Explore every episode of the podcast Leadership In Chaos

I am interrupting the “Confessions of a Guru” series to share a special edition (to coincide with our refresh of the Podcast tile, which I hope you like). 😉

This special three-part edition is about Conversations and why, at this critical time, when we need to have conversations most, we are shunning the opportunity and losing the art. 

We started a project 15 years ago called @GreenLine Conversations™️ , and I consider it now high time to share some observations at a moment when it’s apparent we all most acutely need it.

During the series, I explore :

-Why Conversations Matter

-Why business avoids (tough) Conversations: Mechanics Vs Humanics

-The three possible outcomes of a Conversation

-The Cost of Poor Conversations

-No one intends a bad Conversation

 Enjoy the trilogy.

For more on the method described, visit greenlineconversations.com 

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I am interrupting the “Confessions of a Guru” series to share a special edition (to coincide with our refresh of the Podcast tile, which I hope you like). 😉

This special three-part edition is about Conversations and why, at this critical time, when we need to have conversations most, we are shunning the opportunity and losing the art. 

We started a project 15 years ago called @GreenLine Conversations™️ , and I consider it now high time to share some observations at a moment when it’s apparent we all most acutely need it.

During the series, I explore :

-Why Conversations Matter

-Why business avoids (tough) Conversations: Mechanics Vs Humanics

-The three possible outcomes of a Conversation

-The Cost of Poor Conversations

-No one intends a bad Conversation

 Enjoy the trilogy.

For more on the method described, visit greenlineconversations.com 

Support the show

I am interrupting the “Confessions of a Guru” series to share a special edition (to coincide with our refresh of the Podcast tile, which I hope you like). 😉

This special three-part edition is about Conversations and why, at this critical time, when we need to have conversations most, we are shunning the opportunity and losing the art. 

We started a project 15 years ago called @GreenLine Conversations™️ , and I consider it now high time to share some observations at a moment when it’s apparent we all most acutely need it.

During the series, I explore :

-Why Conversations Matter

-Why business avoids (tough) Conversations: Mechanics Vs Humanics

-The three possible outcomes of a Conversation

-The Cost of Poor Conversations

-No one intends a bad Conversation

 Enjoy the trilogy.

For more on the method described, visit greenlineconversations.com 

Support the show

I hope you’re enjoying the new series of Confessions of a Guru.

Here is our latest episode, Part 5: The Marvels and the Spoon.

The “Guru” label is deliberately ironic as, in the age of the un-curated digital platform, everyone - it seems - is suddenly a Guru. Self-proclaimed anyway. 😉

The format is to choose a story from my 30+ years of working with leaders globally, which illustrates the best or the worst of some aspect of leadership. 

After telling the story, I then extrapolate the message application for you to consider in your life and work. 

I know you’re busy, so it will always be brief! 

Part 5: The Marvels and the Spoon

One of the FAQs aimed in my direction is the basic question, “What actually is Leadership?” (and how does it differ from Management) 

 One of my favourite ways to explore this is to tell a little-referenced vignette from “The Alchemist” (by Paulo Coelho), which puts both into neat context. It’s the short tale of a boy sent out to discover the secret of happiness from the wisest man in the world.

In this episode, I share the vignette and then deconstruct it through the following themes:

 -Visionary Vs Doer: what’s the difference?

-Visionary Vs Doer: which one are you?

-Managing the Tension vs. solving the Problem

-How to guarantee failure 

-What to do to avoid it

And as always, there are some key reflection questions to mull over at the end as you navigate your own path.

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The New Series

Yes, indeed, Leadership in Chaos is truly back with an exciting new series – Confessions of a Guru. 

The “Guru” label is deliberately ironic as, in the age of the un-curated digital platform, everyone - it seems - is suddenly a Guru. Self-proclaimed anyway. 😉

The format is to choose a story from my 30+ years of working with leaders globally, which illustrates the best or the worst of some aspect of leadership. 

After telling the story, I then extrapolate the message application for you to consider in your life and work. 

I know you’re busy, so it will always be brief! 

Part 4: Calmest Person in the Boat

We start 2025 with a new episode of the latest series, “Confessions of a Guru”. 

The theme is appropriate to the foggy uncertainty we find ourselves in on the eve of the Trump inauguration and the essential need for leaders to keep calm in pressure, tension, complexity and uncertainty.

This episode explores the following: 

-What’s the connection between the 1970’s Vietnamese refugee crisis and leadership?

-Limbic Leadership = The Dominant Emotion wins

-Leadership reputation is won or lost in the high-stakes Moments that Matter

-It’s about Impact, stupid

The featured story is about a Function Head who spread dis-ease amongst her team, wholly unconsciously and sabotaged beyond repair the good engagement before it had barely taken off the ground.

And, as always, there are some key Reflection questions to mull over as you sail into 2025.

