
News & Insights
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What is the role of people development
In this clip from one of our events, Elke talks about the skills we need to focus on and the way we deliver them in the new learning landscape.
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Ordinary or extraordinary?
How do you want to be remembered? Vicky has been reflecting on what she wants to do with her one extraordinary life.
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Thoughts from a new starter
Charlotte joined the Ivy House team in March and reflects on her experiences so far.
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Hybrid working: The impact on relationship
Has remote and hybrid working impacted the way we build relationships at work? Undoubtedly yes. And, we can do something about it.
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Fall back in love with life
Ever fallen into the trap of the treadmill of life? Laura has – but her pledge to keep moving towards the life she really wants might inspire you.
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Future Leaders of the Year 2022 spotlight: Chloe Nwankwo
Having experienced racism age 12, Chloe is on a mission to create the UK’s first black teen magazine to provide black role models to black youth age 11+ (amongst many other ambitions!).
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Future Leaders of the Year 2022 spotlight: Sarah Strasberg
Sarah Strasberg is a 17-year-old student from the United States who is passionate about Fair Trade and advocating human rights.
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Future Leaders of the Year 2022 spotlight: Anne Eta
Future Leader Anne is a high school senior in Nigeria who is currently focused on youth leadership in establishing community resilience.
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Future Leaders of the Year 2022 spotlight: Adelle Yong
Adelle is a 16-year-old student from Singapore who captured our attention with her idea for diagnosing malaria and common eye diseases with her STEM-powered inventions.
Article

How to get happy
Happiness is a way of being, not a destination. We all want to be happy, right? There is just one person in control of that… you.
Blog

Future Leaders of the Year 2022 spotlight: Rania Hashim
Rania Hashim is a 15-year-old innovator who is on a journey to enable human betterment. We’re also incredibly proud to say she is one of our Top 10 Future Leaders of the Year.
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Future Leaders of the Year 2022 spotlight: Peony Sham
We’re delighted to introduce Future Leader of the Year 15-year-old Peony Sham. Peony is focused on empowering youth and leading community wellbeing projects.
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Future Leaders of the Year 2022 spotlight: Charlotte Corrigan
Charlotte is a 17-year-old student who is unbelievably passionate about sport and inspiring other young people in the face of adversity.
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Wellbeing: More than just a trendy buzzword
With the new year comes new beginnings, a fresh start and an opportunity to create new healthier habits that last.
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A virtual hug from us
Here’s a look back at some of the Ivy House highlights from 2021 – a year of achieving great things together!
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The big quit: How to keep your best people
There are now more vacancies than job seekers. So how do you stop your talent walking out the door?
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Reality check: Everyone’s Invited
Young people told us some pretty eye-opening things about what they think needs to change in schools.
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Everyone’s Invited: Beyond the policies and procedures
Typically, schools respond to a crisis by checking that their policies and procedures are all in place. But here’s what’s missing.
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Ready to fly: Developing confidence in students
If we want to develop students’ confidence, we need to be clear what we are talking about. Guest blog by Rachel Johnson, CEO of PiXL.
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Human leadership:
How does your organisation measure up?
Authenticity, creativity, collaboration, agile learning, and flexibility are becoming far more valuable than the ability to shout the loudest.
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A new start
We are reopening The Award and in a few weeks, 3,000 students and staff will be accessing life-changing learning through The Ivy House Award.
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The human algorithm
We have become much more aware of how to influence algorithms on social media. How do we hack the human algorithm?
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15 small things that will make a game-changing difference when building your future
Building your future is like building a house; it doesn’t happen all at once. Here are 15 small things that will make a game-changing difference to building your future.
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Be remarkable: How to stand out at interview
Most people don’t know how to stand out from the crowd, they don’t know how to be remarkable – and it’s actually not that hard once you know how.
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Warning: Education minus human development can equal tears
A*s in every subject and a place at a top university; or self-belief, confidence and an ability to stay well no matter what situation comes their way?
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Ivy House turns 4
Students taking The Ivy House Award can explain the impact it’s had on them far better than us – so here is a fantastic bunch of teenagers telling you what they think.
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Intellect vs insight
In a world that focuses so much on gathering intelligence (other people’s wisdom), many of us have lost sight of our own insight.
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Human leadership: It’s time to stop ‘winging it’
Young people now are 4 times more likely to be unemployed than any other generation. There has never been a greater need to put human development at the heart of education.
News

Award students get masterclass
on how to pitch themselves
It’s not just the winners of the Future Leaders of the Year competition who receive prizes – no one who participates will leave empty handed.
News

NEW: Prizes announced
for Future Leaders
It’s not just the winners of the Future Leaders of the Year competition who receive prizes – no one who participates will leave empty handed.
News

