African Authors (47) Building Culture (54) Business Case Study (32) Business Fundamentals (37) Creative Leadership (35) Leadership Examples (35) Leadership Fundamentals (73) Personal Mastery (83) Powerful Habits (41) Resilience (45)
Personal Mastery
#232: Building Your 2025 Reading List: Books to Inspire
Good morning dear friends We are back! Five years ago, to the day, I sent this newsletter to a handful of friends for comment. Since then, I’ve written 232 of…
#229: Be a Problem (Finder)
Good morning friends If you’re coming to the Cape this December, here are a few options to consider. For wine bars – Leo’s for edgy wines and a creative crowd,…
#228: How to be buoyant
Good morning good people Yesterday, after months of rain (for which we are grateful) and weeks of wind, summer arrived on the Cape Peninsula. Gaudy neon ribbons of runners and…
#227: How to Listen Better
Dear Friends First, an announcement. From Thursday, my parents are visiting what is a currently a windy Southern Peninsula (the whales seem to be hiding out or have left) and so…
#223: What is Strategy?
Good morning good people I hope you’re well. The last few weeks haven’t had a lot of space for segues into art, wine and food, and today is not that…
#214: Settle Into Your Comfort Zone
Dear friends During the pandemic, I received an email from one of my favourite independent bookstores, Cape Town’s The Book Lounge, with an unusual proposition – ‘send us an email…
#213: Stay in Your Comfort Zone
Dear friends Bibliophiles should diarise 4 August and oenophiles 22 August. I first encountered Anna de Koningh, in Phakamisa Ndzamela’s masterfully researched The Native Merchants, which I wrote about here.…
#212: Managers can change the world
Dear friends Ten days ago, whilst working in the pre-dawn – that sounds hard-working, but in truth, winter sunrise is only at 08h00 – I heard a familiar yet always…
#210: The Inner Work of Leadership: Caring for Yourself and Others
Good morning friends Today is more essay than letter. It’s a bit long. I apologise, but is about your self-care, about self-care for leaders. It needed the words. I’d love to…
#209: Unlocking Engagement
Dear friends Apologies to those of you who missed my announcement that I wasn’t writing last weekend, I was flattered to know that you missed our letter. I was speaking…
#198: Confront the Facts (with help from A.E. Housman)
Dear Friends After last week’s letter, I received several emails sharing memories of other grandfathers who’d served in WW2 and other conflicts. Each email reflected on the pain that lived…
#191: Being Effective (Part Two)
Dear All My holiday break, of course, included wine, I live in Cape Town after all. There was a lazy Winemaker’s lunch beneath Rust en Vrede’s oaks. Despite summer’s heat,…