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The New Series

Yes, indeed, Leadership in Chaos is truly back with an exciting new series – Confessions of a Guru. 

The “Guru” label is deliberately ironic as, in the age of the un-curated digital platform, everyone - it seems - is suddenly a Guru. Self-proclaimed anyway. 😉

The format is to choose a story from my 30+ years of working with leaders globally which illustrates the best or the worst of some aspect of leadership. 

After telling the story, I then extrapolate the message application for you to consider in your life and work. 

I know you’re busy, so it will always be brief! 

Part 3: “Can you handle the Truth?”

This is the story of a Boomerang client who revealed to me why, at her previous company, the executive had decided not to go any further with the Change project we were working on with them. “I absolutely loved what you were doing. It was having a great impact. But you were getting too close to the Truth…and Leadership didn’t like it”. 

Honestly.

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Support the show

Leadership in Chaos is back with an exciting new series – Confessions of a Guru. 

The “Guru” label is deliberately ironic as, in the age of the infinite digital platform, everyone, it seems, is a guru. By self-appointment. 😉

The format is to choose a story from my 30+ years of working with leaders globally, which, illustrates the best or the worst of some aspects of leadership. After telling the story, I then extrapolate the message application for you to consider in your life and work. I know you’re busy, so it will be always brief!

 This Episode – Part One

The first story is one that goes back to the very start of my career more than 30 years ago and tells about why I decided against undertaking a lucrative Change project with a client because they fell down on the Say-Do gap. I hope you enjoy….

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The Keynote Season Part 4: Inspire Commitment

“The more digital the world becomes, the more we must emphasise what makes us most human” – Jack Ma

This episode unveils the 4 Emotionally Intelligent “Cards” that – played right – help build connection and commitment: Humanity’s trump card in an increasingly digital deck. 

Insights include:

-Leadership is a contact sport

-Quality of Interaction = Quality of Commitment

-Why Trust is harder – and more critical – during Uncertainty

-The 4 Emotionally Intelligent Commitment Cards
 

Related Episodes

Episode 53, 54, 55 : Leadership in the New World (Dis)Order (Parts 1-3)

Episode 47 : Chaos is the New Normal

Episode 39 - 42 : Leading Teams in Chaos

Episode 26 : The Leadership Contribution

Episode 25 :  What is Leadership? (in Chaos)

Episode 8 : Building Trust

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The Keynote Season Part 3: Create Clarity

In times of ambiguity and uncertainty, people look intensely to their leaders.

As that leader, if you can be nothing else, be clear.

This episode explains why and how.

 Insights include:

-Why people don’t do what they’re supposed to…and what to do about it

-Why Ambiguity is Enemy No1 for High Performance

-Leadership’s 2 Clarity Traps

-How we judge Ourselves Vs How Others judge us

Related Episodes

Episode 57 – Keep Your Focus – Avoid Procrastination

Episode 32 – Planning and Prioritising in Chaos

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The Keynote Season Part 2: The Leadership Contribution

Leadership isn’t about position, title, or privilege – although many organizations operate as if it is.

Leadership is best seen as a form of contribution.

In this episode, we unpack exactly what makes up that contribution.

 Insights include:

-What is Leadership?

-Ask the Audience – we all know great leadership

-Organisations are awful at developing leadership

-Why the Peter Principle is alive and well in corporate life

Related Episodes

Episode 53, 54, 55 : Leadership in the New World (Dis)Order (Parts 1-3)

Episode 47 : Chaos is the New Normal

Episode 39 - 42 : Leading Teams in Chaos

Episode 26 : The Leadership Contribution

Episode 25 :  What is Leadership? (in Chaos)

Episode 8 : Building Trust

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The Keynote Season Part 1: Chaos? Always!

“Events, dear boy, events” was Harold Macmillan’s succinct reply when asked about the greatest challenge for a statesman.

 Well, so too with this humble Podcaster who – through force of “events” - has been absent from the podcast platform for exactly one year today.

 The absence, however, hasn’t been wasted and, on this the very anniversary of my previous episode, I am rebooting with an omnibus quadruple-decker edition entitled the Keynote Season.

 The title comes from the many Keynotes I’ve been invited to deliver during the past 12 months to address the overwhelming client desire to understand the updated principles of “How to Lead in an Age of Chaos and Disruption”.

We’re born without all the answers, we die without all the answers, yet we spend most of our lives looking for certainty.

The problem lies not with the stars …but with ourselves.

We spend this first episode of the Keynote series exploring why we crave certainty so much when the natural state is one of change, ambiguity, and Chaos.

Therein lies our collective discomfort.

