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In recent months I’ve seen several cases where individual members have pursued their association with such ferocity you’d think they were trying to bring it down altogether. At best, it’s puzzling. At worst, it’s toxic. Either way, it’s worth understanding why this pattern is becoming more common, and what it means for the leaders charged with holding these organisations steady.

Lord Vader is not a role model in any conventional sense. Yet he does show how structure, clarity, self-discipline, and strategic focus can help someone step into leadership with more stability than they ever enjoyed before.

The most empowering leaders aren’t shields. They’re system-builders. They make it possible for people to lead without fear, to act without waiting for permission, and to succeed without someone standing guard.

There's no need to over engineer a podcast. They succeed through consistency, not perfection. Members want to hear insight, not orchestration. A credible microphone, a laptop, and a structured conversation are enough to begin. The polish develops over time. 🎙️ 🎧

Some membership bodies have a habit of confusing efficient management with genuine leadership, keeping the wheels turning but rarely setting a bold course. This isn’t deliberate but structural, because many associations grew up valuing order above ambition: Clear processes, tidy compliance, smooth governance cycles. All necessary but none a substitute for leadership.

⋆⭒˚.⋆🪐 ⋆⭒˚.⋆ Leadership isn’t about suppressing passion, it’s about guiding it. The tragedy of Anakin Skywalker reminds us that potential, left unmanaged, becomes peril. But with empathy, structure, and the right mentor, even the most impulsive prodigy can find balance, and maybe even bring light to the Force again.

The classic image of a leader is still bold, outgoing, permanently energised by people. Those leaders exist, and when they’re good, they’re extraordinary. When they’re not, they’re exhausting. But they’re not the only model. Some of the most effective leaders I’ve worked with, and some of my best work, are grounded in introverted strengths: depth, clarity, calm, and the ability to make decisions without drowning in noise.

Last week, one of my memberships unveiled its shiny new platform. I followed the prompts, updated my password, and landed on a dashboard that looked clean enough. New colours. New icons. New button shapes. The usual signals of digital progress. Then the reality set in...

I’ve been conducting a process review recently. As always, it’s fascinating how every conversation follows the same pattern: Ask someone how the organisation operates, and they’ll tell you exactly what’s wrong - with everyone else’s area. Marketing takes too long to sign off. Finance slows everything down. IT doesn’t understand the business. HR gets in the way. Leadership lacks focus. But when we get to their function, their processes, their team, and their role, the tone shi

Membership and professional associations are rarely short of activity. Reports are published, events delivered, campaigns launched, and committees convened. Each quarter brings a new flurry of outputs that fill board papers and populate dashboards. Yet for all this activity, genuine impact, the kind that changes behaviour, shifts policy, or strengthens an industry, remains notoriously hard to prove.

In the Marvel universe, few characters are as complex or as quietly commanding as Natasha Romanoff, better known as Black Widow. A former assassin trained in the Soviet Red Room, she is introduced to us as a weapon: efficient, calculating, emotionally detached. Yet by the end of her story arc, she is the moral centre of the Avengers, the glue that holds the team together when everyone else falls apart. In our latest  The Leadership Multiverse Podcast ,  Ellen Daniels  and I e

We used to dream of connection; now we pay for disconnection. Progress has flipped on itself. But maybe that’s a good sign. It suggests people are waking up to the cost of constant availability. They’re starting to value attention as much as ambition.

Leadership isn’t a function of hierarchy. It’s the craft of judgment under pressure, the discipline to choose what matters, and the courage to act when information is incomplete. Those abilities don’t automatically appear because someone once managed a budget line.

WWE’s pricing surge exposes how fragile loyalty becomes when perceived value fails to keep up with cost. The product itself isn’t poor (storytelling and in-ring quality have arguably improved) but the experience hasn’t doubled in quality, even if ticket prices have

The Netflix analogy has become a favourite in the membership sector. Leaders talk about “being more like Netflix” or “moving away from a Blockbuster model.” It sounds compelling, modern, inevitable. Yet when asked what this looks like in practice, the answers can become vague. Streaming-era language without streaming-era systems does not deliver streaming-era results. To turn the Netflix aspiration into a real member experience, we need to understand what the streaming model

This sector doesn’t need more sponsors. It needs collaborators. The kind who bring ideas, challenge assumptions, and deliver capability members can feel. I stand ready to do that work, and many, many others do too. The question is whether associations are ready to meet us there.

Despite (or because of) their flaws, the Ghostbusters complement rather than compete. Venkman sells the mission. Ray sustains it. Egon powers it. Winston redeems it. Together they form a balanced, if chaotic, unit. They are a model for how multidisciplinary teams succeed when they value difference over dominance.

Articles of association are legal documents, yes, but they are first and foremost governance documents. They are the script your organisation follows. When you rely only on a lawyer, you risk ending up with articles that tick the compliance box but trip you up everywhere else. A smarter approach is collaborative: governance first, legal second. That’s how you produce articles that don’t just avoid court but actively enable leadership, accountability, and growth.

Membership organisations are constantly juggling the need to listen to their communities while also innovating to stay relevant. Every new benefit, pricing model, or service tweak comes with a familiar question: how will members react? Traditionally, the answer has been found through surveys, focus groups, or pilots, all of which are valuable, but can also be slow, resource-intensive, and vulnerable to “respondent fatigue.” Enter a new and increasingly powerful tool: syntheti

Last year, I heard a trade association CEO joke that he used to have a “real job, back when he worked in industry. The line fell flat. Not because the audience lacked humour, but because it betrayed a familiar mindset: that association leadership is somehow less real than corporate life. It’s not.