In last month’s blog post we revisited the concept of ‘above and below the line’ and explored what we can do to move ourselves above the line, to a higher level of emotional health, should we find ourselves below it. In our work with organisations, a similar question often arises with respect to teams. A [...]
Regular readers of our blog will understand that emotional health is an enhanced state of wellbeing characterised by mindful practices, conscious choices and respectful relationships. An emotionally healthy person is constructive, showing up in a way that has a positive effect on those around them. You will also understand that all of this comes from [...]
One of the characteristics of high levels of emotional health is a deep desire to help others – to make a difference. This reflects the low degree of self-centredness we have discussed previously. However, perhaps somewhat paradoxically, this concern for others can sometimes lead to a shortfall in looking after ourselves. In just the last [...]
In last month’s blog post we explored the notion of community leadership in tough times, the unique challenges sometimes placed on community leaders and the role emotional health can play in helping such leaders navigate these challenges. This month I’d like to continue this line of thought in the context of Australia’s upcoming referendum on [...]
Leadership can be incredibly rewarding … and incredibly challenging. And these extremes are likely never more pronounced than for leaders who operate within communities or with community-based organisations. Communities can place unique demands on the emotional health of their leaders. We have worked with many community leaders over many years. These have ranged from board [...]
Over the many years we’ve been writing our blog posts, there is one framework we refer to almost every month. It is emotional health, which is, of course, central to our intent of raising emotional health levels across the globe. In separate posts we have discussed most of the principles that support emotional health, including [...]
Yesterday (May 1) marked 20 years since we established Global Leadership Foundation. We’ve previously – on our tenth anniversary! – shared the circumstances that led to the establishment of the foundation, so there’s no need to retell that story this time. What we didn’t talk about so much in that earlier blog post is what [...]
From time to time, we are asked to describe the ‘benefits’ of emotionally healthy leadership. This tends to come from a traditional perspective of comparing leadership styles: the ‘servant’ leader versus the ‘visionary’ leader versus the ‘affiliative’ leader. It is, of course, a reasonable question, though we would avoid describing emotionally healthy leadership as a [...]
When I ask people what they look for from an effective leader in their world of work, terms like ‘respectful’, ‘engaging’, ‘empowering’ and ‘has a positive impact’ often come up. Notwithstanding the volumes and volumes of thinking and research about leadership and management that have been published over many years, for many of us, particularly [...]
In Tim Winton’s autobiographical book The Boy Behind the Curtain, he describes, as a nine-year-old, being in a car with his father one night when they came upon a motorcycle accident. His father was a police officer, a ‘traffic cop’, and Tim describes the memory of how ‘businesslike’ his father was, how ‘calm and unhurried’ [...]
