Life & Leadership

Later this week I am beginning the LMI ‘Effective Strategic Leadership’ programme with a company in Coventry so I’ve been brushing up on the course content and, in the process, the course content has been working its work on me! Its a five lesson programme which is in essence very simple - The power

The practice of a good practice is a practice that we really should practice! Makes sense right? It has been well said that you are what you do every day. If you want to change anything, move forward in any way, learn a new skill or implement a new discipline into your life, there simply [...]

I was listening on the radio yesterday to a discussion on leadership fuelled by the recent public critique of Ed Miliband by one of his ‘supporters’. The two ‘expert’ guests were Michael Vaughan, ex-England cricket captain, and a senior ex-military leader. Both shared some thoughts about leadership

I write this as a dad to three kids aged 7, 6 and 4. They constantly amaze me with their desire to do new things, and their capacity to learn new skills really quickly. There is, however, always a temptation when one of them comes and wants to join in some activity or other that I’m doing. [...]

How long is your To Do list? I regularly ask people this question, and the record so far is one hundred and thirty four items! I’ll keep this post very brief, in case your To Do list is also very long! The point is that even if you complete twenty things off a list of [...]

I’m sure you are just like me in that you know people whose attitudes vary enormously when it comes to planning, organising, prioritising, scheduling, goal setting and the like. At one end of the scale there are those who plan everything, social life included, to the very n’th degree and for whom to

Great to get on with things and work hard and persevere…and great when others pull their weight and contribute to the team effort, but without a really strong ‘Why’, that effort and motivation and desire is always likely to wain sooner rather than later, and the job becomes a labour of love and it f

I had finished work on that Friday evening and was in the garden firing up the BBQ ready for some good food (if a little charred) and some relaxation outside at the end of a hard-working week. Suddenly from inside the house came a shout, or more of a scream really, and I ran inside [...]

Have a great week everybody – and don’t forget to keep an eye out for those potential 1% improvements! We can often look for massive change in things if we want to get better results, and we can be driven by emotional responses to current situations – “Its completely rubbish!”; “Everything’s got to

A few years ago I attended a leadership seminar at which a retired very senior manager from one of the world’s largest companies was asked what he thought was THE most important thing for leaders to learn in order to be effective. His answer has stayed with me ever since – “do everything you say [..