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Sean Craig

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How small habits can transform your leadership style

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  • 3 min read

I know I should meditate more. And that doing it – even for five minutes – would benefit me. But, I say to myself… I don’t have the time. It seems too hard. I can always start tomorrow. This is all a fairly accurate –… 

fried egg in bowl

How to turn frustrations with your boss into leadership growth

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  • 2 min read

Ever find yourself frustrated with your boss? Here’s a twist: use their failings to become a better leader yourself. It’s always been easy for me to spot the things my boss gets wrong. Strangely, though, I’ve not always been so sharp at spotting my own… 

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The importance of conducting quarterly planning with your team

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  • 5 min read

Have you ever found yourself managing week to week (or even day to day), running on the treadmill of business as usual to meet pressing deadlines and support your team, but with that sinking feeling that you should be stepping back to survey what lies… 

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Focus less on loyalty and more on commitment with your people

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  • 3 min read

Managers often label departing employees as “disloyal”. But here’s the thing: loyalty is overrated. Loyalty is too easily used to coerce people into abandoning their interests. As if it’s used in the sense of “you should show loyalty, no matter what”. The “no matter what”… 

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The difference between arrogance and confidence

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  • 2 min read

Arrogance is insecurity masquerading as confidence. The recent US election reminded me of this thought I wrote down years ago. Whether someone sees Donald Trump as arrogant or confident often depends on their political perspective. But what really separates confidence from arrogance? I like Harry… 

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How do an organisation’s vision and mission relate to each other?

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  • 5 min read

What’s a mission? What’s a vision? And how do they differ? This a common source of confusion for people starting out in strategy and more broadly amongst members of organisations. I vividly recall a workshop we were facilitating with an executive team where we’d gone… 

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Three practical approaches to align an organisation around its strategy

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  • 8 min read

Organisations often talk about and focus on strategy. And rightly so: having organisational clarity on strategy improves organisational health and performance [link to the six questions]. Strategy essentially involves determining: These three elements correspond to Simon Sinek’s why – how – what model that he… 

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Get recruitment right if you want a high performing team

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  • 1 min read

Steven Bartlett – from Diary of a CEO – says that “every company is a recruitment company”, because few things affect success more than having the right people on a team. Why then are many organisations so casual about recruitment? And why aren’t hiring managers… 

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The good way to give bad news

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  • 2 min read

Dreading sharing some bad news with a team member? Here’s 3 steps to approach it 👇. If you have bad news to share with someone, the kind and effective way to do it is directly and with compassion. Don’t beat around the bush or procrastinate.… 

Get the easy stuff right

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  • 2 min read

Management and leadership tasks can be hard. But there’s a bunch of easy stuff too. So get that right. I was listening to Scott Galloway talk the other day and his advice to young people included “get the easy stuff right”. It occurred to me… 

white and pink sailboat at sea during daytiem

What Alice in Wonderland and Roman philosophy teach us about vision

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  • 6 min read

What do Alice in Wonderland and Roman philosophy have in common? They both share at least one important lesson on the importance of a clear vision for high performing teams and organisations. Vision statements are common, but they often exist in a going-through-the-motions, tick-the-box-of-a-strategic-planning-checklist kind… 

yellow duct tape on blue surface

Ask for commitment not loyalty

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  • 2 min read

Loyalty gets a lot of attention from managers (especially when they’re hurt that someone’s quit). But we should focus more on commitment, less on loyalty. Loyalty has the potential to be abused. It’s often positioned as something that should be prioritised (especially by employees, lest… 

Here’s a sneak preview of something we’re working on at the moment

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  • 1 min read

Here’s a sneak preview of something we first started working on four years ago. It’s a planner designed just for leaders. For leaders who want to get their sh!t together, be impactful and eliminate stress. Joel Bailey and I are big believers that simple planning… 

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Becoming a manager requires next level time management

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  • 3 min read

When we step up into a management role, our time management needs to go to the next level. Most people manage their time by: The most important change is to move from reactive to proactive time management. Reactive often works well enough early on in…