General Archives | Graeme Cowan

Overcoming Toxic Cultures: Powerful lessons from caring CEOs

Our Federal Parliament has been inundated with graphic accounts of misogyny, sexual assault, rape allegations, and toxic departments. Our Prime Minister, Scott Morrison recently claimed it was a triumph for the protesters that they weren’t “met with bullets” during the March 4 Justice rallies. Morrison says ‘the house’ is just like any workplace. Politicians with broader career […]

Male mental ill-health – how to remove the workplace stigma

I recently visited beautiful Forster, on the NSW mid-north coast. Having grown up in Taree it is an area I am quite familiar with. I caught up with a friend who shared that he had lost 2 friends to suicide in the last month. This is a town of just 14,000. It is tragic that […]

News: Global giant AON launches our WeCARE mental health learning campaign partnership

It is with great pride that we announce our WeCARE partnership with AON Australia and New Zealand. As many of you would know I have been striving to improve employee mental health and resilience for over 10 years. Just over two years ago I met eLearning expert Brenden Carter and we Co-Founded FactorC – a […]

Bushfires, mental health, and selfcare – some useful resources

I had a heartbreaking phone call on Monday. A really caring and community-minded woman from the NSW South Coast explained why things were so desperate. In her town, there were still 420 people living in an evacuation centre. Many were dairy farmers who had lost their houses, were without electricity, and many of their cows […]

My Toughest Resilience Gig Ever – And What I Learned

(My sister Sue introducing Kate Middleton to a Bear Cottage family) Can you imagine losing a child? It is my greatest nightmare. My sister Sue (who I am immensely proud of), is a Nursing Unit Manager at Bear Cottage. This Sydney organisation helps provide support and care for terminally ill children and their families. Sue […]

How To Change When Change Sucks – Part 1

I think we all secretly say “this sucks” when change is thrust upon us – as it often is. In recent months I’ve been working with many people from the financial services, software, and telecommunication sectors. Here’s what they’re reporting: “We must launch a new service in 3 months which realistically would take 6 months […]

Why gratitude is gold for you and your business

Two weeks ago we farewelled my son Adam and his lovely girlfriend Annalise on their 7 month journey through Europe and Asia. I am enormously proud of them as they completed their first year of university, deferred, set a goal, worked like dogs, and finally set off on an amazing adventure. It brought back wonderful […]

The surprising cost of workplace rudeness

In a startling HBR article by Christine Porath and Christine Pearson called The Price of Incivility they reveal that over 50% of the 14,000 employees they surveyed had experienced rudeness or disrespect in the last week. This represented a substantial increase over the last 14 years they have been monitoring workplace civility. What is even […]

What the Boss taught me about purpose, passion, and positive strengths

Bruce Springsteen in ConcertOK I’m old, and confess I’ve been a Bruce Springsteen fan for over 30 years. I’ve loved his music and lyrics, and his ability to stay at the top of a very volatile business prone to fads (as Gangnam style chalks up 1.3 billion YouTube views!!). Despite this, until this Monday I […]

Top 10 resilience and mental health workplace issues for 2013

In February 2013 we asked people from my database and LinkedIn to rate the value of 30 potential resilience and mental health topics for them this year. Thank you to those who answered the survey. These were the top 10: Sustaining behavior change which enhances wellbeing Assisting employees to identify and develop their strengths Lifting […]