BLOG

October is here and this year’s Black History Month theme is Honouring Our Communities. It asks us to look beyond the famous names to the people and everyday networks that have shaped and sustained British life. Think of the nurse on the night shift, the elder who keeps the church hall open, the entrepreneur who creates jobs on the high street or the promoter who gives young talent a stage. They are history too and they are making it right now.

AI could have written that board paper, but it could not have noticed the silence after the presentation because that gap, between producing an intelligent-looking answer and knowing what actually matters, is where narrative authority lives. It is the ability to turn what you have seen, survived and learned into judgement that other people can understand, trust and act on. As AI makes polish easy, it may be one of the most valuable things a leader has.

7 Reasons Your Network May Be Keeping Your Business Small, Even When Everybody Knows Your Name. "You can have thousands of contacts, a respected reputation and a diary full of networking events, yet still be three introductions away from the money, contracts and decision-makers that could change the trajectory of your business." There is a business problem we rarely name.

We have spent decades asking how we get more women into senior leadership, but perhaps we have been asking only half the question. What happens when women finally reach the stage where experience, networks, judgement and institutional knowledge should give them their greatest professional leverage, only to encounter workplaces poorly designed for one of the most predictable transitions of their working lives? This is why California's AB 1940 deserves attention.

Men are frequently told two contradictory things. Speak more about what is happening in your life, but remain strong enough not to burden anybody with it; be ambitious without appearing insecure, provide for others while somehow having all the answers yourself. Build the career, protect the family, manage the money, maintain the relationship and preferably look as though none of it is particularly difficult.