John's Blog

  5 Bold Ways to Supercharge Your Self-Development Are you stuck in a cycle of "almost"? Almost reaching your goals. Almost feeling fulfilled. Almost living your dream life.  Self-development isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity. And the most successful people out there aren’t just lucky—they’re intentional. If you are going to reach beyond "almost," you will have to be deliberate in your growth.  Here are five bold, unorthodox ways to elevate yourself and unleash the version of you the world’s been waiting for. 1. Stop Reading, Start Doing Books, podcasts, and courses are great, but they can become your comfort zone. Are you hiding behind learning instead of living? The Challenge: Pick one concept you’ve been absorbing—just one—and act on it for a week. Post about your progress online to stay accountable. 2. Audit Your Circle Look around. Are the people in your life helping you grow or holding you back? It’s time to assess your relationships with brutal honest...

Social media, like having lots of money, does not corrupt people. It merely reveals the corruption that already exists. Social Media Safety Day, 11 February 2020, highlighted the precautions and roles that you and I need to take to ensure personal security, while enjoying the interactions and benefits of the internet life. The speedy advancement of technology puts people in a number of unique situations that we, the users, don't yet fully understand. The first of these predicaments is the power our hand-held device has to isolate us from the people that are in our physical and personal surroundings, while exposing us to a community of strangers as we engage from many miles away. Social media manipulates our inherent need for validation and support from our community to include the inauthentic and often cruel praise of the internet audience. The "likes and shares" of strangers on social media start to replace the affection and affirmations of loved ones that know us...

Our personal development and life success is directly linked to the statement: "I am the way, the truth and the life."    Each of our missions in life uses this legendary quote as a map to growth through: focus, momentum and mastery.    Just in case the process is not clear: focus equates the way, momentum equates the truth, and mastery equates the life.    Some people incorrectly hold the belief that we must first discover truth, which then magically opens "the way" for us. In reality, we need to progress along the way in order to discover our personal truth.    Testing the leadership model, the U49, I set out on a personal growth path, exercising my mission as I went. I had preselected a random mission as part of an experiment to prove the effectiveness of the leadership model.    The experiment required me to dedicate one hour a day of focused time and effort, performing the various tasks within my selected mission, for a p...

Being honest and walking in your truth are two very different things.   Most people are quick to pick out honesty as a quality they want in others, all with good reason.   We want people to be honest about their intentions and actions in relationships. No one wants to expose their heart only to realise we've been played.  Honesty allows us to trust the owner of the hand we shake in a business deal. Honesty puts our hearts at ease, knowing where are loved ones are really, and what they are doing.    As much as we want and offer honesty, how many people actually walk in their own truth?    Walking your truth is realising your shadow, and owning it. Truth is recognising your full potential, and polishing it.   Truth is understanding the greatness of your dreams, and preaching it. How open and forthcoming are you about your hope's, dreams and ambitions? How frank are you with what you believe about God, love, life and other concepts t...

A musician sits at a piano, carefully selecting specific keys from the 88 that are available, to create a song that will touch hearts. The keys not played seem invisible, ignored and unimportant, but are just as involved in the performances as the played keys. The untouched notes lend scale and harmony to the heard song, in the same way night-fall dances with day-break, in the same way the mountain gives grace to the valley, in the same way back supports front. Looking in the mirror is like sitting down at the piano knowing all 88 keys are available. You are full, complete, and endowed with all things needed for life and godliness. When you play the melody of your life, the roles, characteristics, and expressions you choose to ignore, are as much part of you as the ones that touch the heart of others.

Wait now, Sausage. Let's just unravel this quickly. When peering into the mirror,  we were taught to look beyond the reflection, to deep, deep within the soul of the face staring back. We were taught to search in ourselves what we could become. This lesson then forged a path of constant change for us. We nip, tuck, chisel and chop our way through life to reveal the gem we once saw, hidden in the depths of our reflection. In the process, we sacrifice our true identity and align with "Human Becomings". We ought to look in the mirror and see who we really are, walk away and live up to that image - a Human Being - a true expression of a perfect creation, called you.

Yes , bullying is wrong! Yes, something needs to be done about it! The answer starts at home. Yes, at home. Bullying is no more than it's always been. Nothing has changed about kids cruel remarks and hurtful jests.  So, why are so many kids committing suicide or wrecking their lives because if it? The response to bullying is worse now because there is less support at home and kids have less confidence in themselves, unsure of their "I am". Modern parents are not as involved in kids lives as they once were. We dont have sit down family dinners any more, where individuals feel part of a tribe: heard, appreciated, valued and backed. It's not that parents don't want to involve themselves, but it's hard when everyone is immersed in mini screens that offer a window into perfect worlds far far away. As kids, we were pushed out the door and told to go play. We did sport without our parents pushing us. We explored the world without being forced. We had int...

Indulge me for a moment… If success is a numbers game, many attempts will surely guarantee success at some stage? What do you think? In light of the Disney of Destiny article, I have decided to challenge myself to produce 100 posts in 100 days. My main topic is leadership, but I don't plan to stick to it, I plan to write.   I am not a professional writer, and decided to see if I could actually do this. The posts will have the hash tag #100posts100days.  Join me. Not just in reading the posts, but in producing your own for 100 days. Tag your posts in comments below or tweet them with the afore mentioned hash tag and let creativity rule! 1. Surprise Visit from my Heart 2. The Dragon Whisperer 3. Disney's of Destiny  4. Are you as good as you think you are? 

