Five Tips for Being the Life of the Party!
About two years ago I received a really great compliment from my friend Alison: “John, I just thought of a perfect job for you – Party Initiator.” From a very young age I’ve always had a knack for exuding contagious…
The 10 Qualities of Respected Rebels
Years ago, one of my mentors, Brian, told me about a powerful professional persona called “The Respected Rebel”. A respected rebel thrives as a benevolent disruptor and innovator while honouring the chain of command. To be one means pioneering bold,…
How to Rise Above Gossip
Seth Godin, as he does, wrote a great blog post about office gossip. Eleanor Roosevelt – allegedly – said that “great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” People talking about people is often referred to…
Four Leadership Lessons from our Reconciliation Journey
As a member of Vancity’s leadership development program I am on a journey to become a better leader. Engaging in deep self-reflection, peer-mentoring and self-directed learning with the intention of creating new habits that help me to be more present,…
10 Things we Need to Make Work From Anywhere Happen
This Wall Street Journal article was bouncing around the Internet earlier this week. CEOs and Executive Directors from Vancouver to Nairobi to Singapore are evaluating the impact of Covid-19 on work, particularly the emerging reality of our “work from anywhere”…
Governance
The world is less democratic than it was 15 years ago. Peoples’ growing malaise with democracy has been a disturbing trend that dates back to the 1970s. The way we govern our communities – neighbourhood associations, corporate boards, regional elections…
From Isomorphism to Youniqueness
The right thing for your craft, your community, and your soul is to move from isomorphism to youniqueness. Year by year humanity embraces monoculture like agribusiness plants monocrops. Consequently, we have a lot of corn, and we have a lot…
Three Important Leadership Questions
Education inoculates us against disruption. As our communities endure more disruption, especially here on the West Coast of Canada, it is important for leaders to reflect on ideas, models, and frameworks of leadership that will help us help others to…
The 10 Qualities of People with Amazing Presence
Amazing leaders have amazing presence. People who possess this simple, but rare quality are naturally able to put their colleagues at ease, take charge during chaos, and instill confidence when things are changing. Based on my own experiences– as well…
Ambidexterity
Ambidexterity means being able to use our right and left hands equally well. It means being able to hold multiple competing perspectives or realities simultaneously. Hybrid work is requiring all of us to be ambidextrous in terms of shifting between…