Insights include:
-It’s not You Chaos, it’s Us
-It’s our expectations, stupid
-It’s OK not to feel OK
-Embrace the Discomfort & look for the Opportunity
-How Big corporations are capitalizing on the insight

Related Episodes
Episode 53, 54, 55: Leadership in the New World (Dis)Order (Parts 1-3)
Episode 47: Chaos is the New Normal
Episode 39 - 42: Leading Teams in Chaos
Episode 26: The Leadership Contribution
Episode 25:  What is Leadership? (in Chaos)
Episode 8: Building Trust

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“The most scarce resource in the world today is attention” – Yuval Noah Harari 

The only 2 industries that refer to customers as “users” are Big Tech and drug cartels.

We live in an increasingly technology-fuelled Garden of Eden – an attention economy where the most sophisticated dark forces are constantly, covertly intent at work to distract you.

If time is your most precious asset as a leader, then saving and spending it wisely becomes paramount.

Your old biological defences are hardly sea-worthy any longer and in this age of fierce clandestine competition for your attention, you’re gonna need a bigger boat (or at least a better way to navigate!) to stay afloat.

Insights include:

-What happens when ancient human biology collides with 21st century technology

-Living in a state of Continuous Partial Attention

-The recipe for Deep Work

-Navigating the Struggle phase towards a state of Flow

-Why Multi-Tasking is a myth

-The 2 Fundamentals to combat Distraction

Related Episodes

Episode 57 – Keep Your Focus – Avoid Procrastination

Episode 32 – Planning and Prioritising in Chaos

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“Imagination is more important than Knowledge – Albert Einstein”

What has Art got to do with Leadership? Throughout nearly 30 years of working with leaders and leadership, the very best leaders I’ve encountered all have had one thing in common irrespective of geography or industry: the sensibility of an artist. This was reinforced to me recently when attending a screening of a documentary produced by Maria Doyle Kennedy about the life and work of Irish artist Patrick Scott. After all, leadership is all about creating something novel and new from just your imagination combined with the resources at your disposal whilst inspiring others to join in its creation. So just what is that artistic sensibility that separates the best from the rest?

Insights include:

-The fallacy of the equation:  Good Leadership = Good Results

-The best leaders are committed to creating a thing of Beauty

-How the Physicist and the Artist are both opposites and the same

-The root of authenticity and charisma

-The 3 Primary Characteristics of Beauty – Radiance, Integrity, Consonance

-Sage advice for appointing the next new leader (or anyone!)

Related Episodes

Episode 52 - Zoom Out Often

Episode 45 – Finding Flow in Chaos

Episode 43 – Building Trust in Teams

Episode 40 – Leading Teams in Chaos – Part 2

Episode 34 – Finding Meaning in Chaos

Episode 26 – The Leadership Contribution

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Whilst not obligatory that you “love” your people at work - in the amorous sense! - people at least need to know you, as the leader, have got their best interests at heart.

On this Valentine’s Day, it is worth remembering that your connection to those that matter makes an enormous contribution to your leadership impact and results. 

Here’s one of my favourite episodes “From the Archive”: A timely reminder of why and how to …

In this episode I explain:

• What Star Wars has to do with building connection
• How we often think we’re building connection when in fact we’re not
• How our Tacit Wisdom is stronger than our intellectual knowledge
• What to focus on to deepen connection

…And ..our discomfort with silence

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I started the Flow(group) business exactly 25 years ago this month - in January 1998.

I can’t brag, because Google started up the same month. 

For context, it was the year Apple unveiled the iMac; the Bill Clinton/ Monica Lewinsky scandal; the FDA approved the Viagra pill (not related); and the NI Good Friday Agreement (definitely not related).

During the time, in addition to the quotidian demands for change, our clients and our business has had to navigate 3 major Global Economic disruptions – spaced roughly a decade apart (just to keep us on our toes!):

-Dotcom Bubble Implosion (2000)

-Global Financial Crash (2009-10)

-Covid Pandemic (2020+)

What’s made the quarter-century journey most worthwhile is the Learning about Leadership.

It’s been like attending a real-time, experiential Leadership Academy every day for 25 years where the case studies are playing out in the raw, moment by moment. Witnessing the best and the worst of leadership has led to insights you couldn’t possibly find in any one book.

The Manifesto is a consolidation - into 25 Principles - of the essence of How to Be as a leader in a world of unending Chaos. 

Related Episodes

Episode 59 – Leadership in Lay-offs - Twitter Vs Stripe

Episode 58 – Leadershipinchaos.gov.uk – How Liz Truss authored her own downfall

Episode 26 – The Leadership Contribution

Episode 5 – Clarity in Chaos

Episode 3 – Communicating in Chaos

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“It’s only when the tide goes out you see who’s been swimming in the nude” – Warren Buffett

As a leader the decision to let people go is never easy, but sometimes necessary. Nonetheless, it is often in these Moments that Matter where leaders show what stuff they are really made of. The current high-profile Tech lay-offs provide a unique test for leaders in a sector that has enjoyed rock-star growth throughout the last 2 decades. Twitter and Stripe announced their news at almost exactly the same time. The approach of the respective CEOs Elon Musk (Twitter) and Patrick Collison (Stripe) couldn’t have been more different. Collison’s handling of the announcement was honest, caring and instructive while Musk’s was terse, limp and impersonal. One’s leadership (and, by extension, brand) reputation has been elevated, while the other is in the gutter. Enjoy the contrast.

