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28/09/2026

❓Do you feel like your life is one long game of “Whack-A-Mole” ❓
❓Do you have a Strategy❓ Do you even REALLY know what that means❓

As A.I. 🤖 accelerates tactical ex*****on, and fear driven 😱employment environments generate the perceived need to “be seen to be doing something” people are jumping to action 🎬and often losing sight of the business and personal purpose.

Explore this real-life example and gain some practical approaches to help you integrate Strategy & Tactics and move from being🤹 “busy” and to being 💎 “value adding & effective”.

Watch this week “5-minute insight” …then SUBSCRIBE to make sure you never miss one!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA_K_BxgG2EkL3vTt9_I9aQ

…and discover what an ancient Greek king has to do with the modern business world 🌎!

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Landing at Kai Tak airport 🛬in Hong Kong was a feat of combined Strategic Positioning🎯 and Tactical Ex*****on 🦾for even the most experienced of pilots. 👩‍✈️

It could be terrifying for passengers🫣 and fatal accidents were frequent⚰️. Luckily it closed in 1998. 😄

Sunday, Hong Kong, monsoon season⛈️, 2015, drizzly, grey, overcast⛈️ - a bit like a humid Manchester! 👹

I landed at Chek Lap Kok🛬 airport in a tropical storm🌪️. It was a *bumpy* experience. 🤮

But, as usual, unlike Kai Tak, the only time I ever feared for my life😱 was on the 🚕taxi ride to downtown. I’m sure that the ability to drive 🛞prohibits you for being a Hong Kong taxi driver. 🚖

Monday morning. ☔️The account executive and I walked along the 🚃tramline and up the hill ⛰️towards the customer. 🤴

It was still early and the humidity was handleable🛁 – a bit like walking through a warm 🏊swimming pool. A real test for the anti-perspirant. 😓

The building was across from the⚰️ Tsuen Wan Cemetery⚰️. *If I walk up that hill again, I’ll be taking up residence*☠️ I thought to myself.

But of course, “face” 😾demanded that I pass the test. ✅

So, I smiled, 🙂 looked cool😎, and we walked across the road🚶 and up to the 14th floor.

The CFO 🤴of a large international finance organisation💰 had asked us to run a workshop session for his senior vice presidents. 👯

He was Hong Kong born and bred, and like many senior Hong Kongers at that time, educated in the United States. He was a great example of how combining East & West viewpoints can provide a real innovative insight.

“I want you to do some strategic planning🎯 and enablement👨‍🏫 with the senior business team.” He started.

“We employ great tactical ex*****on people🦾, but they tend to ´jump to action´🎬 and react to the loudest most powerful voices🤬” he started.

“They need to become strategic🎯 business value💎 focused and prioritise, 🔢plan 📊and execute🪓 to maximise that whole organisation outcome🛞 rather than just doing things to keep the connected people🤬 happy.”

I nodded as I understood exactly what he meant😍. At his request, we had had a 1 on 1 private discussion🕵️‍♂️ on Sunday evening. As in many areas of Asia, Pacific & China it allowed a level of openness🤝 that is not always advisable or culturally acceptable in a more public environment. 👀

He had talked openly about the reality of the organisation and the volatility📈 that the changing political and cultural environment👮‍♂️🚓 in Hong Kong was causing. It was a critical meeting. ✅

The workshop started mid-morning, 🕚 with 5 or 6 of the CFOs senior leadership team👯 – business and I.T. - in a meeting room on the 14th floor. 🏢

In true Boy Scout tradition, ⛺️ I had researched the business context & environment and created a draft Strategic Value Framework. 💎

The team refined the draft Framework💎 and agreed it was a good✅, easy to understand✅ statement of business purpose, goals and situation - 🎯the Strategic Whole Business “WHY.” 🎯

We then listed 📋the initiatives & activities that were “critical strategic topics” 🔥for them.

We tried to link each topic into the Framework🔗. The team was able link all of them to at least one element✅ – showing they all contributed to Whole Business Value. 💎

At the same time, we assigned rough cut priorities🔢, outcome measures🚦, and “high medium low” style implementation difficulty and business impact ratings…

… AND (always the most difficult of all) the real person🤔 accountable for the outcome.

