Honesty’s a tough cookie to crack in relationships. There are some who believe you should always be honest no matter what the consequence. Yet extreme honesty uninvited can wreck and ruin relationships. Few people set out to be dishonest in their connections and yet they withhold things they’re less happy with, pull punches on feedback and through this mislead their connections into believing things that aren’t exactly true. That’s not a good recipe for success either. When we don’t know our con...
Nov 10, 2022•8 min
No matter how flat you make a pancake, it’s still got two sides. Dr Phil Whenever we’re trying to forge a connection, it’s easy for us to go out imagining our pancake has only one side, the one we are interested in, and interested in promoting. That’ll get us so far in forging connections, but only so far. When we incorporate different points of view, those differences can be mild alternative perspectives or radically alternate perspectives. It’s often easy for to think, I’ll accept the mild one...
Nov 03, 2022•11 min
I do not take well to the word fail. Recently someone introduced me to another way of looking at the word instead seeing FAIL as “First attempt in learning”. That works better for me. We all make mistakes. What matters is what we do with the experience. When it comes to building connective energy people tend to make surprisingly similar steps that don’t exactly help the process. So in this podcast I thought I look at each of these even if it’s just to remind you that occasionally this is somethi...
Oct 27, 2022•11 min
“Let your hook be always cast, in the pool where you least expect it there will be fish”, Ovid In this episode we look at fostering links and connections. You may think the strategy is to harvest more connections endlessly or boost up the strong ones and kick out the weaker links. But I'm going to challenge that directly. In this episode we look at all the advantages some of the weaker links in your network can bring to you in contrast and further connections. You can find the whole transcript p...
Oct 20, 2022•9 min•Season 3Ep. 5
“As a leader of a growing team or company, the single most important thing you can do is ensure your success is to invest in building a culture of givers” Adam Grant, Give and Take. Networking is one of those words that brings a sense of horror and dread for some and yet for others it appears to come easy. There is some truth in networking being easier as you get a little older, not necessarily because you have more practice but in general because the older you get the more established existing ...
Oct 13, 2022•9 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Be someone who listens and you will be heard. It's a simple motto and it's what we explore in this episode. Often when we try to bond with people our heads are so swamped with our own agenda we're not really in listening mode. Yet we know how fundamentally empowering and valuing it is when we ourselves are heard and listened to. We explore the power of this form of listening and some tips on how to calm your inner toe tapping urge to break the silence, build bonds and emotional capital with peop...
Oct 06, 2022•11 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Dale Carnegie said “A person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest, most important sound in any language.” Names matter. The sound of your name cuts through any background noise, we’re conditioned from birth to hear it above anything else. It makes us unique, special and said in the right tone, valued. Remember someone’s name and you’re indicating their importance to you. Get it wrong and don’t get it at all and you’re instantly in the space of indicating someone’s lack of importance. In this ...
Sep 29, 2022•10 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Hey welcome back to Season 3 of the Thriving Leader. This season with 13 episodes was researched and recorded over the summer of 2022 to be released during the autumn / fall of 22. Connective Energy is the third part of the energy leader model. Like the other quadrants it's an important one and it represents out ability to get more things done by combining our energy with the resources of others who often will give this up voluntarily. It's a real skill particularly if youve been used to having ...
Sep 22, 2022•11 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Many of us tend to think in a linear fashion or were raised on project management principles of define scope, develop, execute etc. and yet the creatives and inventors that we most admire rarely worked in that way. The challenge with a linear process is that it is inherently reductive - the goal is to tightly define an objective and then strip back extraneous detail until something definite is delivered even if it's not really what people want or isn't useful because the need has moved on. In th...
Aug 02, 2022•11 min•Season 2Ep. 13
If you allow this to happen - you are the greatest barrier to your own creative talents. All to often our concerns and hang ups that we're not as good as others, that people will laugh at us, that we're not worthy, qualified or smart enough to contribute means we stay silent. When we stay silent we not only deprive the world of the good that's in our thoughts, but because ideas spark off other ideas, we're holding back the creativity of others. Time to get over ourselves, overcome our creative f...
