A few years ago, I qualified as a Certified Laughter Yoga leader/instructor with United Mind. ‘What on earth is that?!’ I hear you say… Laughter Yoga is a non-bendy, non-intrusive, all-inclusive, fun ‘workout’ that helps individuals manage and deal with stress. Originating from India, combining yoga breathing technique and laughter, it was created by medical Dr Madan Kataria and is based on the simple (and proven!) hypothesis that laughter has huge both psychological and phys

Given the importance of self-awareness in the context of leadership at all levels, I recently spent some time reflecting on exactly what it is that people in senior leadership roles think of themselves. If we held a leadership ‘mirror’ up to them, what would they see? I was reminded of a leadership offsite event I ran for one of my clients’ Senior Leadership Team recently. My aim was to generate and facilitate a challenging, deep and reflective dialogue between participants –

I once worked with someone I found most confusing. Until I realised it was me, not them, that confused things (light bulb!). So I thought I'd write about it. At the time, I was young and inexperienced – fearful of very senior people and very keen to make a good impression with a ‘yes’/’can do’ attitude at all costs. I received a meeting request from a very senior individual’s secretary. The title for the meeting was ‘Training’. It was for 30 minutes at 11am. To show my keenne

The UK Senior Managers Regime didn’t enter the world in a blaze of glory, with concerns around ‘presumption of responsibility’ driving attention and creating an assumption that the new senior management rules would herald an era of increasingly combative regulation. Since then, while the ‘guilty until proven innocent’ elements have been withdrawn, the majority mindset is still fearful and uncertain. However, the Senior Manager’s Regime and the parallel Certification Regime ar