At the end of Day 3, the account executive & I took the CFO🤴 privately through the “emerging findings and results”. 🤯

“This is great” the CFO🤴 said. “You know, the people process 💪is as important as the output📚, but I can’t wait to see the detailed ex*****on plans📈.”

At that point vacations🏖️, a major acquisition 🤝and monsoons 🌪️got in the way. So, there was a delay until we could schedule 📆the next detailed action planning session.

It was 6 weeks later, 📆 when we were back in the same meeting room at the top of the hill. ⛰️ I had taken a🚕 taxi this time❗️

“Let’s start by reviewing our agreed list of critical strategic topics” 😀I said, thinking this would provide a good refresher🤔 and accelerate progress. 😍

There was a 🤐silence for what seemed like hours. One of the senior I.T. guys 🤖broke first …

❗️ “Actually, I don’t think that any of those topics are that important now❗️”
_______________________________
Strategy 🎯 & Tactics🧱

Two commonly used words BUT if you ask most people, they will struggle to express the difference between them.

I see Strategy as the longer-term Vision or Purpose. 🎯 Tactics as the “stepping stones” 🧱 that build to that purpose.

Strategy is about winning Wars, Tactics about winning Battles.

Success only comes by considering them separately but ensuring that they are integrated. In effect, linking the Tactical “WHAT” to the Strategy “WHY.”

In our VUCA 💥world, A.I.🤖 helps you quickly & easily “do things.” Linked with perceived threats to jobs🔥 it has stimulated many people to ignore purpose 🎯and “jump to action” 🎬in the rush to be seen to be “doing something.” 🤹

This has been identified 📣as a major factor in the poor ROI🙁 of most A.I. projects.

So, in our current world 🌎 it is even more vital to keep Strategy & Tactics separate, clear and integrated.

It is surprisingly easy to do with just a small change in mindset.

💎Strategic Value Framework so everyone can link their WHAT with WHY.
🧱All Tactical change initiative becomes separate & distinct “stepping stones”.
🔗Each initiative MUST be linked to the Strategic Value Framework.
🤑Use familiar, existing governance methods for each type of initiative.
🔮A Strategic Portfolio Management process patrols Whole Business Value.
🤩You continuously challenge the initiative mix to optimise Whole Value.

This “separate but linked” concept makes it easy to CONSTANTLY challenge⚔️ the initiative mix 🎛️to optimise both relevance 🛎️and Whole Business Value. 💎

It becomes easy to both accommodate real life volatility 📈AND lever advances in ex*****on capability & technology🤖 providing responsiveness✅, resilience✅ and agility✅.

In our volatile📈 & uncertain A.I. world🤖, this approach provides a guide🐕‍🦺 and safety net🥅 to help identify if a Tactical initiative is “STILL the right thing to do” ✅or if it should be upscaled⬆️, scaled back⬇️, refused ⛔️or even terminated✋.

Without integrated Strategy & Tactics you will have a pile of stepping stones🧱 - but no path across the lake!
___________________________
I took a deep breath. “OK let’s review the current situation and critical strategic topics then.” 😇

We effectively repeated the first workshop 🔂& created a list to reflect the current situation.

❗️It was completely different from 6 weeks ago❗️

We merged the new list🆕 with the old and then worked to link 🔗each of the topics to the Strategic Value Framework. 💎

Some of the new topics couldn’t be linked😱. The team considered revising the Framework to accommodate – but they all agreed that it was correct. ✅

“This doesn’t have a Strategic Business WHY” ❗️ one of the business VPs said.

The whole team nodded 😍and decided to scrap the topic. 🚮

Several others went the same way. 🚮🚮🚮

Later, in private, some of the team described these as vanity projects 💩that connected people 🤬had forced upon them.

Having reviewed the entire list, 📋we sorted it by rough cut business impact💥 and difficulty 👻to form a draft phased plan.

😈*Time for the next step* I thought. 😈

“Ok let’s look 🔍at these one last time…. item 1….is that strategic or tactical❓….is it a project or business strategy❓…is it a WHAT or a WHY❓”

This triggered detailed and animated discussions🤯. After 20 minutes or so the group consensus was🤓:

“It’s a project, so a 🧱WHAT - but it is 🎯strategic because we have linked it to the Strategic Value Framework 💎which gives it a Business WHY.”