Insights include:

-The Leadership Contribution – the 2 things needed in a crisis?

-How Musk got it so dreadfully wrong

-The 7 things Stripe (Patrick Collison) did brilliantly by contrast

-The impact on Leadership when you have no accountability

-The 2 core leadership lessons you cannot fake

Related Episodes

Episode 58 – leadershipinchaos.gov.uk – How Liz Truss authored her own downfall

Episode 27 – What the Trump legacy teaches us about Leadership

Episode 26 – The Leadership Contribution

Episode 5 – Clarity in Chaos

Episode 3 – Communicating in Chaos

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“Useless. Shambles. Incompetent. CHAOS” These were the dominant words of a GB News Peoples’ Poll Wordcloud last week as the Tory party unravelled amidst a sequence of bizarre and barely credible events. But what role did Leadership have to play in the absurdist drama and what was it Liz Truss did or didn’t do to contribute to her own ultimate downfall? This episode unpicks the very clear failures of the leader and the obvious cause-and-effect lessons in the whole sorry piece.

Insights include:

• “Juvenile delinquency breaks out when there is an absence of a responsible adult”
• The 3 Big Lessons of Leadership in the Liz Truss demise
• Ambiguity is #1 Enemy of Effectiveness
• Conviction itself isn’t enough – you need the people
• Self-Awareness trumps Self-Interest
• Sage advice for appointing the next new leader (or anyone!)

Related Episodes

Episode 39-42 – Leading Teams in Chaos

Episode 43 – Building Trust in Teams

Episode 33 – “Taking Back Control” in Chaos

Episode 34 – Finding Meaning in Chaos

Episode 26 – The Leadership Contribution

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To be human is to procrastinate. The Greeks even had a special word for it – akrasia – such was its acknowledgement. However, it’s not a great device for leadership effectiveness when keeping focus is critical. The tendency towards Procrastination, and it’s full-sister Distraction, is becoming increasingly a topic of conversation with leaders (I’m engaged with), together with media and public discourse. Why does it happen? Why is it increasingly emerging now? And what can we do to combat its creep?

Insights include:

• Procrastination isn’t a new thing – it’s a human thing
• Why we procrastinate – Future Self Vs Present Self
• Pain of Procrastination > Pain of Action
• “Couch to 5K?”- Forget the 5K, just get off the couch!
• The Antidote to Procrastination – Chunk Down + Short Deadline + Reward

Related Episodes

Episode 45 – Finding Flow in Chaos

Episode 44 – Do The Right Things

Episode 32 – Prioritising & Planning in Chaos

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Normal service is resumed as I return to the Manifesto and explore how to preserve and protect the biggest asset any team has – you as the leader. Often ignoring their own needs and deprived in the service of others, the book title “Leaders Eat Last” promotes the idea of servant leadership (which I applaud by the way) ….however….Leaders Gotta Eat! How does a leader effectively balance doing the best for their people and their enterprise without doing the worst for themselves? Feast yourself!

Insights include:

• Why Leaders suffer most burnout
• The dilemma in minding for the Golden Goose
• Demands Vs Resources in caring for self
• 3 Ways to reduce Demands
• Creating your own KSIs (Key Sanity Indicators)

Related Episodes

Episode 52 – Zoom Out Often

Episode 49 – Happiness in 3 Parts

Episode 45 – Finding Flow in Chaos

Episode 34 – Finding Meaning in Chaos

Episode 6 – Be Your Best Self

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I am interrupting normal service for a newsflash! Such has been the demand recently out there for a succinct summary of what it means to be a leader now we are starting The Great Reset for society, work and life, that I have composed a triple-decker episode that roughly mirrors a keynote I’m delivering to address the question. Many of my previous themes are peppered throughout, along with a few new nuggets for the latest version of the New World (Dis)Order. 

Normal service – and a return to the Manifesto 22 – will resume next time.

Thank you for listening

Insights include:

• How Leadership is the Same but Different
• How we invest in the wrong things
• Leadership’s 2 Great Underestimations
• The 3 Magic Ingredients for post-pandemic leadership
• Why Curiosity is the new Courage

Related Episodes

Too many to mention!

https://flowukandireland.com/

Support the show

I am interrupting normal service for a newsflash! Such has been the demand recently out there for a succinct summary of what it means to be a leader now we are starting The Great Reset for society, work and life, that I have composed a triple-decker episode that roughly mirrors a keynote I’m delivering to address the question. Many of my previous themes are peppered throughout, along with a few new nuggets for the latest version of the New World (Dis)Order. 

