Insights

10 November 2020

Scenario planning is an important and regular part of how most successful organisations go about setting goals and strategy for the future. 

17 June 2020

As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting CEOs and leaders throughout the COVID-19 crisis, The CEO Circle held a webinar titled “Going The Distance: Leadership Above & Beyond COVID-19” on Thursday 11 June.

06 May 2020

COVID-19 has shocked the world with its severity and scale, jolting organisations and leaders out of their comfort zone. However, there has never been a more compelling time to focus on the possibilities and uncover new opportunities. Its profound impact means there has never been a more critical time for leaders to lead.

06 April 2020

The death toll continues to rise across the world. For many, hope is receding as we struggle to absorb the enormity of the COVID-19 pandemic. Few will go untouched in one form or another by this experience.

Though it is hard to fathom, there is hope.

27 March 2020

There’s a beautiful hashtag doing the rounds on social media right now: #apartbuttogether. It succinctly expresses how so many of us are feeling as we tread through the fog of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

26 February 2020

Executive assistants are the hidden heroes of modern corporate life. Without fanfare, they help to maintain and improve the operations of organisations and the performance of executives.

03 February 2020

No one ever got very far by standing still. Your muscles don’t get stronger without resistance, and your brain doesn’t get sharper by repeatedly solving the same problem. To grow as an individual, you must engage yourself in positive self-disruption.

08 October 2019

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a hot topic, but it can be difficult to know sometimes where science fiction starts and reality ends. The advances in this area are mind-boggling, with enormous repercussions for business and society. There is no doubt AI can transform almost every industry and sector it touches.

12 February 2019

We create culture every day with what we say and do. It’s in the tiny details, as well as the grand gestures. With each action, we reinforce or diminish the values that often compete to guide and control an organisation’s culture. Culture changes over time, sometimes dramatically, sometimes imperceptibly, which is why we need to pay attention to it. It never sleeps.

23 October 2018

Leadership and management are closely entwined, but there is a fundamental difference between them. Understandably the lines get blurred because great leaders are often also very good managers — but not always.

02 July 2018

Who do you trust? Trust is one of the most significant issues of our time. To varying degrees, many people today are distrustful of institutions such as politics, business, religion, science, and the media.

18 May 2018

Are you a humble leader? We don’t often associate the word “humble” with leadership. Humility is a rare commodity in a culture that celebrates vanity and arrogance. But these qualities don't unlock hearts and minds; humility does.

21 August 2017

You don't have to be the smartest person in the room. But it helps to be highly intelligent. You don't have to be the most charismatic person. But you need to be able to command respect and attention. You don't have to be ruthless. But you do need to be able to make unpopular decisions.

21 November 2016

Disruption is one of the biggest buzzwords of our time, especially in business. We read about it everyday in the context of ideas like “disruptive innovation” and when it is used to describe the rise of companies like Uber.

16 September 2016

The role fear plays in our lives depends on the power we give it and how we manage it. Fear can paralyse us into inaction. It can also lead us to make rash and ill-informed decisions. But between these two extremes, fear can be an emotion that leads us to constructive and positive action. We all have the power to turn fear into a positive.

18 August 2016

Authenticity – being authentic in all that we do, in all facets of life, with family, community, at work, at play, everywhere, is what it’s all about. It’s where we have the most impact. It’s why people trust us, believe in us, respect and admire us – why they follow us.

05 August 2016

You’re a successful professional, respected by your colleagues and confident about your place in the scheme of things. It’s a great place to be, but it’s important not to get complacent. This is the time for you to start making plans for the next decade of your life; to make the next ten years of your life count.

25 July 2016

There are a handful of countries that consistently rank among the most peaceful and prosperous in which to live from around the globe: Denmark, Switzerland, Finland, Canada, and you guessed it, Australia.

22 June 2016

They are the great unsung heroes of corporate life: the executive assistant. Toiling away behind the scenes, taking care of the details that matter, lending a supportive ear, or having a quiet word, the right EA can make all the difference to the smooth functioning of the executive team.

17 May 2016

The era of CEO tenures of ten years or more service at the one company are all but gone – even five years is beginning to look out of the norm. The figures on average CEO tenure vary between studies, depending on regions and industries measured, but almost all come to the conclusion life at the top of the corporate tree is getting shorter.

02 May 2016

As business leaders, we are living in a time of tremendous opportunity – sometimes we just have to open our eyes to see it. A greater number of people who in previous generations would have been shut out of many opportunities in business, as well as other fields, are now making their voices heard.

15 April 2016

Many businesses are created and function to solve a problem. It goes without saying then that the master problem solver is often the person at the head of the business: the CEO. But what kinds of problems should they be solving?

01 April 2016

How we organise our workspace can have a big impact on creativity, innovation and collaboration. When an office space works for employees it can increase productivity, efficiency and harmony, but when it doesn’t, there can be a marked drop off in those metrics.

18 March 2016

Failure is not an easy subject for successful people. By definition, successful people do all they can to avoid failing. So you could be forgiven for thinking the idea of embracing failure is a foreign concept.

08 February 2016

Gather your direct reports, senior management, and any other enterprising young talent in your organisation, book a day away from the office and sit down with one objective in mind – how to kill your business.

11 January 2016

I often hear CEOs and prominent business people complain to me that economic conditions aren’t as good now as they were pre-GFC. I often reply with the same answer. They may never be again so deal with the economic environment in front of you. Adapt, innovate, engage and inspire your employees.

09 December 2015

As Australians we all know that we live in a lucky country. In the 1960s Donald Horne wrote this very phrase and it has been an iconic Australian saying. Australia is seen as a country that never really experiences hardship, whether that is economic recession, civil revolution or horrific weather conditions and a place where the people don’t feel the brunt of international events.