Leadership and Work in Practice

Systemic problems have a particular feeling — the sensation of being stuck on a roundabout, solving the same issues, hiring new people, and yet arriving at exactly the same outcomes

Employee engagement surveys have become a corporate ritual. But engagement cannot be outsourced or surveyed into existence. It is created, daily, by managers in the work itself.

John Wooden’s legacy wasn’t built on winning alone. It was built on behaviour, teaching, and an unwavering belief that how you show up each day matters more than the scoreboard.

For many years I have kept a notebook I call my commonplace book. It is not a diary, not a planner, not a system for getting things done. It is a personal library for thinking — a place where ideas wait until they are needed.

Journaling has been a lifeline for me — not in a dramatic way, but in a quiet, steady one. It changed how I think, how I lead, and how I process the things that would otherwise carry me off course

One of the questions I am asked most often is simple: how do I become a leader? There is no single answer. But over the years I have developed fourteen principles that guide how I try to lead.

“Hire fast, fire fast” sounds efficient, but it’s often a shortcut to fear, churn, and reputational damage. A better standard is slower hiring, clearer expectations, and faster, fairer decisions when it’s not working

Almost every organisation now claims to be transforming its culture. Around 70 percent of those efforts deliver no meaningful change. The reason is rarely complexity — it is a misunderstanding of what culture actually is.

Hiring is one of the most expensive decisions any organisation makes — and one of the least carefully designed. It shapes culture, capability, and morale for years. It does not have to be treated as an afterthought.