Your senior leaders may not lack drive
I have been working with a senior leader with deep technical expertise. The kind of person you want when the detail has to hold up. They wanted to move beyond…
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When senior leadership scripts expire: how to spot the gap
An expired leadership script does not feel broken. That is what makes it dangerous. When a board, funder, regulator or executive team stops responding the way they used to, many…
When more spend buys less belief
After a long day of meetings and an evening still at the desk, I switched on a streaming platform on the tier with ads. What I didn’t expect was for…
The first call was right. The second one wasn’t.
Most leaders don’t get into trouble because of the first decision. They get into trouble because of the second one. My daughter and her partner are both football mad. They…
Hope is Not a Viability Strategy
There are lines I keep hearing in conversations with government, health and community service leaders. Each one sounds reasonable on its own. Together, they point to something more serious I…
How good leaders lose their line
Most leaders don’t wake up planning to betray their values. I finally finished watching The Man in the High Castle. It’s a dystopian alternate-history series: part espionage drama, part resistance…
Leaders started this problem before AI arrived
We keep blaming AI for weakening critical thinking at work. I think that’s too convenient. AI is accelerating a problem leaders have been building for years: organisations full of people…
The pressure to be seen doing something
My husband is one of five boys. The whole family doesn’t gather the way it used to. Across the remaining brothers in Australia there are six cousins, ranging in age…
The meeting looks on track. The real issue isn’t.
The boards that govern well don’t solve strategic questions on the fly — they notice when the conversation has shifted, and name it.
When disruption walks into the room
Disruption doesn’t just interrupt, it reshapes attention. In high-pressure moments, effective leaders know how to stay centred, protect focus, and keep the work moving forward.