😈*Excellent* 😈my brain said in a Mr Burns from the Simpsons voice.

“Ok how about item 2” ❓ … 2-minute discussion this time….” same again” was the response.

We rocketed 🚀down the rest of the list📋 in about 10 minutes …. all WHAT Tactical projects.

“You notice the Strategic Value Framework💎 - the Strategic vision 💎– the Whole Business WHY💎 - has stayed the same over these weeks” I volunteered as I drew on the whiteboard. ✍️

Nods all round. 😍

“All these topics are Tactical projects🧱 - individual components”

Again, nods all round. 😍

“The only thing that makes them worthy is that they are linked to the Strategy💎. If they weren’t then they are at best a waste of effort😱 - at worst damaging distraction for the business.” 😱

I paused. 😎

⚔️ “To paraphrase Sun Tzu” I started “Strategy and Tactics MUST be distinct and separate BUT must always be linked and continuously optimised to account for changes in real life” ⚔️

This triggered another animated discussion. 🤺 I let it run and watched as “lightbulbs” 💡 went on.

“This way, we can flex to change and easily right scale activities to optimise whole business outcomes” one VP said excitedly. 🥰

Another VP was franker, 🤗ignoring potential political repercussions 👮‍♀️ “If there isn’t a high value link to the Strategic Framework💎 when connected people 🤬try to force us to do something - then we can refuse⛔️… like we scrapped those ones earlier🚮”

😍Enthusiastic nodding from everyone. 😍

I suppressed another *Excellent*…😈and smiled …

🚀The change that followed was amazing. 🚀

This team had always been excellent at ex*****on, 🪓now they had a simple way to continuously ensure everything they did maximised strategic business purpose and outcome. 💎

They drove a step transformation 💹in business flexibility✅, strategic outcomes✅ and business value ✅in a very volatile environment💥. The CFO🤴 was very happy!

Now look, there is nothing new🧑‍🦳 in the need to link strategy 🎯& tactics🧱.

Throughout history 🏰there are many examples where doing so led to success✅… and failing to do so led to disaster. ❌

My favourite is the man who inspired the term “Pyrrhic Victory.”

Pyrrhus of Epirus, 🥷was a master tactician who won every component battle⚔️ but lost whole wars disastrously💥🚽.

Each tactical change 🧱activity must be in support of the Strategic Purpose and Goal. 🎯 Every tactical “WHAT” must be linked to a strategic “WHY”.

If not, then the activity, even A.I. accelerated and enabled activity, is wasted and counterproductive.

⚠️You are simply doing the wrong things, more efficiently and faster⚠️…

…And, even if it looks like you are winning😎 - you will lose in the end. 😱

I have spent 25+ years honing practical & pragmatic approaches for developing and growing a success mindset in people. 💎

🤝 CONTACT ME to discuss how – I’m here to help - and I’m always open to thoughts & opinions

21/09/2026

❓ Do you focus on “doing what you are told” or on “maximising Customer Value” ❓

❓ Do you “Jump to Solution” and fix the symptoms leaving the real issue to fester ❓

As A.I. 🤖 homogenizes and accelerates the answer, the Human 😊 art of “Asking the RIGHT question” becomes the competitive edge for driving real value. 💎

Explore and gain some ideas from a real-life example, where taking a System Thinking 🛞 approach helped uncover and address the RIGHT question and fix the root cause rather than the symptoms🚑

Watch this week “5-minute insight” …then SUBSCRIBE to make sure you never miss one!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA_K_BxgG2EkL3vTt9_I9aQ

…and discover the joys of Christmas time in India ! 🎄 🎅
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Mumbai, late December, Morning, 30C. 🌞 “White Christmas” ⛄️playing over the hotel breakfast muzak. Surreal. ❄️

I was living in New Zealand 🥝at the time, so had a Summer Christmas😎 BUT this was a whole different level of strange.

