We Playback
Through our work, we share what we are seeing, sensing and hearing.
The Leadership Burden We Don't Talk About
People don't stop looking to leadership when things get uncertain. If anything, they look harder. The expectation on leaders right now is enormous, and most leaders assume that to do a good job means having all the answers. We're not convinced. This one's about what people actually need from their leaders when the future isn't clear yet.
Change Isn’t a Phase
A lot of leaders are waiting for things to settle down before they start operating properly again. Understandable instinct. The reality? That moment is never coming. Stability is something you have to build. So what does it take to start building it?
The decision you’re not making is still a decision
January brings a false sense of momentum. After the planning session, the strategy gets set and then…..nothing. Leaders wait for the perfect moment to commit but that moment never arrives. So what does it actually take to start acting?
Leadership in Review.
We made it- Another year done! After a year in a lot of different rooms with a lot of different leadership teams, a few things kept showing up that are worth talking about. Here's what we saw, what it taught us, and what we're taking into next year.
How to build the future.
Every strategy session has this: the person dreaming about the next big horizon, and the person across the table wondering how they'll fix the handover process first. Both are right, but when the tension between the two goes unaddressed, good ideas just fizzle out. Here's the framework we've been using to help teams work through it.
Q4 - The last mile.
With ten weeks left, the panic sets in. Leaders stop leading and start firefighting, and before long, the end of the year just kind of... happens to you. Here's how to take back control of the final stretch and finish in a way that sets you up for what comes next.
Making high-performance a habit.
In busy environments, high performance becomes a reaction rather than a habit. Something that gets attention when things go wrong and gets forgotten about when delivery takes over. So what does it actually take to build it into how a team operates every day, and what changes when you do? Here's our take.
For those handed change without a playbook.
Too many capable people are being trusted with transformation and then left to figure it out alone, don’t you think? When it doesn't land, they blame themselves. But it's not them. It's the conditions. Here's what it looks like when leaders are given the strategy, structure and support they need to make change stick.
Follow Up or Fall Behind.
When deadlines pass and nothing moves, it's easy to point at the team. But what if the accountability problem is actually yours to fix? The good news is it doesn't take a culture overhaul. It takes knowing where the gaps are, building in the right conversations, and creating the kind of regular rhythms that mean nothing falls through the cracks.
From Busy to Belief.
It's Q2 and the grind is real. Teams are delivering and leaders are pushing, but somewhere in the chaos, the bigger picture has got lost. When no one's holding the vision, busy-ness fills the gap. It's time to lift your heads before the engagement starts to slip.
Q1 done, time for the stretch.
The new year energy has gone, the strategy is set and now it's time to actually do the work. Teams are being asked to show up completely differently, but the old habits haven't gone anywhere. Q1 is done. The stretch begins now.
The chaos stops with you.
Chaos isn't just bad luck. It's a signal that leadership habits haven't kept pace with the business. The good news? It ends when you decide it does.
Let the strategy sink in.
Your team hasn't had the months you’ve had to process the strategy. So when you're ready to sprint, they're still figuring out what it means for them. Sometimes the fastest way to build momentum is to slow down just enough to bring people with you. Here's what that looks like in practice.
[Guest Post] Alan Davis on whether golf is the ultimate interview.
Does golfing style reflect work style?
December: Pivotal Shifts, Fresh Perspectives
This year has been one of pivotal shifts. From embracing AI advancements to navigating macro challenges, leaders across industries have leaned into change, aligning their strategies and resetting their teams for success. It’s been a hard year—and you all deserve a break.
November: Leadership Insights, a fresh podcast and a free course!
Leadership transformation has been front and center of the client challenges we’ve been thrown this month and there’s one theme that keeps coming up: the step change. Many of the organizations I’ve been working with are realizing that their “comfortable” ways of operating aren’t cutting it anymore. To get to the next level, leaders are having to shift—not just how they operate, but also what they tolerate.
The other side of layoffs.
It’s hard as a leader /manager when you’ve been told to deliver hard news on behalf of someone else’s decisions, especially one that you weren’t even involved with making or shaping. You’ve been given the script but you don’t have all the context, and you don’t have the answers.
Five things we've learned from running team collaboration workshops.
Over the past few months, myself have the team have been leading team collaboration workshops across a range of industries, teams, and company sizes. What was interesting were the patterns that started to emerge which we can only attribute to the fact that no one was spared the changes and challenges brought on over the past few years.
Carving clarity out of someone else’s ambiguity.
In both my practice as aa practitioner and managing expectations of some fleeting founders, and as a business owner, navigating the grey that is my client’s “leadership” needs, I’ve had to excel at creating clarity through their uncertainty. When I reflect on how I do this, it brings me right back to my coaching fundamentals.
Take a breath
“Venting doesn’t extinguish the flame of anger. It feeds it.” - Adam Grant
Agree with Adam Grant’s position above?
How many of you use a good ol’ vent sesh to let off some steam about someone you’re working with?
There are many scenarios at work that can trigger that kind of frustration within you, scenarios like….