We all know one of those people. Or maybe you are one of those people. That person who, no matter how dire and critical the context, sees life through a prism of optimism and possibility. That person who seemed to get an extra blessing at birth from the optimism fairy!  When you know one of those people but don’t feel […]

When I first thought I had published this post, we were still a few hours off closing the last day of last year. 2020 – another year in your wild and precious life. Ha! But now time, in one second, has ticked us over the edge into a new year. Still, I’m dead curious (probably […]

If I called you soft, what would be your immediate reaction? Does it make you want to break out in hives? Of the many values I was expected or encouraged to live up to (and into) in our household and extended community, softness was simply not on the list. Unless it was related to relinquishing […]

“We are in an unpredictable world, I don’t know what will happen to my job tomorrow, so I don’t want to stick my neck out. The company is downsizing. I must be careful, you understand?” says Rachel, Head of HR in a large engineering firm. Rachel has some game changing ideas and thinks about shifting […]

There you are, I see you! You’re one of the most decisive and proactive women the world has ever seen. No one could accuse you of laziness (although you sometimes wonder about that yourself). You have a diary full to overflowing and you can churn out the work of 3 people in 3 days with […]

What are you worth? I don’t mean in terms of net worth. I mean fundamentally. How much value do you place in yourself and your capacity to create opportunity and possibility for those in your care (your partner, your family, your team and your organisation)? What is your relationship to investing in yourself and your […]

All through our lives we’ve been told to try, right? I know I’ve said this many times to my own kids, friends, clients and even to myself as well-intentioned motivation to open a window where it seems the door was closed to new possibility. When the ‘But I can’t/Don’t know how!’ protest arises in the […]

A few days ago, someone thanked me for some nice words I had written to them in an email. Given the person was French, a language which collapses the words nice and kind into one translation, I nearly let it pass. Nearly. Nice, is a word that raises my concern and sets off my alarm bells. Here’s why: […]

The annoying truth about thoughts is that they think you, and not the other way around. Read that again. However well-educated and highly up the ladder you may be, your mind still has one over you. It will always revert to unconscious habit, bias and keeping you safely boxed in to ensure your survival. Which […]

Last year at about this time I was having dinner with a few friends, with all the usual catch up chat about what we had been up to, the state of world affairs, life in general and our vision of the future. Nothing out of the ordinary, until I heard the sentence that silenced me:  […]