Explore & discover...

266: Making sense. Olga Tokarczuk. Arundhati Roy.
Good morning friends This time last year, I decided to up my social media game. An Instagram page was created for the newsletter. Two things happened. One, it felt performative.…

265: Culture. Tenderness. Heritage.
Good morning friends The joy of writing this letter is consistently receiving feedback that enriches my world. Last week’s provocation about innovation refracted through Thomas Edison, resulted in me learning…

264: Helen Lewis. Adam Grant. The Genius of Relentless Execution.
Good morning friends /strategy Helen Lewis is the author of The Genius Myth. She argues that we should speak not of geniuses, but of moments of genius. This formulation, she…

263: Jennifer Pahlka. Amy Edmondson. Albert Einstein
Good morning dear friends Four years ago, Jerome September, the University of the Witwatersrand’s Dean of Student Affairs, started a postgraduate reading club. This year they’ve been reading No Last…

262: Uncommon Service. Radical Imagination.
Dear Friends Before we get started, thank you to everyone who commented on my new website copy and, in particular, on the curated leadership learning journeys I’ve been piloting. There’s…

261: Creating Conditions for Uncommon Service
Dear friends My coaching practice has, as it should and all things do, evolved since I started it in September 2019. I recently rewrote my website’s copy to reflect those…

260: Three Rons Make a Right
Dear friends Three weeks ago, our letter was Building Leadership Resilience. When I shared it on LinkedIn, it included two Rons – Carucci and Heifetz – and my alliteration-loving brain…

259: Heisenberg, Hawthorne and Milan Kundera
Dear friends First, a quick announcement, there won’t be a newsletter next week. I am freeing a little time to focus on some longer-form writing. Don’t ask what, it’s a…

258: Building Leadership Resilience
Dear Friends Last week we explored the work of leadership. This week we turn to building leadership resilience. Recently, a client of mine was asked to lead a future-focused Board committee. Excited,…

257: The Work of Leadership (inspired by Francesca Albanese and Audre Lorde, with strategy scaffolding from Ronald Heifetz)
Dear friends Leadership is often mistaken for position or expertise. It is neither. It is a way of being. The work of leadership is how we choose to live. /selfToday,…

256: John Kay’s The Corporation in the 21st Century
Good morning good friends /strategyLast week’s letter introduced you to John Kay’s The Corporation in the 21st Century. It’s a sprawl of a book collecting thoughts, analysis and occasional scathing asides…

255: Vivian Gornick and Louis Gerstner. Tim Ferriss and James Clear, John Kay on safari.
Dear friends /strategyVivian Gornick, in her acclaimed book on writing great non-fiction The Situation and the Story observes, “Every work of literature has both a situation and a story. The…
