Just 20 days into 2023 and burnout is making headlines as Jacinda Ardern announces that she is stepping down from her role as New Zealand’s Prime Minister. I’ve listened to her resignation speech many times – as a specialist in communication, I am constantly impressed by so many elements of her presentations and interviews. I could write a long article, simply to dissect that. But this article focuses only on one aspect of her presentation – the reason she gave ...

‘Tis the season to be jolly and all that! I love Christmas although the false jollity that increasingly pervades the season isn’t to my taste. It’s a personal thing, of course. With Christmas just around the corner, I was intrigued to get a request from Malcolm Hicks of Weir Minerals Australia. His request seemed particularly appropriate with the festive season approaching. Malcolm asked me to share my views about humour in the workplace. He wrote: I would be interested in ...

An HGV was slowly reversing down the hill towards my friend’s car. My friend flashed the headlights and jumped on the car horn. Then manoeuvred the car onto the verge, leapt out and ran. He heard a loud bang – turning round, he saw that the driver of another HGV (one branded with a well-known UK supermarket) had used his truck to stop the reversing vehicle. At the same time, the driver of the reversing vehicle came running back down ...

It’s been a big week in the UK as – drum roll – John Lewis launched its 2022 Christmas Advert! A hotly anticipated annual event for all Christmas fans, and analysis of which is the subject of many column inches in national newspapers, this year’s ad has been praised for getting the right tone. It’s avoided the more saccharine messages that are particularly popular at the festive season, and emphasises ‘giving back’ rather than simply ‘giving’. It’s important to avoid ...

Hope your week has gone well and brought plenty of good times. My week seems to have been more challenging – not on a personal level, but more that I am finding people are feeling down just now. There’s so much negative news and growing uncertainty. This isn’t impacting people just in personal lives. I’m really noticing it in many of the organisations I work with too, and I see a growth in toxic cultures. Covid-19 brought a swell of ...

When I’m coaching senior leaders, a fair bit of time in sessions is taken up with exploring their frustrations with other people. Not really surprising, of course, since leadership is fundamentally about people. Many of the coaching conversations are about a direct report’s unacceptable behaviour, performance or productivity. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever had a coaching conversation about someone’s fabulous behaviour, performance or productivity. I guess there’s not much coaching needed when things are good 😊. In these coaching ...