Inwards, onwards & upwards
A journal of invitations, ideas & inspiration to keep you moving from where you are to where you want to be
Don’t manage people. Manage conditions.
Don’t manage people, manage conditions.
Because you can’t actually manage people. People can choose to subject themselves to your management. But that isn’t the same thing.
Once you rid yourself of the illusion that you can manage people you are no longer in control and therefore you are free. Free to manage the things you can control. The conditions. The conditions that best serve the people you no longer manage.
Meet people where they are.
Meet people where they are.
I had the privilege of working with a client who was brilliant at this. And who consciously cultivated their talent for it.
They took over a company from the founder after 15 years of leadership.
They inherited a small, dedicated but trepidatious team.
They could have swung the axe. They could have frozen out. They could have made demands that couldn’t be met.
Instead they chose to meet the team, on their individual and collective terms, where they were at.
Leadership doesn’t have to be lonely.
Leadership doesn’t have to be lonely.
But too often it is.
Have brilliant meetings.
Have brilliant meetings.
In brilliant meetings, ideas are generated. Feedback gathered. Information shared. Resources allocated. Strategies aligned. Decisions made. Relationships grown. Morale boosted. Trust built. Accountability accepted. Action inspired.
In bad meetings, you stab yourself in the leg with a pencil to keep yourself awake while deciding what you’ll watch on Disney+ tonight (The Banshees of Inisherin, trust me).
So you need to stop wasting your time in bad meetings.
Even better; stop wasting other people’s time in your bad meetings.
Move Mountains with your Mind
A few years ago, when I was Joint Artistic Director of Paines Plough, we were exploring the idea of building a pop-up theatre and looking at where we might tour it to.
On a tip off, our Producer and I set off one wet and windy November morning to visit the once-thriving seaside destination of Margate.
It’s okay to be on the edge of things.
At least, that’s where I’ve come to realise I’m most comfortable.
And arguably where I do my best work.
For me, a life-long introvert, the middle feels exposing.
Somewhere to lose control.
To be consumed.
Exciting? Yes.
But ultimately satisfying - for me - no.
Sometimes, every day feels like climbing a mountain.
Sometimes, every day feels like climbing a mountain.
Because some weeks, every day is like climbing a mountain.
Someone said this to me when I was leading and it stayed with me.
For a start, It helped to have my feelings validated. And I was reassured by the fact that it is supposed to be hard. But most of all, I was reminded that the challenge was there to be relished - and surmounted.
Because, in fact, I like climbing mountains. There’s only one way to climb them: One step at a time.
5 ideas to have more (and better) ideas
1 Let the ideas find you.
There are more people than ideas.
Just as there are more people than gestures.
Therefore people must make the same gestures and have the same ideas.
So you don’t have ideas or gestures.
Ideas, like gestures, have you.
You just need to create the best conditions for them to arrive.
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