Leadership

Leadership & Management

How to Build an Advisory Board that Actually Works

Andrew Penny, October 28 2025

I was speaking with a business owner a while back who told me he had set up an advisory board. “We got together twice,” he said. “It didn’t really go anywhere.” I asked a few questions: He’s not alone. A lot of advisory boards are built with good intentions but never deliver real value — mostly because they’re never built to deliver value....

Read More
Leadership & Management

Culture Happens While you're Not Looking

Graham Birkenhead, October 14 2025

We often talk about building culture as if it’s something you can design in a workshop and roll out like new software. But culture doesn’t emerge from what’s written on the wall (or your website), although it can be useful to share your values with the world. Building culture needs constant care, attention, and

Read More
Leadership & Management

How do you Choose your Queue?

Graham Birkenhead, September 30 2025

We’ve all done it, arrived at the supermarket checkout, desperate to get out as fast as possible, only to be faced with the need to make a decision about which line to join.  And, you have to decide quickly; hesitate too long and someone else jumps in, changing the whole dynamic.  I don’t know about you, but almost without fail, I pick the wrong...

Read More
Leadership & Management

Are They Really Out to Get Me?

Graham Birkenhead, September 16 2025

“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by neglect, ignorance, or incompetence.” — Hanlon’s Razor

Read More
Lean & Agile

Looking for More Time?

Graham Birkenhead, July 22 2025

When I run Lean or Continuous Improvement sessions, I often explain that around 70% of our daily activity doesn’t add any real value to what we’re trying to achieve. That figure rarely surprises anyone. In fact, when I ask people to guess, they often land somewhere around that number

Read More
Leadership & Management

Yes, There is an 'I' in Team

Graham Birkenhead, June 24 2025

“There’s no I in team”  is one of those phrases that gets trotted out whenever someone needs to be reminded that it’s not all about them. It’s catchy. It sounds wise. It gets printed on posters, stitched into corporate training slides, and dropped into motivational speeches. I cringe every time I hear it ..... it seems to gloss over the vital...

Read More
Leadership & Management

Four People and a Dog

Graham Birkenhead, June 10 2025

You may have heard the saying: “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”.  When I first heard that, it struck a chord - it still does - and has now been adopted by that little voice at the back of my mind that keeps reminding me to constantly meet and get to know new

Read More
Leadership & Management

Curiosity Didn’t Kill the Cat

Graham Birkenhead, May 27 2025

We’ve all heard the saying “Curiosity killed the cat.” But where does that come from, and what was it really warning against? It turns out, the original saying, first recorded in the 16th century, was “Care killed the cat”, where “care” meant worry or sorrow. It wasn’t until the late 19th century that it evolved into a cautionary warning against...

Read More
Leadership & Management

OOh, DAt's a Useful Tool

Graham Birkenhead, May 13 2025

Back in the 1950s, US Air Force Colonel John Boyd was serving as a fighter pilot during the Korean War. His experience in fast-paced dogfighting led him to study decision-making under time pressure. He was especially interested in why American F-86 Sabres were more effective than the technically superior MiG-15s flown by North Korean and Chinese...

Read More
Leadership & Management

Early Birds, Second Mice, and a Dancing Guy

Graham Birkenhead, April 29 2025

In today’s unpredictable world, good leadership isn’t just about moving fast.  Instead, it’s about moving with judgment; it involves knowing when to lead from the front, and when to watch, learn, and move decisively at just the right moment. We all know the old saying:  “The early bird catches the worm”.  And in business, this has often been held...

Read More
Next