Leadership is everything. It involves making decisions and being pragmatic. Laws, policies and processes without the confidence and capability to be pragmatic isn't a great combination!

It can feel uncomfortable not having the answers on a plate, but that's leadership for you! Fairness and justice are all that employment tribunals are about - not many people would argue with that, so why do we struggle with the concept so much?

Leadership is a real skill and a fantastic capability. Many managers struggle to become leaders - they need help. We should never assume somebody is a good leader just because they've signed a management contract!

Technology should make it easier for us to talk to each other, but things seem to work the opposite way. The negative things we write to one another is such a shame - just talking and listening more is so important. We seem to be losing the art of having a proper conversation!

Given that this is a statement I've made to thousands of people over the last 25 years or so, I've had some good debates about it with lawyers, HR professionals and leaders themselves. So far nobody has managed to convince me otherwise...

In this blog, Pete talks about humility, the affect this can have on employees and the huge impact it has in a leader's reputation.

Pete describes how, as a mediator, he sees it all the time - managers who have made a wrong judgement call, or have acted inappropriately - and although they know they have they still pretend they haven't. People aren't stupid and it's one way to guarantee a disengaged and demotivated team.

In mediation we have proper conversations, and here I give a few examples of when these have turned issues around - just by leaders showing a bit of humility.