I got this question from a past client recently, regarding his online profiles. ‘Hi, Sean, I’m looking at my online profile. Do you feel I should show I am not working in a corporate role currently? Upfront and honest? At this stage I have just listed my shell consulting company and contract projects. I’m concerned […]
Three critical CEO tasks in a crisis.
I’m in the UK at the moment and one of the banks has just had an IT issue that means customers are unable to access their money. For days. It’s a classic case of an update going wrong live when it was OK during testing. This kind of thing has happened before and it could […]
Learn and lead through dance.
If you ask me what my art form is, dance is not my answer. Yet I love dancing in my own older stiff male way and I love to see the joy visible when good dancers are in full flow. As the world learns more about what’s happening everywhere, it’s easier to see how dance […]
Lessons from the tropics
I’m in Ubud. The temperature is high but up here in the hills there’s also a gentle relief when a light breeze blows through. Our room is in a solid stone building with marble floors and big teak doors that close with a wooden bar. In this town everything is changing and everything has been […]
Three paths to executive improvisation
I’ve been made to think recently about the importance and power of improvising, and how it applies to leadership. I’ve always admired musical improvisation, as there’s so much involved. It also feels different from how many people view organisational life. After all, an organisation needs to be organised. But the reality is that organisational life […]
Grasp your long-term impact. Or shrivel up.
How far do your decisions reach? Running a company, your decisions extend the lifetime of the company – or cut it short. Understanding how you create a long-term impact is vital. That’s about more than making a string of good decisions. It’s not even about ‘strategic decision-making’. You need to hold to the right timeframe. […]
Be yourself. Strip off your titles.
I was talking to my client Frederick the other day. Like many professionals over 50, he’s been through a lot; he’s been a consultant, a CEO, a board director and an investor. Although he’s a successful person by any accounts, a recurring theme came up. ‘Sean, I’ve talked to a few people about ideas [for […]
How to find your new purpose
In the early part of our careers, at least in most of the business world, there’s a lot of pressure to find your purpose, to achieve something worthwhile with your life, to somehow get to a satisfying, successful end-point. For baby-boomers the mantra has been ‘financial independence’; for millennials it’s ‘meaning’. Yet for many of […]
Hard turns in life are the essence of growth
To turn harder we must dig deeper. Like a rower, we carve hard into the fluid depths of our soul to find a resistance that will help us turn. It hurts at first because that deep place is still ‘me’ and wants to stay untouched. But when we are hurtling in the wrong direction down […]
Why you should let others see you
I have always had a problem with having problems. I try to solve them alone. Feeling lonely? Surf the net late at night. Feeling afraid? Pretend the threat doesn’t exist. Embarrassed? Say something profoundly stupid to a person you admire. Inadequate? Write reams about how you ‘should/must/will’ do better than your world-class model but don’t […]
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