Making ‘FREE’ part of improving your bottom line

Making ‘FREE’ part of improving your bottom line That sounds bonkers I know but bear with me. I learned many years ago that no matter the business I thought I was in (HR Consulting) my actual business was a database. Yes I would bid for and win in-house work with a variety of businesses, but once the contract was over, … Read More

How to Turn sad and grumpy groups into high energy teams

I’m having a clear out of my old books and updating the ones I believe are still relevant. When I set off on my ‘team building’ journey; and in particular when I talked about ‘self-managing’ teams, the resistance was immense at all levels of an organisation (hence my first book, ‘Shift Your But’). Once the concept caught on I found … Read More

VALUES: Profits versus Planet

This is an extract from my latest book ‘Leaders Behaving Badly’: What happens when ordinary people show up, stand up and speak up. In this segment I will cover: Short term gratification versus long term regret The urgent need for leaders to become futurists The costs of ignoring early warning signs Factoring in costs versus benefits Short-term gratification versus long-term … Read More

Growing Me: Growing You

I’m sure we’ve all been faced with losing something that we’ve become really comfortable with. It could be that our job is made redundant; or we face a health challenge that prevents us doing something we love doing or we are faced with a relationship or even financial calamity that leaves us terrified of our ‘what next’. Fear actually comes … Read More

Values: Rights versus Responsibilities

If you are a parent you’ll be very familiar with the phrase ‘I’m allowed’.  It’s a phrase can start as early as 3 years old and will absolutely go on well into the late teens and even early 20’s. Sadly in some cases, it’s an attitude that can go on for LIFE!! I once heard a frazzled young Mum wrestling … Read More

Values: I Alone Can Fix Things v Together We Can Move Mountains

I’ve just had the absolute honour of speaking at a conference in Sydney for people who are first responders in a crisis. The audience was mostly medical personnel; managers who have to deal with unforeseen events and even some people who work with hostage negotiators. No pressure then! My topic was leadership and my session was ‘Courage Under Fire’. I’d … Read More

Did I REALLY recruit that person?

This is still one of the biggest ‘help’ calls I receive. Some poor stressed owner or manager has just gone through the laborious recruitment process, decided on a candidate and then discovered within weeks or even days, that they may have made a terrible mistake. The person just isn’t fitting in. How can that be? How can we go through … Read More

LEADERSHIP VALUES: I Alone Can Fix Things v Together We Can Move Mountains

I’ve just had the absolute honour of speaking at a conference in Sydney for people who are first responders in a crisis. The audience was mostly medical personnel; managers who have to deal with unforeseen events and even some people who work with hostage negotiators. No pressure then! My topic was leadership and my session was ‘Courage Under Fire’. I’d … Read More

Values and the power of ONE

If ever ‘values’ needed to be at the forefront of how we do business, it is NOW. I’ve recently presented to two audiences where I used Facebook and Boeing as prime examples of how NOT to do things if you care about your reputation.  Facebook notoriously ignored the fact that the Christchurch mosque shooter was livestreaming a massacre; Boeing turned … Read More

Have you fulfilled your destiny? If not, why not?

Over the school holidays, we had two grandchildren staying. Our grandchildren are all heading into  teen years now, so keeping them occupied is a whole lot more challenging than when they were toddlers. One wet and miserable afternoon we got to talking about ‘careers’ which led to talking about life path or ‘destiny’. A concept that was new to both … Read More