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Leadership Part 4 - Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life...

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We’ve moved from Purpose to Authenticity , another deeply personal and intense subject. As a leader, you could do worse than developing your purpose and focusing on being more authentic. The quote in the title of this article is from Steve Jobs and I think it sums up the importance of being authentic perfectly. It is not always easy being authentic, societal and peer pressure, keeping up with the Kardashian’s (or keeping up with Bob living in that big house down the road, always on holiday and driving around in his fancy SUV ), unconscious bias and constant media bombardment mean that it is sometimes difficult to be authentic. Speaking from personal experience, I know that it isn’t always easy, because I have spent half my adult life not being completely authentic (but not anymore). As difficult as it can be you don’t need me waxing lyrical about authenticity for pages and pages because the concept is simple, it’s the execution that is difficult. So, I’ll keep it s
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LEADERSHIP PART THREE – Why am I doing this again?

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These topics just get bigger and bigger. We’ve moved from culture to purpose, you don’t get much bigger than purpose! As a refresh, see below for the eight critical areas and behaviours which I think a leader needs to focus on if they want to be successful in the 21st century.   Build and reinforce the right culture (promoting gritty and growth mindsets) Have a purpose and be authentic Aim for alignment Reinforce an open communication policy (internal & external) Practice active listening (be curious and empathetic) Do not be the smartest person in the room Support and promote the team over the individual Have a plan and take action This blog is going to be a bit ugly, by ugly I mean I’ve got too much work on to ‘pretty it up’, so it’s going to be a bit ugly, but not any less valuable! And next week I’ll try and tackle authenticity… Key Takeaways: Your purpose must be about helping, improving or changing something other than you
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Why competitors are like milk... (3-min read)

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I was thinking about competitors earlier today and realised that with the training work I do there are quite a few of them out there. There are global companies with Australian offices, large, medium and small Australian training companies, along with dozens of sole traders like me. Then I looked at my sales funnel and realised that the top of it was looking a little bit thin, I started worrying about all those competitors. My thought process was getting negative, so I decided it was time to take a break and make breakfast. As I was pouring almond milk on my cereal I realised that my competitors and I are a bit like milk. Bear with me here... I’ve never liked cow’s milk, even as a kid I didn’t drink milk by itself - I only ever had milk on cereal, or in a glass carefully placed on top of two-inches of Milo in the bottom (damn that Milo was good). However, a lot of people like cow’s milk, some like full cream, low-fat or skim. Others like soy milk, or almond (the best), co
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LEADERSHIP PART TWO - Why Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast...

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As covered in Part One, see below for the eight critical areas and behaviours which I think a leader needs to focus on if they want to be successful in the 21st century. For this Blog Post I am only going to tackle the first point below on CULTURE, and I’ll throw into the ‘breakfast fry-up’ a little bit of the second and third points as well. Build and reinforce the right culture (promoting gritty and growth mindsets) Be authentic and have a purpose Aim for alignment Reinforce an open communication policy (internal & external) Practice active listening (be curious and empathetic) Do  not  be the smartest person in the room Support and promote the team over the individual Have a plan and take action  NB: The majority of these practices are not mutually exclusive, and often the theories supporting the concepts either reinforce each other or are connected - much like bacon, sausages and egg. A definition of culture: “Culture can be defined as the values, ide
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LEADERSHIP - PART ONE

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Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to have worked with some good managers and some not so good ones. I’ve seen great leaders in action, and also seen the consequences that poor leadership can have on an organisation. Since starting Pin Consult a little over a year ago, I’ve become a bit obsessed with Leadership, the definition of Success, and why some people and organisations achieve their goals faster and better than others. Leadership is such an important and broad topic that I’m going to write a few articles on it. And as with a lot of what I write about on The Thought Curator Blog, there are many global thought leaders out there with published content, so I see my job more as curating content and distilling it down to what I think are the pertinent points which will help improve performance. If you follow me on LinkedIn you will know I love my quotes. I think we can all learn a lot from them, and the ones that resonate with you, can be used as simple but powerful
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