Sparked Potential
Ideas, guides and updates from the people behind the work.
What makes an exceptional employee in today's workplace? Discover the behaviours that drive performance - and why management capability matters more than ever. 15 minute read
"How are you?" isn't a check-in. It's a habit.
This whole experience has left me thinking about something we don't always stop to challenge in education: when did learning become something we think we finish?
Active listening is not the same as waiting for your turn to talk. It is not nodding along while your mind quietly prepares your next sentence. It is not hearing the first few words and jumping to the conclusion you think the other person is heading towards. It is not scanning the conversation for the bit you can fix, challenge, relate to or correct.
A real team has rhythm. It has trust. It has shared understanding. It has people who know how to communicate with one another, challenge respectfully, support generously and pull in the same direction when the pressure is on.
Exciting morning tomorrow! I'm chatting with BBC Radio Leicester about my skydiving journey and the incredible honour of winning the Mike Forge Trophy - British Skydiving's New Skydiver of the Year 2025!
Insights Discovery is often described as a colour profiling tool. But that description does not really do it justice.
There are easier ways to spend your birthday. A quiet morning. A long lunch. A day off. Cake before 10am with absolutely no explanation required.
The 12-week Management Mistakes series explores the everyday management behaviours that shape employee experience, team performance and workplace culture. Each week focuses on a common challenge managers face, from avoiding difficult conversations and micromanagement to inconsistent accountability, performance management and culture drift.
Most development planning starts with a simple question.
When the Inner Voice Gets Loud
The return to office conversation hasn't gone away. If anything, it seems to be getting louder. More organisations are tightening expectations, more employees are questioning the reasoning, and more managers are being left to interpret, communicate and enforce decisions they may not have shaped themselves.
Over the last few weeks, I attended two education-focused conferences: the M.E.E.T. Conference and The Future of Academies Show. They were different events, with different conversations, but I left both thinking about the same thing.
Encouragement is one of those management skills that can sound soft on the surface. But in reality, it is one of the things that helps people keep going, take ownership, try again, speak up, and believe they are capable of doing the work in front of them.
Resilience is often talked about as if it means being tough all the time.
Resilience is often talked about as if it means being tough all the time.
As if resilient people don't feel pressure. As if they don't wobble. As if they simply push through, keep going and bounce back without the messy middle.
But real resilience is much more human than that.
The return to office conversation hasn't gone away. If anything, it seems to be getting louder. More organisations are tightening expectations, more employees are questioning the reasoning, and more managers are being left to interpret, communicate and enforce decisions they may not have shaped themselves.
Once again, the conversation seems to be circling around the same familiar points: productivity, collaboration, culture, flexibility and fairness. All of those things matter, but I still don't think they are the real issue. Because return to office is not just an operational decision. It is a management challenge.
Most development planning starts with a simple question.
What does this person need to work on next?
The challenge is that this question is often answered from one perspective. It might come from the manager’s view, the individual’s own self-assessment, recent performance, or the most visible challenges happening at the time.
That can all be useful, but it rarely gives the full picture.
Insights Discovery is often described as a colour profiling tool. But that description does not really do it justice.
Yes, it uses colour energies to help people understand behavioural preferences. Yes, it gives people a language for communication, working style and team dynamics. And yes, it is usually the bit people remember most.
But Insights Discovery is not about putting people into colour-coded boxes. It is about helping people understand themselves and others more clearly, so they can work together with more awareness, flexibility and intent.
This whole experience has left me thinking about something we don't always stop to challenge in education: when did learning become something we think we finish?
And habits don't build relationships.
"How are you?" is one of the most commonly asked questions in the workplace and one of the least useful. Not because it's a bad question, but because it's rarely asked with any real intent.