Normal service – and a return to the Manifesto 22 – will resume next time.

Thank you for listening

Insights include:

• How Leadership is the Same but Different
• How we invest in the wrong things
• Leadership’s 2 Great Underestimations
• The 3 Magic Ingredients for post-pandemic leadership
• Why Curiosity is the new Courage

Related Episodes

Too many to mention!

https://flowukandireland.com/

Support the show

I am interrupting normal service for a newsflash! Such has been the demand recently out there for a succinct summary of what it means to be a leader now we are starting The Great Reset for society, work and life, that I have composed a triple-decker episode that roughly mirrors a keynote I’m delivering to address the question. Many of my previous themes are peppered throughout, along with a few new nuggets for the latest version of the New World (Dis)Order. 

Normal service – and a return to the Manifesto 22 – will resume next time.

Thank you for listening

Insights include:

• How Leadership is the Same but Different
• How we invest in the wrong things
• Leadership’s 2 Great Underestimations
• The 3 Magic Ingredients for post-pandemic leadership
• Why Curiosity is the new Courage

Related Episodes

Too many to mention!

https://flowukandireland.com/

Support the show

We often do our best thinking when we are not thinking.

From Archimedes to Newton, great breakthrough discovery examples “away from the job” are rife in science, technology and the arts. It appears that it is often through a break that we really break through

Leadership is fundamentally about setting the right direction and making the right choices. Those choices, however, are only as good as the perspectives they are based on. In this episode, I explain how our “factory setting” as a species is an up-close perspective as it aids our survival in the moment. So how do you rise above your default programming to Zoom Out and gain enough valuable perspective to truly break through?

Insights include:

-How I suddenly remembered that thing I couldn’t remember!

-Why leaders typically don’t Zoom Out

-How great thinkers thrived when not thinking

-The “Pale Blue Dot” – Carl Sagan’s timely perspective on Zooming Out

“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbour life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”
― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

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“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed. it’s the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead

It’s almost 2 years to the day since I began this podcast and 50 episodes later, I wanted to pause and momentarily to Zoom Out and reflect.

It was Friday 13th (the clue was in the date?!) when I sat in the Cheltenham racecourse car park on a 1hr call with my international Flow partners from 4 continents sharing perspectives of what was unfolding as our world was disappearing from underneath our feet. Engulfed by chaos and uncertainty about the rapid spread of a virus no-one understood I remember the last question of the call. How long before things return to normal and how long do we have to wait this out? The most pessimistic view suggested September. By September, I mean September 2020. Shows what we knew. The paradox of life is that we understand it far better looking back, but we can only ever live it looking forward. Unless you’re Benjamin Button.

I moved into precautionary self-isolation on return to Dublin and wondered over what to do. There was no paid client work to do, so I wondered how could I add value. So I started a podcast about the thing I knew most, where there was the most need. The irony is I had intended starting a podcast for over 3 years – but never ever found the time for being always too busy.

Asking about the title, a colleague was doubtful “What will you do when the Chaos is over?”

The question, of course, missed the point. There is, was, and will always be Chaos.

Our very existence and Life itself was born out of Chaos. Sometimes chaos comes with a small “c”; other times with a large “C”.

The question is not if there will BE Chaos. The question is How to BE in Chaos?

For that we need to reset our expectations of what our default position is; and revise our original mental “factory settings” about how life is and the leadership that follows to support that.

Now that we are apparently lurching from one life-afflicting Chaos into another (Ukraine invasion) we need to lead differently and more vigilantly than ever.

If you have been, thank you for supporting the podcast.

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“In every situation there is a space between the situation and how you respond”. Viktor Frankl  

Think about this : The quality and situation of your life right now is the aggregate total of every decision you have ever made. Luck certainly plays a part - and there have been many “sliding doors” moments I’m sure, but ultimately, it is not what happened in those moments, but rather how you responded to what happened in those moments that made the difference. 

No leader sets out to be a bad leader. Yet there are many bad leaders. And they are bad because of the accumulation of choices they made in the moment – unconsciously – that lead to the wrong outcome or impact. And the pattern continually repeats itself, unless or until it is corrected.

Insights include:

• Decisions : Conflict between your Rational and Emotional self
• How we self-sabotage without realising it
• Why Self-Awareness is critical as a leader
• How to make better, conscious decisions in the moment

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“There is no way to Happiness. Happiness is the way.” Thich Nhat Hanh

In response to the reaction from the “Leadership Manifesto – 22 Principles for ‘22” episode, I have been persuaded to build out the Manifesto into a season, with each episode delving into the principles one by one, and in greater detail. Starting with #22 we will work backwards principle-by-principle until we arrive an #1. That way, instead of just chapter headings with some brief elaboration, by the end of the season you will literally “have the book” on how to Lead in Chaos.

