Last week I was in Johannesburg facilitating a strategy session with a high-performance team with a significant quantum of impact. It was important to stay laser-focused, especially as it was one of those sessions with lots of moving parts, ambitious outcomes, tight deadlines and a high-powered executive team. Whew. I'm happy to say we got where we needed to go. But we didn't get there 100% as planned. There were moments when we had to change the timing, adjust an exercise or

Ah, Saturday sports. It loves you, it hates you. It all started with an early morning u/7 soccer match. The team lost, but AJ was immense defensively, and he had the grassburns to prove it. Later, Matie was the only kid to get past the goalie in a penalty shootout, ensuring a drawn match. The celebrations felt like the World Cup final, mind you. I had the presence of mind to anticipate the big moment, and got great footage of his hero moment from behind the goal. This video w

On Saturday morning, I had one of those ridiculously satisfying dad moments on the side of a rugby field. AJ is just seven, and Jan van Riebeeck is not a rugby powerhouse school, but you know what? It was magic. His tough little team of overfocused seven-year-olds were playing a visiting bunch of tough Afrikaner farm boys from Dirkie Uys in Moorreesburg, and late in the game one of them broke through with what looked like an almost certain try. The kid has wheels; he found sp

It has begun. And boy, what a start. Bokke. All Blacks. The return of the tour. An era we thought long gone is back, and man are we all excited. I might even start drinking Castle Double Malt after my senses got assaulted by the branding this last weekend. On Saturday evening, I took the family to Cape Town Stadium to watch our depleted Stormers take on the mighty All Blacks. No Sasha, no Reinach, no Damien, no Paul de Villiers. And yet, there were other stories. Resilience.

A school quiz night became an unexpected lesson in leadership. We overcomplicate obvious truths, ignore the quiet voice that says something is off, and let confidence outweigh evidence. Self-awareness helps us recognise the hidden biases shaping our decisions before they become costly mistakes.

AI creates lasting value when it strengthens the connections between people, processes, data, governance and business strategy.

Great leadership requires choosing what matters most, focusing resources and accepting what must wait. A practical guide to sharper execution.

A mid-year reflection on expectations, unexpected blessings, and why gratitude grows when we pause to recognise how far we've already come.

Strategic leadership isn't about finding more time; it's about creating space for better decisions. Discover why preparation and small improvements compound into lasting business success.

Mid-year is the perfect time to review where your time, energy and profit are really coming from. Use the 80/20 rule to refocus for the season ahead.

AI is changing how we build systems, but the leaders who win still focus on people, numbers, and asking better questions.

The events we face rarely determine our experience as much as the meaning we assign to them. This reflection explores how changing your frame can unlock better decisions, stronger resilience and more productive action.

What a week... As you read this, I'm standing on stage at our annual Entrepreneurs' Organization conference, sharing a deeply personal story with 200 of my peers (I like to think of them as peers, but to be honest… it’s imposter syndrome generating company). It's a strange way to finish a week that started in a completely different place. Earlier in the week, I was teaching a group of entrepreneurs about the lessons small businesses can learn from the tech giants. We explore

This past weekend was one of those weekends (after a pretty tough week) that leaves you feeling grateful, energised, and just a little bit more optimistic. On Friday afternoon, I teed it up at Royal Cape with my mates George, Barry and Bossau. I shot an 80, which might not sound particularly remarkable to the non-golfers reading this, but for me it felt significant. Royal Cape is not an easy course, particularly with recently hollow-tined greens, and I honestly can't remembe

This week, AI seemed to follow me everywhere. On Thursday, I was facilitating at EO Accelerator in Cape Town, teaching execution and legacy material that is increasingly being enhanced by AI. The prompts are better. The speed is incredible. Participants can move from blank page to usable output in minutes. Yet, despite all the technology in the room, I found myself repeating something I have said before. “Stop talking to ChatGPT for a moment and talk to the smart people si

Last week’s newsletter was easy to write because, if I am honest, it was an easy week to live. It was one of those energising stretches filled with client engagements, workshops, travel, conversations, and people. The diary was full, and in many ways the week managed itself. I simply showed up, delivered, engaged, moved on to the next thing, and repeated the process. There is a rhythm to externally driven work because the calendar effectively becomes your operating system.

Ah, the coming of winter. I’m in front of my computer this week, doing AI training for international audiences, building some Claude solutions for clients, and running one-on-one coaching check-ins for regular clients. Works, as it has been bucketing down, and home is where the soup and the fireplace are. Different from last week, when I did my quarterly Durban & Joburg whirlwind training and engagement tour. I like the “me” time. But I liked last week too, because there i

It’s been one of those weeks where the calendar looks chaotic on paper but, in reality, feels deeply aligned. Durban, Joburg, and a string of private client sessions in between. Airports, Ubers, coffee shops, boardrooms. The kind of week that reminds me why I do this in the first place. Getting in front of rooms full of entrepreneurs, some tired, some fired up, most somewhere in between, all trying to solve the same fundamental problem: how do we actually execute? And there

There are weeks where everything seems to click, not because anything dramatic changed overnight, but because a whole series of small, almost invisible improvements finally compound into something you can feel. Last week felt like that, hey. It started in the gardens, quite literally. I had the privilege of running an AI training session for the Cape Green Growers Forum at Kelvin Grove, a kind of oasis in the shadow of Table Mountain. The attendees are the nurseries, landsc

Gary Player, controversial as he is, is a legend. And he has one line that has aged remarkably well: “The more I practice, the luckier I get.” It sounds like something you’d expect from a man who hit more balls before breakfast than most of us have in a lifetime, but there’s something deeper sitting underneath it. We like to romanticise luck as this mystical force: some people have it, others don’t. Yet if you sit with it long enough, you realise luck is far less random than