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

Last week, we explored why you can still get hooked when you avoid emotions at work.   When you keep a smile plastered on your face no matter what gets thrown at you, the internal… Read More

Are you one of those leaders who, when things get tough, you put a smile on your face and keep it plastered there no matter what gets thrown at you?  You think you’re doing the ri… Read More

The room was packed full of women either committed to helping other women succeed or trying to succeed themselves when Dame Quentin Bryce took to the stage for her first speaking engagement… Read More

Let me tell you a story about Clarivale, a metaphorical village encircled by tall mountains with a secluded pool known as Gwyneth’s Gut. For generations, the villagers drank from the p… Read More

Have you ever been so frustrated that you encourage the people around you to share in expressing your frustration?  Here’s one from my shame file. You know that file where you sto… Read More

Today Apple’s iOS is one of the most dominant mobile operating systems. However, Apple’s decision to develop and launch the iPhone was a significant risk. At the time, the market… Read More

The rescue of a soccer team from the Tham Luang Caves, otherwise known as the Thai Cave Rescue, caught people’s attention around the world. After football practice one afternoon in 201… Read More

Do you regularly feel anxious or worried when presented with a complex task or issue at work? Do you often feel overwhelmed by the complexity of a problem and lack confidence that you will p… Read More

When more than four centuries of people grow up hearing the saying ‘curiosity killed the cat’ you can understand why so many people pull back from the unfamiliar. Sticking to the… Read More

If you frequently find yourself skipping between the extremes of “I always”, “I never”, “it’s perfect”, “it’s impossible” or think… Read More

Elbert Hubbard’s essay “A message to Garcia” published in 1899, was considered an important literary work about military leadership for over 100 years, and dropped from the… Read More

To this day, I am embarrassed to admit it took me three goes to pass the test to get my driver’s license. I’m not embarrassed that I failed twice. I’m embarrassed that I wa… Read More

Are any of the following pressing your buttons right now? ⦁ People are like deer in headlights; unable to maintain focus, make decisions or be productive when faced with ambiguity or… Read More

Complex projects can be paradoxical. To get project funding you need a clear plan to achieve specific outcomes because funders want certainty. However, when you finally get funding the reali… Read More

I’m not going to lie to you because if you ask anyone who has worked with me in pressured, ambiguous situations, they’ll tell you I can have controlling and perfectionist tendenc… Read More

Organising to meet friends for a night out when at university in the late eighties was a different experience from the constant stream of texts that my children and their friends send each o… Read More

There’s nothing quite like working on a massive project for over a year, assuming you’re going live on 1 July and discovering immediately before the go button is about to be push… Read More

27th Annual SAG Awards / Contributor via Getty Images Like many people, I love Ted Lasso. And the best part is if you’re absorbing “The Lasso Way” while you’re chuckl… Read More

My son recently helped me remember that when you’re overwhelmed by complexity, seeking support from others is a strength rather than a weakness. The state of his room has long been a b… Read More

How to move from Groundhog Day to decisions that your team embracesDoes your team have conversations that are repetitive, don’t result in an outcome and you suspect important perspecti… Read More

How holding boundaries and curiosity found me a bed for the nightRecently, I tried to check in to conference-organised accommodation and discovered the hotel had no idea who I was, and the h… Read More

As someone with controlling tendencies, John C. Maxwell’s quote, “Leadership is not about being in charge. It’s about taking care of those in your charge” is a flashi… Read More

As leaders, we are often faced with complex challenges that require significant change to achieve success. It’s tempting to want to change everything at once but it’s often more… Read More

The fable “The North Wind and the Sun” highlights the importance of recognising not every situation can be approached in the same way. In the story, the North Wind and the Sun co… Read More

COVID-19 finally caught up with me after three years of managing to avoid the dreaded virus. I wasn’t a close contact and I have no idea where I contracted the virus or why it took so… Read More

This post was published as the International Women’s Day 2022 blog by the Institute of Public Administration Australia (Qld). As a woman with an Anglo-Saxon, Christian background, I kn… Read More

The post Understanding why people who love their curls cope with complexity appeared first on Susanne Le Boutillier Read More

If you have a high drive to succeed as a leader, you will most likely ask yourself what makes a great leader? Or, how to develop effective leadership skills? Unfortunately, responses to thes… Read More

As a leader, developing your leadership skills to leave the workplace better than when you arrived can be very satisfying.  And, if you are a leader and a parent, you probably feel like… Read More

People can make the mistake of thinking stakeholder engagement only happens as part of a project or change initiative.  If a stakeholder is any person or group that can affect or is aff… Read More

Hopefully, by now, your teams are having more conversations that get results. Part one and Part two of this series provided some key strategies you can implement as a leader. Remember, your… Read More

In the second part of this blog, I want to help you shift your conversations to ones that get results. Conversations, where your team builds upon, instead of shutting down ideas. In the… Read More

Does your team have conversations that get results? Or do they have a lot of discussions? You know, the ones where they talk and try to influence each other why they are right. Would you rat… Read More

How do you choose a consultant, and why you should find one who uses a coaching approach?  Since leaving public service, I have worked through many personal discoveries. This involved… Read More

The post Creativity Is Intelligence Having Fun appeared first on Susanne Le Boutillier Read More