Monday 21st of January was a particularly snowy day with 16 cm of the white stuff gently floating down to transform the landscape and cause the usual UK chaos. As a result schools were closed and my two children took this opportunity to have some fun time in the snow. My eldest had crafted a…
Category: Uncategorized
The tale of the red dress
Today I made a bold decision and updated my profile picture. It has taken about 6 months to finally change my ‘public face’! It is a step away the former traditional image that I have used publicly. Why so long? I am now 46 years old and have never had the courage to wear red. It seems such…
I get knocked down, but I get up again
How do you get through a meeting when everything that you say is met with opposition? This was the situation facing me last Friday. Later on this year, the community project that I am leading is putting on an ambitious event. We have aimed for stars, dreamt big, shifted mindsets and gathered support and momentum…
What stories are you telling ?
On the evening on the 21st December, the travelling crib came to our house. The crib begins its journey on the 1st of December travelling to a different family’s home each night before returning to church on the evening of the 24th December for the Christingle service. It’s a church tradition and has been a…
Wishing you a joyful Christmas
To my readers and connections: You have all in your own way enriched my conversations, perspectives and worldview. I am grateful that you have been a part of my world in 2012 and hope that this will continue in 2013. Vera
Should the young be taught leadership?
I was heartened to read Jack Zenger’s HBR article ‘We Wait Too Long to Train Our Leaders’ as it echoes much of my own perspectives and beliefs. I shared these in my blog ‘Everyday leadership’ where I posed a few questions around leadership becoming more mainstream, leadership in our everyday daily actions and introducing leadership…
7 simple yet powerful ways to get the most out of your team
Do your staff just turn up to work, do what is required of them and then go home? One of the challenges of leadership is to create an environment where people actually care about what happens in the business, to the business and its success. Imagine the impact on your business if all of your…
Don’t leave your career to fate. 5 tips to help women manage their careers
In my last article, I shared the story of one of my clients, Susan who like many mums get caught up in the treadmill of work, family and life and don’t take time out to actively manage and make plans for progressing their careers. 3 fundamental questions were asked to help Susan get started: What…
Everyday leadership. What does it mean to you?
I first ventured into the world of leadership back in the early 90’s. I didn’t know it as ‘leadership’ then. I landed a role which was a step up in my career and it soon became apparent that my principles, values and professional ethics were being compromised by what was happening and not happening in the department. I…
Does what you do define who you are?
‘What do you do’, this was the question posed to me at a community event. Being in a non conformist mood, I replied, that I ‘do’ many things, have many titles and wear several different hats, sometimes more than one at the same time. I could see the look of puzzlement flicker across the gentleman’s…