As a Manchester lad who grew up close to Old Trafford, supporting Manchester United felt almost inevitable. I was also fortunate to grow up watching a team led by one of the most successful managers in the history of football. As my interest in leadership and high performance developed, so did my admiration for Sir Alex Ferguson. His greatest achievement was not simply building a successful team. He created an organisation capable of sustaining success through changing player

In 2017, I flew to San Diego to spend three days at a leadership academy founded by a former Navy SEAL commander. The academy was setup to increase the success rate of recruits into the Navy SEALs. I had spent years studying mindset, resilience and high performance. I had taught many of these ideas to other people. But I wanted to experience them in an environment where there was nowhere to hide. The Navy SEALs are widely considered among the mentally and physically toughest

I recently had the great pleasure of being the keynote speaker at the Manchester City Council Leadership Summit. It was a proud moment for me as a Mancunian to be surrounded by so many passionate people who were determined to make our city an even better place to live and work. The closing comments from the Chief Executive, Joanne Roney OBE, captured the mood perfectly: “This city goes from strength to strength. It’s unstoppable.” During my keynote, I shared three big ideas f