“There is still a culture of blokey-ness in leadership. You’ve got to be tough. You’re seen as successful if you’re too busy to listen. When we had a re-structure and had to let some people go, we were told to just soldier on – it’s just part of business. You’re seen as effeminate if you show you care.”
[Read more…]
How to deal with the politics of hate
Brexit, Pauline Hanson, Rise Up Australia. Hatred and rejection are alive and well in the world and politics. I was disturbed by the number of candidates and political parties in the Australian election whose platform centered around exclusion. There is so much hate and fear in the political discourse! I found myself getting angry with the candidates, and with the supporters who spruiked the same hateful vitriol.
Here’s the thing.
[Read more…]
Reinventing Men’s Leadership – beyond gender agenda
“Hold her under so she doesn’t get up.” Thank you Caro, Eddie McGuire and Sam Newman for this thoughtless repartee.
Regardless of gender, this kind of aggressive sledging is not funny. It speaks to everything that is not pretty or decent in some men’s leadership.
[Read more…]
Choose your tribe, don’t let it choose you
In her remarkable book, Daring Greatly, Brené Brown remarks, “We are psychologically, emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually hardwired for connection, love, and belonging.” It’s a deep primal call to be part of a group, a tribe, that nurtures us and protects us. That’s how we managed to evolve and survive successfully as a species: tribes helped us stay safe, cooperate, collaborate, and learn together.
[Read more…]
Is this political correctness gone mad?
On a leadership program a woman asked, “When did we stop being able to speak the truth?” I asked her what she meant. She explained in her organisation you can rank applicants for a job as ‘suitable’ or ‘less suitable’. You cannot rank them ‘not suitable’ or even ‘not yet suitable’.
[Read more…]
What to do when you hit rock bottom
I was musing on rock bottom scenarios recently and exploring what we need in our personal armoury to dig us out of a rocky pit.
How bad can it get? Let’s imagine it. What do you fear the most? Disease? Illness? Maiming? Destitution? Public shame? Jail? Divorce? Being found out a fraud? Disappointing someone else? Failing a project? Going bankrupt?
[Read more…]
Why speak the truth?
How confident are you in the future? Do you have a great sense of certainty about how the world will be in five years? in ten?
[Read more…]
Why your voice matters
Do you know that one in seven people on the planet log on to Facebook every day? That’s 1.43 billion people. I bet you were one of them. I was!
That can make us feel one of two ways:
[Read more…]
Why Don’t We Speak Up?
“What do you think, Zoë?”
Holy crap. This was it. I had to say something.
My colleague had just thrown me a bone in a meeting. He knew I was peeved about the contract and was quietly stewing in frustration.
[Read more…]
Are you suffering from Achievement Disease?
In Germany, the CEO of Volkswagen, Martin Winterkorn, resigned ‘taking responsibility’ for the morally bereft decision to install deceitful software in its US diesel cars designed to evade emissions tests. Though he continues to assert there was no personal wrongdoing in the incident. Volkswagen announced it will recall 8.5 million cars in Europe, including 2.4 million in Germany and 1.2 million in the UK, and 500,000 in the US as a result of the emissions scandal.
[Read more…]