Leadership is both the hardest and the simplest of the three pillars of stress-free success. It’s showing people the way to go and the way to be whilst on that journey. It is setting a direction and a standard of behaviour. The best leaders show consistency in both or, at the very least, only make…
Deep work is a term coined by Professor Cal Newport to describe one way of getting valuable and meaningful work done. It is the type of work that needs your focus for a block of time, without distraction or interruption. Busyness as a Proxy for Productivity In a world where your personal effectiveness is more…
What is holding you back from your next level of success? For a moment we’re going to strip away the practical elements. We’re not going to spend time thinking about the steps you need to take, finding the next goal, or about elements in your environment holding you back. Let’s just have a look at…
There are times in your life when you need to regain your mental energy. it’s not at your usual levels and you’re struggling to get your stuff done especially the creative or deep-thinking stuff. 3 Common Reasons for Low Mental Energy Working too hard for too long: Keeping your nose to the grindstone without looking…
I’m not sure why, but recently I found myself thinking about what is within my control and what’s not. In psychology, this is called locus of control and is a concept initially developed in the 1950s. Conventional wisdom suggests that you should not worry about things that are outside of your control. Worrying about things…
Whether it’s a pandemic or nerves for an important (video) meeting we all have trouble sleeping from time to time. Sometimes it’s not clear what keeps you awake, maybe your brain just hasn’t processed the day yet and in the quiet hours, it wanders around in the dark bumping into things. For me, it’s often…
How many times have you been in a professional conversation when you’ve realised that the other person is no longer ‘with you’? It is most obvious when there is a physical interruption like a knock at the door, a phone call or message ping that takes the focus away from the conversation. Sometimes it’s not…
How do you feel successful? It means different things to different people although the Oxford English Dictionary only has two different definitions. What does it mean to you? The accomplishment of an aim or purpose The attainment of fame, wealth, or social status The first one is straightforward. It suggests that you’ve set a goal…
I’ve talked before about the three pillars to a stress-free success in business, Leadership, Effectiveness and Self-care. There is a common thread that can be applied to all three pillars – simplicity. Keeping everything as simple as possible has a kind of beauty to it. I read a quote once, that I cannot attribute from…
There are plenty of definitions of leadership around. You don’t have to look far to see articles giving lots of leadership advice. With such a great number of words written about leadership, it can seem like a daunting subject. It can also seem like there is a lot to learn. If we look at what…