New Leeson Life

For the past few years my eldest niece and I have developed a tradition. Once a year, for her birthday, we go to London. I exchange a kidney and a small part of my soul for lunch and sensory overload at the Rainforest Cafe or similar and then we go and see a West End show.  The first year we went to see Matilda and the messages in there about not being afraid to be smart, to speak up for the things that matter to you, and to challenge authority affected both the 6 year old and the 37 year old equally.  Last year, after seeing School of Rock, I quit my job. Honestly, that's how it happened. I thought 'do I want to become Miss Mullins, or do I want to be Dewey?'. Why aren't I doing more of the things I love? What happened to the little girl with big dreams? So the next day (which just happened to be the only day that quarter we were in the same country) I met my graciously supportive boss for a coffee and resigned. "I'm happy for you " he said, even thou...

If you've ever studied psychology at any level you will have come across the Stanford Prison Experiment . In which a group of students were randomly chosen to act the role of either prisoner or prison officer, and given certain rules and artefacts that reinforced their role. The upshot of the experiment was that ordinary students did some pretty crappy things to fellow students after not long at all, influenced solely by the culture that had been created around them, many elements of which in isolation could look pretty benign. I'm reminded of it as I try to explain my take on women in the workplace to various people.  The Presidents' Club dinner for example. The media's take on this is to focus on examples of poor/lewd/shitty behaviour from some of the men in attendance. Because of course, sex sells and the topic du jour is sex scandals of varying forms.  That isn't my primary issue with the Presidents' Club. Imagine for a moment we are talking about the ...

I stumbled across this article in Harvard Business Review this morning  FINALLY! I thought, someone (other than Patrick Lencioni) is talking about trust as a precursor to just about every element of business success. And then I read on, and I pulled a face a bit like this... I mean, I applaud the research (even though it falls everso slightly into the category of “socio/psychological research into the stuff most of us know deep down to be true anyway”). It basically says that organisations with a high level of trust in their culture perform better. Simple right? Logical, non? After all Mr Lencioni has been telling us this for decades. Now the scientists agree. Excellent. Except... What the scientists basically measured was Ocytocin levels. And Ocytocin is the neurochemical of trust, true. But it’s also the neurochemical of connection, love, attachment and (whisper it) the stuff that courses through your veins after really good sex. We need more oxytocin in ...

Wimmin. We're in the news a lot recently. Making a fuss. Being angry. The BBC's China Editor has resigned her post in protest at being paid significantly less than her male counterparts. Not the first to do so, probably not the last. Female celebrities are using the Golden Globes as a platform to launch the 'Time's Up' initiative - talking about pay equality, sexual harassment and the right to an equal seat at the table across all industries. I've seen my MP proudly tell us what will happen to MP's if they sexually harass colleagues, while one of her colleagues gives a job to a man who has tweeted more times about tits than Chris Packham. A conversation about the gender pay gap is taking place. Again. I'm listening to people (often men, mostly men) chiming in to the conversation about that gender pay gap... "We need more women in STEM, that will raise their rates of pay" (Yes, why is it these male-dominated industries are higher paid, exact...

January.  The month of resolutions, new beginnings, and the sound of a million couch to 5k apps being launched in hopeful anticipation of the transformations to come. Transformation. There's a sneaky word. Until fairly recently I was a global head of change for a "transformation programme" (or program, if you happened to be American, and most of my wonderful colleagues were). A big hairy audacious transformation program. So, with the benefit of experience, I feel as if January, with it's glinting cold light and calm before storm-ness, is a good time to point out that transformation is an exceptionally unhelpful word. It's seductive, for sure. We humans love the  idea  of transformation. Caterpillar to butterfly, zero to hero, Extreme Makeovers. The thought of changing rapidly and in one fell swoop from one thing to something dramatically different and therefore better has launched the careers of a thousand Gok Wan-abees, Life Coaches and Consultants...