The BBC’s eight big organizational challenges are extreme, but not unique.

Catherine Hakim, a professor of sociology at the London School of Economics, has shattered the last great taboo of the workplace: professional women should use their “erotic capital” — beauty, sex appeal, charm, dress sense, liveliness, and fitness — to get ahead at work. And rather than believing old notions that beauty has only a […]

Like many Londoners, I watched with disbelief as last week’s riots spread like wildfire from inner city Tottenham to the leafy boroughs of Clapham and Ealing and beyond to Manchester and Birmingham. On Thursday, the shops in my neighbourhood boarded up their windows at 4pm in preparation for the rioters to descend, and by 8pm […]

“Are you familiar with the term willful blindness?” This was the question that floored the Murdochs at Tuesday’s parliamentary select committee hearing because it cut right through the narrative News International executives have been spinning to counter the hacking scandal that has engulfed the media group in recent weeks. Innocent ignorance has been NI’s defense […]

Among the many shocking facts that have emerged from the News of the World hacking crisis, it is the revelations about News International's dysfunctional...

Until recently, my life has moved along at a steady pace, with periods of hard work interspersed with concerted efforts to slow down and relax. Like most people, I put in long hours, try to improve myself, and worry too much about unimportant everyday things. This has been the norm for most of my adult […]

One of the wonderful things about being a coach is that I meet hundreds of executives who freely share their business and leadership challenges with me. As well as helping me understand how hard it is to run an organization, they show me how they are managing to adapt — or not — to changing […]

Almost a decade ago, on a flight from Houston to New York, I found myself sitting next to a seemingly pleasant woman who introduced herself as a sales director for a large technology company. We began with a polite exchange, sharing a few details about our backgrounds and the reasons for our visits to New […]

As the year draws to a close, I’m reflecting on what I have learned about leadership from my clients. It has been a year of challenges for most: relentless business demands, continuing change, and higher expectations from them as leaders. For me, 2010 was the year when I let go of theories and focused on […]

Back in 1997, I was working on a newspaper which supported Tony Blair's election campaign and included colleagues who went on to join Blair's inner circle....