Weekly Insights

What’s getting in your way?

We often have a romanticised notion of success, and yet it’s never as easy as it looks from the outside looking in. Everyone has flaws or hurdles that can hold them back. The difference between people who make progress (and those who don’t) is they know how to work through those challenges. Success starts with […]

How competent are you for the future?

In your schooling years it’s likely your learning focused on technical skills and knowledge – being able to write, spell, add and subtract or understand why volcanoes explode and dinosaurs became extinct. Even in later years of study, university or TAFE, and when you enter the workforce the focus is often on technical skills and […]

Are you really choosing?

It’s highly unlikely that you woke us this morning and thought ‘My goal today is to make a really bad decision’. And yet, it can be so easy to make poor decisions. As the field of behavioural economics shows we are not rational beings, and we regularly make imperfect decisions. We make decisions based on […]

Are you forgetting something?

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If you’ve ever been to hospital and had surgery you’ll remember that as you get wheeled into the operating theatre there are a series of checks that occur. The orderly or nurse will ask your name, what procedure you are having, and whether you are allergic to anything. Once you are under, they’ll use checklists […]

Who are you really?

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If you missed it, yesterday was World Values day. Yes, that was news to me too. I didn’t realise we had such a day. Then when I thought about it, I thought ‘How awesome is that!’ Think about it: How often do you spend time consciously thinking about your values? That is, what drives you and […]

Are you saying yes too often?

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Have you ever had a time when you said ‘yes’, and then seconds later got the feeling of dread and regret as you thought to yourself  ‘Why did I just agree to that?” It can be easy to say ‘yes’.  It saves explaining why you don’t want to do something, you worry about letting someone […]

Is winning the only goal?

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Like many Australians, last weekend I sat down to watch the AFL Grand Final, and as with any final there can only be one winner. Naturally, that’s the objective of both sides – to win. But as I was watching the very one-sided game, it got me thinking – Are there times when there are […]

Are you trying to go it alone?

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Johann Hari’s wonderful book – Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression and the Unexpected Solutions, is a stark reminder of the fact that as humans we crave connection. Without connection we feel lost, isolated and that impacts our mental health and well-being. In the book he recounts studies in the US which asks the […]

Are you testing to destruction?

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In manufacturing and industries that develop products, which if faulty could cause serious harm, they undertake a range of testing. One such test – known as a test to destruction – is designed to understand how much stress the product (be it components of a car, piece of machinery, airplane and the like) can tolerate. […]

Are you too focused on the finish line?

It’s the start of a project, a new idea, or a big challenge that you’ve been wanting to do for a while. You’re excited and ready to go, and already thinking about what it will feel like and be like once it’s finished. This enthusiasm makes you feel energised and motivated, but then something gets […]

Do you know the line you won’t cross?

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We all have values that underpin how we think and what we will and won’t do. These values can often be challenged in the workplace. A number of years ago I was working with a client who faced constant pressure at work. The leadership team they were a part of had a toxic culture, and […]

Are you all head and no heart?

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When I reflect on my corporate career there are a few leaders that stand out in helping to shape how I saw myself as a leader and my practice of being one. What I learned was that the best knew when to make ‘head’ based decisions, and when to think with their ‘heart’. It’s very easy […]

Is it them or is it you?

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We all have people in our personal and professional life who we find challenging. We may label them as ‘precious’, ‘difficult’, the ‘problem child’ or ‘hard work’. If they’re a colleague, the typical approach is to minimise the amount of time you spend with them and to find a way to work around them. If […]

What’s the intent of your question?

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As a child growing up I was one of those very annoying kids who asked questions all the time. The question often started with why. ‘Why this?’, ‘Why now?’, ‘Why do I need to..?”, and the list could go on. In some cases, the question was based on natural curiosity. At other times, the question […]

How to not let remote working kill your team’s culture

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Working from your home office, the local café, or wherever you choose. There’s no doubt that flexible working is a big plus. With the average Australian commuting more than an hour a day to get to work, cutting the need to travel to work can shave hours off your working day. Not to mention the […]

Is your learning mantra just rhetoric?

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There are hundreds of quotes and sayings about the importance and value of learning. We hear phrases like learning culture, fail fast, and learn your way ahead, as well as processes such as agile that are based on a learning mantra. It can be easy to talk about the importance of learning, but are you […]

What’s the story you’re telling yourself?

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We frequently hear and read rules and guidelines about what we should or shouldn’t do. We’re told to drink eight glasses of water a day, get so many hours of sunshine and sleep a day, and so on. Interestingly, many of these rules for living aren’t based on substantive evidence. For example, the concept of […]

How are you mastering your tyrannies of progress?

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Life is never a smooth straight line. There’s always ups and downs, which means days when you succeed and days when you don’t. What sets a person up for continued success is what they do on the days when things don’t go according to plan. Newly crowned World Number 1 tennis champion, Ash Barty, is […]

Three steps to get back in the game

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With retirement ages rising and longer life spans you are likely to move in and out of the workforce more frequently and to find yourself at some stage in your career needing to get back into the game. It could be because of time taken out of the workforce for child rearing, illness, lifestyle reasons, […]

What is your leadership promise?

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Good leaders. Bad leaders. Throughout your working life you will no doubt come across both. It’s rare that a person wakes up each morning with the intent of being a bad leader. Most people aim to do their best, but they are hampered by a lack of awareness, environmental factors and pressures that don’t bring […]