Enterprise Leadership: 5 resolutions (part 2)

Written by Stuart Haden on March 13, 2024

In my first posting (last week) Cashman left us asking and answering Four Big Enterprise Questions. Circling through – purpose, vision, strategy & talent…

Purpose: The Big Why Question: Why Is It So Important That We Exist?

Vision: The Big What Question: If We Lived Our Purpose, What Can We Become?

Strategy: The Big How Question: How Can We Get There?

Talent: The Big Who Question: Who Will Get Us There?

Cashman, K. (2019). Enterprise Leadership: Five big resolutions

Continue Reading


Enterprise Leadership: 5 resolutions (part 1)

Written by Stuart Haden on March 5, 2024

“One of the toughest development challenges is to elevate a critical mass of talent from executive management to true enterprise leadership”. As well as citing the differences between executive and enterprise leadership, this short articles also describes the differences between controlling and creating. And of course rather than just thinking and behaving downwards, enterprise leaders must also make the critical and complex shift across – all functions, all geographies, all divisions, all teams and all customer groups.

Cashman presents

Continue Reading


Psychological Safety

Written by Stuart Haden on February 27, 2024

This 1 hour webinar deals with one of the hottest (still) leadership topics – Psychological Safety. Furthermore it features 2 of the heaviest hitters on the subject – Dr. Amy Edmondson and Dr. David Rock. There were some useful links to threats, the SCARF model and hybrid working. As well as hearing more about the collaboration between the 2 of them.

It was a shame that Enterprise Leadership wasn’t specifically mentioned, so view this as a fairly

Continue Reading


Failing states and personal states

Written by Stuart Haden on July 6, 2022

Capra and Luisi (in their book The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision) talk about failing states. The parallels and what to look out for at a national and personal level are surprisingly similar. Addressing the interconnectedness of world problems they note that failing states include…

Loss of personal security.
Terrorism.
Civil conflict.
Disintegration of law and order.

But what if on a personal level we also experience…

Loss.
Terror.
Conflict.
Disintegration.

Everything is connected. The failing state is the last part of the connection prior to the potential unravelling of

Continue Reading


Life’s a beach. Or is it?

Written by Stuart Haden on June 7, 2022

Somewhere in my surfing past this phrase became part of our teenage vocabulary – life’s a beach. I have always been drawn to it, simple but effective. Even if in later years I discovered that it was invented to counter – life’s a bitch.

For some strange reason it also created a degree of tension. It didn’t hold altogether true for me. Yes the beach brings us closer to Mother Earth, grounded, our shoes are off. In touch with the sand,

Continue Reading


The collapse of benign authority

Written by Stuart Haden on May 12, 2022

I was inspired by the talkings and writings of Jamie Wheal and Adam Curtis on this subject recently. Describing the collapse of what we perceive to be benign authority – religious, political and corporate.

Scandals that have rocked our trust. Our privacy being used and abused. The giants dodging Corporation Tax. The manufacturers skipping on Compliance. Questioning motive. Being emotive therefore. The list goes on.

In some cases we can vote, maybe with our feet. But what does this call for? Simple, a

Continue Reading


Skills before states

Written by Stuart Haden on March 8, 2022

If you’ve followed my work you’ll know that I am a big proponent of states versus skills. But as I’ve said before let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater as skills still have their place. Often they are the foundation to one’s state. And if the pressure comes on we sink to our lowest form of training, so a strong base is still really important. So perhaps it’s worth looking at some of the skills we need to consider prior

Continue Reading


The future is stranger because you think

Written by Stuart Haden on January 25, 2022

The future is stranger than you think. Not quite. The future is stranger because you think. I’ve always been fascinated with my inability to perceive the future. No matter how hard I try, I can only get so far. Which is often not far enough, and then I give up. But when I was reading The Future is Faster than you Think by Diamandis and Kotler I began to understand why.

In fairness they eased me in, noting “it’s not easy for any of

Continue Reading


Some you win, some you learn

Written by Stuart Haden on January 12, 2022

The overall phases of performance often boil down to 4 things – struggle, release, flow and recovery. To boil this down even further you are either winning or learning. Like many good parallels I’ve drawn this one from sport. A cycling term that I first came across whilst watching  The Least Expected Day. A Netflix produced documentary series focusing on the Movistar Team’s 2019 Grand Tour campaigns.

If you are winning so to speak, you are in flow. At your best, peak

Continue Reading


Never stop exploring

Written by Stuart Haden on December 20, 2021

This is the strap line for the well known outdoor brand The North Face. You won’t find any adverts here but it turns out they are on to something. I was listening to a podcast (Flow Sessions) with Jason Silva who was interviewing Michael Pollan (author of articles and books about about the places where nature and culture intersect).

They described the difference between childhood and adulthood as explore versus exploit. In our childhood we are busy exploring life. Inquiring, penetrating, examining

Continue Reading