Australasian Leadership Institute Free Articles
Welcome to My Leadership and Mindset Blog
With over 34 years of experience in leadership, I’ve had the privilege of working with leaders and organisations internationally, helping them unlock their potential, overcome challenges, and achieve exceptional results. Recognised as one of the world’s top leadership experts, I’ve authored 12 books on leadership and mindset, sharing the strategies and insights that have transformed individuals and teams around the globe.
This blog is where I share practical insights, proven techniques, and timeless lessons to help you navigate the challenges of leadership and elevate your performance. Whether you’re an experienced executive or stepping into a leadership role for the first time, you’ll find valuable advice here to guide your journey.
If you’re ready to take the next step and bring meaningful change to your team or organisation, I offer:
• One-on-one coaching tailored to your unique leadership challenges.
• In-house leadership training designed to create high-performing, purpose-driven teams.
Get in touch today, and let’s work together to make your leadership vision a reality.
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As a Leadership coach, I often encounter leaders who struggle with difficult conversations. Whether it’s addressing a team member’s repeated tardiness or navigating a challenging moment in a personal relationship, these conversations are often avoided because of fear. Fear of confrontation, fear of worsening the situation, or simply fear of the unknown.Posted: Wednesday 11 September 2024
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If you ask a group of people to describe an effective leader, you will hear a familiar set of qualities. Common responses will include: vision, good communication skills, honesty and integrity, the ability to relate to others, and the capacity to inspire people to believe in themselves. Regardless of the industry or field, the perception of what makes a good leader is remarkably consistent. So, why is it that in a recent survey, 25% of people reported that they believed their boss was a poor leader? If the characteristics of good leadership are so well understood, why are truly good leaders so rare?Posted: Tuesday 10 September 2024
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Many people aspire to be leaders, while others find themselves thrust into leadership roles unexpectedly. But is leadership what we think it is? Throughout my career as a Leadership coach, I’ve encountered a wide array of misconceptions that hinder leaders from reaching their full potential. The truth is, leadership is often misunderstood. To be an effective leader, it’s critical to separate fact from fiction and confront the myths that cloud our understanding of what leadership truly entails.Posted: Monday 9 September 2024
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To be successful, leaders must develop and learn how to perform tasks they may not be comfortable with—whether it’s dealing with a poorly performing colleague or delivering a presentation. This often requires adopting a persona that may not feel natural, raising the question of whether the leader is staying authentic. This is a challenge all leaders face, so to address it, I will introduce you to the thought experiment known as the Ship of Theseus.Posted: Wednesday 4 September 2024
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In the world of leadership, many qualities are essential for success—strategic thinking, decision-making, vision, and the ability to inspire others. Yet, at the very core of effective leadership lies a trait that often doesn’t receive as much attention as it deserves: emotional intelligence, or EQ. Understanding and developing EQ is not just a nice-to-have; it’s the foundation upon which all other leadership skills are built.Posted: Monday 2 September 2024
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The discussion about how much money you earn for the work you do is the most important conversation you will have at work, yet very few people actually prepare for it. Too often, people want or even desperately need more money, but their request fails because they are unaware of the techniques that can make the difference between their boss saying no and saying yes.Posted: Monday 26 August 2024
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Arnold Schwarzenegger is a global icon who has left an indelible mark on multiple fields, from bodybuilding and acting to politics and philanthropy. His journey from a small Austrian village to international stardom is nothing short of extraordinary. Through his life and career, Schwarzenegger has demonstrated a unique combination of relentless determination, hard work, and a commitment to his goals. Here are ten inspirational lessons we can all learn from the life of Arnold Schwarzenegger.Posted: Thursday 15 August 2024
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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, its in these times that we look at our a leaders to guide us through the situation safely. In this weeks article I want to provide you with some practical tips on how to lead through a crisis.Posted: Tuesday 6 August 2024
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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, theres 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
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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 its still in the air!Posted: Friday 2 August 2024
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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
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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
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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 doesnt want players that are too good because they will just leave, he doesnt want players that are too experienced because they will get bored and he doesnt want anyone better than him because they will go after his job.Posted: Friday 26 July 2024
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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
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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
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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