What does it take to perform under pressure? This week I witnessed a great example of this skill whilst attending an Olympic trials event in the UK. My client is the Team GB performance director for the sport who is focussed on delivering Olympic medal success at Rio 2016. I sat down to watch the finals event fully expecting that the Team GB athlete,
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Recently, I spoke to a group of academy school CEOs on the topic of peer group coaching. As I was preparing for the session, I decided I was going to go for it. I don’t mean just turn up and speak, I mean really go for it! I decided that I was going to get right out of my comfort zone,
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I am working with a client whose optimism both terrifies and inspires me. They are surrounded on all sides by difficult circumstances, challenging prospects and dubious possibilities. Yet at each coaching session they show up with excitement, conviction and enthusiasm. How do they do this? Why don’t they fall over in a heap like the rest of us?
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‘This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.
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Working with the members of my Vistage CEO advisory board always reminds me of the power of the group and this month’s all day meeting was no exception. In the morning, we listened to Jo Haigh, an expert on valuing and selling companies, as she passed on invaluable tips for business leaders preparing for a successful exit.
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‘World peace is none of your business’ – so runs the title of Morrissey’s latest solo album. It’s a title that made me smile and reminded me of Steven Covey’s concept of the circle of concern vs the circle of influence. World peace would be a good example of an issue that,
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Start with the end in mind. This has long been many people’s mantra ever since Stephen Covey first coined the phrase in his mega-seller ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’. Recently, I came across a surprising validation of this approach when listening to the inspirational speaker, Marcus Child, on the topic of ‘Personal Power’.
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‘Trust has become the agenda’. These were the most telling words spoken by Justin King, the outgoing CEO of Sainsbury’s, at a recent leadership event I attended. Justin bemoaned the loss of trust in the UK supermarket sector following the horse meat scandal of 2013. He also chided his CEO colleagues for not identifying the small number of ‘rotten apples’
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According to Nick Craig and Scott Snook in their recent Harvard Business Review (HBR) article ‘From Purpose to Impact’, fewer than 20% of leaders have a strong sense of their individual purpose and even fewer can distill their purpose into a concrete statement. As of Monday, the members of my Vistage advisory board are not guilty of these particular leadership sins.
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When I resigned from my last corporate role as international managing director in Logica in 2004, I thought that I was giving up a career in leadership to pursue a career in coaching. Yet the more that I research leadership I am realising that I gave up a career in heroic leadership to pursue a career in post-heroic leadership.
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The Trusted Executive Ltd operated from May 2017 to January 2025 and successfully pioneered the organisational implementation of the Nine Habits of Trust model, originally researched and developed by Dr John Blakey at Aston Business School and featured in his book, ‘The Trusted Executive’.
Although the company has now ceased trading, this site is preserved as a legacy archive of insights, case studies, blogs and free resources. To learn more about the ongoing work and thought leadership of Dr John Blakey, plus contact him personally, please visit www.johnblakey.co.uk.
Thank you to all our clients, associates and partners for all your support over the years.
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