It might seem unorthodox to start with Happiness as a principle for leadership, but in my experience happy, optimistic, positive leaders encounter far more long-term, sustainable success than their opposites. 

In addition, from Plato and Aristotle through the American constitution to Hakuna Matata, the pursuit of happiness has been a puzzle we have eternally been trying to solve. So why not? 😊

Insights include:

• Confusing Pleasure with Happiness
• Why realising your dream doesn’t mean happiness
• What the world’s longest study revealed about happiness
• How anticipation trumps the real thing

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Frank Capra’s seasonal classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” turned 75 years last year and, like many, once again I watched the movie during the holiday period. This time around, however, coloured no doubt by our present environment, I saw something different. I saw it primarily as a treatise on the fragility and uncertainty of life. 

George Bailey has big dreams of adventure way beyond small-town Bedford Falls but his aspirations are thwarted at every turn and, just when he thought he had scaled every hurdle, hope gets dashed one more time. The fragility of life is best illustrated when George is dancing with sweetheart Mary and, owing to a prankster, the dance-floor begins to separate without their awareness until finally they plunge headlong into the swimming pool below. 

So, in a world where the ground can be taken from right under our feet at any moment how do you lead – yourself and others?

Building on my previous episode of Chaos as the new constant, I’ve composed a Leadership Manifesto for the absurd times we live in titled : 

22 Principles for Leading in Chaos of’22

Leadership Principles include:

• Hold your Assumptions lightly, not tightly.
• Use your imagination wisely
• Beware your Comparative Mind
• Communicate for your Audience, not Yourself
• Iterate! And Re-Iterate.

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The popularised phrase “New Normal” is at best lazy, and at worst destructively misleading for leadership in every dimension – language, expectation and mindset. Yet people continue to strive for and promote it. For 30 years, the most popular remark I’ve consistently heard from leaders going through change is “I can’t wait until this is over and we can return to normal”. Funny thing is, it never happened. Ever. What happens when leaders realise and accept the Chaos is constant – always was – and is, in fact, the New Normal. 

Insights include:

• December 2021 = December 2020, 2.0
• Why we stubbornly strive for Normal (and what we really mean)
• VUCA and GUBU : The state of Chaos isn’t new
• How great leaders treat adversity and uncertainty
• The Stockdale Paradox

Related Episodes 

Episode 45 : Finding Flow in Chaos

Episode 34 : Finding Meaning in Chaos

Episode 25 : What is Leadership in Chaos

Episode 7 : Finding Gold in the Dirt

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COP26 represented the world’s greatest “strategy off-site” in Glasgow recently, featuring the not insignificant, high-stakes leadership quest of safe-guarding our planet. Whilst our own leadership challenges are, by definition, less lofty and smaller in scale, the same conundrums of clarity of vision & purpose; stakeholders buy-in; sustaining commitment and much more, still very much apply. 

In Episode 46 I explore the lessons and parallels we can extract from the 2 week summit and how they map across to your world as a leader. This episode builds perfectly onto our previous mini-season on Leading Teams in Chaos (episodes 39-42).

Insights include:

• The formula for effective leadership revisited E = Cl X Co
• Why Hi-Clarity with Lo-Commitment is like one hand clapping
• The Conflict of the 2 Jerseys (Club Vs Country)
• Best definition ever of Commitment
• What happens when belief in the Vision is low
• Influencing without Authority

Related Episodes 

Episodes 39-42 : Leading Teams in Chaos

Episode 26 : The Leadership Contribution

Episode 12 - 14 : Motivation in Chaos

Episode 5 : Clarity in Chaos

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Last month saw the passing of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of Flow – the seminal work that describes the human state of happiness, optimal experience and high performance. The book (and his research) has subsequently influenced everything from office design, to how to train soldiers, website and video game design amongst everything else. In this episode, I commemorate the author by synthesizing the essence of his work (in less than 15 minutes!) and describing how the Flow state is an absolute panacea for the 3 symptoms of our present COVID “hangover”.

Insights include:

• Why finding Flow is at the very heart of Leadership
• What is the Flow state?
• Why enterprise became interested and what it discovered
• The conditions you need to know as a Leader to create Flow
• How Flow is a panacea for the 3 symptoms of our pandemic hangover
• Flow’s naughty neighbours : Boredom & Anxiety

Related Episodes 

Episode 34 : Finding Meaning in Chaos

Episode 26 : The Leadership Contribution

Episode 12 - 14 : Motivation in Chaos

Episode 5 : Clarity in Chaos

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According to Peter Drucker – if management is about doing things right, then leadership is doing the right things. I took a break from the Podcast for some Zooming Out time during summer but, since my return, have found it a very big challenge to return to the discipline of the broadcast because of competing pressures. This episode uses this most typical challenge to ask (and answer!) the question : “How do you get to do the things you need to do but just can’t find the time?”

