I’ve found that many clients I coach and mentor hold themselves to higher standards than others. This often leads them to take responsibility for others’ actions and question whe… Read More

Recently, I’ve been having conversations with leaders who are in the countdown to a State Government election. The election date has been known for some time, so I’m told it&rsqu… Read More

Steve Jobs was famous for following his gut. Those gut calls contributed to many Apple success stories. But when he was diagnosed with a rare neuroendocrine tumour cancer, Jobs’ trust… Read More

If eyes are the windows to the soul, your questions are a window to your values. The way you ask questions reveals what you care about, what you expect, and how you relate to others. As an e… Read More

Imagine you work with a leader named John. He recently discovered he can increase his tolerance of ambiguity and leadership effectiveness by being more curious. He read that using the &lsquo… Read More

One of my coaching clients, let’s call her Liz, prided herself on being a great questioner. She believed that by asking her team members questions, she empowered them to think for them… Read More

Let’s go back to the late 2000s. You want to watch a movie or TV show. You could rent a DVD at a video store or stream it online on your computer or TV. What would you choose if the da… Read More

When working with organisations, I often hear they’re challenged by the silos that exist between work areas and how hard it is to break them down. Executive leaders express frustration… Read More

Feeling connected in today’s world can be tough. Loneliness and social isolation are not unusual experiences. It doesn’t matter whether you’re young, ageing, on a high inco… Read More

Imagine you are a successful engineer who has been promoted to a management role. You are offered training in technical management skills like budgeting and using the in-house software syste… Read More

Sometimes we need to make decisions that break our hearts. We found our gentle giant Ollie when a local pet rescue organisation advertised him as a $99 Christmas special. He captured our hea… Read More

I’m a big believer in working with your strengths. So, it was no surprise when I started working with a DNA performance coach to help me understand myself better after noticing a signi… Read More

Imagine that you are leading a major change initiative in your organisation. You have a clear vision of what you want to achieve, a detailed plan of action, and a strong team of supporters… Read More

A recent trip to MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) in Tasmania had me reflecting on the value of how we choose to show up in the face of ambiguity. MONA is a unique and unconventional museum… Read More

Many years ago, I worked with a woman who was very proud of her membership in Mensa, the exclusive society for people with high IQs. Although she had a reasonable level of EQ, the work envir… Read More

Many of my clients are already high performers. They are also committed to developing people and fostering a culture of learning and growth. They adopt a leader-as-coach approach, empowering… Read More

I have always loved swimming. When I was a kid, I joined the local swimming club and competed in various events. I wasn’t the fastest swimmer, and I was happy when I won a bronze medal… Read More

Years ago, the organisation I worked for appointed a senior leader with a challenging and destructive personality. When he started an internal communication informed us of his illustrious ca… Read More

Driven. A word past colleagues would use to describe my approach to work. It may be why complex and challenging work assignments kept coming my way. Each success led to a new challenge. Bein… Read More

Can you relate to how hard it is to break some habits? Are you frustrated at your inability to make a change even though you’re either deeply committed to it or have no doubt you will… Read More

Do you think you’re assertive? During an Embrace the Unknown workshop, some participants were extremely surprised to learn that their Indicator of Ambiguity (IAm) profile identified th… Read More

One of my clients learnt the hard way when they hired someone without doing sufficient due diligence. That hire, who is no longer an employee, wreaked havoc on the client’s business du… Read More

No one likes a bully, and if you’re a leader, one of your fears could be that others experience your behaviour as bullying. What you may not expect if you’re in a senior role is… Read More

How often have you felt frustrated about weather uncertainty this last summer? You diligently check the forecast and confirm it’s expected to be fine, but then it rains buckets, spoili… Read More

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase ‘assume makes an ass out of you and me’. This was certainly the case in 2010 when 1,167 retired military officers wrote an open lette… Read More

Early in my career, I often sat on one side of the table supporting senior managers to effect change while union officials and delegates, concerned about how the change would affect them, sa… Read More

Are you one of those people who comes out of a meeting deflated when the conversation is dominated by known complex challenges and unknowns? Do you take it in your stride, or are you oddly e… Read More

Life is full of transitions: some unexpected and some inevitable. When your children are small, it feels like they will always need you. Then suddenly, they finish school, are grown adults… Read More

Have you ever seen the Facebook posts that start, ‘I was this old when …’ that go on to share some well-known hack the person was oblivious about until they reached an age… Read More

As a child, I had a few favourite books I would regularly re-read.  Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women and Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables would come off the shelf… Read More

How shedding old skins sets you free for what’s next In my teen years, I was steadfast in my desire to avoid working in an office. It’s why I refused to learn to touch type at sc… Read More

A few years ago, I remember asking my partner why he didn’t ‘Google it’ before deciding to rip out the wall of our internal stairwell, douse it in insect spray an… Read More

When I was a kid, I read everything I could get my hands on. We stocked up at the library every week. When my parents banned reading books during meals, I read everything on the cereal box a… Read More

I used to spend the lead-up to Christmas Day focused on prepping and cleaning, doing what I could to ensure my family had a wonderful experience. On Christmas Day, I was the one who was a ho… Read More

The end of 2023 was busy for many people. It was a race to get everything finished while still trying to connect with friends and family across the festive season. By the time you got past a… Read More

Have you ever given someone else advice and then realised you need to take your own medicine? My partner was concerned about how much progress they had made towards their goals this year. He… Read More

Recently, multiple CEO clients have told me they feel guilty when they take time out to recharge. One of these CEOs shared how guilty they felt when, after hitting the wall, they took a coup… Read More

I tried to learn French and German in my first year of high school. It was, at times, a chaotic learning environment. I remember a day when some students barricaded the classroom door with c… Read More

In 2017, I stood in a room with a group of other executives. I was stepping backwards and forwards in response to a list of questions.  The questions explored different forms of oppress… Read More

No one likes hearing they’re not meeting their boss’s expectations, and neither did I. My first response was that the criticism was unfair – all that work was on track.&nbs… Read More

When Steve Jobs bought the computer division from Lucasfilm and started an independent company called Pixar in 1986, no one could have anticipated its runaway success. Until Pixar came alon… Read More

When I first met my partner, he was petrified of Dentists – not just one, but all of them. He had an accident that needed dental work when he was a child, and his terrible experience l… Read More

It was 2018. I looked at the Employee Opinion Survey results and was shocked. The trust in leadership scores had dropped significantly. Being me, I took it personally and brought in an exter… Read More

On 3 July 1988, the USS cruiser Vincennes mistook an Iranian commercial flight for a fighter jet. The crew of the Vincennes, a missile cruiser, thought the Airbus was an attacking F-14 Tomca… Read More

In a job interview for an executive role in the mid-2010s, I was invited to tell the selection panel about my weaknesses. The first one that came to mind was ‘I often do because I can… Read More

Fifteen years ago, I worked with doctors who believed they didn’t need as much sleep as the next person.  We engaged a university, involved the doctors in action-based research an… Read More

Last night, my husband confessed.  He told me about a game he plays when we’re on a long drive in the car.  The types of drives where you chat, stop talking, listen to music… Read More

Everyone in my immediate family can at least draw an elephant’s backside – but not me. Some of them can do far more than that, including my daughter studying design.  I made… Read More

Have you ever led a project or program where you knew it was no longer sustainable, but despite multiple conversations with the rest of the leadership team, there was no resolution? It kept… Read More

Stories have power, and the stories we tell ourselves often have hidden power when we fail to recognise that’s what they are – stories.   Let me share with you some sto… Read More