Creativity is an elusive and strange phenomenon that both eludes and tickles people. For most people a stroke of creative genius is just that, a stroke. One miserable stroke and then it’s gone. Forever. For a select few, creativity seems to be a fountain bubbling up in the centre of their being, constantly oozing out original results.    

It takes three elements to make a fire; heat, oxygen and fuel.   These three elements make up what’s known as the Fire Triangle.   It’s a common strategy to remove just one of the three elements, breaking the triangle, to extinguish a fire successfully.   The Leadership Triangle also has three elements essential to its existence; vision, a leader and a team.   Removing one of these elements would break the Leadership Triangle and extinguish any hope for success.  

Personal & Leadership Skill: Cultural Awareness Sadly, polarisation seems to be the current trend in the world at the moment. This is a dangerous attitude to own in the “global village” of our modern world. Our workplaces, neighbourhoods and public areas are filled with people from various culture groups and backgrounds. We are exposed to all sorts of age groups, religious persuasions and life attitudes each and every minute. This cosmopolitan environment requires each of us to be able to demonstrate some awareness and sensitivity to other culture groups.   

Personal & Leadership Skill: Collect, Organise, Analyse and Critically Evaluate Information Regardless of the position we hold at work, we all deal with information daily. A massive amount of information is passed back and forward on a moment by moment basis. Information and its assimilation is big business. If you are in business, if you work or even as a student, you will constantly deal with this skill. Efficiently collecting, organising, analysing and critically evaluating information can mean the difference of starting a new trend in your industry or being a tail-end trend follower.

Which Comes first? The age old riddle of which comes first; “the chicken or the egg,” is a frustrating argument. Trying to determine which element is needed to fuel / develop / birth the next is turned into a circunever-ending debate by asking: which is needed first? Or, what is step one? When you are involved in the development of leaders, you will discover a similar dilemma - Which is needed first: Leadership or Purpose? The “chicken or the egg” riddle is not as simple as it may first seem. Which is required first? This seems like a logical question, however, it always ends in the repetitive circular argument that has made the riddle famous. There is another question which could be asked: Which one can survive on its own?

5 Steps to Authentic Leadership Lack of Integrity and Authenticity is a deal breaker between leader and follower.   Seeking to be authentic is a positive step in any leader’s personal development. Having an authentic leader helps promote mutual trust and respect between leader and follower. Cultivating authenticity in your personal life and leadership style is not arriving at a destination. Authenticity is not a railway station in our leadership journey. Authentic leadership is about making the right decisions within the moment, as each situation arises. The leader is constantly faced with the choice to be authentic or not in: truth, mission and values.

Authentic Culture Authentic Brand Those entrepreneurs that neglect company culture and company brand do so at their own peril. Culture and brand are two sides of the same coin. Culture is the attitudes, expectations expressed through policies and procedures that boil out into action through service. Brand is the culture of your organisation from the customers’ perspective. Brand is how your customers see and experience your company’s culture when they buy your products or use your services.

5 Tips for Leadership Development Evaluation In my quest to learn, grow and share leadership traits, techniques and tips, I recently attended a conference, my first in many years. Several speakers took to the stage, sharing their secrets of success. Each one had a turn on the stage whipping the crowd into frenzied excitement with dance moves, power chants and positive affirmations. I walked away disappointed that leadership development had been reduced to rah-rah tricks and shallow development tips. Understanding the need for enthusiasm at conferences and the hype needed to promote sales, my concern is that this circus has become the expectation for leadership development.

The 18-Wheeler of Life   The secret to successfully living an authentic life is congruence. Congruence implies that we should have a straight line of agreement between vision, goals and behaviour. See the “Authenticity: The Pudding of Congruence” Blog Post . As basic as the concept of a straight line may be, it does require some conscious focus and attention. The concept is equal to the wheel alignment on an eighteen wheel truck.   To move a heavy vehicle safely and efficiently we need all the wheels to be balanced, correctly inflated and all pointed in the same direction. Our lives can easily be represented by the eighteen wheeler truck rig: The cab with the driver would represent our focus and vision in life. Sitting at the front of the vehicle our whole life will follow the course we select from in the cab. The Trailer would represent how we contain life, with all our own personality, attitude and emotions. What happens in life only has the meaning that we ...

<<< Back to: Leadership Development Authenticity: The Pudding of Congruence.   Buzzwords come and go in the fields of leadership and personal development. ‘Mindfulness’ is the latest word to slip into blog titles and development memes. ‘Authenticity’ is another word doing the rounds as authors play with its role connecting leaders to a higher calling. Yet strangely, there is a word that is powerfully connected to authenticity that is missing. As the strong undercurrent, this word lends purpose and force to authenticity. This word is Congruence. The tired truck driver battles to keep his eighteen wheeler rig between the lines on the highway. Controlling the sway and wandering is made difficult by the fact that one trailer wheel is flat and the general alignment is out. Besides the expense and increased wear and tear on the vehicle, misaligned wheels are dangerous. The vehicle will not run true as wayward wheels pull it in all directions, making safe handling diff...

The Top-Down Effect has confused and baffled leaders, managers and development consultants for years. It is simple in its form yet produces powerful effects. It is a phenomenon that naturally occurs in the business environment that can either make or break culture and brand strategies. The Top-Down Effect silently strips away the layers of jargon and ideals within a company to reveal the authentic intent and style of those at the top of the organization.

So, what is Authentic Leadership? A colleague recently worked with a small Pharmaceutical Company to raise the level of leadership amongst their management. He says he knew it was going to be difficult after he learned that the top management had paid a marketing agency to design the company's values. The management handed him a marketing brief with four popular value words on it saying - "this is the image we want to portray."