Introducing The Future Leaders Project
The Future Leaders Project launches this year, providing the missing link between education and adult life.
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Tackling DE&I through L&D
We need to be inclusive in our L&D approach. If we want to create genuine change we have to have the courage to do a few things.
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Ivy House wins Corporate Excellence Award
Ivy House has been named Leading Experts in Professional Development in the Corporate Excellence Awards 2021.
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Award students proactively look after their wellbeing
The latest results show that Award students are learning to manage their thoughts, emotions and are proactively looking after their wellbeing
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It’s time to humanise DE&I
The bottom line is we need to help people reconnect with the emotion behind diversity, equity and inclusion – particularly the inclusion.
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Using the apprenticeship levy to train existing staff
Many employers are using levy funding to upskill and develop their existing staff, supporting new managers, emerging talent or future leaders.
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Let’s not pivot; let’s pirouette
Ivy House’s Lindsay Terris reflects on the year that was 2020; the highs, the lows, the tears and the lessons learned.
News

Fair Chance Fund
finds 15 schools
Thanks to The NatWest Group, the first ever schools will be taking part in The Ivy House Award fully-funded by the Fair Chance Fund.
News

Ivy House wins 2 awards!
Ivy House has won not 1, but 2 awards and we couldn’t be happier! Find out about the Digital Education Awards and Manage HR award.
Blog

It’s Time.
Download this whitepaper for research and insights from changemakers in education and business on the real opportunities to create meaningful change in our education system.
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The system is broken
Having sat in boardrooms with managers and leaders of all kinds, Elke Edwards knows the system is broken. And we can’t let it stay broken.
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Naming the elephants in the room
So many young are people struggling. If we are going to get serious about giving them the skills to thrive, we need to acknowledge the elephants in the room.
News

Elke Edwards becomes Number 1 Best Selling Author
It’s not every day you get to call the founder of your business a Number 1 Best Selling Author.
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Being simply brilliant
In the world of learning there’s not been a simple way for providers to show a history of performance and achievements to clients… until now!
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My thinking
We have countless thoughts come into our minds every day, every second, which, ultimately, we can’t control. What we can control are the thoughts we choose to focus on.
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The workplace revolution
Spoiler: It’s not just about getting Zoom to work. Kate Lander, Ivy House CEO, looks at what leadership will look like in the future.
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Our virtual reality
How do we make the virtual experience even better than the face-to-face? Get an insight into how we designed our virtual programmes.
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Behind the teacher persona
How to be a human leader, and learning leadership and life skills in general, isn’t part of teacher training. But the impact it can have is huge.
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My Brand
Session 7 of The Ivy House Award encourages us to discover what our current brand is, teaching us how we can alter and improve that brand if we choose to.
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My communication
Could you improve the effectiveness of your communication? Anouska shares her significant learnings from session 6 of The Ivy House Award.
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My behaviour
Anouska talks about the equation Event + Behaviour = Result which is the focus in session 5 of The Award, and what this means in practice.
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100% ownership and my inner rhino
Who takes responsibility for your life? You? Your parents? Your grades? Anouska reflects on the fourth session of The Award, all about ownership.
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Being a courageous learner
Being a courageous learner is so much more than having the courage to learn. Anouska shares her experience of the third session of The Ivy House Award.
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My element
Think about when you are at your most content, when you feel the most joy. The ‘My Element’ session of The Award will help us find this place.
News

NEW: Game-changing programmes
Leadership development that’s award-winning, available virtually and (here’s the good bit!)… affordable!
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What’s your story?
Vicky Gerrish has been reflecting on the impact her internal storyteller has had on her, and how to be present.
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My life: First session of The Award
The sooner questions are asked and answered about our current lives, the sooner we can move in the right direction, towards our ideal life.
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A bit about me
My name is Anouska Jantzen and at the end of May I submitted my final exam of my university career, at home, in the middle of a global pandemic.
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Do exam results define you?
The short answer is no. You can choose to be the kind of person you want to be and make the life you want happen – regardless of what’s going on around you.
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A change of lockdown perspective
Student Emily explains how finding her element, creativity and a new community changed her perspective after exams were cancelled.
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Self-leadership: The new kid on the block?
Leadership is now a 1-man job, an every-man job. Self-leadership is now critical for every person our organisations – not just those at the top.
Video

Teenagers tell all
Students taking The Ivy House Award can explain the impact it’s had on them far better than us – so here is a fantastic bunch of teenagers telling you what they think.
Blog

Challenging your hidden stories
“I’m just not having a good day”. Ivy House coach Tim explains why we should listen to the stories we are telling ourselves.
Article

The Award in action
We caught up with Pete, a sixth former taking the Ivy House Award, to hear his take on the learning so far.
Blog

