One of the primary reasons why leaders struggle with changing both themselves and their organisational cultures is that they fail to differentiate between horizontal development and vertical growth, and they focus most of their growth efforts on horizontal...
Why is it that there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems, and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader? The answer is...
Triangulation is defined by psychiatrist Murray Bowen as ‘a breakdown in communication between two or more people resulting in one or several of those people attempting to resolve/discuss the issues outside the confines of the parties to the communication’. For...
For the past 20 years I have worked with leaders and organisations to help create positive change in both. In my work, I differentiate between horizontal development and vertical growth, and I focus primarily on vertical growth. Horizontal development means developing...
Great leaders know they must take accountability for their behaviour. However, many leaders can miss the fact that there are two sides of accountability. We use the term ‘200 per cent accountability’, which means the leader takes 100 per cent accountability for his or...
Have you ever worked in an organisation that boasts a great sounding set of values — ‘integrity’, ‘inclusion’, ‘teamwork’, ‘curiosity’, ‘transparency’, ‘respect’. . . — yet fails to make them meaningful through concrete action, leadership role modelling, rituals,...
The Challenge of Dealing with Strong Emotions Great leaders are honest with themselves and others, rather than denying their mistakes. They are interested, even excited, to see behaviours in themselves that are not working and they are courageous enough to admit it....
Developing as a leader is about cultivating our inner strength to stay true under fire, to ask questions we don’t know the answer to, to stay balanced when our world is turning upside down, to stay kind and respectful when the heat of anger and frustration are...
The basis of leadership is trust. In his book The Speed of Trust, Stephen M. R. Covey explains, ‘Trust always affects two measurable outcomes: speed and cost. When trust goes down, speed goes down and cost goes up. This creates a trust tax. When trust goes up, speed...
In their book The Leadership Challenge, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner explain that, ‘Leadership begins with a belief in yourself and continues only if other people believe in you.’ To believe in you, people have to know (1) who you are and what you stand for, and (2)...
