295: Lebo Diseko’s The House at 6001
Dear Friends Last week I said we would visit Lebo Diseko’s memoir The House at 6001, and that is where soul and self will go. /strategy Two weeks ago, I wrote to you about loss. I am grateful for…
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289: Obliquity: Strategy is not a straight line
Good morning friends /strategyThe strategy industry and its remoras too often create caricatures of strategy. Strategy is not a list of goals. It is not how it is measured. Nor is it a template, one-page, or otherwise (Richard Rumelt is spectacular…
283: Being good at being lost: Amity Gaige’s Heartwood
Dear friends My coaching work often integrates fiction. I do so because it allows us to see depth and nuance that non-fiction can’t. The non-fiction author can’t explore imagination or internal dialogue, but our unspoken dreams, hopes and fears influence so…
280: Are you poisoned by power?
Dear friends Our last two letters, Self-Doubt and Success, and Excellence and Leadership, went longer than usual, so this week’s letter is briefer. /strategy Last week’s letter gave us four catalytic leadership habits courtesy of strategy guru Jim Collins. If…
279: Nadia Davids, Jim Collins and Brian Lara: Excellence and Leadership
Dear friends Last week’s letter, Self-Doubt and Success: What J.M. Coetzee Teaches Us About Becoming, was a step outside our normal flow. I was, perhaps unsurprisingly, filled with doubt as to whether I should be writing about doubt in that…
278: Self-Doubt and Success: What J.M. Coetzee Teaches Us About Becoming
“A book should be an axe to chop open the frozen sea inside us”Summertime, J.M. Coetzee Dear Friends Success always seems so neat, coherent and, in its perfection, unobtainable. We look at Arundhati Roy’s global acclaim, not knowing of her…
#241: the courage to find better ways…
Dear friends If you need a smile (who doesn’t?), this video of two playful leopard clubs may do the trick. If you’re more of a fashion-loving sort, then these collabs between African designers and global brands might suffice. /strategyWe all…
#235: Fragments of Freedom
Dear Friends I struggled to write this week’s letter. There is no shortage of material. I have been my diligent self. A dozen books are stacked next to my desk. l have read them, completed my annotations and they’re waiting to…
#218: DO Sweat the Small Stuff
Good morning good friends /strategyStrategy conversations are often dominated by innovation, acquisition and the like. They are important. As important is operational excellence. FT Strategies August newsletter, The Path to Profitability, included this observation, “Based on data from over 400…
#217: Leading through Dramatic Change
Dear friends On 30 June, President Ramaphosa announced South Africa’s new Cabinet. This Wednesday, I posted my Cabinet Reading List. My coaching practice birthed the idea. A central component of coaching is expanding clients’ possibilities. Carefully curated reading is a…
#216: Find Your X-Factor
Good morning friends Thank you for your generous comments and reflections marking the fifth anniversary of my coaching practice. Today, we’ll get straight to it. /strategyLast week, I introduced you to Verne Harnish’s Scaling Up. You’ll remember he recommends business leaders focus…
#183: A little more Sigourney Weaver
Dear friends For those of you inspired by the Springboks, but despairing that South Africa (indeed the world) seems to not have many other leaders, I have just bought Imtiaz Sooliman and the Gift of the Givers by Shafiq Morton and…