Insights

Emotionally Intelligent Leadership and Culture | Ground+Air

Joe Davis — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 15:00:00 GMT

Company culture is shaped by repeated behaviour: what leaders notice, reward, challenge, tolerate and make possible. Emotional intelligence can help leaders understand their impact and respond more deliberately, but it cannot transform culture on its own.

The 7 Types of Rest: A Practical Guide | Ground+Air

Joe Davis — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 08:45:00 GMT

Rest is often treated as another word for sleep, but people can feel depleted in different ways. Author Saundra Dalton-Smith popularised a model of seven types of rest: physical, mental, sensory, creative, emotional, social and spiritual. It can be a useful reflection tool, not a diagnostic framework or universal prescription.

How to Build Self-Belief as a Leader | Ground+Air

Joe Davis — Thu, 02 May 2024 09:15:00 GMT

Self-belief is confidence in your ability to respond to a challenge, learn and take useful action. For leaders, it can provide support when a decision must be made without complete certainty. It is not the belief that you will always be right or that confidence alone determines the outcome.

How Leaders Can Use Optimism in a Crisis | Ground+Air

Joe Davis — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 09:00:00 GMT

Realistic optimism is the ability to acknowledge difficulty while retaining the possibility that useful action remains. In a crisis, it is not a demand to feel positive, ignore loss or promise that events will turn out well.

What optimism can offer a leader

A leader may not control the event, its duration or every consequence. They can still help people understand what is known, what remains uncertain and what will happen next. Realistic optimism keeps attention open to options without minimising the seriousness of the situation.

How to Reduce Cognitive Overload at Work | Ground+Air

Joe Davis — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 10:05:00 GMT

Cognitive overload is an everyday way of describing what happens when the information, decisions and competing demands of a task exceed the attention available for dealing with them. It can make it harder to think clearly, retain the relevant detail and sustain focus.

Rest and Recovery for Sustainable Performance | Ground+Air

Joe Davis — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 11:15:00 GMT

Rest and recovery are part of the performance cycle, not rewards reserved for after all the work is complete. Sustained demand without enough opportunity to recover can reduce the capacity available for attention, judgement and future effort.

Energy Management for Sustainable Performance | Ground+Air

Joe Davis — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 14:30:00 GMT

Sustainable performance depends on more than effort and time. It also depends on whether people have enough capacity, attention and opportunity to recover from the demands placed on them. Energy management is a practical way to examine that relationship without treating constant busyness as a measure of commitment.

How to Reduce Interruptions and Protect Focus | Ground+Air

Joe Davis — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 09:36:00 GMT

Interruptions are part of most working environments, but repeated switching can make sustained attention harder. Flow cannot be guaranteed, yet reducing avoidable disruption can create better conditions for deep, focused work.

How to Build Complete Concentration | Ground+Air

Joe Davis — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 09:43:00 GMT

Complete concentration is one of the conditions that can make flow more likely. When your attention stays with a clear and appropriately challenging task, it becomes easier to become absorbed in the work and less reactive to distractions.

Flow and the Challenge–Skill Balance | Ground+Air

Joe Davis — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 11:04:00 GMT

The relationship between perceived challenge and perceived skill is one condition commonly associated with flow. A task may hold attention when it feels demanding enough to matter but still workable with the skills and support available.