We were on an engagement for a large Electronics company⚡️, with a complex I.T. Business Systems landscape of about 1500 solutions. 🍱

The engagement lead was the great John Landis⭐️, a giant in the SAP world. I’m using his real name as the lessons I learnt here, and that I’ve used ever since, were his creation…and …
… I have never paid him his licence fee! 😊

The traffic in Mumbai 🚙🚗🚘is, like the rest of India, a colourful, crowded and “full on” experience that some people find hard to take. I always loved it. ❤️

We eventually arrived,⏱️ Mid-morning at a large office block and stood in reception. “In the Bleak Midwinter” 🌨️ was playing as we stood, sweating, 🥵next to the large Christmas tree. 🎄

It had moved on to “Winter Wonderland” by the time we were escorted to a large modern meeting room on the 3rd floor to meet the Chief Information Officer. 🤴

The CIO looked stressed. 🙀 “The business is complaining about how long it takes us to clear incidents – bugs, improvements, help requests – everything” he said. 🙀

“So, the problem is obvious 🚨but my question to you is…” he started to smile. 🙂“…can get my incident handling team💥 to work harder 🐹& clear issues faster❓” He looked at John.

John nodded thoughtfully. 🤔

Ever the diplomat, 🤝he said “Thanks, that’s a great starting point question. 🎬Can you confirm that we have your backing to explore wherever we need🗺️, as per the Engagement Terms of Reference?”

The CIO nodded in agreement. 👍 “Anywhere & everywhere, I.T & Business” ✅he said. John smiled and documented the “YES.” ✍️
It was the “stone age” 🗿days before A.I. 💾

So rather than getting the wrong answer❌ immediately (as you can today), we spent a few days in detailed “Discovery and Analysis”. 🔍

It meant we had to go and “see the patient” 👨‍⚕️rather than just read symptoms from their chart. 📈

🗣️We talked to Business users, managers and I.T. people 👥face to face to get a feeling for what the people REALLY 🎭thought rather than what they said.

We ran technical system monitors🖥️, explored solution landscapes🌋, We analysed📊 the incident history over the past 2 years. 📈

The volume of data was high👨‍💻 (it always is!) and as always😈 “the devil was hidden in the detail”. 😈

Then we benchmarked against “Best Practice.” 😇 We identified some negative & positive “Hot Spot” ♨️ business areas 👔and I.T. solutions🤖 – a “Naughty & Nice” list just like Santa does. 🎅

In fact, John gave it so much attention🔍 I was certain he thought the Christmas Lottery numbers were hidden in there somewhere. 🔮

As often is the case, I found “us and them, suits👔 and white coats🥼 “mindsets.

The business saw I.T. as an overhead 🤠that provided no help and no value. 🤠

I.T. saw the business a nuisance🤡, constantly asking stupid questions 🤡and making impossible demands. 🤡

It is a challenge to juggle 🤹‍♂️all these elements and a larger challenge to distil ⚗️them to something that can be understood, absorbed and acted upon by businesspeople. John excelled at this.

I learned a lot. 👨‍🏫

By the end of day 5 we were ready for a “emerging findings” chat with the CIO. 🤴

The CIO 🤴cut across the presentation flow almost immediately. ✋

“So, what changes do we need to make to the team to get them to work faster❓” He interjected.

“How to speed up your Incident Handling Team is the wrong question” John said bluntly.

“Resolution times are top 5% of global best practice. ✅ We can do minor tweaks🛠️ BUT that’s NOT the root of the problems you have💥.”

😱The CIO looked shocked. 😱

John continued in a calm voice. 🧘‍♂️ “Workloads on experienced people, 📈incidents per user 📈and occurrence frequency📈 are all multiples of what we would consider healthy and are trending upwards. “💥💥

“The business sees you as a barrier to their success 🤠and want to see you outsourced.” 👋 “Your experienced people ⛑️are doing trivial jobs, 🧩 yet your unsolved high value, high complexity incident count is rising.” 📈He took a breath.

🔥 “These are the 3 big symptoms of your underlying Whole System Outcome problems” 🔥

“But, if I had to sum it up in one sentence, then…” John paused.
💎 “The wrong people are handling the wrong problems & and there are too many problems for them to handle” 💎......................
🧩System Thinking & Root Causes🧩

As A.I. 🤖increasingly homogenises and accelerates the answering of questions, the human🤔 skill to challenge and ask the RIGHT ✅question has become the source of competitive success. 💰

A.I.🤖 and our VUCA💥 world has made the long-held temptation to “jump to action” 🏃 even more tempting. 🍰BUT this very environment makes the need to systematically & regularly challenge the symptoms more deeply and ask “WHY” is even more important. 🤔

Taking a “Whole System View” 🎡 & questioning root causes 🍷rather than symptoms🤮 is critical to diagnosis & improvement – not just in business but also in life. ❤️‍🩹

Concentrate on making the Whole System 🎡work optimally even if some Parts then do not work optimally. 😴

Understand what the Whole System Outcome 🏆needs to be and then look for the Root Causes that need to be addressed rather than “jumping on” local symptoms.

