Leadership – it’s often the little things that matter
Publication: leadership
Great leaders usually have a great legacy. Their legacy is something they leave behind that has a positive impact on future generations. It may be how they’ve steered a nation through a period of growth. It may be how they’ve helped a business grow. It may be their philanthropic endeavours that have helped people in less […]
Why having confidence isn’t always good for you
Publication: decision making | leadership | performance
It’s often thought that to be successful you have to be confident. However, it’s not that black and white. In fact, too much confidence is a bad thing. Why? Because when you are certain you are right, you are almost certainly wrong! Over-confidence is one of the many brain based biases we are all afflicted […]
Why we need to say the Emperor has no clothes
Publication: influence | leadership | Step Up
You may remember from your childhood the Hans Christian-Anderson fairy tale titled – The Emperor Has No Clothes. The story centred on two conmen who pretended to be weavers and convinced the Emperor they could make him a magical suit – the finest in the land. The magic was that this suit would be invisible to […]
Expectations: Are they constraining how you lead?
Publication: influence | leadership | leading change
Expectations, we all have them. They can both constrain and inspire us. Problems arise when they define how we think and narrow our field of view. Expectations work both ways. Just as parents, peers, work colleagues, friends and family place expectations on us, we too place expectations on the people around us. Interestingly others can easily influence […]
Fairness – it matters more than you may think
Publication: leadership | Success
When you think of the traits of great leaders, being fair isn’t usually one of the traits that springs to mind. As humans we are acutely attuned to the concept of fairness. Children from a very early age notice when things don’t seem fair, with the inevitable wail of “That’s not fair!” This carries into […]
Want to be heard? Hear others first
Publication: communication | leadership | management | skills
Ever wondered how many words the average person speaks a day? Turns out it’s around 16000 for women, and 15500 for men. Curiously, there’s no research on how much of what we say is listened to or heard by the person or people it’s intended for. Research on this topic would be interesting because as […]
Modern Business Magazine: Successful Leaders know how to influence
Publication: influence | leadership | Success
For the April 2016 edition of ‘Modern Business: Success is everything’ I wrote an article about how to better influence in order to become a successful leader. Read the original article here, and flick to pages 56-57 or to download a copy of the PDF click here. — Despite advances in technology, organisations today are more, […]
SmartCompany: Nearly 90% of women feel under-represented at work
Publication: leadership | women
I was recently interviewed by Dinushi Dias from SmartCompany who was looking into a report by one of the world’s leading recruitment consultancies that found nearly 90% of women feel underrepresented at work. I was able to share insights from my experience and thoughts on how to shape diversity in the workplace. To see the original article […]
Why not knowing the answer is a sign of leadership
Publication: culture | leadership | learning
People often think that being a leader means needing to know more than others and having all the answers. When you cast your mind back through history, great leaders were distinguished by the fact that they usually made wise decisions. This doesn’t mean all their decisions were wise, but on balance their decisions had good […]
Institute of Managers and Leaders: Change starts with vision, but then what?
Publication: change management | communication | leadership | leading change
Today’s ‘change’ professionals need all round skills to thrive in increasingly complex roles. Leadership and Change Management are two areas upon which all senior change professionals need to focus. Michelle was interviewed by Insight Edge for the Institute of Managers and Leaders on this topic. — It seems that any discussion on organisational change takes one of […]