Have you ever been part of a brilliant team?

The fact is, whilst it might be so much easier to do things on our own, in win or bust situations, competitive advantage often boils down to excellent teamwork and collaboration

As Ken Blanchard, author and motivational speaker famously says,

'None of us is as smart of all of us'

Being part of a truly brilliant team which challenges each other creatively, working together seemingly effortlessly, to deliver fantastic results, is one of the best feelings us human beings can have. It gives us a sense of success, achievement and belonging - all wrapped up in one energising bundle. Yet, from sports arenas, to Silicon Valley start ups, many teams fail due to mediocre team performance

The thing is, whilst we may roar our advice and despair from the sidelines as we watch the missteps and mistakes, often with a combination of frustration and judgement, how many of us stop to think about how strong our own team muscles are? How do we actually c...

A quick shimmy on LinkedIn will leave you super clear – streamlining, cost-cutting, and focussing specifically on the ‘cost of business’ is pretty much on all our agendas right now

The thing is – as anyone who has launched their 27th cost cutting project dressed up as a “transformation project” knows – knee jerk cost cutting, in fact knee jerk anything has a frustrating way of taking us backwards rather than forwards in business

So, what do we need to do to genuinely move those business measures which make us all feel a bit more joyful about why we do what we do? Maybe the answer lies in investing in being more who you want to be – who knew it!

According to Harvard Business Review’s recent report about the most successful businesses right now, they say,

“Instead of exploring how they can improve the bottom line, these regenerative leaders work backward and ask: How could we invest in our people to create a long-term impact? How could we work together differently to build a differen...

Here’s the thing - a lot of us realise that the key to a good life - at work, at home, our whole life - is more about enjoying each moment and living according to our own values rather than by other people’s views of what success looks like ...

But how does this enlightening insight stack up in an everchanging world designed and built by lightning quick technology? 

Do you remember back in the day how teachers, parents, career counsellors would offer their guidance to help you make "the right career choice." Well look around, with the speed of technological change, it’s easy to see that this "right career choice" is a myth: the idea that time spent on the "wrong" ladder or studying the "wrong" course is a waste of time if we don’t then complete the course or climb the ladder. Let’s face it, in today’s world, even the walls we have propped our career ladders against are themselves moving

The great news is, even in this evermoving world, skills and insight acquired in a previous caree...

Our conversations have major implications – at work, at home, in our whole life. In today’s world, we have all the power of instant global communication, yet ironically, very few of us are actually able to communicate in a way which brings change, growth and thriving

In fact, look around, it’s actually shameful, we have all the gear, yet no idea how to actually communicate. Sure, right now everyone’s a super fast ‘communicator’, replying to messages instantly to show how ‘on it’ we are, making people laugh with our TikToks, wowing with our altered reality photography, catchy captions and punchy comments. Yet, at the same time a disturbing trend is clear – polarisation, sensationalism, and extremism are drowning out reasoned debate, compromise, and consensus-building

Our communication may be slick and quick, but often, it is narcissistic, narrow minded, and let’s be honest, cowardly

What we all really need right now is courage, this does not mean the courage to leave anonymous commen...

One of the truths we’ve come to understand at Progressfull, is that we can all benefit from choosing to see things a little differently

As humans, one of the biggest mistakes we make is forgetting everyone doesn’t think like we do. We assume what we are thinking is what everyone else is thinking

Not true

Look around and you will see this clearly is not the case in reality

The truth is people are different. We think differently, want different things, and fortunately have different ideas. The way we process and share our ideas is often different from one another. This can be frustrating if we allow it to be, but with intentionality it can also be the secret sauce which unlocks our potential. Increasing our insight unlocks our potential

We limit ourselves when we limit our perspective to our own ideas and current capabilities

So, if we recognise the need for different perspectives, how do we actually gain them?

Welcoming feedback helps us broaden our perspective and broadening our...

A lot of us are doing a lot of judging right now. Have you ever noticed how we tend to be lenient with ourselves whilst looking over the fence and judging others against higher standards?

Left on our own, we judge ourselves by our intentions and we judge others by their actions. This gap between intention and action is often the context for our relational conflicts – we expect others to give us a break and at the same time we blame them for not doing what they should be doing

Have you also ever wondered why people complain about politicians yet not vote? Why do people talk about the importance of climate change, yet moan about recycling their rubbish? Why do people extol the virtue of integrity yet tell numerous white lies every day?

Because we are imperfect, flawed, human beings and our intentions are a different thing from our actions. The great leadership guru, Ken Blanchard said,

‘Intention minus action equals squat’

That is a really helpful way for us to think about Owning C...

Without confidence, our looks are not enough, our career is not enough, even our family is not enough, in fact, our whole life is not enough

How sad is that? Yet also…look around…how normal!

It’s true that most of us are often looking for the sources of success and confidence in the wrong places – a new job, a new makeup haul, a new pair of sneakers…

We have a radical idea for you…

Instead of our barometer for success being externally derived through ‘seeming perfect on the outside’ we can choose our own internal barometer. Our own personal progress, not a mark on an exam paper, a response on social media, a performance review at work, or how fabulous we look (or don’t look) in the mirror

This means we are much more in control of our own happiness, our own fulfilment, because our confidence is sparked by our own progress, not someone else’s approval

So the great news is real confidence is something we choose to develop and grow - it’s a work in progress. Even better news is, prog...

At a party recently in an idyllic setting with children running amongst wild meadows and adults chatting over chilled rosé, as the sun set sleepily over the rolling hills in the distance – there were 2 topics of conversation – which was the best act at Glastonbury and what can we personally do to stop ourselves being replaced by robots – aka AI?

Since last October, artificial intelligence — in particular ChatGPT and its recently revealed successor, GPT-4 — has been the hot topic in conversations about the future of business, work, and creativity. ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer application in history — outpacing Instagram and even TikTok

We get it, it’s hard for some of us to remain upbeat in the face of exponential performance and pace, yet this is in fact, the best way to futureproof ourselves given the potentially massive implications of AI for our careers and the world around us

So, how do we stay sharp and relevant in this new world of AI?

The answer, we believe, i...

Guess how many different types of apps you have on your phone. Do you know the answer?

On average, we have 80 apps on our phones, and each day, we interact with at least 9-10 different types of apps. This means that for most of us, we have more regular interactions with different types of apps than we have regular interactions with different types of people! 

As humans, we are a social species, meaning one of our deepest-wired behaviours is building a social group or network - but how diverse is your network and why in truth is this diversity important?
 
The thing is, at a time when a lot of us are worrying about the impact of AI, a way to feel confident, strong and thrive with AI is to remind ourselves of what differentiates us as humans from apps and computers. Humans use the brain's computing power, memory, and ability to think, whereas AI-powered machines rely on data and specific instructions fed into the system. A way to thrive in a time of AI is to focus on building the skills...

One of the truths we’ve come to understand at Progressfull, is that we can all benefit from choosing to see things a little differently

Human performance expert Stefan Falk, highlights that “sinking into boredom” is a downside of having an "autopilot" mind-set. When we deal with the everyday, familiar tasks and activities our brain conserves energy by moving to “autopilot” mode. When we are in this mode not only is it easier to sink into boredom, we also miss what’s new, what’s different and what’s noteworthy in the daily and familiar

Most of us have lives that are embedded in the familiar daily and weekly routines and rhythms. As a result our brain's autopilot can be restricting our perspectives and the opportunities for growth that are all around us

Even when facing the most tedious tasks, ones we have completed a thousand times over, we can cultivate a sense of curiosity and build our perspective by tuning-in to the small things that make the context or the task different. This m...