You then address the root causes 🍷NOT the presenting symptoms. 🤮

After all, two tablets💊💊 for a headache are not much use if the root cause is an axe in the head. 🪓.................
The CIO continued to look at John in shock. 😮

“You will NEVER be fast enough. 🏎️You need what I call a *SHIFT LEFT ⬅️and REDUCE⬇️* Strategy” John expanded.

“And overall, your driving Whole System 🎡question needs to be *How can I improve the Business Value💎 I am delivering for the Business*”.

“You MUST get closer & integrate with the Business🤝 - you need to show them that EVERYTHING YOU do 🛠️provides value 💎for THEM. In effect link your WHAT❗️ to their WHY❓”

“A lot of your incidents💥 drop through to your most experienced, expensive people🥷 straightaway. You need to reorganise support and segment the skill levels to provide a tiered response.” 👩‍💼👩🏼‍🚒🥷🎅

“Then *SHIFT LEFT* ⬅️capabilities will help solve incidents closer to the source, faster, using lower cost resources or even better avoid them occurring in the first place”😀

“After all,” John said😎 “The easiest problems to handle are those that never happen” 😎

“You link this with *REDUCE* ⬇️activities to attack on the number of incidents to reduce workload and hence costs. This also helps improve Business perception of I.T. Service” 😎

“This frees up time ⏳for your experienced people🥷 to really use their talents. Things like complex incident clearance🫟 & identifying ways for I.T. to add more value 💎to the Business.”
“This kind of work will improve their job satisfaction🥳 – so less staff turnover”

The CIO 🤴still looked stunned, 😮but then he found his voice. 🤯

A frank & open discussion followed😤😡🥶. But we had the detail & references that supported the conclusions & recommendations (due to John’s determination to find the Christmas lottery numbers!) 🎅🎰

After about 30 minutes the CIO😀 realised that we had given him an early Christmas present. 🎁

He saw that he had asked the wrong question(!)…🤦‍♂️ BUT…
…he also saw that he now had a clear way to make I.T. strategically important to the business⭐️, improve his team’s business outcomes⭐️ and safeguard his job! ⭐️😅

😁 “When can we start” he enthused. 😁

We got home for, in John’s case in Germany at least, “A White Christmas”. ☃️ We returned to Mumbai early in the New Year. 🎉

We helped drive a lot of changes, but everything we did was linked back to the Outcome Question 💎and the SHIFT LEFT⬅️ & REDUCE ⬇️Pillars of the strategy.

And, of course, we tweaked 🫟the incident handling processes, but they were, as we thought, really world class ⭐️

The changes altered business satisfaction perceptions 😃and impacted low level incidents very quickly. ⏱️The impact of some of the other changes took longer⏳ to show – but they did.

Numbers of incidents reduced, ⬇️more were solved faster⬅️ and experienced people began clear complex incidents 💎and proactively suggest business value-based improvements💎.

The calls from senior business stakeholders 📣to have I.T. Outsourced faded - part from a change in organisational power 🪓but mostly from the improvements in rapport👥, collaboration🤝 and demonstrable value 💎from I.T.

🤴As far as I know the CIO still has his job! 🤴

In life as in business today, it is even more critical to apply System Thinking, 🎡take a breath and look for the “Whole System Outcome” 🎯questions.

In our high-pressured world 😖and with the availability of A.I.🤖, it’s very tempting to “Answer the Wrong Question” 🏃to try and quickly address & improve local symptoms. 🦾

If you do this, then anything you do is likely to be at best a temporary fix❤️‍🩹 and will probably make things worse overall. ☠️
Formulating & “Answering the Right Question” ✅ is the only way to ensure the best results - for you, ✅ for your business ✅and for your life. ✅

I have spent 25+ years honing practical & pragmatic approaches for developing and growing a success mindset in people. 💎

🤝 CONTACT ME to discuss how – I’m here to help - and I’m always open to thoughts & opinions

07/09/2026

In the week of the 87th anniversary of WW2 formally starting in Europe....

