Hi Reader It’s late on a weeknight, and somewhere a volunteer chairperson, or similar, is watching a former international footballer on YouTube explain that a “good dressing room” comes down to attitude, honesty and hunger. He’s not wrong. He’s just not much use on Thursday, when the committee meeting has three items nobody wants and the treasurer has gone quiet. Last week a sports club chairman, a volunteer in the role, told me what he’d most have liked when he started: someone to explain...
5 days ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader At the end of a long conversation last week, a volunteer leader asked me the question I hear more than any other. “You were in sport a long time. What could we learn from it?” It’s a fair question. I think people hope for something about dressing-room speeches, or how great teams build a winning “culture”. The honest answer is far less glamorous, and sport isn’t an à la carte menu. The bits that make interesting documentaries rest on the bits that don’t. Thanks to this week's...
12 days ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader I lost count of how many times we heard it that evening. A friend was holidaying here with his family and we’d met for dinner at a hotel restaurant nearby. He;’s got two kids now: a nine-month-old boy, and his sister, almost two; and being nearly two she’s fully mobile and fiercely independent! After dinner she wanted to explore the pool area. Being a responsible adult, I said I’d take her. It was fun being around an almost two year old again. As we got closer to the water, she...
19 days ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader Last year, for my MSc research, I sat down with seven experienced volunteer coaches with over a century of leadership between them. Good people, the kind every professional & sports organisation is quietly built & sustained on. I asked them about leading under pressure, and they talked freely. They spoke at length about their players, the parents, the committee, the club, the NGB. It was all engaging, honest & thoughtful stuff and several told me, almost surprised, that it was the...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader It hit me yesterday at about 3.30pm. I’d spent the better part of an hour and a half listening back to a recent coaching call with a guy from a successful professional practice who also doubles up as a volunteer leader for his professional association. As well as the listen-back I made notes for 30 minutes and then immersed myself for 90 minutes into crafting a diagnostic document to point him towards the insights that revealed the root of his present challenge and also suggestions...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Hi Reader The majority of the start-up founders & business leaders I get to work with are drowning in input I did something this week I rarely do. I read an online article twice. The second time I printed it out to read properly. The story goes something like this. It’s April 1984. Two guys were sleeping in a Volkswagen in a car park in Basel, Switzerland. Every morning they'd wake up, wash themselves in the train station toilets, and walk to their stand at the industry's big annual business...
2 months ago • 4 min read
Hi Reader The majority of the start-up founders & business leaders I get to work with are drowning in input and starving for insight. What do I mean? As I see it, they will tell you they consume enormous amounts of content e.g. four books on the go at once, podcasts on commutes, LinkedIn threads they scroll through waiting for coffee. So they say they read voraciously & that they listen constantly. At the same time though, they can’t understand why their thinking hasn't improved. Something is...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Not good enough to finish....but you say nothing. Hi Reader Last Sunday I sat in the bar of a cool local hotel and watched the staff turn out €15 cocktails like they were doing them for the first time. Aesthetically, the bar is comfortable, appealing & embracing to sit in. The service is prompt & pleasant . The drinks were a disaster. I spoke to the F&B manager later. He's a friend. He told me client feedback had been strong. He was pleased with how the summer had gone. He’s my pal so I had...
2 months ago • 2 min read
After a while of 'the same' you just don't notice it Hi Reader There's a noticeable pattern & trend in founder and business leader behaviour that's so common most just can't see it. I’ve come to see that it’s not just one behaviour but something known as “a register”. For example….. "Would you be open to..." when they mean I want. "I'd love to explore..." when they mean I've decided. "Just checking in..." when they mean this matters. "I hope this makes sense..." at the end of something that...
3 months ago • 1 min read