Category: Leadership

  • Why leaders need to tell stories

    Why leaders need to tell stories

    I recently went to a wonderful event, Being The Story, run by digital storytelling organisation, Sound Delivery (strapline – ‘we champion stories that need to be told’). Over the course of the day, twelve speakers with personal stories to share about why they were working for social change made the audience of nonprofit people whoop,…

  • What if they find me out?

    What if they find me out?

    I’m starting with a new coaching client this week. In our recent Discovery Session to explore if we wanted to work together, she shared her nervousness about her new leadership role. “What if I’m not up to it?” she confided. “What if I should have stayed where I was?”. “What if they find me out?” Ah,…

  • Strong and stable or weak and wobbly?

    Strong and stable or weak and wobbly?

    I was talking with one of my coaching clients yesterday. She’s the director of a social enterprise in Manchester and was sharing how challenged she’d been by how to ‘be’ with her team after the recent terrorist attack.  I really felt for her. There was a lot of anxiety and disbelief in the office and she…

  • Loneliness at work – what you can do

    Loneliness at work – what you can do

    A while ago I worked for a large UK charity where I shared space with four colleagues in a bright, well-equipped office. There were dozens of others working on my floor. The organisation employed hundreds of people around the country. And yet, I was thoroughly lonely. On paper, the job was perfect, but sharing an office with heads-down introverts where…

  • Big, audacious plans for 2017? How to stay positive

    Big, audacious plans for 2017? How to stay positive

    So, it’s a brand new year. Your plans for 2017 are all drawn up and they’re exciting and ambitious. Wow! There’s a lot to do if you’re to grow income so dramatically. And you want to get those new campaigns up and running, too… Yes, you’re ambitious for the organisation. Audacious even. But you know…

  • Five Big Questions. One Short Chat. CEO Caroline Davey

    Five Big Questions. One Short Chat. CEO Caroline Davey

    Today is World Prematurity Day, so today’s mini video blog is with the lovely Caroline Davey, Chief Executive of Bliss, supporting babies born premature or sick and their families. Bliss is very close to my heart – I have a dear friend whose daughter was born months too soon and is now a thriving teenager. Bliss was…

  • There’s no such thing as a wrong decision

    There’s no such thing as a wrong decision

    Have you ever felt utterly paralysed by a difficult decision you had to make? You wrote your long list of pros and cons. You did complicated prioritisation grid thingies, listing elements and weightings. And yet, you were none the wiser about what you should actually do. It’s a nightmare, isn’t it? If this is you, then you’re…

  • What I learned about resilience from five days on a bike

    What I learned about resilience from five days on a bike

      Setting off on my very first cycling holiday this summer I knew that I was going to have to dig deep into my resilience reserves. And I wasn’t at all sure I had any. But I was heading off for five days of physical activity (something I’d never done before) and if I was…

  • Five Big Questions. One Short Chat – CEO Athena Lamnisos

    Five Big Questions. One Short Chat – CEO Athena Lamnisos

    The second in my series of mini video blogs in which I put Five Big Questions to charity CEOs to find out what it’s really like to head up their organisations. It’s Gynaecological Cancer Awareness Month so I spoke to the super dynamic Athena Lamnisos, CEO of The Eve Appeal, the only UK national charity raising awareness and funding research…

  • Why you absolutely must trust your team

    Why you absolutely must trust your team

    It’s hard to put total trust in your people sometimes, isn’t it? A big project is about to go live and you find yourself awake at night, worrying. All those disastrous worst case scenarios go round and round.  You wonder whether the staff member in charge really is on top of everything. What if? What…