Insights include:

• How to identify (and remember) the Right Things
• Differentiating the Important from the Urgent
• Why the To-Do List doesn’t help you
• How to translate intentions into action and make it stick
• The 2 sub-skills you need to master to Do the Right Things

Related Episodes 

Episode 32 : Planning & Prioritising in Chaos

Episode 26 : The Leadership Contribution

Episode 19 : Zooming Out in Chaos

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In this sub-set of the mini-season on Leading Teams in Chaos I focus on Trust. Isn’t it peculiar that whilst everyone agrees that Trust is a crucial ingredient to growing high performance in a team, I have never - in almost 30 years working with teams globally - been asked to host a conversation to discuss the topic specifically. In this episode I explore why this is. I also share a more workable definition of Trust and its component parts, that helps turn the abstract into something more tangible and therefore more manageable.

Insights include:

• Why Trust is more important than ever in our evolving hybrid working world
• Moving from abstract to specific - The 3 Legs of the Trust stool
• How to reflect on your Trust levels with your significant relationships in a way you can work with
• Starting to diagnose your own trustworthiness as a leader

Related Episodes 

Episode 8 : Building Trust

Episode 28 : We Need to Talk About Conversations

Episode 29 : Deepening Connections in Chaos

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In this fourth part of a mini-season on Leading Teams in Chaos I reflect on how nearly all leaders know what it’s like to be part of a highly effective team, but very few know how to build one. I also consolidate the 5 Agreements a team needs to make, and explore the 4 Commitment Cards to arrive at those agreements so that the team members feel committed, not just compliant.

Insights include:

• How knowing effective teams is not the same as building one.
• Consolidating the 5 Agreements of a Team and how to get started if you’re stuck
• Moving from My Version to Our Version
• The 4 Commitment Cards and the Conversation Box 

Related Episodes 

Episode 20: Commitment in Chaos

Episode 28: We Need to Talk About Conversations

Episode 29: Deepening Connections in Chaos

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In this third part of a mini-season on Leading Teams in Chaos as leaders look to Reset, Realign and Refocus their Teams, “Agreeing the How” concentrates on the importance of common understanding and commitment to How we best work together to get things done.

Insights include:

• How Behaviour is the orphaned child of Effectiveness
• Why Task is consistently prioritised over Behaviour
• Why talking about Culture empties the room 
• How to agree Ways of Working that gets commitment and lasts

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In this second part of a mini-season on Leading Teams in Chaos as leaders look to Reset, Realign and Refocus their Teams, “Agreeing the Why” concentrates on the importance of connecting a team to its purpose, as a chief source of meaning and motivation.

Insights include:

• Why Purpose and Mission gets a bad rap (and why it’s richly deserved).
• Why it’s so important to approach it right & the pay-off if you do.
• The relationship between the Why and discretionary effort.
• Why (most) leaders ignore the Why.
• How to get started with your Team – or Restarted – on a compelling Why.

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In this first part of a mini-season on Leading Teams in Chaos, Part 1 observes how the Covid story is writing itself, chapter by chapter, and how the latest chapter is giving grounds for optimism, as Leaders are gradually now looking to Reset, Realign and Refocus their Teams. This mini-season focuses on helping you with the how and why.

Insights include:

·        The 5 Chapters of Covid (so far!)

·        The source formula for Leading Teams:  

          E = Cl X Co

·        Establishing Clarity through the Where, What, Who & How

·        Clarity’s impact on Commitment

·        Direct Vs Consult – Ask or Tell?

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It’s been a year like no other. To commemorate one year on from the first Covid case in Ireland and the first Leadership in Chaos podcast episode I have Zoomed Out to look back over the past year and look forward to answer the question “How Now From Here?” 

In 4 connected episodes/parts I summarise and highlight the best principles to help navigate our way forward from here.

Insights include:

• Reviewing the context for Leadership
• The Neurology of Leadership in Chaos
• The 5 Cs of Being your Best when things are at their Worst
• Leaders eat last…but they gotta eat!

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It’s been a year like no other. To commemorate one year on from the first Covid case in Ireland, and the first Leadership in Chaos podcast episode, I have Zoomed Out to look back over the past year and look forward to answer the question “How Now From Here?”

In 4 connected episodes/parts I summarise and highlight the best principles to help navigate our way forward from here.

 Insights include:

• Reviewing the context for Leadership
• The Neurology of Leadership in Chaos
• The 5 Cs of Being your Best when things are at their Worst
• Leaders eat last…but they gotta eat!

Support the show

It’s been a year like no other. To commemorate one year on from the first Covid case in Ireland, and the first Leadership in Chaos podcast episode, I have Zoomed Out to look back over the past year and look forward to answer the question “How Now From Here?”

