Blog
In this last week leading up to the holidays, I wanted to share my heartfelt gratitude for YOU! For reading my newsletters, for sending me comments, and for doing the gritty hard work of leadership. It takes so much courage to stand up and be seen and heard, to choose to make a difference, to nudge the world forward in a better way, even with naysayers, critics, and our own inner demons.
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Read MoreThe office Christmas party: loathe it or love it? It is a universal principle that end of year celebrations are done to foster good company culture.
This is mostly true. Our workplaces are modern tribes, and a tribe needs a sense of purpose and moments in time to know that we are progressing towards that purpose. End of year parties provide an opportunity to pause, reflect, and celebrate.
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Read MoreEngagement and interpersonal relationships form the core focus of my work with teams. I’m obsessed with dissolving barriers to workplace results and relationships. Morale is often a casualty of things gone wrong.
A workshop participant asked, ‘is there anything I should or should not do when it comes to encouraging positive workplace morale?’
Let’s look at an example to tease out the solution. Consider one of your workplace first day stories. Do you remember what it was like arriving in to a new workplace? What happened in your first interactions? Were they inspiring? Energising? Or cold and depressing?
In my experience, how you start is how you go on. And in this we discover the secrets of morale.
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Read MoreIn exploring beyond boundaries, boundless, there have been many experiences of letting go. To explore a life in Australia, I left my culture, community and family behind in Canada. I let go of the known to seek out the new.
Boundless Leadership has at its core the premise of expansion and growth. It has the energy of seeking, of evolution.
Within that concept there lies another one: expansion is not uni-directional. It has movement backwards and forwards. Boundless Leadership is an oscillation between limitless possibilities, and returning to the core of who you are, and the fabric of your being.
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Read More“Yup that’s me. I get it from my parents.” My client sighed in resignation, defeated.
She told me about her tendency to be self-critical, and how it stemmed from the lack of support and encouragement from her parents. Nothing was ever good enough. Any success was dismissed with ‘you could have done better’.
My client felt she had worked hard her whole life to outrun the shadow of not being good enough. And now, exhausted and at the end of her tether, she wanted something to change.
How do we escape our history?
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Read MoreI met with Rob Evans of AllBids last week. He attended the Edge of Leadership Un-Conference last year and had a brilliant time. More than that, he was able to connect with Peter Gordon, the CEO of Hands Across Canberra, a local community Foundation that raises funds for various community organisations in Canberra. Inspired by the stories of business-community collaborations, Rob met with Peter and together they worked out a project where people could sell their unwanted goods and donate the money to Hands Across Canberra. It’s called “Canberra’s Biggest Garage Sale”.
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Read MoreStanding looking out to sea over a beautiful expanse of land, I could not help but feel at once small and vast. This is the power of environment.
Environment causes evolution. It's a concept I learnt 15 years ago from the founder of Coach U and Coachville, Thomas Leonard. He had deep insight into how crafting environments deliberately can cause evolution.
Leonard highlighted how all animals and plants adapt to their environment and conditions. The polar bear has developed a thick white fleece for camouflage in Arctic snow. The Chameleon is renowned for changing its colours to blend in to the landscape. Look at any animal and any plant you will see how it has evolved to suit the situation.
Leonard’s theory about deliberate evolution started the question: “what if we deliberately changed our environment to cause adaptation?”
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Read MoreThe Limits to Growth is a 1972 book about the computer simulation that tested exponential economic and population growth on a planet with limited resources. Largely it presented a doomsday scenario where eventually demand outstripped supply and we as species faced catastrophic consequences. It has spurred continued debates in scientific, political, and environmental circles.
Can we have too much? Is there a point we need to say 'enough'?
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Read MoreIt is a well-known fact that an able and intelligent human in possession of singular ambition must be in want of progress.
Hear! Hear! And yet, when it comes to the mechanics of seeking progress, said able and intelligent human tends to retreat to the distracting halls of day to day minutiae and the comfortable gathering spaces of known social circles.
In short, the familiar eats the unknown for breakfast.
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Read MoreWhat are our key responsibilities as leaders? As Boundless Leaders, if we are to go to the edge of what is possible, what do we really need to keep in mind?
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Read MoreIn my Leader’s Edge Mastermind group, and in my weekly team meeting, I always ask, ‘What are you celebrating this week?’ As Boundless Leaders, we are constantly stretching towards new horizons, and it’s important to acknowledge how far we’ve come. It’s the key to building a strong centre that allows the ongoing exploration into the unknown.