Jul 26, 2022•16 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Often we feel intimidated by creativity - the blank sheet of paper, the pressure to come up with something new. But this is really pressure we needlessy put on ourselves. Most of the world's best inventions came from additive thinking, recognising something out there already and improving upon it. In this podcast episode I give you a couple of ways to bring additive thinking into your team, harnessing the vast range of knowledge and skills at your fingertips I bet you never even knew you had...
Jul 16, 2022•14 min•Season 2Ep. 11
when we were around five years of age we were awesome questioners. If we wanted to understand something we just made the ask, why, but why and but why. And then as we move into school and start being told there are facts, unquestionable facts we acquire a sense that our role is to absorb and accept realities presented by others. And then we transition into the workplace complete with an ego to be bruised that has built its sense of pride on what it knows, not what it doesn't know. And that stops...
Jun 21, 2022•12 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Beliefs are powerful things, they build through our childhood, reinforced in adulthood to the point where we can't remember why we see the world a certain way - why for example we are not creative. In this episode I'm opening up the notion that creativity can take many forms and that often people are creative in one dimension e.g. outside work but not creative inside work. This gives seven ideas for bringing more creativity into the culture of your organisation
Jun 14, 2022•12 min•Season 2Ep. 9
“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less”, General Eric Schineski. Often when faced with the task of creativity it feels better to stay as we are in the safe harbour. In reality out on the high seas are people who had the courage to set sail and they're not waiting for you. In this episode we look at the cost of a safety first principle and challenge why we see creativity as risky. And Ian adds his own thoughts on innovation in food and beverage offerings in airports...
Jun 08, 2022•14 min•Season 2Ep. 8
At school we were all told the story of Isaac Newton. He sat one day under the shade of an apple tree and at one point the apple fell on his head and he more or less instantly discovered and was able to identify that the moon isn’t falling to the earth and the earth isn’t falling into the sun and in short articulate the theory of gravity that rests with us today. Marvellously convenient, except of course it’s not true – a grain of truth with an awful lot of embellishment. The thing is Eureka myt...
Jun 07, 2022•15 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Ideation is part of but not the start of the creative process. Your job as leader is to observe, wonder and question why and what if. Organisational surveys repeatedly show most workers believe their bosses tap into less than 50% of their available skills. In this episode we look at how you as a leader can demonstrate and help others to ask the right questions in the right way, to notice difference in the world around and bring instant creativity to your organisation
May 31, 2022•13 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Many organisations strive to be more innovative but they miss the point that innovation stems from creativity. Without creativity in an organisation's culture set up and DNA, innovation will not only struggle to emerge but you'll miss the bigger benefits on offer. Not everything that can benefit your organisation stems from bringing the world something it has never seen before. The starting point is curiosity to notice the world around you - that's the seedcorn of creativity and from there innov...
May 24, 2022•16 min•Season 2Ep. 5
If you're a parent you'll probably remember being advised to let your children grow in their way but be careful of comparing them with others. Yet it was so tempting to do look over the fence and then feel regretful for doing so. If you're leading a company it's equally easy to peer over the fence and be beguiled by innovation theatre or to find comparisons with companies that are not like you and you'll never be like them. Both send our creativity and ideas to an early grave, both stifle the ai...
May 10, 2022•16 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Creativity is sometimes tricky and the environment around us matters. Sometimes we're in a white room of silence unable to even find the will to make a mark and sometimes things are so crazy it's hard to hear our selves think above the noise. When we're trying to be creative often we feel like we're waiting for the thunderbolt to strike but in this episode I'm introducing you the incremental creativity through a process called scratching. It's about adding progressive stimuli and components and ...
May 04, 2022•12 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Many of us grow to believe that some are born creative and others are not. As far back as the ancient Greeks came the notion that some people are selected for creativity and others exist solely to admire the great works. In today's episode we're up for a bit of myth busting and look at the ideal conditions that as leaders you need to create and foster if you want to see creativity at work which ultimately will lead to the innovation you desire. Creativity lies in every one of us, and the conditi...