The event never dictates the response
Corona is an event. And life is just a series of events. Elke Edwards had to remind herself of this recently – here’s why.
Video

What kind of leader are you?
We are all leading, all of the time – leading ourselves, our families, our teams, our businesses and our communities.
Blog

I never even realised I could learn that!
Anna reflects on her learning from The Ivy House Award – from initially sceptical to realising she can create the life she wants.
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What are we measuring against?
Our current education system is set up to reward a particular kind of intelligence; no wonder many kids feel like they don’t quite measure up.
News

Virtually ready
All our programmes are now available as virtual solution to give emerging talent the critical skills needed to get through this extraordinary time.
Video

The C Words: Corona, creativity and clarity
Episode one of the Ivy House vlog shares our learnings from the last few extraordinary days.
Blog

Human connection and human leadership
Tim is one of the brilliant Ivy House coaches. Here, he reflects on the need for human connection and human leadership.
Article

Utilising the apprenticeship levy: Manager as apprentice
A growing number of organisations turning to the levy to upskill at senior levels and develop management and leadership skills across their businesses.
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Clare’s top tips: Working from home
Our very own Clare Mitchell has some top tips for working from home.
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The Ivy House 7
Our programmes focus on teaching seven transformational leadership and life skills. Here’s what they are and why they’re important.
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When I knew it was time to change career
Where Steve’s days used to be filled with resistance, struggle and stress, they’re now defined by contentment, fulfilment and flow.
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Build a world where your strengths and passions align
After six years of being a professional footballer, Jay made the toughest decision of his life and walked away from the game he loved. Thankfully, he now has a job which makes him jump out of bed every single day – but it wasn’t a straight path to get there.
Article

The harder you work, the luckier you get
To mark International Women’s Day we caught up with Sophie Alderton and Megan Rump, two incredible women who took their careers – and lives- by the reigns
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Stunning first year in leadership
We think you’ll agree that Louis thoroughly deserves his first nomination for an ACE (Aviva Customer Excellence Award)!
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A herd or a crash?
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Changing futures: A story about confidence
Any situation could turn out to be an opportunity. This story is a prime example of how self-leadership can change your future.
News

Ivy House in the news
If you’ve been avoiding the news lately (because, let’s face it, it can get a bit depressing) you might have missed some great coverage of Ivy House!
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If you’re going to network, for goodness sake do it well
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Dear skills gap: We’re on to you
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More focus on character, please
If we believe the purpose of education is to prepare pupils to thrive, then let’s develop skills that will enable them to do that.
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Be brilliant, whatever that looks like for you
Jay Lockwood opened his own school after realising how unfit the curriculum was for many young people.
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Five things you need to know about the apprenticeship levy
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Apprenticeships are employer-led, not opinion-led
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To push or not to push?
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A three-pronged approach to leadership
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Can character education create happy people?
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Organisational gratitude. The new thing.
Video

The Ivy House Award
Find out more about how The Ivy House Award is bringing life-changing learning, normally reserved for those at the top of the tree, to sixth formers.
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Ivy House: The Programme Introduction
Learn about The Ivy House Programme – a life-changing course for emerging leaders
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The 5 top talent development needs of 2019…
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Become the Person You Want to Be
Hear members of Ivy House from organisations such as Google, The Economist, Heinz and ITSU share their experience of our programme.
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Future Leaders: The Research and the Reality
Download white paper Future Leaders: The Research and the Reality Please fill in your details to download the white paper
Video

An Empowering Network
Find out how Ivy House is creating an empowering network to provide radical support and radical challenge to emerging leaders.
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What’s The Right Career for You?
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Introduction to Ivy House
Find out how Ivy House are supporting the brightest emerging talent to become extraordinary leaders and live extraordinary lives.
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The leadership crisis
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Ivy House Programme Impact: The Client view
Hear some of our clients talk about the impact of The Ivy House Programme on emerging leaders in their organisations.
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Leadership development: The risks and rewards
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Ivy House Programme: The Delegate View
Hear what The Ivy House Programme delegates have to say about their experience on The Ivy House Programme.
News

Future leader challenges
need you to act now
You can’t wait for the perfect plan to develop your emerging leaders, or until the senior leaders are all engaged… you just have to start.
News

The Ivy House mentor experience
The Ivy House mentors play a fundamental role in the development of the next generation of leaders. Drawing upon their experience and expertise, they provide 1:1 guidance and support to our programme delegates.
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The word from Aviva
Ivy House has had the extraordinary pleasure of working with Aviva to develop their emerging leaders both on The Ivy House Programme and through our in house offering.
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Ivy House was born
News

