I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the emotional weight that comes with working in services to others. This blog explores what that actually means for the people doing this work, why self-awareness matters more than we often acknowledge, and what happens when organisations start to notice the invisible.
Whether you work in these sectors yourself, lead teams within them, or support organisations that do, I hope this resonates with you.
Today’s blog is inspired by a thought I had whilst chopping vegetables the other day. There are two phrases we often hear bandied about regarding leadership, that I just don’t agree with. Join me as I jump on my soap box to debunk the myths that ‘leadership is a lonely place’ and ‘I’m not here to make friends’.
When I was researching Founder’s Syndrome, I came across an article by Dean Steele, which made me think that there was far more to say than what could be said in one article. So, this is the second in a series about Founder’s Syndrome. In this article, we’ll explore what happens when a Founder leaves an organisation unexpectedly and at short notice. We explore organisational readiness and set out some ideas for business continuity.
This week I’ve been thinking a lot about strategy. Well, I think it’s strategy….
It might be frameworks. Or maybe it’s structure. Or actually it could just be simplicity. Join me on my journey of making the complex, simple, the theoretical practical and the inaccessible, accessible.
This week’s blog looks at the gap between leadership theory and what actually happens at work. It explores the bit where the neat theoretical frameworks meet real people, messy dynamics and the occasional organisational plot twist. Drawing on my MSc and doctoral research, I reflect on why leadership rarely fits neat and tidy models and why self-awareness may be what helps bridge the gap between theory and practice.
This week, I went to the launch of the Global Workplace Happiness Report 2026, by The Happiness Index at Google Head office in London.
I left with my head buzzing from all of the insights and ideas shares. During the day, it became very apparent that there was a lot of overlap in their findings and my model of self-aware leadership, specifically, the 9 behaviours of my compass. So, here’s a review of how my model overlaps with what the data is telling us about workplace happiness.
Hello KSKOers This week’s blog captures a thread that’s been running through my thinking for a long time. It started with a simple question I asked early in my career, and over the years that question has shifted, stretched and grown alongside my own experience of...
A couple of week ago, I went for an extraordinary swim with the wonderful Penelope Allard C.FICB PM.Dip.
Unaccustomed as we are to doing things by half, we combined a glorious swim in the warm high tide in Southend on Sea, with a conversation about charities, business, fundraising and commercial skills.
And now, it’s live!!!
Every Friday, I write a LinkedIn post, reflecting on my week. I’ve been doing this for the last few months. It’s a good habit to form and reminds you of just how much you’ve achieved. It also lets you celebrate your small wins and develop your transparency and ‘working-out-loud- skills. I realised that if you’re my Substack subscriber, you may never have stumbled on my posts. So, here’s a collection of reflections about leadership, my world of work and being people centric.
Every Friday, I write a little LinkedIn post, reflecting on my week. One of the things I wrote about on Friday, was the importance of leaders getting out and about, visiting frontline staff and talking to them about what’s going on, and meeting service users. In this week’s blog, I wanted to talk to you about the research behind my advice to leaders to go out, go visit and get talking.
Hello KSKOers… In 2025, I found myself getting interested in Founder’s Syndrome. It was an issue that kept surfacing in conversations about charities and founder-led organisations. It’s not a comfortable term. It can sound accusatory, even personal. But the more I...
Hello KSKOers You may remember my ranty blog from February 2024. If you’re finding leadership a lonely place, you’re just doing it wrong. Well, now felt like a good time to reiterate my rant and add that developing a network and finding your tribe is a critical way to...