My Blog

I was pleasantly surprised by the responses to my last article The double glazed glass ceiling and invitation to the breakfast. The breakfast got booked out in 4 days, which was unexpected! There were many who told me that it resonated with them and they have had experiences of being overlooked, not heard or recognised. The other response was a little more surprising.Read more...

Do you know quieter professional women who contribute a lot or have the potential to but don’t get noticed, recognised or overlooked? They are naturally more introverted, not comfortable with promoting themselves or networking. Alternatively they are good at pretending to be an extrovert but feel exhausted or depleted in doing so. They are quiet achievers or ‘exhausted’ achievers.Read more...

Having been involved in a number of culture change efforts, a pattern keeps emerging as one of the biggest stumbling blocks. Not many people talk about it openly, either – another elephant (see What to do when people don’t want to talk about the elephant?).Read more...

My last article What to do when people don’t want to talk about the elephant? raised the problem of not being able to discuss problems in organisations.Read more...

We talk about “the elephant in the room” when there’s an issue that can’t be spoken about, even if everyone knows it’s there. It can be very destructive and stressful as people affected by the issue cannot address it and people around them can feel the tension. As a minimum, it is distracting. At its worst, it can tear teams and organisations apart or have unethical actions and decisions go unquestioned.Read more...

Remember the time when you first started in a new organisation? You were proud to be selected, excited to meet new people, eager to learn, make an impression and make a difference. You brought your unique talents, professional and personal experiences and willingness to contribute.Read more...

Stereotypes are like super-sized assumptions. They are assumptions held by society or a large group of people about certain types of people. Assumptions: The Silent Assassin highlighted the dangers of acting on assumptions without checking. Stereotypes are even more dangerous and costly because they are reinforced by society or a large group of people, not just held by ourselves.Read more...

Have you been in a diverse team where you learned a lot, contributed your strengths, had fun and got a lot done creatively? It’s magic when it works. It’s painful when it doesn’t. Research shows that diverse teams either outperform or underperform, not much in the middle.Read more...

We are told that confidence is the key to success. Many of us participate in training on building and demonstrating confidence – presentation skills, influencing skills, women in leadership, etc. We miss out on jobs because we don’t come across as confident.Read more...

This was my 9 year old’s comment recently. Curiously, I asked her what was it about a leader she didn’t want to be. Here are some of the things she said:Read more...

How often have you heard comments such as:Read more...

So many organisations have great intentions to ‘attract and retain the best talent’, ‘foster innovation’, ‘adapt to the changing environment’. And yet at the everyday interaction level we kill the potential to realise these intentions due to the way we think – psychologists call them cognitive biases.Read more...