Julia Middleton's thoughts on leadership

Last week Common Purpose held an event called Leaders’ Questions in the UK. We asked around 40 leaders to discuss with some great speakers what the leadership challenges were in 2009, what they’ve learned, and how they will now face the challenges and the opportunities in 2010. By the end of the day we were [...]

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I read an article in the Guardian last Saturday that I disagreed with. It was an analysis of the recent research conducted by The Work Foundation called ‘Exceeding Expectation: the principles of outstanding leadership’. The analysis in the Guardian is looking to distinguish and almost set at odds either target-driven or people-focused approaches – when [...]

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Last week Mary O’Hara wrote an interesting piece in the Guardian about Harvard University’s Advanced Leadership Initiative. It’s a good piece. It’s sad when experienced leaders complete their formal career and expect ‘that call’. If it never comes, they retreat to the golf course. But the call doesn’t always happen because they have been so [...]

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I am on the flight to Mumbai, home of Bollywood, celebrity and fame. The last few days have been about deciding the business plan with the board and my colleagues in India. We have been working through which of the multitude of opportunities here we are going to do first. And there are almost infinite [...]

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I was in Frankfurt on Monday – in the pouring, sheeting, drenching, rain – talking to a big company about leadership. I sat in the airport on my way back and watched all the world leaders doing their talks (in the rain) about the wall coming down on the other side of Germany. They all [...]

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My first boss always said to me “fish go dead from the head”, if you get the leadership right then the rest can follow. Without leadership nothing works even with all the beauty, resources, and passions that Africa has. It has recently been announced that the Mo Ibrahim Prize for African Leadership will not be [...]

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Where do you turn for new insights, or to throw yourself into the unfamiliar? Do you have to take a year out and travel the globe? Or should you simply go out in your own street and see it through another person’s eyes? I explained the Common Purpose 360 Day (an invitation from Common Purpose to [...]

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There is an interesting discussion on the Common Purpose LinkedIn group encouraging us to be brave enough to answer the question “Why should anyone be led by you?” – not an easy one. How would you answer it?  In the discussion there is the suggestion that you should think about whether you are consistent in [...]

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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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Back from holiday; weeks of unrelenting rain; the only variation was whether it was light drizzle or heavy rain.  In the end we ran out of “things to do in the rain.” We stopped checking the forecast too because we had no hope of change. We bonded, made new friends and learnt new games but [...]

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