Liz Truss this morning said in interview that there are more important things to focus on than whether Boris Johnson broke lockdown rules. This debacle is a treasure trove of lessons on values, on apologies, and on leadership. Values I tell all companies I work with to get their values in place, and to make […]
Being authentic is not the most important thing
The “Be Authentic” religion has always troubled me. Dogmatic. Non-negotiable. Supreme. I don’t buy it. It’s not the most important thing, because it positions your “authenticity” as more important than the collective good. “Be authentic” is a selfish mantra. The top of the hierarchy isn’t to be authentic. It is to “do the right thing”. […]
Where Your Strategy Goes to Die #7 – Comedy without the humour
We all know someone who never lets the truth get in the way of a good story. Many of us have elected those people into national office. But look inside a strategy session, and you’ll see grown women and men not letting reality interfere with their strategic goal. Why let the truth get in the […]
Thinking and Saying is the Easy Part
Coming up with a strategy is easy. Articulating values is easy. Defining a company purpose is easy. Articulating them well is much harder. But hardest of all? *Doing* them. Making them real. Mostly because it takes some planning, a process, discipline and a team to take them from words to reality. But if you put […]
A Special Place to work
A New Year’s wish for all of us. There’s a Special Place to work. One that is exceptionally rare, and often only temporary. It’s a place where the leaders understand that servant leadership is not a badge to show off for the world to know what a great leader they are, but a sacrifice to […]