Leaders are tough nuts. They’ve got the courage to step up and be accountable, to take on responsibility, and to venture on new paths. But what do they really need? What is the thing that will make all the difference? In my work with leaders I have found that having a good sounding board and a community of peers is the biggest safe haven for CEOs, GMs, and senior executives. My latest adventure on the Larapinta reveals a few of their insights.
Time out with strangers in the desert is the place to develop fast friends.
Inspiration comes from others as much as from the views
Connection deepens in wild places.
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Read MoreCould you run your work from the ski slopes? (or beach) What would it take to turn a holiday destination into a work destination? I’ve just spent four weeks skiing and working from the skifields. There are some key lessons to be mindful of.
Preparation and considerations
Expectations can be a killer - be mindful of yours
Boundaries and the value of Deep Play
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Read MoreBeing comfortable breeds complacency. And complacency kills in leadership! What it kills first is courage. Getting uncomfortable through little aventures is the cure.
Beware the false promise that good times will last.
Beware that bad times will too.
Implement little adventures - and big ones - to exercise your courage muscle.
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Read MoreKofi Annan spoke to truth to power. He was unerring in his commitment and advocacy for peace and well-being for all human beings. We may not stand on a world stage as he did, but we can bring the essence of his leadership to life in the actions we take every day, and by so doing, also lead for the world.
Inherent human dignity.
Speaking truth to power.
Keep going.
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Read MoreMuch has been made of the transition from expert to manager. In Rising to Power by Eric Hansen and Ron Carucci, the authors shed light on the hazards and adaptations leaders need to undertake as they assume the mantle of authority.
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Read MoreAdventure has driven some of the most amazing discoveries in human history. We are hard-wired for it. But apart from the yearning fed by curiosity, is there a science to it?
Yes, the brain likes adventure
Yes, there are risks when we get the brain hooked on adventure
Yes, we can get adventure back in our life
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Read MoreHome base has a great sense of security. The familiar. The known. And yet it keeps us from growth. When facing a horizon, how do we muster the courage to leave the shore?
What are we holding on to?
What are we most afraid of?
What is that calling to us?
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Read MoreWe all get them: slumps. We forget they happen and are dismayed when they do. But slumps can be an opportunity. Don’t fight it; use it.
Progress happens when we bounce out of a dip.
4 types of questions to facilitate progress.
How to calculate your set point, and what to with it.
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Read MoreNot nearly enough leaders are looking to the impact of automation on job losses, including their own. Yet it’s not just that - we have a culture of blame to navigate too. How do you stack up? Are you disposable? Or indispensable?
Ego makes us disposable.
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Read MoreThe 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.
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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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Read MoreWe 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 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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Read MoreI 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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