In 4 connected episodes/parts I summarise and highlight the best principles to help navigate our way forward from here.

 Insights include:

• Reviewing the context for Leadership
• The Neurology of Leadership in Chaos
• The 5 Cs of Being your Best when things are at their Worst
• Leaders eat last…but they gotta eat!

Support the show

It’s been a year like no other. To commemorate one year on from the first Covid case in Ireland, and the first Leadership in Chaos podcast episode, I have Zoomed Out to look back over the past year and look forward to answer the question “How Now From Here?”

In 4 connected episodes/parts I summarise and highlight the best principles to help navigate our way forward from here.

Insights include:

• Reviewing the context for Leadership
• The Neurology of Leadership in Chaos
• The 5 Cs of Being your Best when things are at their Worst
• Leaders eat last…but they gotta eat!

Support the show

People out there are really struggling. And the Chaos has moved from external disruption (economy and autonomy) to internal questioning as we struggle for meaning. In this episode I focus on what this means for leaders and their role.

 Insights include:

• How the Leader today has now become the white-collar frontline worker
• The 3 Migrating Stages of people’s struggle during the pandemic
• Finding Meaning as a key to Resilience
• Why Finding Meaning is not a Quest

 Related Episodes:

• Episode 31: “Your PPE for a Better 2021”
• Episodes 12 - 14: “Motivation in Chaos, Parts 1, 2, & 3”
• Episodes 9 - 10: “Remote Leadership, Parts 1 & 2”

Listener Review - 5 Stars:

Leadership in Chaos is a hot topic, deals directly with the challenges of Covid as well as suggesting simple and clear approaches to improve. Well worth the investment of 15 minutes a week. 

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In this episode I focus on what the leader’s role is in restoring a sense of control to help with people’s struggle around morale, motivation, and mental health. 

Insights include:

• Insights from Flow CEO Forum on what keeps them awake at night
• Facebook CFO’s advice to graduating accountant for their future career
• The real answer to “Why people don’t do what they’re supposed to do”
• Motivation Psychology 101 – The 2 Simple Things you can do as a Leader that make the most difference

Related Episodes:

• Episode 31: “Your PPE for a Better 2021”
• Episodes 12 – 14: “Motivation in Chaos - 1, 2, & 3”
• Episodes 9 – 10: “Remote Leadership Parts 1 & 2”
• Episode 5: “Clarity in Chaos”

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In this episode I focus on why, counter-intuitively, Prioritising & Planning become even more crucial in Chaos.

 Insights include:

• How Leadership is a delicate blend of feeling and action
• What is the leadership contribution
• Why Prioritise and Plan when there are no right answers
• The real reason Leaders resist setting direction
• 3 Cs – How to set a Direction that inspires

Related Episodes:

• Episode 26: “The Leadership Contribution”
• Episodes 12 - 14: “Motivation in Chaos - 1, 2, 3”
• Episode 5: “Clarity in Chaos”

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In this important Omnibus episode, the first of 2021, I share a simple but profound and effective way to prepare yourself for a better 2021 – in spite of the Chaos. 

The Leader's PPE stands for:

P – Perspective (Scripting the right Story)

P – Priorities (Choosing the right Action)

E – Equilibrium (Maintaining Resilience)

 
The method is both holistic and human, and can be applied by both leaders and non-leaders.

So feel free to share with anyone struggling to get started in the Chaos of 2021.

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In the final Episode of 2020 I select the top 5 Leadership lessons we can extract from the most trying of years. 

Lessons include:

• Leadership is critical & not just necessary during Chaos
• Life is random, discriminating, and unfair: meet it where it is
• The “What’s Possible” mindset
• The Old World wasn’t perfect anyway
• People double down on their real self during Chaos

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At a time when people are feeling increasing disconnection, this week I explore how to deepen connection.

In this episode I explain:

• What Star Wars has to do with building connection
• How we often think we’re building connection when in fact we’re not
• How our Tacit Wisdom is stronger than our intellectual knowledge
• What to focus on to deepen connection

…And ..our discomfort with silence

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This week Ian discusses how to approach those Difficult Conversations.

In this episode Ian explains:

• Why conversations are more difficult during a pandemic crisis
• How you need to get “Comfortable with Uncomfortable”
• How your Mindset influences the conversation outcome
• The opportunity in the Difficult

…And how – approached correctly – there is often an even better way

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In this episode Ian explains how leadership impact is real, and really matters. Also:

• Leadership and the Law of Cause and Effect
• How the CEO is also the CCO (Chief Culture Officer)
• Leadership’s Great Underestimation
• The link between autocratic leadership and gun sales
• What 19th century detective novels have to do with Leadership

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In this week's episode, Ian discusses a way of viewing leadership as a form of contribution, which differs from the conventional way of viewing leadership as somebody who is at the top of a hierarchy. 

So, what is the leadership contribution?

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