Posts by Suzi McAlpine

I had a cool boss early on in my career called Carol. Carol was the ‘Queen of Wise One Liners’. She delivered these with penetrating wit, a minimum of sugar coating, at pace – and usually in between bites of an apple, which seemed to be her main sustenance during work hours. There were many…

When was the last time you changed your mind about something?What is something which you used to believe in strongly, but don’t anymore? When I asked myself these two questions this morning, I had to think long and hard. And that made me feel uncomfortable. I fall prey to confirmation bias. I’m strident when it…

I was thrilled and honoured to get a sneak peak of Lauren Parson’s book Thriving Leaders Thriving Teams, and its full of practical pearls of wisdom for leaders. This topic really got me thinking so I’m delighted to have Lauren share an excerpt from her book and sprinkle your day with goodness in a book…

“We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.” That’s what American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer John Dewey said. And I think he was bang on. Although it might seem like there’s less time than ever in your diary for reflection, it’s probably even more important than ever. Now, more than…

Dear leadership teams, I want to start this open letter by saying I see the pressure you’re under right now. The imperative to deliver on multiple (and sometimes conflicting) obligations is both real and strident. It probably feels a bit like everything is falling into the ‘urgent and important’ quadrant – burning platforms all over…

Not everyone wants to be a manager. Some people love doing what they’re good at; they’re functional experts who have worked hard to develop their craft. They’re probably known as one of the best in the organisation at this ‘thing’. They might even have a reputation that stretches beyond your business. They want (and deserve)…

Improving your leadership can start simply by purposefully identifying the leader you want to be. One way to get started is to think of leaders you admire, then work out what it is you respect about them. They might be public figures you’ve admired from a distance, or people in your own life who have…

Last week, I was feeling a bit down on myself. I’d set some goals around a key business strategy a few months ago and hadn’t made much progress. All I could see was where I’d fallen short. What started as a quiet, critical conversation with myself about my lack of progress developed into a strident…

Maybe it won’t surprise you, but studies show that 50% of people would fire their boss if they could. On top of that, 40% of employees between the ages of 24 and 35 are thinking about quitting their job. Those are some pretty sobering statistics. It seems that overall, we’re doing a shoddy job of…