❓ Are you keeping quiet to keep your job ❓
❓ Are you accepting toxic behaviours and environments❓
❓ Are you appeasing & enabling bullies to dismantle humanity❓

Are you going to resist the rising tide of leadership tyranny and inhumanity or are you going to appease and wait until the "Consequence Dragon" comes for you???

Explore this longer than usual "5-minute insight" to explore a real-life example of Conflict Intelligence in action and the pros and cons of appeasement and conflict strategy!


Watch this week “5-minute insight” …then SUBSCRIBE to make sure you never miss one!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ugG47znpGk

🥰People-Centred Leadership is the foundation of success🥰

The HBO series Game of Thrones⚔️shows what can happen when a Pathological Narcissist 🤠like Joffrey Baratheon 🤴has a position of power.

Conflict Intelligence💥 has always been a focus topic of mine. 🎯
That said, I have never been a fan of the “Grey Rock” 🐭idea of appeasing tyrants. The lessons of history🔥 and experience🧑‍🦳 suggest this always results in a bad outcome. 🪓

I tend to agree with American President, Franklin D Roosevelt’s 1940 comments on the N**i regime☠️ “No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it❗️”

Of course, being anywhere near a tiger can be dangerous! 🐅

I had been given P&L accountability for a cross regional team of delivery and engagement managers. 👬👭 My “on boarding” plan was to visit each region🌏, look each General Manager in the eye😵‍💫, establish rapport🤝 and understand how we could help their business🥳.

First on the schedule was a small but strategically important region that was growing quickly. 📈

I already had one team member based there - let’s call him “Bruce.” 🥷He was fully utilised juggling 🤹three accounts, and we had a pipeline🪈 of many more.

Before the trip, in best “Boy Scout” 🏕️ tradition, I read all the engagement reports, deliverables and customer feedback. 📚

⭐️Bruce, his activities and professionalism all appeared excellent. ⭐️

“I see you are going to The Castle🏰 this week” one of my peers said. I was puzzled…😕

“Watch out for the General Manager 🤠there – he thinks it’s his own personal kingdom 👑and doesn’t like outsiders sticking their noses in.”

I talked to others and got variants of the same message. 😮 One said, “just agree with him and it’ll all be ok.” 🐭 Another “as long as he keeps bringing in the numbers – they turn a blind eye.” 🦮

I arrived late one night and met Bruce🥷 for the first time, over a b**r. 🍻

As I expected, he was a switched on, ✅passionate, ✅capable, ✅professional ✅– whose integrity and passion for the company and our customers shone🌞. I was impressed. 💯

Next morning🌅 I got into the office early to get a “feel” for the place & the interpersonal relationships – an approach I often use. 👀

The office seemed OK on the surface but seemed to lack the energy ⚡️that you can “smell” 👃when things are really working well.

I had a meeting scheduled for 11:30🕦 with the General Manager🤠, let’s call him, “Joffrey” …oops sorry “Jeffrey.” 🤴

11:30 rolled round and he kept me waiting😴. On one hand, it was an internal meeting, and he had a business to run – on the other hand, I sort of expected him to do it.

He eventually waved me in.👋

I introduced myself
“I’m a week into this cross regional P&L role. 😀
My job is to help make your business successful. 😀
I’ll be here in person at least twice a month. 😀
I’d like to understand your business plans so I can see how I can help you.” 😀

He looked at me and said, 😡 “The first thing you need to do is to fire Bruce immediately.” 😡

I was a little surprised 😮but kept my face neutral. 😐

“Oh, I’m surprised to hear that. His customer feedback, commitment and quality of work seem excellent to me ⭐️– but I am only a week in. “I paused.

🤔 “Why do you think I should fire him?” 🤔

Jeff looked at me, with the angry expression😡 of a man not used to having anyone push back against his diktats. 🤬

🤬 “I don’t like him; I didn’t employ him; I don’t like what he says” 🤬
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Bad leaders believe people work for them; great leaders believe that they work for the people.