Ivy House interviews… Eliza Filby, Generations Expert
Eliza is an historian, lecturer and corporate advisor on the evolution of generations and how people’s values and behaviours are changing and the implications for work, politics, consumption, society and economics.
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Who are our future leaders?
Developing future leaders is our focus at Ivy House. But who are they? Is there a ‘they ’at all?
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The Ivy House
annual lecture
Browse through a selection of photos from the Annual Lecture at the National Portrait Gallery with Eliza Filby.
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Overcoming limiting beliefs: an Ivy House alumni story
Stephen is one of the Ivy House Alumni, and when he completed the Programme he made a commitment to himself: take on and conquer the Brighton Half Marathon.
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Do you play
the two-faced game?
The game of doing the right thing on the surface, whilst at the same time making your real feelings perfectly clear, is as common as it is destructive.
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Do you tell little lies?
Susan regularly lied to avoid conflict or disagreement. ‘Not really lies at all. Small lies to avoid disappointing people’.
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How good are your conversations?
More than anything else, it is the quality of conversations that impacts how we feel, what we do and the results we get. Why then are we SO bad at them?
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Change the script
The love of your life has finished with you. They walked out the door and that’s it. Over.
What does this mean?
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What to do when it all goes to hell
Whether we like it or not – and what’s there to like – things are not going to go our way some of the time. It’s inevitable and impossible to avoid. So, what’s there to do?
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Confidence is a choice you make
CEOs of major organisations, bestselling authors and hugely successful entrepreneurs all regularly let me into their guilty secret – they suffer from a lack of confidence.
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You are your behaviour. Choose wisely
Whoever you think you are, the world decides based on the behaviour it sees.
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Do you really know your values?
Most people don’t have a clue.
Which is a bit of a problem because it is our values that anchor us. When we feel uneasy with something it is usually because we are violating a value in some way.
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Don’t you just love a good drama?
We’re not short of a crisis or two to satisfy our need for drama. You can get a quick fix from the latest celebrity scandal, the missed penalty, the disgraced politician.
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How do you feel when others disapprove?
You make a decision and you know others disagree. You worry, and become concerned they judge you because of your decision. In fact, it occupies a lot of your thinking time.
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Which conversations are you avoiding?
Think for a moment about a conversation you really should have – with a friend that upset you, a team member that repeatedly under-delivers, a partner you don’t love any more. These conversations often are difficult. And sometimes they’re not.
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Are you memorable?
What makes you unique? Great leaders embrace their uniqueness, their humanness – and they are memorable because of it.
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Hold your opinion lightly
When did someone’s opinion start to get confused with fact?
Just because you think something doesn’t make it right. I hate to be the one to tell you but your particular lens on the world isn’t the holy one – the one through which all truth is seen.
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Are you scared of honest conversations?
One of the most profound things you can ever learn to do is connect with what you are thinking and feeling. The next is to learn to share these thoughts and feelings with the people that matter – lovers, friends, bosses, team members.
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The power of vulnerability in the professional world
Everyone suffers from confidence issues at some point in their lives – a feeling of being different or not good enough. But what would it be like if, every day, you had to face people’s judgements and preconceptions because of something entirely out of your control?
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If not you, then who?
There are organisations and industries where dysfunctional behaviour has become so accepted and challenge so unacceptable that no one calls it out anymore. But there is a way out of this.
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The plague of institutional blindness
I have a couple of soap box subjects and institutional blindness is one of them.
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Creating organisations where high potentials thrive
Organisations invest heavily on finding brilliant new recruits bursting with enthusiasm and potential, ready to make their mark.
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You may be high potential now but will you stay the course?
The desire to make your mark and show what you’re made of is a powerful driver.
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Be trustworthy
A few months ago, I was coaching the leader of a global company. The subject of the session had turned to trustworthiness – or rather the lack of it. He came back at my enquiry with full force. He was completely trustworthy… how dare I ask?
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Pitch perfect
The world is full of bright and determined young people who are ready to make a start in the world. They all want to make their mark and be the next big thing.
So why is it that some will succeed whilst others will end up settling?
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What do people say about you when you’re not in the room?
Does it matter? Probably, but not for the reasons you may think.
Article
Talent is useless if you don’t have impact
“Why should we choose you over someone else?”
This is one of the most common questions asked in job interviews. And it’s totally stupid – impossible to answer, because you don’t know who else has applied.
Article
3 things young people need to fulfil their potential (and it’s not A grades)
When you’re 16, it can be hard to imagine that you’ll ever achieve success.
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Own your life
Having a vision for your life doesn’t mean having the whole thing mapped out. But successful people own their life. They are the creators of their own life
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You have freedom. Are you using it?
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The secret
Common to all people is the desire for freedom. The freedom to choose the life that we want, to be the person that we want to be, to do the work that inspires us and to surround ourselves with the people that we love and who love us.
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Get personal
Look in the mirror. Who do you see? Who is that person looking back at you? What do they dream of? What makes them smile?