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Working long hours seems to be the norm. Lately we heard from the CEO who was confronted by his daughter with a list of all the important occasions in her life that he’d missed due to work commitments. We also heard of the extraordinary culture of long hours at Google, including a four-hour conference call every Sunday to “prepar...

Many of you know, thanks to LinkedIn’s algorithms, that I have now been an independent consultant for four years.  In fact, a number have written their congratulations.  It does indeed feel like a time to both celebrate and to reflect. So here are some thoughts as well as some tips on the subject. When you first tell people that...

In coaching, one of the most powerful tools is visualisation.  Often people find it relatively easy to explain what’s wrong with their current predicament but they struggle to define what good looks like for them.  Asking them to visualise their future state and look back at themselves from that viewpoint can help them to see tha...

  The UK General Election in May 2015 produced a result that few had expected.  One of the outcomes was the virtual disappearance of the LibDems.  At the time I predicted that it could mark the re-emergence of a new political force based on the original Social Democratic Party of the mid 1980’s (the fact that there are no s...

Much of my business life is spent coaching and supporting people through change, both personal and professional.  One of the many reasons people seek me out is because I’m viewed as being someone who is comfortable with change; somebody who is able to navigate complex, uncertain and ambiguous environments where events seem to be c...

The passing of well-loved celebrities is always marked not only by an outpouring of grief but also by an outpouring of newspaper copy. These panegyrics are often parodied in Private Eye with versions such as the “celebrity and me” and “how I taught the celebrity everything he knew” whereby the writer manages to place themselv...

As the country heads inexorably towards an EU referendum, the polls show that most people can barely contain their indifference.  Despite this apathy, politicians and the media are running around talking loudly as if nothing else mattered.  So why is it that on something of seemingly such importance most people simply switch off. ...

There are few aspects of life that don’t involve making compromises.  Every part of our existence involves curtailing individual freedom or postponing desires in order to co-exist with others.  We happily obey rules that limit our personal liberty, such as driving on the left or paying taxes, in order to benefit from the security...

Who wouldn’t want to be a CEO.  It’s a role that comes laden with extras: status, authority, power and money.  And for those at the very top, there’s the chauffeur-driven car, and even perhaps a private jet whisking you between Davos and some other gathering of the great and good.  Not only does the job provide recognition o...

  As the Euro referendum debate hots up, both sides are in full storytelling mode.  And this means storytelling in both senses of the phrase: that of offering compelling visions of an In/Out future, and telling stories of the wild, exaggerated, porky-pie variety.  Many people, including seasoned campaigners and commentators...