or frustrating and even trivial – but can, over time, erode your confidence, your self- belief and your ability to do great work.
Corporate Values are Meaningless unless….

I have to say I am sometimes a bit cynical about corporate values (there, I said it!). Not because they are not good things to have – in theory they are – but because so often they are words created to sound good, written by the senior team, a ‘project group’ or a bunch of… Read more »
16 weeks until Christmas – What next?
Depending on how much you love Christmas that heading made you sigh or smile…….. The thing is many of us wait until 1st January to think about how we want our next year to pan out. But imagine if you started now – If there is just ONE thing you would like to be different… Read more »
Are you shutting your people down?
There’s been a bit of a theme in the team coaching and 1-1 work I’ve been doing this last couple of months and I wanted to share it with you. It’s this – we say we want people to contribute, to share ideas, to challenge our thinking – and yet we do just about everything… Read more »
5 reasons your voice is not being heard
It saddens me that so many people with really valuable and useful things to say don’t get heard. And yet the verbose, self-aggrandising wafflers get plenty of airtime! It saddens me because when I first became a senior leader, I struggled to get my voice heard too. And when we are often brought up to… Read more »
The danger of operating in ‘Survival’ mode
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been exploring the topic of unhelpful beliefs, stories and scripts. A few people have asked me why we behave in ways or repeat patterns that actually do us no good at all – and even though we know it, we seem unable to do anything about it.
Choosing a Different Belief is Liberating!
Last week I wrote about the first step in changing the self-limiting beliefs, scripts and stories that prevent us from being successful in life. I encouraged you to: Think about the beliefs you hold that prevent you from being as successful as you like (and to write them down). I used to have a strong ‘must… Read more »