Dear leaders, have you ever sat in a meeting and stagnated, whether that’s with your team, in middle management or at the senior executive level? The one way most likely way to move forward for most is parking it and revisiting it. That’s long, frustrating and slows down decision-making.  Others like to grind it out and then meeting recovery syndrome is brutal and sends shock waves through businesses.  I prefer scores… I have a sports background, I played almost every sport I could, I played basketball, tennis, soccer, cricket and even lost a few fights in Muay Thai as a kid.&nb ..read more

Dear leaders, who do you serve?  And in what order do you serve them? I remember an all-hands I attended and the EVP stood up and read from a very simple slide: “We serve the shareholders first, then customers second and then the staff”  It stuck with me, I was in a follow-up meeting and the same priorities were repeated, followed by:   “We have to remember who we are serving”. Whenever I brought this up with leadership colleagues they failed to remember this, not just because we were clearly saying we serve two other layers of the business before the staff but because it ..read more

Dear leaders, this week I am going to answer a few follow-up questions I received this week. Thank you for your thoughtful questions and those who fed back – thank you! The leadership questions I cover this week to help you include helping with:  You or your colleagues to re-think where they think they are in their careers  Quick wins for leaders wanting to improve their leadership skills  Address challenges within companies  How to build your executive edge (not just your ‘exec presence’) How to reboot your career  You to learn from hard lessons in my career&nbs ..read more

Dear leaders, thank you for your challenging questions this week.  As you will see there are many great questions, covering Company Culture, Strategy, Google Gemini, Apple AI and my “controversial opinions”.  Let’s dive straight in:  Q. What do you think of Google’s release of Gemini and the backlash received?  Google decided to release early, they felt rushed to compete and if I’m honest it appears they released a product that missed the mark. And in other ways, it overstepped the mark.  Google created amazing advertising products (particularly AdWords) and is smart ..read more

Dear leaders, many of you ask for follow-up recommendations for books, documentaries and podcasts. This week I am going to offer you 5 podcasts (in YouTube format for you visual learners) that will help you to improve your leadership, including leaders from Netflix, Stripe, Amazon and Activision Blizzard, with 5 reasons to listen.  In many businesses and leadership teams I recommend you create a podcast club to improve and share knowledge. Podcast clubs go away, listen, take notes and then come together in 30-minute power sessions, compare notes, discuss what you can r ..read more

Dear leaders, I’m going to let YOU into a secret, there’s an interview question I love asking, it is one of three questions with challenges I ask to find out the best candidate(s).   This is an in-interview question, not a challenge to set with any pre-warning.  If There Were Three Boxes In Front Of You – What Would You Do?  Here is the breakdown:  You don’t know what is inside of   Box 1  Box 2  Box 3  Some Guidelines  You have 30 seconds to view the boxes  You can lift the boxes once  You cannot shake them   You ca ..read more

Dear leaders, how are you and your managers and management team doing?  It is business week 8 (where has 2024 gone already) and typically you get a pretty good baseline of how things are going, how the business is shaping up and how your team have performed.  One question that is often asked around now is:  How do I know when it is time to review your leadership team?  And connected follow-up question:  » Is it time to review my management team around you (those who report to you)? The big question you have to ask yourself is: How are you performing and how are the rel ..read more

Dear leaders, I have recently written a number of leaders letters that you have told me have resonated with you, from:  how to be a great middle manager on your leadership journey  the importance of improving company-wide problem-solving   the Jeff Bezos 3-minute masterclass on metrics  alongside “the essential read” the difference between mission, vision, strategy, plans and tactics.  Today’s leadership newsletter will make you take the time to analyse and your improve leadership skills.  It makes my day when I receive feedback on the newsle ..read more

Dear leaders, middle management is either the most rewarding or the hardest career phase. Middle management should play a critical role within every organisation, unfortunately, many big tech companies have removed the middle manager and the ripple effects of how middle management can be seen is making many companies question the importance of middle managers.  The Glue & Translator  I am a huge advocate of the right layers of leadership within businesses, middle managers should be the glue to organisations, middle management should be the area of the business that filters decisi ..read more

Dear leaders, you may have noticed this week the newsletter is slightly delayed.  Apologises, I want to be transparent, I have been working on a couple of larger consultancy projects combined with my coaching commitments and I wanted to take a few extra days to land with the usual high-quality newsletter that’s going to add value rather than just a good newsletter that I’m not happy enough with.  Let’s dive into The Who, What, When, Why, How Of Leading Business To Success. The Different Ways Of Working Towards Success  Startup Approach: If you have worked in ..read more