Comfort is a state we typically aspire to. Financial comfort. Physical comfort. Emotional comfort. Social comfort. We like our comfort zones. But ... (you knew it was going to get uncomfortable) ... "The more comfortable we are, the harder it is to change." As the world's leading executive coach, Marshall Goldsmith speaks with authority, having spent decades coaching successful people to get even better. To change. And that requires getting them outside their comfort zones....

We get 86,400 of them every day. Seconds. We barely notice them. But a lot can happen in a second. In one second our Earth will travel 29 kilometres on its trip around the Sun. Thirty stars will explode. There will be 40,000 Google searches. Ten thousand Cokes will be consumed. Three hundred websites will be created. Four babies will be born. Two people will die. More than one plane will take off. Your heart will (probably) beat at least once. It may not sound like much but that seco...

I sometimes start leadership workshops with a simple question: "What's the positive difference this thing called 'leadership' actually makes?" Another way of thinking about it is to ask what we wouldn't have if we didn't have leadership. ypically, a handful of key words or terms emerge from the small group discussions: Direction. Support. Motivation/Morale. Development. Sometimes we engage in some debate around whether people need external motivation or w...

The rise of leadership as an object of our collective fascination has coincided precisely with the decline of leadership in our collective estimation," says Harvard Kennedy School lecturer and founder of the Center for Public Leadership Barbara Kellerman. Jeffrey Pfeffer, Stanford Graduate School professor agrees. "I look at the data," he told the Financial Times. "So the data say engagement is low and trust in leaders is low; that isn't cynical, that's the ...

Autumn leaves, bin chickens and perspective ... In Canberra recently, I took a walk outside to enjoy the crisp, clear autumn air, breathing in the change of season, and admiring the early falling leaves of autumn. They're not as common a sight where I live (and certainly not this early in the year) so I took some photos: leaves on the trees, leaves on the lawn, leaves on the path. I was fascinated by the leaves. And then I noticed one of the hotel staff sweeping the leaves off the...