In the latest episode of The Power Within, I sit down with Fred Ng, co-founder and CEO of Beyond Border: venture capitalist at 22, founder at 23, and a leader who learned the hard way that a team that never pushes back is a warning sign.

Alfred Sloan was sitting at the head of a General Motors committee table when he asked a question that sounded like a formality. "Gentlemen, I take it we are all in complete agreement on the decision here?" Every head nodded. Then, as Peter Drucker tells it, Sloan proposed they stop. Postpone the whole thing until the next meeting, to give themselves time "to develop disagreement" and perhaps work out what the decision was really about. I love that moment, because it runs aga

Fred Goodwin, Dick Fuld, Elizabeth Holmes and four more. Seven CEOs undone by hubris — and the warning signs the ancient Greeks saw coming.

Over thirty years in corporate life, I sat in a lot of audiences. Sales conferences, leadership summits, regional kick-offs in hotel ballrooms that all smelled faintly of the same carpet. Every so often a speaker would take the stage and set the room alight. Music, a story about a mountain, a closing line that brought hundreds of us to our feet. I'd walk out buzzing. By the following Monday I'd be back in the same meetings, carrying the same tensions, making the same compromi

The Quietest Man on the Door What eleven years as a doorman taught me about urgency, control and the truth: A Saturday in Catford, gone midnight and the second queue surge is in full flow now the pubs have closed. A man at the front of the queue has decided tonight is the night. He's shouting, squaring up and the youngest lad on the door is matching him decibel for decibel. That younger lad was me... The face I thought was strength Then Ricky, the oldest doorman on the team w

The well known story we tell about Midas usually stops at the punchline: he wished that everything he touched would turn to gold, and it did, and it was funny for about an hour. What we skip is the second half, which is the part of the story that really matters. By evening Midas is starving. The bread turns to metal between his fingers before it reaches his mouth. The wine solidifies on his tongue. And then, reaching out the way any father does without thinking, he touches hi

The new organisational chart went up on a Tuesday. Twenty-three boxes, cleaner reporting lines, three fewer layers between the shop floor and the board. The CFO had modelled it for six weeks. The logic was airtight; cost synergies, faster decision-making, a structure built for where the business was going rather than where it had been. By Thursday, the best engineer on the team had updated her CV. Nobody had done anything wrong, exactly. The structure made sense. The targets

I've stood on both sides of the bed. The one where I redrew someone's role and called it evolution, and watched them hear it along with everyone else. And years before, the one where my own role got redrawn two floors above me, in a meeting at a hotel I found out about from a calendar invite sent at 4.58pm for 9am the next morning. Both times, the bed was already built. The measuring came after. There's an old Greek story about a man called Procrustes who kept an inn on the r

There's a video doing the rounds at the moment listing eleven "laws of the universe". Most of them I recognised immediately - from boardrooms in Warsaw, factory floors in China, and one memorable budget meeting in Amsterdam where three of them were operating simultaneously. The Greeks had gods for these things. We have eponymous laws named after economists and engineers. Same instinct, which is to give the pattern a name, and suddenly you can see it coming. Here are the ten

Everyone agreed, nobody asked... The most expensive silences in business happen in boardrooms. Picture the scene - I've sat in versions of it on three continents. The strategy paper has been circulated. It is thorough, confident, and forty pages long. The executive team presents with polish. Around the table, experienced heads nod. Someone asks about the timeline. Someone else asks about the numbers on page thirty-one. And the one question that actually matters - the simple,

Today I’m interviewing Mike Hobday on The Power Within podcast. Mike has spent his career at the sharp end of transformation as an international CEO, former IBM General Manager, AI and transformation leader, board advisor and executive coach. So naturally, we’ll be talking about AI. But not just as a technology story. Because the more I watch this moment unfold, the more I believe this: AI is not the real leadership crisis. The real crisis is what AI is revealing: It is reve

We often talk about success as if it only moves one way: upward. More status. More money. More recognition. More visible progress. But nature tells a different story. A tree grows in two directions. Its roots grow downward into the dark, damp, unseen ground. This is called gravitropism - the natural tendency of roots to grow with gravity, seeking stability, water, and strength. At the same time, its branches grow upward toward the light. This is called phototropism - the inst

There’s a moment every leader recognises. You’re faced with a situation that doesn’t have a clear answer. The playbook doesn’t quite fit. The pressure to appear certain is high. For years, I believed leadership meant having the answer. It was only later, standing in places like Delphi in Greece, where the ancients sought not answers but interpretation, that I began to see leadership differently. The Greeks didn’t worship certainty. They respected insight, perspective, and the

Leadership is not just a title or a position. It’s a journey of growth, self-discovery, and continuous improvement. If you’ve ever wondered how some leaders seem to navigate challenges with ease, inspire their teams effortlessly, and drive lasting impact, the secret often lies in one powerful tool: coaching. Specifically, coaching for leadership growth can transform managers into visionary leaders who unlock their full potential. Imagine having a trusted partner who helps you

Any list of “most culturally influential bands” will do two things instantly: make some people very happy and seriously irritate others. Good. Because influence, by definition, disrupts comfort. Let’s narrow this down to four bands that didn’t just sell records; they reframed identity. The Beatles: Youth Became Authority Before The Beatles, youth culture followed. After them, it led. They evolved publicly, transitioning from neat suits to psychedelic experimentation, bringing

After almost 7 years away from the corporate workplace, I have been thinking recently about friendships at work. Because if you are in leadership long enough, you will form them. You just will. You work long hours together, travel together, sit in pressure-cooker meetings together. You see each other at your best and your worst. It is natural that some relationships move beyond “colleague.” And when they do, it can be brilliant. Some of the strongest professional chapters of

Leadership Under Pressure: The Deeper Lesson A dramatic headline, perhaps, but it’s the title of the song written by Elton John with Bernie Taupin. This song isn’t just about a personal crisis; it’s about what happens when external expectations collide with internal truth. This moment is one every senior leader eventually faces. Click here for the song. 1. The Most Dangerous Moment Isn’t Failure: It’s False Success Elton wasn’t failing. He was: Engaged On a conventional path

Not long ago, getting somewhere new meant unfolding a map, asking for directions, or, heaven forbid, getting lost and figuring it out as you went. Today, most of us couldn’t drive five miles without a satnav calmly telling us where to turn. That small convenience points to a much bigger shift. We no longer navigate - we follow. We no longer explore - we execute instructions. And it’s not just driving. The Shift in Learning When we don’t know something, we don’t sit with the q

Modern coaching did not begin in a boardroom, nor in an MBA classroom. It began on the dusty streets of Athens. Socrates, a real flesh-and-blood philosopher with worn sandals and an awkward gait, would stop people in the marketplace to ask unsettling questions: What do you believe? Why? And what will you do next? He never offered answers. He offered discovery. This is the heart of modern coaching. Not advice. Not instruction. Inquiry that awakens capability from the inside. T

Workplaces aren’t derailed by difficult people, they’re derailed by the impact of unmanaged behaviour. Whether you’re a colleague or a leader, toxic traits, if left unchecked, sap energy, distort reality, and weaken trust. The good news is that you can respond with clarity, calm, and boundaries. Below are two brief, distinct guides. Part 1: As a colleague - navigating toxic co-workers How to spot toxic traits: Look for consistent patterns, not isolated moments: Gaslighting -