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Category: leadership

25 years of ILTA: a salute to #EdTech26

This week has been such a joy. I had high expectations and was looking forward to returning to ILTA’s annual conference AND giving my paper on inspiring open edtech case studies I’ve been working on wit Jim Groom and Reclaim Hosting. It’s been 10 years since Jim and I first met at the OER Conference in Edinburgh, and it means a lot to me that our continued work together has resulted in us attending this…

My newsletter is moving!

From June you can choose to receive news from me in new ways:  I’ll continue to share coaching resources, event updates and more, and hope you’ll continue reading and connecting with me in these ways.  Since I started the newsletter in 2023 it has grown in new and wonderful ways, and I am excited about it’s new chapter.   If you take no action, and you are currently subscribed via the original email list, you won’t…

Blogging about keeping a blog (or revisiting the Neon Flaneuse).

It the end of the UK tax year, and I have spent most of this week on end of year paperwork. Fortunately, this blog post is not about that. Instead, I am returning to my favourite topic: blogging about blogging, or more precisely, blogging about keeping a blog. (The two are tangentially related, as my quarterly Director’s Report for my own business has a section about talks and events in it, which I was trying…

Every Monday I am glad to be my own boss

It’s been a few years now since I started working in my own consultancy business full-time and being my own boss really suits me. Every Monday morning I am grateful to not have my week shaped by endless meetings or arbitrary schedules. Most Mondays, I start with blogging, reflecting, planning. Less pressure to be at my most productive and more scope to navigate uncertainty, develop my strengths and enjoy the variety of free-lance life. Life…

There and back again.

This week I have spent a lot of time on trains. Monday: Cardiff – Sheffield. Tuesday: Sheffield – Edinburgh. Wednesday: Edinburgh. Thursday: Edinburgh – Glasgow. Friday: Glasgow – Cardiff. It’s been a joy to connect with colleagues and friends around the edges of a rewarding work trip and I made extra time to see more and connect with some of my favourite people who I haven’t seen in person for a long time. Work travel,…

My analogue (work) bag

One of my fellow coaches, Helen, a wonderful executive coach for Headteachers, recently shared online that her word of the year for 2026 is ‘analogue’ and that was music to my ears. As regular readers know, I’m a big fan of all things analogue, and the post prompted me to re-read The Revenge of Analogue by David Sax. Although the book was published ten years ago, and some of the research it mentions has been superseded,…

Choose your own adventure

This month, as a little gift from me to you, you can join in with my leadership coaching subscription service, AKA Long Distance Leadership Postcards for free. I’ve made December free for all to access, and this month’s topic includes three free resources to explore. Whether your 2025 has been busy and productive, or brought unexpected challenges, whether you are getting ready to rest or just about to set out in a new direction, I…

Member of ALT #4life.

It’s not everyday that you get such an honour, to become an Honorary Life Member of the professional body you’ve belonged to for most of your career (read the ALT media release). It’s a huge privilege to join this illustrious group, to join peers whose work I admire and respect so much: Lorna Campbell and Josie Fraser, Frances Bell and Teresa MacKinnon, Julie Voce and Chris Jones, Linda Creanor and Seb Schmoller, Diana Laurillard and…

Co-Leadership: Fruits of Collaboration

At the moment, there are a lot of senior leaders moving jobs, either switching to new organisations, moving to a new sector or setting up their own businesses. Many of the clients and communities I work and connect with are thus having to navigate change at the most senior level, and get through transitions in leadership and out on the other side again. Whilst these types of transitions are never easy, they also bring opportunities…