Hi there, This year has been a tough one. At the moment I feel like I am crawling into the Christmas period. I’ve nearly done everything I set out to do for the year, but not quite. I have a to-do list as long as my arm and I’m feeling that low-level anxiety that you get when there’s too much to do and not enough time to do it. Having talked with friends, I know I’m not alone. One big event has been the hardest. My mum has dementia. This year it has progressed significantly. Dementia is truly...
24 days ago • 4 min read
Hi there, This week I’ve been thinking about the mindset needed for managers to thrive as leaders. To be honest this is something that I think a lot of leadership development misses, but if not considered can be the real reason people feel stuck in their role I see this pattern often with the managers I work with: You're great at what you do. You deliver results. You genuinely care about your team. But somehow, you're stuck. Maybe you're not getting that promotion you deserve. Or maybe you're...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Hi there, Early in my management career, a mentor said something that became one of the best leadership lessons I've ever learned: "Helen, you have to plan time to lead. Otherwise, you'll never get out of the work." At the time, I thought I was planning. I had my task list. I had my calendar. I was managing my time... or so I thought. But here's what I didn't realise at the time: I was planning to DO the work, not to LEAD the work. And that's the mistake most managers make. The Real Problem...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hi there, Performance review season is coming up, and if you're already feeling that familiar sense of dread. I'm with you as I remember that feeling so well. There's something uniquely exhausting about performance reviews. You're trying to remember an entire year's worth of performance, summarise it fairly, give meaningful feedback, and do it all while staring at a blank document at not long before the meeting when your brain has completely checked out. But what if I told you there's a way...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hi there, I've just published a video that might be one of the most important ones I've made for this channel - and I really hope you'll watch it. It's called "The EXACT System That Turns Managers Into Leaders" and it's about something I've been thinking about for years. Why am I so excited about this one? Because it brings together everything I learned the hard way in my corporate career, and everything I've seen coaching hundreds of managers since. There's a pattern to leadership success -...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hi there, I'm writing this from Newark Airport, waiting for my flight home after spending the last week in New York with my sister and her family. There's no YouTube video this week - I've been firmly off-duty - but I had two conversations over the past few days that stuck with me, and I wanted to share them with you before I lose them in the noise of getting back to normal life. Both conversations were about the same thing, from completely opposite ends of the work experience spectrum. And...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Hi there, I recently asked you all on YouTube what you struggle with most as a manager, and over a third of respondents said the same thing: following up with your team consistently. I think we've all been there - that point where you're driving home after a long day and suddenly have that ‘oh gosh moment’ when you remember something you planned to follow up on. And you didn't do it. That little spike of stress. That frustration with yourself. That guilt. And then you get home, and obviously...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Hi there, I've been thinking about what matters most for managers right now, and I keep coming back to one thing: coaching. I know there's a lot competing for your attention, AI is coming like a train though the world of work, meanwhile you need to make sure they year end goals are hit. All of that matters. But if I had to choose where to put my energy right now, it would be coaching. Because in a world that's uncertain, relentless, and fast-paced, your ability to connect with people and have...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Hello, I've been thinking a lot lately about how wrong we can be about people, and how wrong they can be about us. In 2019, I broke my hip during an exercise class. One minute I was doing lunges, the next I had this shooting pain down my leg. For two weeks, I convinced myself it was just a pulled muscle. I mean, I hadn't fallen over or done anything dramatic, it couldn't possibly be broken, could it? Turns out, assumptions work both ways. When I finally got to A&E, the doctor decided I must...
4 months ago • 1 min read