When you coach, or use a coaching style to lead and manage people, how often do you stop to consider the purpose of your questions? For example, do you ever find yourself asking a particular question because: you’re engrossed in the story (content, characters, drama) and keen to find out more, or you want to…
Changes in the coaching market continue apace (The two-hour coaching session’s a thing of the past). The demand for half-hour sessions is burgeoning, offering affordable coaching to a greater number of – often time-poor – individuals. Advantages and challenges of these shorter sessions include: Advantages Affordability and accessibility. Whether spreading an organisational coaching investment amongst…
Empowering, delegating and supporting your team members to learn, take on more responsibility and increase their contribution is an aspiration that leaders and managers don’t always quite fulfil. I am often asked – by those working to integrate a coaching approach to their leadership – questions like ‘When to coach rather than direct?’, ‘When…
In these challenging times how do we stay energised and enthused about work, job searches, education or much else? There’s much talk of how pleased people will be to see the end of 2020, yet in truth, come January 1st, nothing much will have changed. Of course there’s some optimism that vaccines will open up…
Coaching in an organisational context has evolved and developed in many ways over the last two decades. Two of the leading trends as we entered 2020 were the impact of technology, with more coaching sessions taking place by video conference than in-person*, and an uptake in Leader as Coach training. Clearly the use of online…
When thoughts and feelings are expressed through words, what’s revealed is often a whole lot more than we may be aware we are divulging. We intend our words to convey our opinions and concerns, to help us learn and teach, to manage and consult and to support or challenge others. And, by and large, where…
It’s that time of year when New Year’s resolutions begin to unravel. The days are short and cold, motivation drops and good intentions start to fade. In fact, today is Quitter’s Day, according to online App Strava who analysed nearly 100 million activities from January last year to conclude that 17th January is the day…
We have all been in meetings where we didn’t feel engaged. Maybe we weren’t listened to, or quite possibly didn’t even know why we were there. Time and again I hear people bemoan the fact that their meetings are not productive. The questions that form the Five-Minute Coach are all useful in everyday situations. Meetings…
So often in life when conversations come to a halt, people hold a tension around the resulting silence. The discomfort can compel us to speak, even when there is little to say. In many discussions, such silences never even appear, as the protagonists are so busy competing to get their points across that one person’s…
In many sectors career paths are not as clear as they once were. Organisations are flatter and the number of positions between division heads and CEOs has declined by 25%*. The route to the top is no longer likely to be a direct one. For Millennials it’s more a case of ascending a long spiral…