Food For Thought

‘What do you do?’ is a common question we use to begin a conversation. It’s innocuous. It’s safe and it has the air of understated Englishness about it. We are all very comfortable talking about what we do. It’s a conversation we’ve replayed thousands of times in the theatre of our professional and personal networks But this question […]

“Accountability is a crutch.” So says former Navy Seal, Jocko Willink in his excellent book ‘Extreme Ownership.’ Holding people accountable often compels teams to comply and ‘play not to lose’ to achieve their objectives. The issue is not the presence of objectives. The issue, in Jocko’s view, is who sets them, how they are set and how they are

This year, I’ve had the immense privilege of supporting and facilitating an amazing group of coaches who have been preparing their submissions for professional accreditation with the European Mentoring and Coaching Council. What I noticed at the beginning of the week was how many of us are conditioned from an early age to see such exercises

The black belt is a symbol of achievement in Aikido. To onlookers is signifies skill, experience and seniority and occasionally a hint of mystery. Attainment requires students to demonstrate a set repertoire of learning on the mat to meet a specific standard of performance. And yet, students know that this is not what it means at

Being number 1 (or first past the post) is not the same as being first on the call list. In the music industry, Carol Kaye, Craig Blundell and Steve Lukather belong to an exclusive list of ‘first call’ studio session musicians. They’re the ones who get called first by producers to work on high profile projects. Being