Hi Reader, Welcome to this week's Rev Up. I've been in hospital most of the week with my son, who's been having spinal surgery (I'm still here as I write this). There's a lot of bad news propaganda about the NHS, so if you're lucky enough that you haven't needed to use it much in a while, I can report that the service and care has been exceptional. Like, five stars out of five. We are very lucky to have it. And by all accounts, as spring is springing, waiting lists are falling and there is...
17 days ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome to this week's Rev Up for the Week, where every Sunday at 4.05pm, I put something positive or productive in your inbox, ready for the week ahead. This week I want to talk about momentum. I've spent time with two clients this week whose work has felt like it has some real momentum behind it. After sticky patches and struggles, it's all systems go for them. And on our 6 Weeks to Ninja programme, I've been helping people get clearer on what they're working on, which in turn...
24 days ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader, Where are all the kind leaders? It's a good question. But .Turn off the TV for a moment. Stop scrolling. Think about the leaders you know. The community leaders. The teachers. The role models. The managers. The innovators. The bosses you've had who you you would do anything for because they had your back. The people trying their best to be as good as they can be, and doing the right thing . Look around you and most of what you'll see is your colleagues building trust and...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hi Welcome to Rev Up for the Week, where every Sunday I give you something positive or productive for the week ahead. This week I want to talk about your to-do list. Is everything you’ve written there (or typed in there), actually a thing that you can do? Or are some of those things simply ‘nags’? Nags are the little thoughts we all have, that say things like: “Oh, I must do something about that!” “toilet roll. We need more toilet roll” “appraisals!” “MUM!” “ugh… the accounts” They can be big...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, A DJ friend of mine has a saying: “let’s all make mistakes!”. He goes out to play a DJ set, and over the course of the three hours, he counts them up. At the end of a typical set, he’s counted 7 or 8 times something screwed up. It’s annoying, sure, but he’s learnt not to be annoyed. The thing is, most of the stuff that screwed up, the crowd didn’t even notice: That time he forgot his favourite echo effect at the end of a song? No one knew it was supposed to be there, so no one...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome to this week's Rev Up. You know the drill by now: A thought to help power your week ahead, written always by me (never by the robot version of me) and always in the last week. Since releasing 'KIND' at the end of last year, I've had lots of conversations about the quiet power of kindness at work. It's worth noting that most of these conversations don't require any persuasion, either: the vast majority of people out there in the world are kind, reasonable and want to do the...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, How was January for you? Long? Bleak? Tiring? And how are your New Year's resolutions or new projects faring? Early promise? Half-forgotten? Feeling muddled? It certainly felt like an unusually long month, and after Dry January (which I do most years), I'm looking forward to a beer. But I'm here to tell you that the dates don't matter. If you're trying to develop new habits, then there are two ways to feel about a lack of progress so far in 2025. You can choose. Abundance or...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Kindfulness is a simple idea. It's the idea that, as well as doing kind things (for others and for ourselves), we also look out for opportunities to make it easy for others to be kind. It's cultural: making kindness easy for others creates a ripple effect that changes the expectations. When people feel they have the permission to be kind to others, or indeed when they experience kindness directed towards them, it transmits very useful signals: "speak up if somethings bothering...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome to this week's Rev Up for the Week. You know the drill by now - Sunday. 4.05pm UK time. Something useful to lift you in the days ahead. I've mentioned before that I always write these emails during the week they go out. Mostly, I write them on Weds or Thurs, but sometimes, like today, I'm sailing a little close to the wind, and you join me writing this lunchtime on Sunday. I think there's something comforting about me sharing this - after all, lots of folks who've read How...
5 months ago • 3 min read