Articles and Insights

In today’s fast-paced business environment, fostering a sense of unity within teams is more crucial than ever. However, the persistent ‘Us vs. Them’ mentality can undermine collaboration and stifle innovation. Transform that division into a harmonious alignment. This journey of bridging the divide requires understanding, empathy, and strategic action.

In today’s fast-paced business environment, fostering a sense of unity within teams is more crucial than ever. However, the persistent ‘Us vs. Them’ mentality can undermine collaboration and stifle innovation. Transform that division into a harmonious alignment. This journey of bridging the divide requires understanding, empathy, and strategic action.

Dive into a wealth of resources designed to cultivate exceptional leaders and empower teams. This category offers valuable insights, practical strategies, and best practices on leadership skills, fostering innovation, building trust, promoting empathy in leadership, and understanding the profound impact strong leadership has on business success and community development.

In this case the recruitment project was for an engineering firm that was looking for a project manager. We undertook a Leadership Landscape assessment with Jack, who appeared on paper to be an excellent fit for the position. However, his Contribution Compass profile result just did not add up.

In this case we share a recruitment story about how digging deeper in the recruitment journey, using the right tools, can yield powerful insights and support you to make the right decision. We work with a group of veterinary clinics and shops and support their recruitment and team coaching activities.

One of our partners called us in to assist with one of their clients in a recruitment process. This minerals industry company was having to recruit at a fast pace due to the rapid growth in their business. The challenge that most fast-growing companies face is …

Through this case story find out how we used the Contribution Identifier, a new free tool from Contribution Compass, to clearly define the contribution we needed the most as our next hire, not the job title we thought we needed.

Get In The Game is the must-have companion book to The Great Game of Business, providing a practical field guide to apply its principles to create rapid financial results and lasting cultural change.

The Great Game of Business taps into the power of the game mindset to resolve the conflict between people and profit, unlocking into the competitive spirit of every person.

In this case story, find out how we used Contribution Compass to redefine our value proposition as part of our web site redesign project. It just goes to show that Contribution Compass is so much more than a team profiling tool.

Patrick’s model is my go-to when working with any team, as teamwork is still a rarity. This is because teams are made up of imperfect human beings and are therefor inherently dysfunctional.

In Teaming, the real power of this work is that it provides a supportive framework for understanding and responding to the dynamics of teams, and, specifically, how to use that dynamic in creating collective learning. This is a really practical resource, filled with ideas and strategies.

Scaling Up by Verne Harnish is one of the most important books in my collection. Throughout my years as a coach, and previously as an executive leader in organisations, I have never found a tool as simple and structured as the Scaling Up methodology.

Scaling Up by Verne Harnish is one of the most important books in my collection. Throughout my years as a coach, and previously as an executive leader in organisations, I have never found a tool as simple and structured as the Scaling Up methodology.

The Coaching Habit proves the idea that if you want a better solution you need to ask a better question. And what better way to ask great questions than through coaching? Michael Bungay Stanier makes this so clear and accessible.

Most of us have our own versions of disempowering beliefs – our beliefs around the way we look, about our self-worth, about our relationship with money. These beliefs come from various sources: a bullying teacher; overhearing a conversation between our parent …

I have always been amazed that even when teams embrace conflict and honest debate, they can still struggle with commitment. And this tends to drive a dangerous culture – passivity. I’m sure we have all experienced meetings where the CEO or leader decides …

Too many leaders lead by assumption. I was reminded of this starkly this past week when I coached an executive team grappling with production issues. In this case, after a deep dive into what was really going on, it transpired that a few key members of the team held their own…

Even the Berlin Wall could not stop people from reaching out to communicate with each other. There are countless powerful stories of strangers and family finding ingenious ways to overcome the massive obstacle…

The typical executive team meeting at most organisations illustrates how blame is a powerful motivator. Like its close cousins guilt and shame, blame is one of the most common forms of motivation used by leaders, parents and politicians. . Depending on how…

Great leaders are willing servants of people, organisations and causes. Instead of worrying about how powerful they are or what position they hold, these leaders focus on what others need. Without the distractions of ego, they can see…

Most of us have never lived through a global pandemic before. This is unprecedented.  What is not unprecedented is a sudden change in technology, culture or politics that throws businesses into chaos. Any new technological advancement…

Given what I’ve observed over the past decade in working with leaders from companies of all sizes and types, I believe we cannot celebrate teams’ victories enough. People thrive when they are recognised and affirmed for their contribution to …

Socrates insisted on our right to think for ourselves. Too often, he warned, humans sleepwalk through life, simply going along with the crowd.
It’s only human to avoid disagreement and conflict. However, inviting objection into our work can be a game changer…

Last week I came across an article from the BBC entitled, “The boss who put everyone on 70K” (linked below). Of course, this got my immediate attention. What did that mean? What happened? Dan Price, a successful founder of a card payment company…

Jack be nimble; Jack be quick; Jack jump over the candlestick. Mother Goose was right. With life moving faster, change is becoming normal and the way we navigate the world’s complexities are becoming even more intricate. Agility is perhaps our most important skill.

‘Pandemic’ is the collective new for us all. Many of us don’t know how to deal with this crisis and we are trying to be normal. Yet nothing is normal. We don’t know how to do this social distancing thing (I prefer to call it physical distancing) while also staying …

Sonny and Cher cue up on the radio alarm clock – it’s 6am and Groundhog Day, again.  This is how I felt recently on one project, where the same topic came up for discussion again, as it had over and over before. Have you ever been in such a meeting, stuck in a loop…

“I’ve just had my 360-degree review and the feedback I received was that I’m unpredictable,” said my client. “Ann, next week, could you please sit down with all of them, thank them for the feedback and ask them what I should do to better myself?”

It was unfortunate for everyone that by the time the financial controller had started her new job, the company’s needs for the role had changed. The company took the route many companies do – to wait for the employee to work him or herself out…

In my first ever job, I had a very special and unlikely guide. When I was a fresh, young and eager employee, Mr Smith, as we called him, coached, mentored and taught me the ropes. So, what made Mr Smith so special and unlikely? Although I worked for him…