Writing

Thinking out loud.

I write about the human dimension of organisational change — where behaviour, pressure, and strategy meet.

When the Step Up in Leadership Isn’t Smooth

Nobody tells you that the promotion is the easy part. A personal piece on what the transition into senior leadership actually feels like - the 360 feedback that doesn’t come with a bridge, the loneliness of the role, and what joined-up support would have made possible.

On the Fear of Failure, and What It Costs to Keep Outrunning It

For most of my working life I didn’t have much of a relationship with failure. Not because I’d mastered something. Because I was moving too fast for it to catch me. A personal piece on what the fear of failure does when it goes unexamined - and what it takes to stop letting it run the negotiation.

When Learning Isn’t Strategic: The Hidden Cost of Accidental Knowledge Management

Many organisations have some form of learning and development. What far fewer have is a genuine connection between what people are learning and what the business actually needs to succeed. This piece examines why learning so often stays accidental rather than becoming strategic — and what changes when it does. From the hero problem (knowledge concentrated in too few people) to the conditions that allow capability to distribute deliberately across an organisation.

Beyond the Hype: A Strategic Framework for AI in the Organisation

Most organisations are stuck at surface-level AI adoption — buying tools without redesigning workflows. This piece maps the real challenge across six dimensions: moving from a technology-first to a problem-first mindset, understanding the automation curve from basic assistance through to networked autonomy, building the data foundations that determine whether any of it works, and managing the human response — where fear of replacement creates performative adoption and stalls genuine change. The core argument is that AI integration is a delegation problem, not a technology one, and that the biggest stall point is the leap from Level 1 (AI as a cognitive sidekick) to Level 2 (AI as a process orchestrator).

Stepping Away to See Clearly: Nature, Creativity, and the Bottom of the U

The corporate reflex when facing a complex problem is to push harder. This article argues for the opposite. Drawing on Graham Wallas's four stages of creativity and Otto Scharmer's Theory U, it makes the case that genuine insight requires deliberate incubation — stepping away from the desk and into a different kind of environment. Explores specific pathways from the physical rhythm of hiking and the radical stillness of a sit spot, through to fire quests and vision quests, each serving a different depth of reflection. Written from direct experience leading teams in the telecoms sector and from years of working with leaders in mountain environments.

Thinking habits for our complex world

The mental models that helped us navigate a more stable world can become obstacles in one that changes faster than our habits of mind. This piece examines how default thinking patterns — the shortcuts, assumptions, and frames we reach for automatically — shape what we see and what we miss, and how to develop more flexible, adaptive thinking for conditions where certainty is rarely available.

The power of Developing Dual Awareness

A review and extension of the McKinsey article by Brassey, De Smet, and Kruyt, based on their book "Deliberate Calm." Dual awareness is the capacity to be simultaneously conscious of your inner emotional state and the external situation — what separates reactive from genuinely adaptive behaviour. The article maps five levels of development from Unaware (impulsive, emotionally driven) through Self-reflective, Perceptive, and Resilient, to Adaptive (anticipating challenges and shifting mindset without needing a time-out). Illustrated with concrete workplace scenarios showing how the same situation lands differently at each level.

The Imperative of Adaptation in Life and Work

Adaptability — the ability to change in order to align intention with reality — has become an essential asset in both personal and professional life. This piece explores three dimensions: resilience amidst unpredictable change, the role of adaptability in fostering innovation (companies that adapted to the digital revolution thrived; those that didn't fell behind), and what Darwin meant when he observed that it is not the strongest or most intelligent who survive, but those most responsive to change. Relevant for individuals navigating career transitions and for organisations grappling with shifting conditions.

From Reactive to Choiceful: Mastering the Essential Art of Responding

Reacting is instinctual — driven by the limbic system and happening before conscious thought. Responding requires bringing the prefrontal cortex back online and keeping it there. This article examines what it takes to make that shift consistently, offering six practices: mindfulness, emotional regulation, active listening, developing empathy, asking questions before drawing conclusions, and creating space when overwhelmed. Five workplace and home scenarios show what reactive vs choiceful looks like in practice — from family dinners to CEOs navigating different communication styles under pressure.

Mastering the Art of Effective Leadership

A practical look at the techniques and styles that effective leadership actually requires. Covers five core techniques — active listening, setting clear goals, empowerment, feedback and recognition, and adaptability — alongside an examination of the four main leadership styles (autocratic, democratic, transformational, transactional) and when each is genuinely useful rather than reflexive. The underlying argument is that leadership rests on trust: transparency, leading by example, and treating it as an ongoing practice rather than a position to defend.

