There is a great story of the British and US Antarctic stations in the 80s – they were both monitoring the ozone and the Brits thought that they had found a hole in it. They went to the American base with their findings and asked if they had seen anything similar. The Americans had much higher spec technology and said that their data wasn’t showing that there was a hole. This back and forth continued for a while, with the Brits being increasing sure there was a hole but the Americans denying it. Finally someone looked at the settings that the Americans had placed on their technology and discovered that…

I absolutely love numbers. Maths was always my favourite subject and when studying Maths, English and History at A-level it was always my maths homework that I wanted to do first. There were ‘right’ answers and the ability to complete the exercises, in a way that didn’t apply to essays as they could always be tweaked.  However, throughout my accountancy training and as I started doing more financial analysis, I realised that the “but” was increasingly important. My “but” is that numbers out of context mean nothing – and what I actually  love doing is creating the context and drilling down into what the numbers are really saying (or hiding). …

Are you a “preparer”, “reactor” or a “reflector” when it comes to making decisions? I believe that people have natural preferences towards one (or two) of these states and by taking them into account, you can make better and more inclusive decisions.  Let us say you are discussing hybrid working with your senior management team. The ‘preparers’ want to know about the topic for discussion in advance and will spend a lot of time researching the options, preparing their thoughts and arguments and coming to the meeting with a clear idea of what their contribution will be. The ‘reactors’ come up with ideas based on what is said in the…

“It’s not fair” – a refrain that rings out across the world, generally from children lamenting the unfairness of not being given a treat, not being allowed to stay up late or not being allowed the same curfew as a friend. However fairness is a value that is somewhat contradictory by nature once you start digging down, as often what is fair for everyone actually isn’t fair for anyone.  There are some instances where ‘fairness’ is a clear cut scenario – e.g. two people doing the same job but one person being paid less to do this due to their gender, race, class, sexuality, etc. In these instances, we should…

 I have just finished reading Adam Grant’s new book ‘Think Again,’ which I loved, but one line about how the Myers Briggs test is no more accurate than a horoscope (see here for his explanation) got me thinking – are any personality tests that are worthwhile? Are some better than others? I have taken various personality tests over the years from the ‘Which Spice Girl are you?’ to Myers Briggs and have come to realise that they are only useful if a) the results resonate with you and b) you are able to use them to learn more about yourself. And that is the fundamental point of them for me…

How much of your time are you spending ‘surviving’ rather than ‘thriving’? This is a question that I keep returning to as I realise that I find it far too easy just to slip into ‘survival’ mode – where life is ‘fine’, work is ‘ok’ and there is nothing that wrong with anything. But… I also don’t feel like I am growing, learning or being challenged. I am not ending the day excited by what I have done or looking forward to the upcoming days.  I start thriving when I am leaning into my values – specifically when I get to help people with a problem they have. This can…

Caring about people is one of my values and strengths but it can also be one of my weaknesses – particularly when it turns into ‘parenting’ rather than ‘caring’.  The psychologist Eric Berne developed a theory which says that there are three “ego states” – parent, child, adult and that (as grown ups) we all switch between them. In a conversation you can have a discussion adult to adult or parent to child, but not child to adult or parent to adult.  At work (and with most grown up conversations) the aim should always be to have adult to adult conversations, however I am continually surprised by how often I…