The “Life Balance” Myth

The myth of “Life Balance” has been touted around the corporate world for many years now, and almost universally accepted as the ideal way to live and cope with life. The myth is particularly popular within “Human Resources”  and the “Well-Being” Industry globally. This alluring ideal is constantly promoted as the answer to all our […]

Why it’s SMART to play politics @ work, and stupid not to.

Aristotle noted, “Man is by nature a political animal.” Plato stated, “One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” A constant theme of my coaching the past 20 years has been clients’ resistance to engage in “Office Politics” on essentially moral, ethical or […]

Why you should be ruthless as a leader.

Image: Shadow of the Samurai Ruthlessness is a vastly undervalued and unrecognised trait of any High Performer and Great Leader. Mostly it manifests to people external to the leader as extreme business, selfishness or inexplicable commitment. ALL High Performers and Great Leaders ruthlessly triage their days, weeks and months based on what’s most important to […]

Why “flexible” working DOES NOT work for high performance.

Image: Navy Seal training There’s a growing trend for employers to offer more flexible working arrangements from three days a week, to working from home on regular days, to temporary contracts. Whilst this trend serves the needs of many moderately performing employees and employers, its destructive to startups, scaleups and high performing businesses and people. […]

How to fire someone for lack of character, not skill.

In this day and age of human resource sensitivity firing someone can sometimes be viewed as callas and a risky option for a CEO. Most people get hired for their skills and abilities, but ultimately get fired for their character and values – which are typically tied intimately to their misaligned “soft skills”. Because its […]

Stop calling things #bullying when they are not.

#Bullying is a term that gets thrown around many workplaces a lot. If you have any pride in your #leadership, you need to know how to recognise it before it becomes a systemic part of your #culture. You also need to know what it actually is so that you, and your team, don’t start throwing […]