Julia Middleton's thoughts on leadership

Dishaa (our Venture which connected leaders in the UK and India) was so successful, unbelievably successful, that we have been asked to launch similar Ventures between lots of countries around the world (see www.commonpurpose.org/ventures). Dishaa means direction in Hindi, so we will have Phambili (direction in the Nguni languages inc. Xhosa and Zulu), Dao Xiang [...]

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It’s been a pretty big week at Common Purpose, with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom paying our emerging leaders course a visit in Bangalore. The occasion has me thinking about what is emerging for leaders in India – and Hinglish leaps to mind. It’s the language of the future I am told – [...]

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When UK Prime Minister David Cameron asked a participant in Bangalore what had shifted in his thinking by being on a Common Purpose course, the participant said: “I knew I was a leader at work but not for a minute had I thought of myself as a leader of Bangalore” This says it all. What [...]

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When I went on the board of Common Purpose India a fellow trustee sent me a dictionary of Indian terms. There is one that he has to keep re-sending to me because I forget it every time and get all excited. It’s “yes” means “maybe” and “maybe” means “no”.

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I am dyslexic. Can’t even spell dylexic (I bet someone who is not dyslexic came up with the name). It has never got in my way since I left school. In fact it probably makes me a better speaker. But it has got the better of me now that Common Purpose is expanding in India. [...]

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I am on the flight to Mumbai, home of Bollywood, celebrity and fame. The last few days have been about deciding the business plan with the board and my colleagues in India. We have been working through which of the multitude of opportunities here we are going to do first. And there are almost infinite [...]

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