Practical guidance for tackling common leadership challenges
Over the years, in my businesses, as an executive coach, and in leadership development, I have seen the same challenges recur repeatedly. How do you keep a team engaged? How do you raise performance? How can we help people navigate change? How do you balance results with relationships? and so on.
These questions rarely have a single answer. What matters most is the way a leader chooses to respond. Each choice not only drives performance, it also shapes the climate and culture that others experience.
I aim to offer you practical guidance and a fresh perspective, blending science and stewardship, not as fixed solutions, but as insights and steps you can apply immediately. Think of each post as both reflection and practice: useful now, and part of a longer journey of growth.
You’ll find new questions added regularly. If there’s one you’re wrestling with, I invite you to share it with me.
For those looking to develop a specific capability or competency, the Leadership Library offers one hundred areas for you to develop yourself.
How do I stay composed when something goes badly wrong?
Whether you feel a strong emotional reaction isn't really the question, you will. What actually determines the outcome is how you manage that reaction once it's happening, not whether you have it at all. Gross's process model breaks that management down into a real, practical sequence rather than the usual vague advice to "stay calm," and this piece uses each stage as one of five exercises for staying composed when something goes wrong, with your team, a customer, a peer, or someone above you.
How do I make sure the strength that got me promoted doesn’t become the thing that trips me up?
The skill that got you promoted is, statistically, one of the more likely things to eventually derail you. Longitudinal derailment research links low self-awareness directly to leaders losing their footing, often around the very strengths that once made them successful. This piece explains why strengths flip into liabilities under pressure, and gives five research-backed exercises for catching it before it costs you.
Why does my confidence swing so much depending on the room I’m in?
You're not two different people in the boardroom and the team stand-up, but it can feel that way. Self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control and emotional stability bundle together into one trait that predicts career and life outcomes better than any of them alone, and understanding how they combine explains why your confidence holds steady in some rooms and evaporates in others.
How do I spot my own blind spots before they become a problem?
Some things about you are visible to everyone except you. Not because you're not looking, but because a blind spot is, by definition, invisible from the inside. This piece uses the Johari Window to locate exactly where your self-knowledge is thin, and gives five research-backed exercises and five daily micro-practices for closing the gap.
How do I adapt my leadership style to engage my whole team through change?
Adapting your leadership style through change means reading how actively, not just how positively, each person is responding, and engaging your proactive, accepting, resisting and disengaged team members in four different ways.
How can I ensure I and my team manage outside of work wellbeing?
Four in ten employees report significant stress on an ordinary day. Eleven research backed ways leaders can help their team, and themselves, actually switch off and recover.
How do I deal with my team members who are resisting change?
Resistance to change is rarely just stubbornness. When a team member pushes back, they may be protecting something they value, responding to an unfair process, spotting a genuine flaw, or simply exhausted by repeated change. Effective leaders diagnose what sits behind the resistance before trying to overcome it, then respond with curiosity, fairness and the right level of attention.
What do the best matrix leaders do differently?
Quick answer The best matrix leaders succeed by leading through [...]
How do I lead through ambiguity and uncertainty in a matrix?
Quick answer To lead through ambiguity in a matrix organisation, [...]
How do I build trust across organisational boundaries?
Quick answer To build trust across organisational boundaries, first identify [...]
How do I resolve conflict between departments?
Quick answer To resolve conflict between departments in a matrix, [...]
How do I manage competing priorities in a matrix?
Quick answer To manage competing priorities in a matrix, treat [...]
How do decisions get made in a matrix organisations?
Quick answer Good matrix decision-making requires more than clear decision [...]
Why does my team feel unsupported when I am working so hard?
Your team says they feel unsupported, but you don't feel disorganised, you feel overwhelmed. Here's why that gap opens up, and the specific moves that close it.
How do I create accountability without authority?
You have responsibility for outcomes you can't enforce. You built influence, a network, and a steering group that made real commitments — and weeks later, half of them have quietly slipped. This article explores why accountability has to be created deliberately in a matrix, and five practices that make commitments hold once people leave the room.
How do I get the best from every generation on my team?
Most generational conflict is not about values. It is about different definitions of what good work looks like. This guide covers five collision points that cause friction in multi-generational teams and the practical moves that resolve them.
How do I convene people who don’t report to me?
I was coaching a Programme Director leading a major operational [...]
How do I build a powerful internal network?
In a matrix organisation, the org chart tells you who has authority. Your network tells you who has access. This article explores the research on organisational networks and what matrix leaders can do to build one that is genuinely fit for the environments they lead in.
How do I build influence across functions and departments?
You have responsibility but no direct authority. In a matrix organisation, influence is the primary leadership currency. This article explores how to build the credibility, relationships, and approach that create genuine commitment rather than surface compliance.
What is a matrix organisation and why are companies adopting one?
Matrix organisations are now the dominant model for complex enterprises. But most leaders working in them were never prepared for what they demand. This article explains what a matrix is, why it emerged, and what it means for how you need to lead.
How do successful leaders create commitment in matrix organisations?
What separates successful matrix leaders from everyone else? Their ability to create commitment. Discover four capabilities that help leaders influence across boundaries, build networks, convene stakeholders, and act as stewards of the wider organisation.
How can I lead a critical project when senior leaders are in conflict?
Leading a critical project while senior leaders are in conflict can leave you caught between competing priorities, unclear authority and political tension. This article shares five practical, research-backed ways to protect delivery: clarify decision rights, manage the reality, force alignment, escalate risk and define the conditions for success.
How can I better manage conflict with my boss?
Conflict with a manager is often a structural misalignment rather than a personality clash. Discover how to use the AID model and the psychological contract to transform vertical tension into strategic alignment.
Why are my employees leaving for a $1 raise? (And how to stop it)
Quick answer If employees are leaving for very small pay [...]