Leadership as Practice

I’ve been sitting with a pattern I’m seeing more clearly recently, and it’s in the ‘leadership’ space. Organisations aren’t saying leadership development is pointless; they’re saying something more uncomfortable. Their previous attempts haven’t really landed. Not because the programmes were badly designed. Not because people didn’t try.But because leadership development quietly drifted into something fragmented,… Read More Leadership as Practice

Men & the menopause

A study of 64 senior women leaders found something worth paying attention to – 87% said menopause didn’t disrupt their work. However, the difference wasn’t fewer symptoms, but the environment around them. They had: For all the men who are senior leaders out there, these aren’t “women’s issues”, they’re leadership conditions. If you’re a man… Read More Men & the menopause

Balancing Vision and Credibility

I’ve been working one-to-one with someone recently and we found ourselves reflecting on what makes strategic leadership different from direction and management. It comes down to clarity. Absolute clarity on the vision for the organisation and for your own area of specialism. But here’s the tension. Many leaders worry more about their specialism than the… Read More Balancing Vision and Credibility

Leaders as communicators

I was reading Making Decisions by Ed Smith the other week and saw this: A second rule of thumb: if someone says their job is ‘all about communication’ they are bad at decision-making. Interesting jobs are about making better decisions, decisions which then demand effective communication. It should be that way around: the primacy of… Read More Leaders as communicators

‘New’ Leadership

Another week and another survey of learning professionals has been published. They come around regularly and like TexMex food, seem to consist of the same ingredients which are folded differently and presented as something new. This time it’s asking quantitative and qualitative questions about leadership. What do we think will be the most popular responses… Read More ‘New’ Leadership