On judgement, authority, and the exercise of leadership—as distinct from management, and rarely as tidy as the literature pretends.
My guest this week is Tim Newbold, founder of OKR Quickstart, who has spent a decade watching goal-setting frameworks meet real organisations, and who argues that when they fail, the fault is almost never in the framework.
My guest this week is Pamela Wyatt, Head of Business Transformation for Asia-Pacific at DT Global, who spent nearly a decade at the Asian Development Bank negotiating governance reform with Pacific governments.
My guest this week is Professor Alistair Noble, President of Nan Tien Institute, a small independent higher education provider near Wollongong grounded in Buddhist values.
My guest this week is David Harvie, Director of Wholesale Distribution at AUSIEX, a wholesale broker serving financial advisers and institutions, and the founder of DADBODZ, a health venture for time-poor fathers.
My guest this week is Jay Fontanini, founder of the AI Executive Accelerator, who spent three decades in property and casualty insurance before turning to building software and teaching executives to think with it rather than perform having thought.
There is a familiar shape to the discussion of artificial intelligence in Australian enterprises. Adoption figures rise. Pilot counts rise. Licence spend rises. Somewhere in the annual report a paragraph
The leadership literature, and the organisations that consume it, share an unexamined assumption about direction. Progress means ascent. One begins as an individual contributor, demonstrates competence, and is rewarded with
Most conversations about corporate governance begin with structure—committees, charters, the machinery of oversight. This one begins on the side of a dirt road in Nepal in 1999, and I
Most conversations about artificial intelligence and the product manager begin by asking whether the role survives. This one begins somewhere more useful: by asking what the role was ever actually
In this episode of On the Subject of Leadership, I speak with Clare Kitching, founder of Cambiq Consulting—formerly of McKinsey, QuantumBlack, and Treasury Wine Estates where she served as
What does it actually take for a strategic intent to survive contact with the business that must implement it? In this episode of On the Subject of Leadership, I speak
People accountable to a superior whose views they know tend to adopt those views. Nick Hassett on how accountability cultures manufacture silos, why agreement stops at the boardroom door, and why banning AI hides the risk rather than removing it.
What happens when a leader who sold the vision steps back into the reality of delivering it? In this episode of On the Subject of Leadership, I speak with Craig
What happens when a movement built on autonomy becomes a system of rituals? In this episode of On the Subject of Leadership, I speak with Martin Kearns—one of the
What separates a commitment from a preference? A preference is what an organisation would like to do. A commitment is what it has arranged to be unable to stop doing.
Flat organisations are usually presented as a philosophy. More often they are a headcount. The literature on networked teams and post-hierarchical work is written, almost without exception, from firms
Clear writing builds trust and credibility. Avoid jargon, clutter, and dependence on AI; focus on structure, clarity, and authentic voice. Weak writing drives weak decisions, making strong communication essential for effective leadership and sound business judgment.
Visionary leadership can inspire, but in turbulent environments coherence proves stronger. Fixed visions hinder adaptability, while coherent strategies align identity with present realities. Effective leaders balance vision with coherence for lasting resilience.
Authentic leadership builds trust through transparency, ethics, and empathy. Leaders who model authenticity create psychological safety, strengthen relationships, and foster resilient, innovative cultures that support lasting organisational success.
In 2024, leaders strengthened governance, culture, and decision-making through critical thinking and evidence-based practice. Lessons included avoiding sunk-cost traps, building cohesive cultures, and improving meetings.
Empathy strengthens leadership by building trust, respect, and belonging. It supports fairness, psychological safety, and better decisions. Though it risks burnout, empathy remains essential for ethical, resilient, and sustainable organisations.
FranklinCovey’s Leading at the Speed of Trust offers helpful tools but oversimplifies trust. A satisficing approach—grounded in practical action and shaped by culture and relationships—builds trust iteratively, supporting resilient, sustainable leadership.
Trust underpins leadership and shared purpose. FranklinCovey frames trust as measurable through behaviours like integrity and capability, boosting speed and lowering costs. Yet trust endures only when leaders also attend to relational and contextual realities.
Gold of the Desert Kings is an engaging leadership simulation promoting strategy and teamwork under pressure, but its focus on competition overlooks emotional intelligence and ethics. Coupling it with formal leadership theory could yield deeper, longer-lasting learning.
Leadership in the digital age requires balancing timeless qualities—wisdom, courage, empathy—with responsible use of technology. AI and data should support, not replace, ethical judgment and emotional intelligence as leaders guide people toward shared goals.
Inclusive leadership goes beyond DEI by creating cultures where difference is valued and people are empowered. Grounded in empathy and practical wisdom, it avoids tokenism through transparency, mentorship, and dialogue. Used carefully, humour can strengthen inclusion and trust.
In leadership, few tasks are more consequential than making decisions — especially difficult ones. Decisions often come with uncertainty, incomplete information, and conflicting values. The best leaders manage these complexities by
High-performing teams are built on trust, psychological safety, clear roles, open communication, and shared accountability. Classical insight and modern research agree: cohesion, collaboration, and a common purpose enable teams to adapt and perform under pressure.
Adaptive leadership distinguishes technical problems from adaptive challenges that require learning and experimentation. It emphasises situational awareness, engagement, and shared leadership while preserving purpose and ethics, preparing organisations for change beyond reactive or static models.
Karl Popper's theory of falsification provides a powerful framework for modern leadership. By embracing the principles of falsification, leaders can foster innovation, agility, and resilience in their organisations. This also allows the evolution of our understanding by discarding theories that do n
Much of what passes for "strategy" is platitude dressed as direction. A real strategy is specific, actionable, and tied to organisational goals. The difference is rigorous analysis and the willingness to make hard choices.