It’s often comes down to the two extremes of leadership style – the🤠 Self-Centred, egocentric, narcissistic vs. the🥰People-Centred, egoless, servant.

🤠Self-Centred authoritarian leadership is all about the “Great” leader's 🤴ego & personal success. It’s characterised by a 😈total lack of empathy, trustworthiness & reliability and a willingness to sacrifice anything and anyone for personal gain. 🤑

In Business it can deliver dramatic early disruptive spikes 📈in profit or fame 🎥BUT this is ALWAYS followed by severe decline 📉as dogma, arrogance and ego undermine collaboration, 💥erode trust, 💥and stifle innovation. 💥

Issues are hidden under enforced false alignment🤪 – and problems grow until they explode in flames 💥🔥– or the leader runs out of luck - often with fatal consequences for people and business. 🪦

🥰People-Centred Leadership is all about supporting, guiding & empowering other people👬👭. It’s characterised by 😇empathy, trustworthiness & reliability and standing by values and people for the greater good. 🌱

In Business, it delivers a sustainable and more resilient 😃outcome based on the collective strength, capabilities and collaboration of diverse people.

People call out issues early & openly 📣– helping ensure better internal innovation and improvement - helping people feel more engaged, ✅ valued ✅and listened to✅.

Growth & change can be slower but ALWAYS deliver a consistent and longer lasting impact. ✅

People-Centred Leadership is about Integrity. 😇The focus on people and the intent to help people maximise their potential and performance spawns all the other behaviours. 🙂 An underlying belief that leadership is about “THEM” not “YOU” results in behaviours that are fundamental to building trust 🤝and being a good human being. 👍

These are still the fundamentals of all effective relationships in life and business.

🤬 “Empathy & People Centricity is weakness” 🤬 is a mantra pushed by a few high-profile people in both business and life, each of whom, generally has a self-interested, fear based, macho “strong man”, authoritarian mentality. 🤠💩

We live in Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous times. 💥Many people are drawn to Self-Centred leaders🤠 during such times because loud confidence 🤡can be mistaken for actual competence and long-term safety.

In business this has been made worse by an increased focus on “the numbers” 🔢 to fund A.I. 🤖investments to the exclusion of almost everything else. “Survival” 🏝️mentality sees Self-Centred Leadership as the best solution. 🤠

❌This is NOT true. ❌

📚Large bodies of research show that 🥰People-Centric Leadership ALWAYS outperforms 🤠Self-Centred styles.

✅In business these behaviours are proven to drive higher revenues, profitability, innovation and employee engagement short, medium and long term. ✅

They also significantly reduce the likelihood of costly illegal or unethical behaviours.

🤠Pathological Narcissists🤠 are NOT fit to lead people, business or countries – we are lucky there are only a few of them! 🤪
😈They rule by Fear, Threats & Grudges.
😈They cannot be trusted or relied upon.
😈They will stab their “friends” in the back without hesitation.
😈They stifle dissent, creative thought, innovation and well-being.
😈They ALWAYS cause long lasting damage by seeking to increase their personal power and enrich themselves.

But the reality is that most humans are a mix of 🥰People-Centred and 🤠Self-Centred which should allow them to lever the best of both. ⚖️

🥰People-Centred Leadership is NOT slow management by committee or delegation of accountability as many autocrats like to say. You must still be able to make fast, 🏃difficult 🧩leadership decisions but do so with thought for others and not just your best interests! 😍

The key is to get the balance right⚖️ and to be able to flex 💪to different situations without losing the underlying “People-Centric” 🥰mindset.

It’s all about being conscious, 🤔acting with Integrity😇 & finding this “Goldilocks” position. 👱
------------------------------------------
I’ve never really been a poker player, 🃏but I managed not to react.

🤬 “I don’t like him; he doesn’t fit in; the customers hate him.” 🤬

Jeff had obviously been taught “The Rule of 3 “theory! 🥉

Again, amazingly (!), I stayed calm. 🧘 “The team all seemed OK this morning” I started “and his customer feedback ✅& work quality✅ looks really good.”

