Australasian Leadership Institute Free Articles
I am a former Broker Sales Manager and an Operations Manager who is now working as a leadership coach, consultant and strategist across four key areas:
- Leadership of successful teams
- Optimisation of mental performance
- Leadership psychology
- High performing teams
Within these areas, I design, coach and facilitate bespoke leadership development programmes for individuals and teams including managers of all levels, directors, executives, professional athletes and aspiring leaders. My clients include the Delegates of the European Union, The Fred Hollows Foundation in Timor-Leste, the Fiji Sun newspaper, Lakes DHB, Kmart and Foodstuffs.
I am listed by Evan Carmichael as one of the top 100 leadership experts in the world to follow on Twitter.
When I design leadership programmes I draw from my twenty five years of managerial experience across a range of industries in the United Kingdom and here in New Zealand. I am accepted in the MBTI suite of tools and I am a professional member of NZAPT (New Zealand Association of Psychological Type) NZIM (New Zealand Institute of Management) and NZATD (New Zealand Association of Training & Development). I am a published author of two leadership books and I've had articles published in a range of magazines including Lifestyle for Men Magazine, M2, New Zealand Management Magazine as well as having a weekly business column with the Fiji Sun Newspaper. I am the current editor of Elite Leadership magazine.
If you want practical effective coaching and facilitation based on a foundation of modern leadership theories then get in touch via Twitter, the enquiry form below or call me direct on 021 354 831 (New Zealand)
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General Stanley McChrystal, a retired four-star general in the U.S. Army, is widely recognised for his leadership during some of the most challenging times in recent military history. Known for his strategic brilliance and unconventional leadership style, McChrystal’s approach has been studied by leaders across various fields. Below are ten leadership lessons we can learn from his career and teachings.Posted: Wednesday 14 August 2024 -
At one stage or another you will feel stressed at work and while a little bit of stress is good when that stress gets too much then it can have a detrimental effect not only on your work but also on your personal life. Instead of leaving work behind, you end up bringing it home with you, talking to your partner and friends about how stressful work is and before you know it your whole day is completely filled with thoughts about work, you find it difficult to sleep and you find yourself in the situation that you are living to work instead of working to live.Posted: Tuesday 13 August 2024 -
The best leaders are authentic leaders, people whose inner compass guides their daily actions and enables them to earn the trust of their team and their colleagues. Forbes magazine described authentic leaders as people who are self-aware of their strengths, their weaknesses and their emotions and they show their real selves when interacting with their followers. These are the type of Leaders that people want to follow and people strive to become but it’s not easy to be authentic.Posted: Monday 12 August 2024 -
One of my favourite quotes is by playwright George Bernard Shaw who once said “The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” I love this quote so much because It perfectly describes what happens in workplaces everywhere. I see people who believe they are communicating with each other but in reality everyone is talking and no one is listening, frustration starts to build which leads to people repeating what they said previously but this time louder expecting different results but the only result is more and more frustration.Posted: Wednesday 7 August 2024 -
Every Leader will eventually reach a stage in their career when they and find themselves in a crisis situation and are faced with the challenge of leading their team through it. The crisis may be as a result of a poor economic situation or it may be a natural crisis, it’s in these times that we look at our a leaders to guide us through the situation safely. In this week’s article I want to provide you with some practical tips on how to lead through a crisis.Posted: Tuesday 6 August 2024 -
An iceberg is one of natures great wonders, a large piece of freshwater ice floating freely in water. An iceberg is beautiful and dangerous in equal measure yet what you see of an iceberg is just a fraction of what is going on, with typically 91% of an iceberg being submerged underwater. As a Leader you need to think of your work as like an iceberg, there’s a lot of things that you see yet there are many more potential issues that you may well be not aware of.Posted: Monday 5 August 2024 -
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said “The only constant in life is change.” In business if you are not moving forward then you re moving behind. The business world is constantly changing with migration making retaining top employees more challenging, the current economic environment means that most of us have to achieve more with less resources and with each new generation that enters the workplace they bring a different set of , all of this requires evolution and a commitment to change which is difficult considering how busy everyone is, managing change in todays environment is like trying to make improvements to an airplane while it’s still in the air!Posted: Friday 2 August 2024 -
