Speaking and Writing

Speaking and Writing

Speaking and Writing

You can only really ever control these three things: What you focus on, how you think about that, and what you do about it. Aimed action, not feelings or stories, is what produces results in business and life.

But it’s not always obvious or easy to do. That’s why feelings and stories are so very important – they help us to know what we want, face up to the reality of where we are, and lead ourselves to close the gaps.

I have stories to tell. I have done some things I'm really proud of (and some things I'm really not).

I've taught literacy to people four times my age, buried my Brother and then done all I could to undermine the apartheid government that sent him to his death, chaired elections of illegal street committees in South African townships, had my life threatened more than once, bucketed sewerage out of my church basement so that inner-city pre-schoolers could get to class, helped my Father to die when his inspiring, powerful life had run its course, hosted Nelson Mandela, co-presented with Desmond Tutu, been pushed out of the church because of my stance on inclusivity & diversity, written for an LGBTI newspaper and sports magazines, run very long distances including the NYC Marathon barefoot and the Marathon des Sables, been frustrated by corporate martial arts, co-developed some amazing leadership interventions, witnessed some big leaders face hairy challenges and keep their values, and little leaders face ordinary things and become controlling and authoritarian, and travelled to many parts of the world. I've also failed friends, lost my way, over-thought, under-asserted and over-expected.

And I've thought about the meaning of it all as I've gone along.

I've been speaking professionally for over 30 years and published a book on diversity and inclusion (Right of Admission Reserved) and my own columns in the print media (The Pink Tongue newspaper, Go-Multi magazine, TRAIL magazine) for over 12 years. If you’d like to read some of my stories you can do that here. If you’d like to have me tell some of them, in the context of your business challenges and goals, contact me directly.

My goal is to use my stories to connect people to their own story, to challenge them to make their own choice to live and work with purpose, courage and integrity.

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