Apr 27, 2022•15 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Welcome to season 2 of Energy Leader where week on week I'll help you to build skills and tools within our leadership style to be more productive and have more energy to devote to your work and wider life. It's season 2 and we're shifting gear into looking at Creative energy. Creativity has been cited by many sources as the number 1 skill required of modern day leaders and yet 5 in 10 of us say we're not creative. I happen to think that's not really true, we have learned to believe we are not cr...
Apr 20, 2022•13 min•Season 2Ep. 1
In this episode we follow on from exploring limiting beliefs to look at the power of assumptions and interpretations. We live in a world with imperfect data, so when we're faced with a scenario and we don't know all the facts, enter onto the stage assumptions and interpretations to come to the rescue and fill in the blanks. Sometimes we're right but often of course we take unconnected events from the past and use those as examples to fill in the blanks. Sometimes this creates paralysis where we'...
Feb 15, 2022•11 min•Season 1Ep. 14
In the last two episodes of season 1 of the energy leader podcast we'll look at some quick energy fixes for you the person and if you're a leader of people for your team as well. Our brains are cognitive misers. They are very good at learning patterns and then repeating behaviour when the same event occurs without asking your permission. Most of the time this is helpful because it frees us to think of other things, but sometimes, the routines and scripts the brain learns from early experiences c...
Feb 08, 2022•13 min•Season 1Ep. 13
In a previous episode we looked at the concept of the 50 minute meeting. Neuroscience shows that brains are not geared to concentrating for long periods of time and the 50 minute meeting is often enough for optimal focus. Assuming you've mastered the 50 minute meeting, that gives you ten minutes every hour. This episode explores choices for you in using your ten minutes between those that create the illusion of productivity and those that ultimately give our brains the boost they need to power u...
Feb 01, 2022•10 min•Season 1Ep. 12
In experiment after experiment scientists have proven that being productive, creative, accurate and producing consistently good results comes from harnessing good energy. Yet our workplaces and working lives are filled with energy sources that whilst giving us a quick jolt to keep us going, ultimately are not sustainable and create unwelcome side effects. In this episode I look at the work of Tony Schwartz and the concept of good energy sources and bad energy sources, why we feel drawn towards b...
Jan 25, 2022•16 min•Season 1Ep. 11
The world is awash with productivity literature imploring us to find ways we can cut down on the unnecessary activities in our work life, squeeze every ounce out of every second of every day and essentially wanting us to behave a little like machines. We’re not machines. Even if we were we recognise that the most precious machines in our lives tend not to function without being given regular care and attention. Eventually they too break. It’s easy and tempting sometimes for us to go without prop...
Jan 18, 2022•14 min•Season 1Ep. 11
When Covid struck, like millions around the world I switched to a life of working from home. I’d already been working from home a fair bit but for many it was a rapid adjustment which forced big changes on personal energy levels. On the upside – no commute and few regrets there. But it also meant a big change in making personal contact and connections and a lot more screen time. You’d think that removing our commute time would mean we’d feel more energised and refreshed from getting back all tha...
Jan 11, 2022•14 min•Season 1Ep. 9
When was the last time you made a decision? You may not realise it but you’re making decisions all the time. There are the “fully aware big ones” that you may agonise over or talk through with people before picking a path. But almost every hour we’re awake there are micro-decisions and most of the time we’re not even aware we’re making them. Yet the consequences of these micro-decisions are what affects our energy. If you find yourself feeling a little exhausted part way through the working day,...
Jan 05, 2022•10 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Did you know 25% of those who make a new year resolution will have given up by the time the first week of January is out? Or that the average person makes the same resolution ten times in a row without success. We're told it's all about will-power but it turns out will-power is an extremely unreliable partner when it comes to making things happen. Listen up in this episode where we look at an experiment with chocolate cookies and radishes as the clue to helping us understand how we can make chan...
Dec 29, 2021•8 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Most of us recognise there's a world of difference between running a 5k parkrun and running a marathon. We're also likely to accept there's a different recovery time and if we don't build in that time to recover, there's likely to be stress and load on our ligaments and eventually an injury that will stop us running altogether. It's a reminder that as humans we are not machines and when we overload, we will wear down until something breaks. Just like our ligaments, the brain is not a machine tha...
Dec 07, 2021•10 min•Season 1Ep. 6
