I’ve broken one of the unwritten rules of LinkedIn over the last couple of weeks.

I’ve posted about my Scandinavian trip… quite a lot, actually. 

Pictures of mountains, ferries, fjords and sunsets. I’ve written about sleeping in the back of a car, a flat battery in the middle of nowhere, climbing mountains, getting soaked, driving thousands of miles and occasionally having no idea what we were doing next.

And there will be some who think, “LinkedIn is for business. Keep the personal stuff for other channels!”

I’m not sure I agree. One thing I’ve learned over nearly three decades in business is that silos rarely make things better.

Some of our weakest periods were when teams became too separated. Sales from lettings. One branch from another. Management from the people doing the job. Some of our strongest came when we broke those barriers down. When people talked. Shared the good stuff and the difficult stuff. When we drove an unguarded culture. When we laughed and had fun together.

When we remembered that friendliness, openness and really, properly, getting to know the people you work with aren’t fluffy additions to business culture. They’re fundamental to it.

Our employee engagement scores regularly reached above 90%. We were incredibly proud of that. But that didn’t happen because people left their personalities at the door. Quite the opposite. We created a business where people could be people.

I’ve shared more of myself than I normally would. 

I’ve connected experiences back to business: resilience, planning, uncertainty, being comfortable with being uncomfortable and occasionally not knowing what’s around the next corner.

But I’ve also shared my life.

And the messages, comments and conversations have been fascinating. People seem to have enjoyed seeing the person as well as the businessman. 

Perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising.

I don’t want my work life and private life to exist in separate silos. I’m a dad. A husband. A friend. I’ve been a successful CEO and business owner. I’m also a guy who’ll happily sleep in the back of a car and cook dinner in the wilderness on a gas burner.

They’re not different people. They’re me… and if we’re going to work together, I’d quite like you to know me.

Because the more we understand one another, the more open we become. The more open we become, the stronger the relationship. And in my experience, great relationships are still at the heart of great businesses.

So, for anyone who thinks the 14 photographs below have no place on LinkedIn… I respectfully disagree. They’re entirely appropriate. Because business is personal. It always has been.

And if the last two weeks have reminded me of anything, it’s that I have absolutely no intention of putting guardrails around being human.

Thanks to everyone who has followed my Scandinavian adventure. Here are 14 of my favourite photos.

Normal business service will resume shortly… Although perhaps not quite as normal as before.