5 tips to adapt your leadership style

Leadership style is best understood as a continuous choice between polarities — authoritative or collaborative, directive or coaching, high pace or laissez-faire — rather than a fixed mode. Drawing on The Circle Way's concept of a "leader in every chair," this piece gives five concrete ways to adapt: understand your team's needs, develop flexibility through active listening, build strong relationships, engage with new tools and technologies, and commit to continuous learning. The emphasis is on stretching into less natural polarities based on what the situation and people actually require.

5 Essential Reasons For You to Use Leadership & Personality Assessments

Focuses on three specific tools — the Leadership Versatility Index 360, the Enneagram, and DISC — and makes the case for using them in combination rather than in isolation. Five reasons to combine them: developing a holistic understanding, identifying overlapping insights, surfacing personalised development opportunities, building a tailored development plan, and tracking progress over time. The article also covers the distinction between reactive and choiceful leadership in depth, including the "above the line / below the line" framework and five practical steps for limiting emotional reactivity as a leader.

6 Things You NEED to Know About Developing Company Culture

Company culture — the shared values, beliefs, and behaviours that define how an organisation actually operates — has a measurable impact on performance, retention, and innovation. Backed by Glassdoor and Deloitte research (94% of executives believe a distinct culture is important to success; only 12% think they have the right one), this article identifies what a positive culture requires and the practical steps leaders can take: defining and communicating values, hiring for cultural fit, leading by example, encouraging employee voice, promoting work-life balance, and investing in ongoing development.

Why Personal Growth is Essential for Leaders

Self-awareness — the capacity to recognise one's own thoughts, emotions, and behaviours — is the foundation of effective leadership, not an optional extra. This article examines three direct benefits of ongoing personal growth for leaders: improved decision-making (becoming less reactionary and more intentional), greater effectiveness in leading and inspiring others (including using tools like the Polyvagal Ladder to recognise and respond to team members' emotional states), and stronger communication skills that move people from compliance to commitment. Practical strategies include structured reflection before and after interactions, 360 feedback, and working with a coach.

Finding Courage in Ourselves: A Journey of Inner Leadership

Courage is not a fixed trait — it grows through self-awareness and through working with the inner voices that erode it: the critic, the doubter, the comparer. This article examines how a lack of inner courage shows up differently for individual contributors (missed opportunities, overwork, burnout) and for leaders (inconsistency, avoidance of difficult conversations, reduced trust), and how developing an inner steadiness — what it calls the inner leader — allows people to act from clarity rather than from reaction or self-protection. The coaching process is described as a way of strengthening that inner foundation over time.

Master the Art of Success: Advanced Communication Skills Uncovered

Drawn from a one-day workshop co-delivered with coach Christelle Garcia for a high-performing telecoms sales team, this article explores what advanced communication actually involves beyond the basics. Covers four areas: active listening and targeted questioning as the foundation of trust and rapport; tracking and regulating your own nervous system so you communicate from within your window of tolerance rather than from a triggered state; reading others' nervous system signals (body language, tone, eye contact, conversation flow); and working with communication style models like the Social Styles Model or the SDI to adapt your approach to different people.

Embracing Polarities: Unlock The Power of 'Yes, And' in Life, Work, and Leadership

Many of the tensions in leadership and life are not problems to be solved but polarities to be managed — genuine opposites that both need to be true at once. This article introduces polarity thinking and the "Yes, And" principle from improvisational theatre as a more generative way to hold dilemmas: stability and change, autonomy and alignment, short-term and long-term. The shift from either/or to both/and is one of the most practically useful expansions available to leaders navigating complexity.

Mastering Time: An Essential Perspective on Effectiveness

Time management as usually taught is a problem of scheduling. This article reframes it as a question of attention, priority, and relationship with time itself — the difference between being genuinely effective and merely busy. It examines how our beliefs about time shape how we use it, and how leaders can shift from reactive time use to something more deliberate: not by fitting more in, but by being clearer about what deserves their real focus.

Mastering Self-Discipline for Personal and Professional Growth

Self-discipline is often understood as willpower — something you either have or don't. This piece argues for a different frame: that sustainable discipline is not about forcing yourself but about alignment between who you want to become and how you spend your time and energy. It explores the role of identity, habit, and purpose in making consistent action feel less like effort and more like expression — and why this matters as much for leaders trying to shift organisational behaviour as for individuals trying to change themselves.

The Fearless Art Of Slowing Down & Reflecting

Self-reflection has been valued across cultures for millennia — from the Delphic maxim "know thyself" to Buddhist and Taoist traditions of introspection. Neuroscience gives this a contemporary grounding: the prefrontal cortex, responsible for planning, decision-making, and emotional regulation, benefits from periods of genuine reflection, while neglecting it activates the amygdala and narrows the quality of thinking. This article makes the case for reflection as a necessity rather than a luxury, and offers four accessible practices: journaling, mindful walking, creative expression, and conversational reflection with someone trusted.