We bought Smithy House, Langshaw, which is situated deep in the Scottish Borders countryside, when I was a mere stripling, aged 25, and it has rewarded us with thirty years of extraordinary family living. Originally the house had belonged to the local blacksmith (hence Smithy House) who had stopped working back in the late 50’s. The remarkable coincidence is that my own grandfather was a blacksmith – as had six generations before him – so there is a deeper resonance for me living here than simply enjoying the home as a place to stay.

So when I first had the idle thought about being involved in leadership development as a new career – which was probably 15 years ago – I daydreamed that much of my work could be undertaken from my home, where individuals would come to Smithy House to work with me.

As we are all aware reality has an unfortunate tendency to squash such careless dreams, so it is with some relief and amazement that here I am, a decade and half on, reflecting upon a dream come true.

So over the last few years I’ve been informally inviting leaders and colleagues to my home to spend time with me to explore aspects of their own leadership journey. A key part of that process has been the opportunity to go for a walk in our local wood. I’ve built this practice up over the years but it has only now evolved into a central feature of how I formally work with leaders.

It has been a joy over the last few years to welcome senior leaders to my home for an entire day to help them to identify, develop and accumulate those marginal leadership gains that are the key differentiators between outstanding and exceptional leadership.

Without any doubt the highlight and lynchpin of those days has been the walk in the woods. There’s definitely something about walking through woodland that allows a conversation to grow and evolve in a natural and unrestricted manner – than would be the case were we facing each other over a table in an office.

Such has been the success of these days is that I’ve decided to reserve 40 days over the course of the year to work with leaders on a one-to-one basis, with a walk in the woods a highlight of that experience.

I am a lucky man!