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The Oxford English Dictionary defines a hurdle as “a light portable barrier over which runners jump in a race” , and more broadly as “a difficulty or obstacle which must be overcome.” We use metaphor all the time in leadership conversations, usually without stopping to notice it. People talk about being stuck, carrying too much, firefighting, spinning plates, or trying to get back on track. These aren’t throwaway phrases; they’re the language people reach for when they’re try

As I’ve been re-reading Stephen M. R. Covey The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , I’ve found myself thinking about win-win in the context of real teams. Not the theory of it, but the lived experience. The difference between people genuinely working in view of one another, and people who are technically aligned, yet operating largely within their own space. Competition has its place when organisations are looking outward, positioning themselves in a wider market or respond

In work and in life, most of us are moving towards something. As you read this, you may already be thinking about what that is for you... starting a new job, stepping into a bigger role, learning something new, wanting to feel more confident in meetings and clearer about your boundaries, or something else? If you picture that as the end of a track, it’s worth noticing where you are right now , not in terms of distance or speed, but simply where you’re standing and what feels

After working with several teams in recent months, a set of familiar themes keeps resurfacing. Different sectors, different pressures, but the same underlying story: people want to do good work, yet the way their processes operate day to day gets in the way more than it should. Across improvement workshops, teams often describe a sense of pressure  building around them. They’re trying to meet expectations while navigating mixed portfolios, uneven allocation of workstreams and

If you’re leading in healthcare right now, the pressure isn’t something you read about, it’s something you are dealing with on daily basis. It’s there in the decisions you’re making all the time about what has to wait, prioritising what can't slip, and where risk is being absorbed because there simply isn’t another option. It’s also present in the meetings where everyone is working hard, yet the same issues keep resurfacing, and in the growing sense that the system keeps aski