“You’re too busy chopping wood to sharpen the axe”. I heard Netflix founder Reed Hastings talk about this idea recently on the Guy Raz How I Built This podcast. He was talking about how – when we’re flat out at work – we often forget…
I haven’t been posting on LinkedIn much lately, as I’ve been finding it all a bit depressing. The volume of posts on LinkedIn has gone through the roof. But the quality has gone down the drain. And it appears to be driven by one thing:…
Here’s the one trick to look like a weak leader and undermine trust at the same time. Be a gossip. Because when we gossip about our colleagues or – worse – the people in our team, we: And I’m not pretending that gossip doesn’t have…
Here’s a story about two crazy French chefs cooking for Louis XIV. They’re both freaking out that they’ll get the guillotine if they stuff up their dish. One needs a lemon for the main. The other a lemon for the dessert. But there’s only one…
Imagine your leadership journey as two circles. The first represents who you truly are – your authentic self. The second represents who you believe you should – or must – be when you turn up to work. Your “professional” persona. Now imagine them in a…
“Don’t tell on others” might be the dumbest lesson we carry from childhood into the workplace. Most of us are taught when we’re young not to tell (or snitch, grass, dob etc.). This makes sense when it’s about trivial matters, but the problem is many…
If you’re not embarrassed by who you were five years ago, you’re probably not growing enough. I feel like fainting when I think about some of the misguided things I thought, said and did earlier in my career. It’s deeply uncomfortable for me to reflect…
As people use AI more, employers are being overwhelmed by a growing tidal wave of complaints, cover letters, e-mails and more. For example, a new Princeton University study quoted by The Economist shows that the average cover letter length has doubled since ChatGPT came online.…
I live in Western Australia where shark attacks are a thing. They’re rare, but the human behaviour around them is fascinating – and it’s taught me about how poorly we often deal with remote – but scary – risks. On a typical summer morning, there…
“Everybody is so change resistant” is code for “I’m not very good at leading change”. I’ve heard this a lot. I’ve said it before. But describing others as change resistant is what we say when we’ve failed to drive through a change that sticks. It’s…
Just because things worked out well, it doesn’t mean you made the right decision. A big trap in management is to judge decisions on single outcomes. We think people get the decision right when things work out well. And we think people get the decision…
We blame men for being men, workers for being workers and managers for being managers. But maybe there’s another explanation… When management doesn’t like what workers do, we often roll our eyes and think “typical workers”. And when workers don’t like what management does, they…
Here’s a thought: workplaces should be psychologically safe – but intellectually dangerous 🤔. People must feel psychologically (and physically) safe in any workplace. But at the same time, workplaces should have a strong intellectual immune response against bad ideas. This distinction sounds easy in theory,…
Want to know how your strategic planning compares to everyone else’s? I’ve been looking at the data from our Impact Society Strategic Plan Audit tool. This free 5 minute tool lets any manager check the health of their team or organisation’s strategic planning – both…
Hoping your team hasn’t noticed the elephant in the room? Too late, they have. This is a common issue in workplaces, where managers avoid addressing a situation directly and in doing so leave an abundance of space for people to make up their own stories.…
89% of leaders say they have values – but only 40% make them real. So it’s no surprise that most cultural change fails. I’ve been looking at the data from our Impact Society Strategic Plan Audit tool, which helps any leader check the health of…
Old Management loves using ‘confidentiality’ to avoid explaining decisions. And it usually works. When senior people say something is ‘confidential’ – it gives a thin aura of legitimacy and most people instinctively back off without questioning it. But, too often the problem is that leaders…
“I don’t want to set a precedent” might be the laziest sentence in leadership. Here’s why. Too many leaders obsess about setting a precedent when making a tough decision. Because it’s too often used as a kind of get out of jail free card to…
When someone messes up at work, is your first thought “what an a***hole”? Next time, try these two things before making any snap judgements. First, reflect on the question “why would a reasonable, rational and decent person do this?”. We usually assume that others behave…
AI is breaking my heart. Because while people are speaking more, they’re saying less. I love seeing people putting themselves out there, whether on LinkedIn or out there in the real world. But we’re losing something important in the process. More and more writing is…