To someone going into leadership today I would say "Detail matters." Get to know your organisation from the bottom up. Ask people their views and use these to describe success and the future. Create a route map from the broad vision to implementation of concrete strategies and action. Do the detail, it matters. Understanding detail enables you to manage performance. There may be some people who are able to lead effectively without doing the detail, but I'm not one of them.
The Assistant Director – Children’s Services’ story – “I was beginning to wonder if I wanted to work here.” John is a newly appointed Assistant Director in a large and challenging Children and Families Directorate. His director contacted Julia and asked her to work with John, whose position had become highly stressful due to extraordinary…
We've had the same Companies House registration since 1996, that's something I'm incredibly proud of. In 21 years Newcastle Eagles haven't folded, we haven't crashed. We haven't closed or been re-named. We've managed to succeed in a very challenging industry, in ground breaking space. It's a real achievement for the club.
Do you thrive on silence? Then get the 05.55 Virgin East Coast train from Newcastle to London one weekday morning. It’s there. Silence. Broken only by the odd announcement, offers of tea and something they call coffee but I don’t think is, Oh and the sound of 21st Century working. That is, tap tap, whoosh,…
Would you talk to your best friend the way you talk to yourself? Come to that, would you even speak that way to someone you didn’t like? No? So why is it ok to use that tone when you talk to yourself? My friend and colleague Judith Leary Jones is doing some great research on…
The worst endings can be the best beginnings. 3 years ago I left substantive employment and it felt like my life had ended. Yet now, I’m heading up my own successful leadership coaching company and making a positive difference. From feeling worthless, with nothing to offer, I’m now enjoying working with inspirational individuals, supporting them…
That’s right, forget all the New Year, New You stuff that’s everywhere you look just now, and stop stressing about the new year resolutions you’ll make and break within weeks. You don’t need transforming, no-one does. Instead try taking some time to reflect on what it is that nourishes you, what makes you strong and…
Despite not having taught in school for almost twenty years now, I still can’t get past the feeling of a new year and new beginnings come September. That sense of anticipation, hope and excitement….hair cut, new shoes, re-stocked pencil case. January, with its post Christmas bloat and punitive resolutions doesn’t come anywhere near in terms…
Some of the clients I work with share traits that you might recognise in yourself. They tend to overthink things, they over plan, they agonise over detail, particularly when it comes to stepping out of their comfort zone. These same people tend to find themselves frequently disappointed, because no matter how carefully they plan, or…
Do you find time flying by faster than ever, leaving little or no space for the things you used to enjoy doing? Are you racing from one half finished job to the next, going underprepared to yet another meeting, making multi-tasking your default mode? Do you feel a sense of inner frenzy and distraction? Then…