When you are in a managerial role, you typically have to perform the duties of both a Manager and a Leader. These are very different yet specific duties, and you need to be able to complete both if you want to be successful. Management is about the control and responsibility of resources and people in order to achieve your goals, while Leadership is the ability to influence people to achieve those goals. They may sound similar, but management and leadership are quite different. One is about control and responsibility, while the other is about influence.Posted: Thursday 1 August 2024 -
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle - Sun Tzu, The Art Of WarPosted: Wednesday 31 July 2024 -
Imagine this scenario, a rugby team is getting ready for an upcoming tournament and the coach has to decide who is going to play. The coach then decides to not pick the best players saying that he doesn’t want players that are too good because they will just leave, he doesn’t want players that are too experienced because they will get bored and he doesn’t want anyone better than him because they will go after his job.Posted: Friday 26 July 2024 -
Every year many businesses close down, struggling to continue operating in the current economic circumstances but during the same period there will also be people who decide that now is the perfect time to become an entrepreneur and start a new business and while many businesses will fail there will be some that will grow and soar. Some of the worlds most famous brands started during times of economic uncertainty.Posted: Thursday 25 July 2024 -
Without doubt, the most prevalent challenge that leaders approach me with is poor performance. It seems that no matter the country or the industry, leaders tend to struggle with people not meeting expectations. Being a leader is busy enough, but when you have someone not performing, it can consume your time and detrimentally impact the wider teamPosted: Wednesday 24 July 2024 -
One of the most wonderful aspects of my job as a Leadership Coach is that I have the privilege of working with many different types of teams, showing them how to achieve their goals and become more successful. After many years of working alongside teams of different sizes, from three to three thousand, and from many different industries ranging from law firms to rugby teams, working with people from different roles, from builders to ballerinas, and from many different countries, I can say without any doubt that there are commonalities that all successful teams share.Posted: Tuesday 23 July 2024 -
A common question I am asked is: what is the most important leadership quality? My answer is always the same. There are many qualities a leader requires, but without any doubt whatsoever, the most important quality is humility. In fact, I have never met a successful leader who isn’t humble. I have met some leaders who are not humble and who believe they are successful when, in reality, they are nowhere near as good as they like to believe they arePosted: Monday 22 July 2024 -
The business world can be challenging even when things are going well but when things go wrong it’s incredibly easy to lose your confidence and once lost it can be difficult to rediscover. None of us are perfect we all make mistakes but if we are not careful if we lose confidence that then means it’s more likely that we make more mistakes and before we know it we end up in a downward spiral mistakes increase as confidence dropsPosted: Sunday 21 July 2024 -
It’s nice to be good at something but it’s better to be great but that is not always possible especially when it comes to Leadership. It’s difficult to be a good Leader because everyone requires something different from their Leader. You can have a Leader that some people rate highly but at the same time there will be others that have a negative rating for the same Leader. People are complex so if you have managed to become a good leader that is quite a remarkable achievement and no one will blame you if you stop there but greatness is possible, you just need to know the path to get therePosted: Friday 19 July 2024 -
In the fast-paced and competitive world of business, the ability to think strategically is not just advantageous; it’s essential for managerial success. Strategic thinking allows managers to anticipate market trends, identify opportunities, mitigate risks, and make informed decisions that align with long-term organisational goals. While some individuals may possess a natural inclination towards strategic thinking, it is a skill that can be developed and honed through deliberate practice and a structured approach.Posted: Thursday 18 July 2024 -
Do you feel like you could be doing more? Maybe you are looking at people who are in more senior positions than you at work and you feel that it could be you. Maybe your business is doing well but it’s not doing great. It’s okay to have that feeling of wanting more, more money, more success or a more rewarding career. What you really want is to fulfil your full potential. The question is how?Posted: Wednesday 17 July 2024 -
In business like life there are winners and losers, some people are destined to fail no matter what advantages they are given while the majority of people succeed to a certain level and then we plateau yet there are a very small few, those special people that manage to overcome every obstacle that is placed in front of them and they manage to turn an average life into a great onePosted: Tuesday 16 July 2024 -
They are the bane of the workplace. They drain the energy, the life and enjoyment out of the office and they are listed as one of the most common reasons why people leave their job. We are talking about the micromanaging boss. At some stage during your career you may have, along with many others, experienced the nightmare of having a micromanaging boss, someone who wants to be copied in on every email, who tells you what to do and when to do itPosted: Monday 15 July 2024