Clockwise from top left: Tony Curtis as Taras Bulba; John Mills as Captain Scott; a painting of Azrael is linked to a 1892 poem by Delville called "Azraël"; and a portrait of Berlioz on a Deutsche Grammophon CD I don’t really do Christmas music. I play one Christmas concert a year, which is always good fun (this year the front desk will be trampling on their own authority by donning deeply uncomfortable antlers). However, Classical Christmas can be a dreary affair. This year

** aka How CEOs Fix Problems at the Root Most SMEs don’t struggle because they lack strategy. They struggle because the strategy never reaches the organisation in one coherent piece . In practice, the real blocker is almost always the same: Leaders can see the problems clearly, but the organisation can’t see the leaders clearly. And that gap — between what the CEO knows and what the organisation experiences — becomes the breeding ground for frustration, misalignment, duplicat

I was reading a thoughtful piece on LinkedIn about a culture specialist who managed to sustain a positive, valued culture right up until the day the business closed its doors. And I thought, Yes, that is lovely.  In some ways. And in other ways, I believed it - entirely - yet also found it unrealistic and almost pointless. When a business closes down, do the employees need to be left wanting more? Should they be left clinging to the wreckage thinking, "It will never be this g

We’re now on the exhausted sprint to the end of 2025. It hasn’t been the best of years, has it? If your business has smashed it, give yourself a pat on the back that knocks you off your feet. For everyone else — let’s just hope 2026 brings a lift. At OPCoachUK, much of our work is about helping people handle the rough as well as the smooth. Most of that happens in a work context: developing behaviours and attitudes that build resilience and performance. But this piece is abou