Maree's Blog

There is no question that the high-performance teams I have worked with and observed have high levels of trust between all team members.  Trust s very evident in high performance teams. These teams are highly focused on their goals, achieve superior results, and outperform similar teams. We watch each other’s backs; have a diversity of skills... Read more...

The type of shadow a leader casts is crucial to good leadership and when leading others through change. What we do, not what we say, stays in people’s minds and influences our behaviour. A few years ago a leader of a corporation stated that everyone in the company would now fly economy and not business class. The next time a team flew somewhere everyone moved to... Read more...

Moving out your comfort zone and embracing uncertainty can feel like jumping out of a plane and hoping your parachute works. Change creates uncertainty and moves us out of our comfort zone. When we are out of our comfort zone and in a state of uncertainty we can feel anxious, uncomfortable, afraid, frustrated or even excited. Our whole brain uses more... Read more...

It takes (at least) two people to have a conversation. A great conversation has a number of components: trust, rapport, high levels of oxytocin, curiosity, awareness (of self and others) and great listening. Great conversations can happen by chance – but better to be prepared and architect your own great conversations. A great conversation is like being an... Read more...

Beliefs can change. Particularly those pesky ones that prevent us or limit us from doing something. Changing our limiting beliefs helps us to change how we ‘do’ the world. If we have a goal or outcome we want to achieve often all that is needed to achieve it is to identify what it is that limits us. When attempting to overcome limiting beliefs, the first step is to... Read more...

Psychological contract - meaning the contract we have with the organisation, the team, the leader we work with, which is unspoken and unwritten and forms over time. I heard this for the first time earlier this week when the person I was meeting with said they left their old organisation because their psychological contract had been broken. This can happen... Read more...

We are often told to create short term (which can be today or for this week), medium term (which can be for this month or this year), and long term goals (which can be this year or over the next 15 years). I’ve discovered that writing down goals isn't really the answer for me. I've discovered that I need to create outcomes, not goals. When we... Read more...

I’ve spoken about behavioural flexibility before and I’ve realised over the last few weeks how essential it is to dealing with what life throws at us. I define behavioural flexibility as being able to adapt to any given situation by having a range of responses, rather than the same habitual and therefore limiting response, so we respond to each... Read more...