Julia Middleton's thoughts on leadership

Dishaa (our Venture which connected leaders in the UK and India) was so successful, unbelievably successful, that we have been asked to launch similar Ventures between lots of countries around the world (see www.commonpurpose.org/ventures). Dishaa means direction in Hindi, so we will have Phambili (direction in the Nguni languages inc. Xhosa and Zulu), Dao Xiang [...]

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Appointed leaders know, but so often forget, how different it is for elected leaders. How normal behaviour resumes months after an election and ends months before one. Listening to a friend reminded me why China seems to have halted in a trajectory just at the moment. It’s the ninth year, next year is the tenth [...]

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I recently met a very senior, very analytical and very inspiring leader from China. We were talking about the need to pass on knowledge in societies. He told me that this was a ridiculous idea in China. “No one passes on knowledge,” he said, “knowledge is what you hold on to.” After all why would [...]

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I spoke for a long time with a business leader in China about leadership. It made me realise that as a Westerner if I hear the words “Leadership” and “China” in one sentence my mind immediately computes “Mao” and to some extent turns off. Yours might too.  So it was interesting to go further. He [...]

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Tiananmen Square was twenty years ago this week. How the world – and China – have changed. The symbol for me was the earthquake last year when the Chinese government opened its reporting to foreign journalists. Over the last few months we have been talking to many leaders in China about whether we could start [...]

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