How to dress like a leader (for women)
Like it or not, we are all judged on our appearance. Men in business have a very limited range of wardrobe options - Shall I wear the grey suit or the…
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Are you killing your best ideas at birth?
JK Rowling famously said that she got the idea for Harry Potter on a train journey from London to Manchester: “He strolled, fully formed, into my mind”, and she sketched…
Read moreAmazon Women – Giving us the courage to speak out
In Greek mythology, the Amazons were a tribe of warrior women who were very successful in battle and were powerfully in charge of their destiny. As a girl I was…
Read moreThe neuroscience of makeup
Neuroscience is the new black and its insights are being applied to many aspects of leadership. Even so, I thought I’d seen it all when I came across an article…
Read moreWomen – when NOT to say sorry
We are taught that we should say sorry when we have made a mistake. This is generally good practice when a genuine mistake has been made, but is there a…
Read moreWomen’s hormones – the key to world peace?
A recent UN report[1] states that women are natural peacemakers. This is because under stress women produce oxytocin, the bonding hormone, rather than testosterone, the “fight and flight” hormone. Until…
Read more“Those who are ignorant of history are condemned to repeat it”: why we sometimes need to hear the “story”
On Saturday night I watched Argo, the Oscar-winning thriller about the Iranian hostage crisis. An exciting thriller, it catapulted me back to that era of the late 70s-early 80s when…
Read moreBreathless in Budapest: Training the UN in mediation skills
Last week I went to Budapest with CEDR (The Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution) to train UNHCR (High Commission for Refugees) in mediation skills. It was humbling to meet these…
Read moreStories that hurt and stories that heal: what story are you telling?
Last Sunday I was invited onto BBC Radio London to review the newspapers. After I’d said yes I reflected that I rarely read newspapers these days because it often leaves…
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