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How’s business?
One of the questions that I most hated when each of my children was very little was, “Is (s)he a good baby?” Such a sweet and well intentioned question, really meaning something along the lines of, “Are you alright? Or has the arrival of this small person so turned your world around that you no longer know which way is up?” It was, I think now, really just a way of letting me know I was seen, that the boundaries of me hadn’t dissolved completely in the fog of milk and sleeplessness that so marks this period. But I never knew how to answer it. I didn’t have a baseline…
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I do, we do, you do, review …
Do you? Review? I never used to. You are inundated with requests, am I right? An email from Open Table: ‘How was Enoteca St Paul’s?’ Erm, fine thanks, I’d have said if it wasn’t, and besides, it was yesterday – already just a glimpse of a memory in the bottom of a dark stairwell. Swipe left and delete. A notification from Uber: ‘Thanks for riding with Estefan. Please rate your trip. Please leave a tip. Please pay Estefan a compliment.’ Swipe up and ignore. An email from Amazon Marketplace: “Jenni Emery, did White Marshmallows Bulk Buy – 1 kg bag meet your expectations?” Nnnnggg – perhaps I’ll reply when my mouth isn’t…
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Business writing, Humanising business, Leadership, Organisational change, Personal Reflections, Purpose, Storytelling
Two Monsters
When my eldest son was three years old, my brother bought him a book that had been one of his own favourites when he was younger. It’s a book called Two Monsters, by David McKee and it’s about, well, two monsters. The two monsters live on opposite sides of a mountain – one on the east side, and one on the west side. They have never met, but they can speak to each other through a hole in the mountain. One evening, the sky is beautiful, and one monster shouts to the other through the hole, ‘Look! Isn’t it beautiful! Day is departing.’ ‘Day departing?’ replies the other monster? ‘You…
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The Tough Question
In the few weeks since the publication of my book, I have been asked two questions in particular over and over again– a fun one, and a tough one. The fun question is about why I wrote the book in the first place; perhaps that’s an article for another day. The tough one is the one I particularly want to tackle now, and the answer – or at least an attempt at one – is in a sense a companion to last week ‘s piece about how to keep people engaged in times of uncertainty. The tough question is, in a nutshell, “Okay, all this stuff about authentic leadership and…
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How to Keep Your People Engaged in Times of Uncertainty
We had one of those rare family evenings around the dinner table just recently when the bickering stopped and we had a ‘proper’ conversation. My ten year old daughter asked, apparently apropos of nothing, ‘What’s your favourite feeling?’ We covered joy, laughter, cosiness, relief, gratitude … and then my thirteen year old son alighted on ‘Looking forward to something’. That fluttering sensation in your stomach, the way the air feels like it’s buzzing, the sky a little brighter … the way you can be assailed with this feeling even if you momentarily can’t remember what it is you may be looking forward to … and how it’s such a close…
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A celebration, a pause, and a lesson
Almost three weeks ago, I had a party to celebrate the publication of my book. In lots of respects this was a counter-intuitive thing for me to do – it involved being the centre of attention, speaking in public, celebrating an achievement, and lots of people from different walks of life in one place … … and for every one of those self-same reasons, it proved to be one of the loveliest and most enriching evenings I’ve had in a very long time. There was deep and rich learning – it feels good to have been able to deliver 20 minutes of content, without notes, and with conviction. Another string…
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Finding My Voice On The Page As a Female Business Author
I finally found my loud, clear voice as a female leader in the summer of 2018, when I was all alone in a tiny holiday cottage on a remote bluff in Cornwall, watching the rain lashing its way along the coast.
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On Irish radio with Bobby Kerry
I was excited to make my live radio debut on Ireland’s Newstalk on Saturday. It was great fun to have a chance to talk about my book and to think on my feet, though my knees were knocking afterwards! Look for the podcast “Leading for Organisational Change” on Newstalk’s iTunes page here.
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The Soft Underbelly: Why showing your vulnerable side is critical for change leaders
You would think, in our information age, with the depth and breadth of the research and thinking out there, that someone might have produced a blueprint – the definitive guide to how to lead well in every scenario.
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Purpose over Process: How Your Gantt Chart Causes Damage During Periods of Change
Change is coming, everyone in your organisation can feel it and there’s a general undercurrent of unease. We are not creatures who like uncertainty. We’re programmed such that our brains feel better when we can see patterns and predict the future. We like to sense-make.
