Have you ever said something clearly, only to watch it land badly? Have you left a meeting thinking, That went well, then discovered that everyone heard something different? Communication is one of the most important skills a leader can develop. It is also one of the easiest to take for granted. Most of us assume we communicate reasonably well. We …

Ever feel like your familiar, home-grown company has suddenly become chaotic and mysteriously uncontrollable? People want pay rises. Managers want more authority. Customers expect more. Everyone seems to need an answer from you… and somehow, you’re still the person who notices the empty printer paper and sorts it out. You’re working harder than ever, yet the business feels less manageable. …

Would your organisation cope if you were away for a month? What about one of your senior people? Or the person who “owns” your biggest client relationship? If the honest answer is “not really”, you may be dealing with key person dependency. It’s easy to mistake dependency for success. After all, being the person everyone turns to feels like recognition. …

What would happen if one of your biggest clients asked to speak to somebody other than you tomorrow? Would the relationship continue smoothly, or would everyone quietly panic? And if you took a proper holiday, would your clients feel well supported… or would they wait for your return before making any decisions? For many founders and senior directors in professional …

Does every difficult question eventually find its way to you? A customer wants an exception. A manager needs approval. Two people disagree about who owns a problem. A supplier issue has suddenly become “urgent”. Someone asks whether they can make a decision, even though it sits squarely within their role. And before you know it, your desk is covered in …

What do your workplace values look like when the pressure is on? What happens when a high performer hits their targets but leaves a trail of bruised colleagues behind them? What do your people learn when someone behaves badly, everyone knows it, and leadership says nothing? These are not theoretical questions. They are the moments that reveal your culture. Most …

Have you ever promised yourself that your business would never become “corporate”? Perhaps you left a larger organisation because you were tired of endless meetings, layers of approval and processes that seemed to exist for their own sake. You wanted to make decisions quickly, stay close to customers and give good people the freedom to get on with their work. …

Have you ever bought a new system because the old one was no longer coping… only to discover that nothing really improved? Are projects still slipping? Are decisions still getting stuck? Are people still asking who is responsible for what? If so, you may not have a systems problem. You may have an organisational problem that you’re trying to solve …

Have you ever agreed a perfectly sensible strategy, only to watch it disappear into the day-to-day noise of the business? Have you introduced new values, new processes or ambitious growth plans, yet found that people keep working in exactly the same old ways? That is where the idea that culture eats strategy becomes useful. Not because strategy does not matter. …

What is a job title really supposed to tell us? Is it a useful description of someone’s responsibility, authority and contribution… or is it simply a nicer label that makes people feel valued? And what happens when everyone becomes a “Head of”, “Director” or “Chief”, but nobody is quite sure who is accountable for what? This is the problem with …