Global Leadership Coach to: Chairman, CEOs & Executive Boards.
Top 2% of Global Podcasters, Leadership Mentor & Team CoachJonathan thrives supporting early growth businesses and Tech Companies; focussing on personal behaviour and future business results. You will gain a high return on investing in your own and your team’s development. His vocation has been shaped by his Father’s heroic leadership role modelling and his untimely death, as a British Royal Navy fast jet Pilot. Jonathan’s life calling is to inspire you and your team to: find and live your “True North”, unlock your potential and make a difference via your business.Leaders say they experience 3 specific benefits from working with Jonathan: they find greater meaning and purpose for themselves and those they lead, they learn to encourage independent, finest thinking and innovation - leading to faster, sustainable business results. Jonathan is a Master Certified Coach (MCC), Virtual Team Facilitator, motivational speaker, philanthropist, pragmatic philosopher and author. As top 2% Globally ranked Podcaster and Key Person of Influence (KPI) he focuses on current and aspiring CEOs, senior executives and their teams in every possible sector. No challenge is too hard.
“If you are a fully functional, balanced, emotionally stable person, brought up by two well-adjusted parents then you would never be driven to go for some of the top roles in business today.”
So goes the argument of a friend of mine who is a Professor at a top business school. And I wonder does he have a good point?
There may be an element of truth in what he says, based on some of my...
I thoroughly recommend that you visit the website of Darren Robson and follow his tweets @darrenrobson
Darren has aptly chosen for himself the image of the shark and he tells the story why on his website.
We met up again today and I am very inspired by the philanthropic work he is doing. We have known each other for some years and I continue to be stimulated by his creative and imaginative ways...
When trust has gone, all hell breaks loose. I have walked into Executive Boardrooms where the CEO has inherited or created a “trust free zone”. They are very toxic places. Talented leaders choose not to stay there long. Would you?
You may wonder: “What are these teams like?”
Here are some of my observations:
1. The barbarians are at the gates and all sorts of unhealthy behaviours...
Disdain and arrogance are business relationship killers. Without relationships you are very isolated and more vulnerable to being “taken out” when the swinging axe of cut-backs comes suddenly.
One business leader told me this weekend of yet another round of redundancies he is responsible for implementing. His large global firm wanted a further cut of 20% of his team of 220 talented people....
I met a retired Judge on a train on Friday. He shared his story as follows: when I was faced with a critical life choice, I didn’t know what to do, so I went to see an old and wise mentor. He said “I have 5 words for you, they will change your life .”
So I went to see him and over tea he said these 5 words as a benchmark for my life choices’ “memories are better than...
Do visit
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/aaker_happiness_2011.html
This article entitled “If Money Doesn’t Make You Happy, Consider Time” is an excellent piece of research
from Stanford University Business School. How are you spending your time – is it in relationships,
or just work and wealth creation?
I know when I focus on being more present and in the moment...
Steve Jobs was a technical icon and genius. He was also emotionally unstable and had very low impulse control. This is according to his fascinating Biography by Walter Issacson which I am enjoying.
Steve would describe other colleagues at Apple and their work as “shit” and have emotional tantrums, even cry if he couldn’t get his way. He seemed unable to control his drive and...
True Story (names changed). Rachel was so frustrated with her colleagues in the meeting. It had been boiling inside her for weeks now. Ineffectual meetings, lack of honesty, no decisions, no accountability and putting a positive spin on lots of bad news.
She couldn’t stop herself: “You are just pissing around here with bosses who won’t make decisions and are too bussing covering...
Your teams are frantically managing risk in a deepening recession.
They review economic risk, financial risk and commercial risk. But what about People Risk?
What are you really doing to mitigate the risk of “executive derailment”, of key managers leaving through your own contentious leadership? What is the risk of destructive conflict in the leadership team and the opposite –...
“A great leader takes more than their share of the blame and less than their share of the credit.”
Now that wise addidge can be hard to follow!
I can remember, with toe curling embarrassment, the times when I tried to take more than my share of credit, as I grew up as a leader. Can you recal your own transgressions? What drove such unhealthy behaviour? What lured us to do that –...
It is all about you – not me. If a speaker makes their talk all about them, they miss the point and they fail to connect with you. Your ability to build rapport is the most vital skill you can acquire as a speaker.
Exciting research work on neuroscience by Professor Paul Brown (he makes the unfathomable crystal clear) is fascinating and has many tips for you. Building a sense of limbic resonance...
“People may forget what you said and what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel!” That powerful quote reminds me of inspiring leaders and the emotional connection these men and women had on me and those around me. It encouraged us to give so much more.
On the other hand, I have worked for and with some business psychopaths. They just leave you feeling cheap, mistreated...
It is time yours become meetings worth attending; ones which make effective, consensual decisions.
Sadly too few are!
Do read Al Pittampalli’s book “Read this before the next meeting” and visit his website http://modernmeetingstandard.com/
Also Nancy Kline has taught me some great disciplines and approaches to what she calls “Transforming Meetings”. Sadly I have...
“It unclear who is accountable for what!” she said in desperation. “Until we know who is responsible, we spend months falling over each other in this matrix mess” said another leader to me in a different global firm.
Months of work and untold amounts of money are wasted on in-fighting and turf wars. Incredibly some CEOs I have come across actually deliberately keep boundaries...
It is all about them, not you. Equally take your own very personal stories and turn them into benefits for them. Only the strongest and most self assured leaders can be appropriately vulnerable in front of an audience.
Share something personal about yourself, your life, setbacks and disappointments. Your successes are often a given. They wouldn’t have invited you to be a speaker if you were...
“As Army officers leading our people into battle in Afghanistan we have an unlimited liability. We have to be prepared for the ultimate sacrifice. We may need to die for our job.” These powerful words came from an aspiring British officer going through leadership training at Sandhurst on a TV programme yesterday.
These young male and female leaders remembered Mark Evison a Lieutenant...
Andy Faulkner the Head of St Olave’s School, York started a great debate which resurrected this theme.
I know far too many leaders who think themselves successful; based on the trappings of power, and the sycophantic comments of others.
However on closer inspection they are not happy and actually have lost their moral compass and sense of what gives them life purpose.
The job pays them well,...
Gordon Brown the ex PM ran “a brutal regime” according to Alistair Darling in his new book ” Back from the Brink”.
A manager with “appalling behaviour” an “air of permanent crisis and chaos” and a boss who vented his rage by hurling objects around the room. This is familiar to business leaders who cope with those in positions of authority who are driven...