Posts by Suzi McAlpine

Last weekend, my two older bros and I took a road trip to Nelson Lakes. This 24-hour excursion was about hanging out as siblings and remembering our dad, who died seven years ago.  Our time together was filled with reminiscing about our beloved father. How he loved chocolate and whiskey. How he would vacillate between…

Most teams know when a conversation in the group may be heading into difficult territory, coming unstuck or going skewwhiff. Interpersonal tension might be rising. Someone’s body language or facial expression shows they’re frustrated. The person who’s usually vocal goes quiet. Or perhaps you all start talking over each other. You’ve become oppositional and people…

You’re a CEO who needs to get a significant project signed off from the Board. You’re a mid-level manager keen to let the exec team know they’re piling on too many conflicting priorities. You’re a front-line leader who wants your direct manager to adopt your idea. What do these three situations and leaders have in…

Diversity and inclusion is always a hot – and important – topic in leadership, and rightly so. This week I share a guest post from Zoe Dryden, Managing Director and Owner of leadership training and facilitation programme, Second Base. Like me, Zoe works as an executive coach and lives in sunny Nelson. She’s also an…

If you’re still not sure whether nailing feedback conversations should be one of your main skills to prioritise as a leader, check out these studies: Gallup data shows that when employees receive “meaningful feedback”, they are almost four times more likely than other employees to be engaged. Meaningful feedback isn’t the norm, however. In another recent…

You might have heard of the 1% improvement rule utilised by Head of British Cycling, Sir Dave Brailsford when he applied the theory of marginal gains to cycling with the UK team who went on to achieve gold medals. Brailsford said, “The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could…

One of the most common traps leaders fall into is to dominate, not facilitate.  It shows up in meetings. It rears its head when a team is faced with a complicated calamity. And we often see it when assessing the merits of an innovation. This dynamic can even be present when leaders and their direct…

Stress in and of itself is not a bad thing. In fact, a certain amount of stress is not only useful for our wellbeing, it’s also good for our performance. As the author of Beyond Burnout, I’m the first one to call out chronic or extreme stress as pretty damaging. But I’ve started to see…

This year, I’m doing something hugely counter-cultural with my business. Some might even say I’ve completely lost my marbles. Instead of growing my business, I’m shrinking it. This is an absurd move – at least if you consider the standard collective wisdom in business. It’s especially ludicrous given the wave my business is currently riding.…

It’s a ridiculously simple question. But it’s not only one of the most powerful coaching questions I’ve used, it’s one that we don’t often ask ourselves – and one that can be difficult to answer. More often we ask ourselves: What should I do? What do others want me or need me to do? What…