Blog
The year is half way through. It’s a good time to take stock. Here are some questions and reflection exercises to help make the most of what has been, and what is yet to come.
Reflection is like navigation, start by assessing where you have been.
Next, determine where you are going - clarify the destination.
Finally, decide on your route plan - what steps you need to take next.
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Read MoreWe get comfortable with being comfortable. And it keeps us bound. If we are to truly know what it is to be alive and fully human, we need to heed the call to adventure.
How adventure opens the spirit
What happens when we stay wrapped in our comfort blanket
How consciousness expands in beauty
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Read MoreHomelessness is a terrifying experience. Living on the edge of society is alienating and horrific. As leaders, we can help.
It starts with understanding the issues.
Little things matters.
Who you are is the most critical bit.
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Read MoreWhen it comes to leadership, connection with others is the most crucial skill. Yet we don’t focus nearly enough on it. This makes us disposable at worst, replaceable at best. Connection has one key component to make it work best.
The pivot point that shifts isolation to connection
How connection is a river current
Why focus on others will benefit us all
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We have an innate human drive to gather, to belong. What separates those who seek company and those who create it?
What drives us to show up in community.
The giant leap to lead community, and how to do it.
Why we admire community leaders and why it could be us too.
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Read MoreSports teams: perhaps the biggest cliché for modeling leadership success. Plus, it is so far from reality it’s painful! It’s not sports, but adventure we should emulate.
Sports are finite events. Leadership is not.
There is an audience and a prize. No one is cheering or handing out awards for leaders.
You win, you lose. In leadership, there is only commitment, a do or do not.
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Read MoreIt’s lonely at the top.
The myth of the Strong Man and why we fall for it
Why we need to lead with answers
How community is the right solution for staying human - and successful - as a leader
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Read MoreBy definition, leadership is a lonely function. The buck stops with you. You make the tough calls, you cop the flack for failures, and with success, it is attributed to the team. It’s tough.
Where can we go to get re-charged?
How can we get reassurance?
Where can we get genuine a sounding board?
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I watched the afternoon sun light up the autumn tree leaves like a ballerina ablaze. It was magical! There was no fanfare, no trumpeted procession. Just nature expressing itself in full glory, boundless.
I’ve spent a lifetime in love with nature. I’ve had some profound personal experiences face to face with the Great Mystery: northern lights and their ghostly swirls above a remote wild lake, serenaded by loons and their haunting soulful cry. I’ve spent many summer afternoons staring out to sea, bedazzled by the diamond sparkles.
I see dead trees on arid Australian landscapes as frozen dancers, a shadow of consciousness, expired and retreated. Like a tide that comes in, swirls about, and ebbs away.
I feel the breeze and marvel at its invisible touch, sometimes gentle, sometimes fierce and ferocious.
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Read MoreHanzi Freinacht has written a fantastic book, The Listening Society: A Metamodern Guide to Politics Book One, on adult development and why it matters. He lays out an analysis of the various leadership development models and adds a few other layers of development needed. His main point is that development matters. We need to develop our mental and emotional capacities in order to contend with the world we have created. We need to develop our inner dimensions to keep up and manage the complexities of what has evolved in our various cultures and economic systems.
In this brief video I give you an overview, and then a practical strategy to get started: morning routine.
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Read MoreWhat would cause a professional sportsperson to risk their career with ball tampering? When did winning become more important than integrity? How does one let a decision like this stain their moral fabric?
We’ve seen this before of course. Who could forget Lance Armstrong when he finally confessed to drug doping on the Tour De France, with the explanatory, “Everyone does it.” The argument was that it’s not a fair playing field if you don’t dope.
It’s amazing what we will justify if we don’t have a strong moral code. In my new book, Loyalty, I explain how the best cultures, the most consistent and enduring ones, have a Culture Compass to which they hold themselves accountable. They know their values, they know the behaviours that line up with those, they know their purpose and who they serve, and they know what results they want to produce. They have a system and a practice of building the Culture Compass into their recruitment, induction, and regular team engagements.
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Read MoreEvery once in a while an elephant shows up. You know, the thing that is blooming obvious, but no one wants to talk about.
Like the fact that Uncle Fred drinks way too much and smells of urine. Or Susan spends more time socialising on Facebook than she does doing the accounts. Or the boss’s right-hand man – the ‘Golden Boy’ – has tantrums that keep everyone cowering behind their desks and taking really, really long lunches – out.
What do you do? If you say something, then what started as something uncomfortable may become a Major Issue. If you pipe up about smelly Uncle Fred, then the family is going to have to deal with alcoholism. If you point out Susan is wasting company time, you may become the tattle-tale. If you complain to the boss about Golden Boy’s tantrums, then maybe you’ll get the sack.
Our fears of creating even more uncomfortable feelings keep us paralysed.
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Read MoreIn Australia, talking about feelings at work is akin to dancing on a tabletop in your underpants. You just don’t do it. Not unless there has been a significant amount of alcohol consumed.
Here’s why we need to get over ourselves and start talking about feelings:
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Read MoreLosing good staff is a serious bummer. It’s disruptive and costly. Our Boundless Team falters as we scramble to fill the void left behind. As a leader, it’s hard not to feel hurt and betrayed by someone we value deciding to leave. The default is to simmer with resentment and blame them for lack of loyalty.
If we don’t ask, “Could I have done anything differently?” we miss an opportunity to improve. The first area to look at improving is an underrated one: recognition. It’s a simple thing to implement, with astounding results.
Consider this insight from O.C Tanner*:
Read MoreLet’s face it, when we finally get that role we've been seeking as leader in an amazing organisation, we can’t wait to get our hands dirty and put our stamp on the place. After all, that’s why they hired us, right? To bring new perspective from different experience. We’re meant to improve things. They expect change.
Here’s what happens...
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Read MoreOne of the things that holds leaders back from reaching their highest potential is lack of capability. We need to be growing and learning constantly to keep up with the transformation of work today. Not learning, not growing. Not growing, we’ll be left behind.
Books are one of the best ways to immerse ourselves in the world of ideas and gain new skills quickly. Below are my top favourite books I have sent to clients to help them with their productivity, strategy, and influence.
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Read MoreI flipped to a page in my journal from some time ago where I’d listed my worries of the day. I remember them feeling huge and overwhelming. Getting them out on paper is always my go to strategy for stress management. I recall they still felt onerous, even down on paper.
Months later, nothing had turned out as badly as I thought it might. The consequences happened. But there were no long-lasting ill effects. I moved through the crisis.
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Read MoreIt’s confession time. I would much rather have positive feedback than constructive. I’ve been working on this preference for years now. I *know* that constructive feedback helps me improve, shows me what I cannot see myself, and offers the pathway to elevated performance.
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Read MoreWe are working on Big Things this year with all my clients. The energy of stepping up and leaning in is rife and dazzling.
Big Things need Big Ideas to bring them to life. Here’s what’s on the table for captains of industry, mavens of business, wizards of enterprise. These are the folks who are going Boundless - achieving more with less struggle. They are busting blocks, bridging gaps, and sailing past the headland to wild seas beyond. These are the Big Ideas they are using to keep them steady through turbulence.
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Read MoreI was thinking about how to become the best version of self for this year. And it really comes down to three different tactics. It's input, output, an idle.
It’s kind of like running a car.
You need to put petrol in. That's the input. You need to press the gas pedal. That's the output. Then you need to put it into idle and rest the vehicle once in a while.
So you take those three strategies and you apply it to the three aspects of self. Those are head, or wisdom, heart, which is compassion and 'hara' which is gut or vitality.
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