Silence is more than golden, it creates moments where your creative mind can give you crate loads of brilliant ideas. Last summer when I was stressing over writing a book for my son’s 16th birthday, I realised I was over using analytical thinking and had shut down my creative mind. Embracing silence gave me the ideas to write it within a few short weeks.

I was asked this week what's the most common key is that opens up the biggest shift in performance for new leaders.

Hands down, based on research and my own experience is once you drop the need for unrealistic perfection and fear of failure, it's like taking the block away that's stopping a jet from taking off.

Self-awareness isn’t a dramatic confrontation with your flaws. It’s the practice of regularly inviting new perspectives about yourself and staying with the feeling of discomfort long enough to unwrap the gifts it hides within. I’ve found true self-awareness grows fastest through all the small moments of curiosity, reflection, and openness.

Most leaders I work with aren’t missing skills, they’re missing mirrors that show them how they truly land with others. Their growth has stalled not because of what they can’t do, but because they avoid the uncomfortable clarity that reflection brings.

I believe we are all better when the kindness of strangers exists. Running out of fuel while riding my motorcycle from Sydney to Melbourne a few weeks ago confirmed Australia is still a place where this exists. And lucky for me too…

Most people don’t struggle because they lack motivation or skill. They struggle because they’re looking for insights in the wrong place. This post explores why leaders often see themselves clearly but miss the wider layers shaping their reality and how that blind spot quietly limits their impact.

By asking three deliberate questions at progressively wider perspectives, you can learn how to see your reality more clearly and take the right actions to help you achieve more.

Beliefs can propel you through the toughest challenge or they can fix you in place before you start. They are powerful drivers of our behaviour. 12 months ago I started writing my new book Problem Hunter. But a limiting belief almost derailed the project after the first month. I learned a three step strategy to overcome limiting beliefs and it set me free to get done what I had thought was impossible.

The next few years will see rapid new learning by everyone who uses their knowledge to make a living. The pace of learning is not letting up. A super simple and clever hack discovered by Washington University can help you learn faster and retain it for longer.

It’s tempting and quite easy to raise your voice and let off steam at others…it’s almost normalised. What it is isn’t is a way to be heard, it’s a sign you’ve lost control. And respect. I once coached a CEO who used to brag about letting her team “have it” when they weren’t meeting her expectations. Then she realised she’d broken their trust, created an unsafe workplace and the business went further into the red. What she did next saved her business and gave her a new model for leading.