It’s a funny thing I notice about LinkedIn. Posts about vulnerability, authenticity and psychological safety get a lot of interaction. Which is great, as these are important, if nuanced, topics in leadership. However, posts about some of the harder parts of leadership, such as dealing with an underperforming team member, or making challenging commercial decisions […]
Leadership
Being good isn’t enough
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” What is true of “men” in Edmund Burke’s famous quote is true of any social unit – communities, companies, governments. I believe most humans are good, and the vast majority are not intentionally bad. With a few exceptions (step […]
The killing of ethnic minorities anywhere is the killing of oppressed people everywhere.
The killing of George Floyd is unconscionable not just for its brutality and inhumanity, but for its inevitability. Because in societies whose actions value the lives of some less than others, oppression doesn’t start with a policeman crushing a neck. It takes deeper roots to lead to these kinds of outrages. Sometimes it is blatantly […]
How SME leaders kill off their strongest advantage
It never ceases to amaze me when SMEs voluntarily kill off their own advantages. One of the beauties of being relatively small is that we can be nimble. We can respond or pre-empt quickly. We don’t need to get 8 levels of approval, manage 9 competing quarterly-bonus obsessed execs and align 12 business units. Yet […]
Shall we rebuild the same unequal, vulnerable and high-carbon economy we had before?
“It would be a tragedy if after spending $10-20tn of public money we simply rebuild the same unequal, vulnerable and high-carbon economy we had before.” Dr Andrew Steer, president and CEO of World Resources Institute. I couldn’t have said it better. But beyond saying it, we actually need to act. Here are a couple of […]