Jeff reacted angrily 🤬and jabbed a finger at me. 🫵

🤬 “I don’t like him; this is my business; what I say goes. Fire him or you will live to regret it.” 🤬

I decided on a longer pause. “I hear what you say Jeff” 😐I started “I will need some time to evaluate this. 😐And recruitment and replacement always take time.” 😐

“Where do you think he needs stronger skills? 💪It will help me develop him 🌱and recruit more people with the right skills profile 🦸to support your business.”

🤬Jeff grimaced and repeated “I don’t like him; he doesn’t fit in; he doesn’t do what I say – that’s all you need to know”. 🤬

I was determined to move on - “🥰Ok, if you let me have your ideas on the skills profile you need for the business 🦸then I will take it into consideration – but tell me about your future business plans 🔮so I can factor how I can help you into my planning”.

Jeff talked for 15 minutes or so. 🗣️🗣️🗣️He told me nothing.

0️⃣A silence eventually fell as he picked up and scrolled his phone. 📵

Eventually I said, “Ok, thanks for your time, please let me have your ideas on the skills.”

Jeff ignored me. ⛔️So, I left. 👋

I thought about the meeting for an hour ⏰or so analysing the best conflict strategy⚔️ & way forward. I decided to talk to Bruce privately. 🥷

He was surprised. 😳I checked that he wanted to stay in place and told him he had my support either way. 🍻Given his commitment and customer centricity I wasn’t surprised when he said he would stay. 📍

For the next 12 months or so, 📆I supported and helped Bruce, while Jeff ruled by Fear, Finger pointing and Fickle Favouritism – 🤠classic toxic narcissistic behaviour.

Yet, through it all, Bruce acted with integrity, ✅delivered excellence for our customers, ✅ and helped grow the business✅ and our team. ✅

No list of suggested Skills Improvements ever arrived. 🙈🙉🙊

All the customers🫶 that I visited said how excellent 🤩Bruce was…
…. except for one CIO, 🤖 a close golfing🏌️ buddy of Jeffs, who surprisingly (❗️) used Jeff’s exact words 🤠 “I don’t like him; he doesn’t fit in; my people hate him” 🤠 …
…even though “his people” had previously told me that Bruce was great. 😍

I repeated the “Skills Improvement” 🦸script to him. Again, nothing ever arrived! 🙊🙉🙈

I tried but Jeff was bulletproof🔕 as long as his numbers 🏦were good.

You can see this is an example of Corporate Failure 😱– all too common in “masculine energy cultures” 🤬 where a focus on short term numbers 🔢rather than sustainable business health actively promotes & nurtures🤠 Self-Centred, egotistical behaviours. 🐅

Or you could justify it as a “necessary evil” 😈at certain stages of a business life cycle. 👏

Either way, it results in a toxic culture ☠️that slowly poisons people and business. ☣️ It is just a matter of time before the consequences explode in flames. 🔥

Jeff saw the signs of falling productivity 📉and projected poor numbers📉. So, he maximised his bonus 🤑and abandoned The Castle🏰 before the “consequence dragon” 🐉 arrived and burnt him & the place to the ground. 🔥

“King Jeffery” 🤴🤠😈🤡and his leadership style resulted in significant damage 🔥to the company.

Not just lost revenue 💸but also damaged reputation 💩once some of the 🤠ego driven dealings and behaviours that had fed “the numbers” became known. 😳😲

A business that was growing well🌱 was left in ruins. 🔥
It took Jeffs replacement a considerable time ⏰to rebuild a sustainable and profitable business. 📊

The toxic culture ☠️that Jeff had institutionalised took even longer to normalise.

I believe Jeff went on to continued “success.” 🤠Job hopping, keeping ahead of the consequence dragon🐉, leaving a wake of ruins🔥 while maximising his personal power, 🤴 self-esteem, 🤴 and riches. 🤴

After all, even though it’s been proven repeatedly that 🥰People-Centred Leadership significantly outperforms 🤠Self-Centred dictatorships, and despite the lessons of history, 🧑‍✈️many corporates…and countries…. still choose a psychopathic narcissist leader. 🤠🤡👱‍♂️

💎I have spent 25+ years honing practical & pragmatic approaches for developing and growing a success mindset in people. 💎

🤝 CONTACT ME to discuss how – I’m here to help - and I’m always open to thoughts & opinions.

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