0 How To Overcome Feeling Overwhelmed

How to overcome feeling overwhelmed – A guided tour Feeling overwhelmed? There’s no irony in reading this article if you have 1,000 other things to do. The truth is, you’ve secretly discovered one of the best coping strategies for the overwhelmed. “I’ve never worried about having too much to cope with…” – No one. Ever.We all have those days, some […]

2 Create a functional framework for future growth

Tired and overworked businessman sitting beside desk at office at night

Improve your company’s productivity by 30% and create a functional framework for future growth Three questions CEOs often ask themselves… “Am I, as CEO, the bottleneck holding back the company’s progress?” “Where are my energies focused – on Today, Tomorrow or the Future?” “How engaged are my teams and how much energy and focus are they delivering?” And how […]

0 Confidence Coaching for Self-Assurance

From defining self-confidence to explaining confidence coaching… here are my latest thoughts. But first, a little quotation… “Confidence and deference are not mutually exclusive, and it’s usually a lack of deference rather than excess of confidence that gets powerful people into trouble.” – Adam Galinsky and Maurice Schweitzer Confidence has proven hard to define over the years. […]

10 A Buyer’s Guide to Coaching and Mentoring

Coaching & Mentoring For the umpteenth time I had yet another one of those frustrating circular conversations with a ‘fellow executive coach’ at the recent EMCC International Coaching and Mentoring Conference. It went a little like this… FELLOW COACH: “What does CoachDirectors do?” ME: “We provide executive coaches with commercial acumen to businesses. All our coaches have had […]

0 Have you defined your strategic direction?

Strategic Direction The majority of business owners manage their strategic planning process by making annual sales and revenue forecasts towards their financial year end, for one to five years. Is this you? Have you also identified how well the functional areas in your business interact and whether they are appropriately proportioned to the whole? If you […]

4 On our openness to change

How open-minded are you? Changing our minds can be tough.People often need help to effect or deal with change. Change is a fundamental requirement to progress, but before we can even consider change there’s something else we first need to address – our open-mindedness.Openness is the key to understanding and only by allowing yourself to be […]

2 Is the annual performance review extinct?

The end of the annual performance review There are few words, even in the unpopular realm of business-speak, held in less regard than ‘annual performance review’. There are numerous reasons as to why this particular grouping of words is shunned throughout the business world, but most of them stem from their ineffectiveness. Bluntly put, as a tool, […]

3 Limelight Robbery: It’s the glory hog

The glory hogEvery office and every team has its own dynamic. Any given project might include introverts, extroverts, bugle blowers, mood hoovers and even the occasional glory hog.We all know what a glory hog is. They’re the kind of person that races to the front of the stage to claim the team award. They can […]

5 Intelligence, Ignorance & Stupidity

Intelligence versus stupidity? The great battle of the 21st Century won’t be a war between good and evil, but rather intelligence and stupidity. This is a concern apparently shared by renowned thinker David Krakauer, the President of the Santa Fe Institute, who in a recent interview on Nautilus, actually makes the case for professors of stupidity.The interview […]

0 Wellness – Is Enough Ever Enough?

Stressed businessman working overtime looking depressed

In pursuit of happiness According to the stats, it’s a harder call than you might think. The thinking for years has been that as we progress through the ranks and up the ladder, our needs are met and happiness ensues. At some point during our ascent, the inevitable kicks in and we’ll attain some kind of […]

0 Build Better Relationships, Build A Better You

Three business-women laughing and drinking coffee

Build better relationshipsRelationships – from the ones we have with a parent or spouse to our interactions with a barista at the local coffee shop – play a key role in ensuring our health and happiness.Even those on grander levels can influence our interactions. For instance, negotiations for a Brexit deal has the potential to […]

1 Understanding The Key Factors That Supercharge Motivation

When you wake up each morning and prepare for the day ahead, what motivates you? What internal or external forces push you forward to live and work and even play for the 16 to 18 hours each day that you are awake? Is it the want to see and spend time with your loved ones?The desire to […]

0 The Business of Cycles

Strained and disillusioned with your business? Don’t panic – it’s quite normal and a natural part of the journey to having a mature and truly viable business. Remember that day when you and your fellow stakeholders were inspired to launch your business. How exciting was that! Seems an age ago now, doesn’t it? The commitment you all made. […]

0 Be More Than Just An Effective Leader, Build Your Leadership Skills to Be A Great One

Consider the last time you heard a truly inspiring speech.Some of you may be old enough to recall JFK’s moon speech and his motivational words that we do things “not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”Here at home, most of us can recall former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s speech shortly after the […]

Lead, don't follow

Bite-sized concepts, observations and philosophical musings for progressive business leadership