Seventeen Years, Four Reports, One Very Consistent Woman

Seventeen Years, Four Reports, One Very Consistent Woman

I have sat the same behavioural assessment four times over seventeen years. My natural style barely moved. What did change was how hard I was working to be someone else at work.

13 Behaviours of High-Trust Leaders

13 Behaviours of High-Trust Leaders

There is one thing that, removed from a team, destroys it. Trust. Not strategy, not talent, not the org chart. Here are Covey’s thirteen behaviours that build it — refreshed with the research behind them, a corrected attribution, and one behaviour I’d now write differently after ten years.

Why do we tolerate porcupines in the workplace?

Why do we tolerate porcupines in the workplace?

Nobody likes a porcupine, so why do we let them stay? Nine steps to move their behaviour up — or move them off the team. Revised August 2026, because tip nine used to tell you to shrug off a bullying claim.

Always Remember Your T&T; The Joke that got taken seriously

Always Remember Your T&T; The Joke that got taken seriously

It was an off the cuff comment in a classroom, and it should have stayed there. We named the recovery: tits and teeth. Straighten up, smile, carry on. It got a laugh, then it got used again the following week, then it stopped being a joke and started being a standard. Ten years ago I wrote it up as a leadership capability. This is the correction, including what seventeen years of my own assessment data says it has cost.

The Keys to Holding Great Coaching Conversations

The Keys to Holding Great Coaching Conversations

Someone is not delivering. Before you ask a single good question, work out which of three problems you are actually looking at, because coaching the wrong one makes it worse.

Prickly People Provoke Poor Performance….Move ‘Em Up or Move ‘Em Out!

Scope Vision notice card. This article has moved to Why do we tolerate porcupines in the workplace, superseded August 2026.

This article has been superseded. I wrote this in February 2016 and rewrote it properly in August 2017 — then revised that version again in August 2026, because tip nine told you to shrug off a bullying claim and that advice was wrong. The current article lives here: Why do we tolerate porcupines in the workplace? Same porcupines. Better advice.