It’s the wrong question. Listen to this conversation, which takes place at kitchen tables, in cars and pubs across the land …

“I’d love to learn to play the piano, but if I can’t play like Mozart in six months, what’s the point?” A lot of people think like that. The yearning for perfection is a major reason why so little progress gets made.

Just because a goal seems courageous doesn’t mean it’s the right goal. Pick the ones that matter. Here’s an example.

In business we use jargony, corporate-speak because it sounds “proper”. We should stop because we’re missing the chance to use the natural power of language to fire imaginations. Here’s an example.

As we get older, our confidence takes a knock. But confidence isn’t an organ that withers with age. There are things we can do to nurture and protect it.

You gave Lucy a big job: looking after client outreach. It means you don’t have to manage the client hospitality day any more, which was a hassle. Was it a good idea? I’ll tell you why it may not be.

I write at the end of a chaotic day in the UK, so I want to talk about systems.

I’m struck by how much personality traits can affect our approach to delegation, especially agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness. Might be worth running checks on ourselves.

I don’t believe in it. It revolves around prioritising what you think you have to do and practising techniques for sticking to those priorities. What it doesn’t do is challenge what you think you have to do.

For years I’ve asked people in my programmes to complete a Big 5 personality trait questionnaire, because it gets them thinking about how they tend to respond to situations. A quite distinct profile has emerged.