Joyce Matthews's Blog (15)

Pilates for the mind. I’d never thought of what I do as some kind of mind stretching exercise until my hairdresser called it that as she snipped away at my hair the other day.

I’d been paying my usual six weekly visit to get my haircut and we were discussing my latest trip to Brunei, where I work with the School Principals there. I described what I did, and how the programme evolved over the week, and how I challenge the participants to think in different ways, different directions.…

Sometimes we need a bit of a push to help us fly.

We might seem outwardly confident, knowledgeable and experienced. We might even believe that ‘we’re worth it”, but many of us falter when it comes to taking the first step to realizing our dreams.

My colleague Peter Smith often helps school leaders ‘fly’ by reading this Apollinaire quote at the culmination of a two week-long leadership programme.

“Come to the edge," he said.

"We can't, we're afraid!" they…

I was 6 when I decided I wanted to be a PE teacher. A lively child, I loved taking part in any kind of sporting activity. 

It was 1971 when I set eyes on our new track suited next-door neighbour. I was hooked. I wanted to be like her. I wanted to go to work in a tracksuit and trainers and play sport all day. No amount of persuasion or advice could change my…

The X files hold the key; the truth is out there, especially when it comes to discovering your own strengths.

Identify your strengths; it’s that what everybody needs to be able to do these days? It’s all over LinkedIn, in articles, self-help books and every leadership course you’ll ever go on. It’ll help you to “Screw Work Let’s Play” or “Find your Niche in 60 minutes or less“ or “Go Put your Strengths to Work”. We’ve all seen those types of articles, been given the task and tried to…

Spartacus wasn’t an accredited leader. He hadn’t read any leadership books. He hadn’t been on a leadership development programme. He didn’t even have a leadership…

Everybody loves success. And it’s easy to achieve when you are on the right road with the right motivation.

Nobody likes to fail

We all know too well what it’s like when we don’t achieve what we’d hoped to. Remember those resolutions? The times you tried to stop something, or start something new, or change a habit? We’ve all been there; we’ve all started the new fitness regime, or the new diet, or the new hobby, and fallen by the…

Mitsui know where they are going.

After trading for 4 centuries, the worldwide company recently took a long hard look at itself to find out where it wanted to go in the future.

Mitsui isn’t well known outside of Japan. So when…

To lead, you have to know where you are going. Which isn’t always easy.

For some people it’s easier to work out where you don’t want to be first.

When Richard Branson found himself ‘bumped’ from his flight to the British Virgin Islands, he didn’t want to be stuck in an airport, feeling frustrated and wasting his time. He…

Richard Branson is a successful and inspirational leader; as founder of the Virgin Group he leads more than 400 different companies.

He started Virgin Airlines over thirty years ago when he was ‘bumped’ from his expected flight to the British Virgin Islands. He had to get there because a beautiful woman was awaiting him. So he hired a plane,…

Identifying leaders is easy; once you know what to look for.

Selecting leaders was so much easier thousands of years ago. It was the biggest, strongest and fittest human who was chosen as the leader. Height, muscles and a healthy body are easy to see, so it was easy to pick the leader. It got a bit harder as we got more…

Who wouldn't want to be a ‘inspirational’ school leader?

It’s an overused and highly coveted adjective when it comes to describing great leaders; leaders who have a positive impact on peoples lives.

How do they do it? Everybody wants to know, and every aspiring leader wants to learn. What exactly is it they do to get…

“75% of Leadership Development programs are not very effective”

That means 3 out of 4 leadership programmes don’t provide leaders with the skills…

“If you are trying to decide among a few people to fill a position hire the best writer. It doesn't matter if the person is marketer, salesperson, designer, programmer, or whatever, their writing skills will pay off. That's because being a good writer is about more than writing clear writing. Clear writing is a sign of clear thinking. Great writers know how to communicate. They make things easy to understand. They can put themselves in someone else's shoes. They know what to omit. And those…

Maya Angelou was right; "people will never forget how you made them feel".

When was the last time you read something and felt really worried or annoyed by it? Maybe it was a text, or an email? Perhaps a post on Facebook or a Tweet? Or even a blog? And reading it gave you an instant reaction. You might have felt angry, or frustrated, or thought to your self, “What a cheek”. You might even have laughed out loud. When did that last happened to you?

It’s…