Blog

The Best Strategic Plan for 2026? A Blank Page.

The Best Strategic Plan for 2026? A Blank Page.

Every year, I find myself planning and filling my diary with plans, playbooks, and actions for the coming year. Companies and leaders gather in meeting rooms to map out their “strategic plan”—a detailed roadmap filled with KPIs, milestones, and forecasts that often look suspiciously like last year’s. But as we approach 2026, there’s a growing realisation that the old playbook…

More info

The Myth of Work-Life Balance: Why It Is Important to Have a Hard Stop, Not a Soft Blur

The Myth of Work-Life Balance: Why It Is Important to Have a Hard Stop, Not a Soft Blur

I have been talking about work-life balance since I stopped playing professional sport twenty years ago. We are juggling all these balls in life and, more often than not, we drop the glass balls and not the rubber ones. In 1991, Bryan Dyson, ex-CEO of Coca-Cola, compared life to juggling five balls at the same time: Work, Family, Health, Friends,…

More info

Leading with Empathy

Leading with Empathy

Many people confuse sympathy with empathy and vice versa, so I will start by explaining the difference between the two responses. Sympathy is an acknowledgment of feelings, and empathy provides a deeper, more supportive understanding and connection. I will give an example. If someone is experiencing parenting struggles with a small baby: Sympathy: “Wow, that sounds really tiring. I am…

More info