Invariably it is a bit of a struggle to find something ‘noteworthy’ to list on the celebrations ledger. We are so locked in to the idea that celebration needs a significant achievement to warrant notice. And so we drag ourselves from week to week, without stopping to take a breath. It’s only when we reach a target that we might experience a passing moment of euphoria, then it’s back to the grindstone.
I think we can do celebration better.
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Read MoreBoundless Leadership is when we know everything is possible, and we have a deep and strong centre that allows us to explore the edges of what is possible. I’m interested in what blocks our progress in boundless leadership. What stops us from developing a strong centre, and what keeps us from moving past the edges.
In a survey to my tribe, I asked, “What are your biggest challenges at work?”
Here are the top 3 answers:
Read More“What percentage of your life is currently your own?”
This is one of the questions I ask clients when we first start working together. The majority answer less than 100%. The sense of obligation is rife.
It got me thinking about what holds us back. Obligations are one of the big anchors we drag along behind us. They drain energy and vitality. They are one of the biggest risks to Boundless Leadership.
Boundless Leadership is stepping boldly in to the unknown where everything is possible. Limitations are dissolved, and our energy is abundant with enthusiasm, and industry.
Obligation clogs up the petrol of our passion.
Read More“Oh crap!” These were the words that spun through my head as I flipped over my skis, landing upside down, smacking my head. It hurt.
We had 1.5 meters (5 feet) of snow in a week. This is highly unusual, and in 20 years of skiing in the Australian Alps, I have not seen the like!
I also had more falls this week than I have had in the last five years. It was a combination of heavy snowfall, poor visibility, and funky, sticky snow.
I hadn’t skied this kind of snow before and I felt like a learner all over again.
New conditions need new ability.
Read MoreI’ve been thinking about this idea of exploring the edge of experience. Growth is trying new things, exploring aspects of yourself as yet unknown, striving for new levels of performance and results not yet achieved.
Adventure in to the unknown requires deep commitment, profound courage, and a centered core. And you can’t do that without a full tank of mojo!
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Read MoreGrief stained my heart. Every day this week stories of hatred, murder, violence leapt from the media. White supremacy violence in Charlottesville, a President who all but excused it, Pauline Hanson and her hate-filled vitriol against Muslims, and yet another bus attack against civilians, this time in Spain.
What are we doing to each other?
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Read MoreWith all the fresh snow from the ‘Blizzard of Oz’, it seemed every man and their dog was out on the slopes, taking advantage of the extraordinary conditions. This meant long queues for the lifts. If you’ve never skied at a resort before, imagine this: it’s like sheep being squeezed through little channels to funnel towards a shearing shed. At the ski lifts, the action point is where people line up to get on the chair or tow-bar. There is a sheep-dip like turnstile that reads your pass electronically, before you shuffle forward towards the chair. For a four-person lift, there are four turnstiles, the idea being that you go through in a line, all ready for the chair.
Sounds good in theory. In practice, mayhem.
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Read MoreI think it's every leader’s dream that staff show up excited to be at work, play hard all day, produce amazing results, and pledge undying loyalty to the company. Then reality hits.
Leaders get disillusioned when staff don't seem to care as much as they do. They don't put in as many hours or see the bigger picture like they do. Then the complaints start: Staff have a sense of entitlement! They're not performing at the right level! They’re not the right fit!
Some of this may be true.
And yet, blaming the symptom won't fix the cause.
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Read MoreOn a three week canoe trip in 1985 it rained every single day. Even with moments of sunshine there was always a sprinkle. We lived in our raincoats! It was a smelly and soggy time. Lighting a fire was the daily challenge. If we came across some particularly good kindling, we tucked in our jacket pocket to keep it dry and warm, hoping body heat would dry it out a little. Otherwise it was peanut butter and jam on crackers for dinner – again.
Fire is important for its warmth and for cooking. It feeds body and soul! Culture is the same: it warms and keeps our soul fed.
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Read MoreI gaped as my friend Sandra told me of her near-death experience paddling on a river. She fell in, got hypothermia, had no effective communications, and had to crawl out of a canyon to find help. It could have ended very, very badly. I shuddered at what may have happened.
I’m all for adventure. It is one of my core values and I have lived all my life following its call. Solo adventure can be done safely, with plenty of planning. In my experience though, adventure together is better. It’s safer, easier, and way more fun.
Likewise, strategy together is better. None of us is as smart as more of us. We can challenge assumptions, test ideas, and explore creatively together.
Here are some key principles to make it work well for you.
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