My business is seven this week. I have been a business owner for seven years! Me! Yes, me! An entrepreneur. A female entrepreneur. I have a thing about proving myself as a female business owner – I don’t know where that came from, but I knew right from the start that I wanted to be
Tag: developing people
My writing journey
Given my recent award for a series of articles in Coaching at Work (links at the bottom of this post), I thought you might be interested in how I got here. How I got to being an award-winning writer. Gosh, that sounds grand. I need and want to own that – I am an award-winning
Coaching, training or mentoring?
I often have to explain that coaching is not the same as mentoring, training or counselling. I thought it might be useful to take a step back and reflect on the differences between various forms of capability development options, and their different uses.
How was Two-Day?
Do share in the comments box how your conversations went on Two-Day. How does it feel to have closed that conversation gap? If you didn’t get the chance to have the conversation on Two-Day itself, there’s still all the time in the world….and yet, there isn’t. What I mean is that the longer you leave
Today is Two-Day: time to fill that conversation gap
So it’s time to have that conversation that you’ve been putting off. Time to hold yourself and your supervisor or career counsellor accountable for higher standards. But if you can’t have the conversation today, don’t make that an excuse not to have it. These conversations must happen if we are to feel better engaged, and
Fill that conversation gap: Two-Day Storybird
Just one day until Two-Day (22/2/2012). In celebration, and as a reminder for you, Bob and I created this Storybird, a short electronic picture-book to encourage you to fill that conversation gap. I’m really proud of it; I hope it inspires you to schedule a conversation – either with those working for you, or with
Trust and the conversation gap
We’ve been talking about conversation gaps, and using Two-Day (22/2/2012) to fill those conversation gaps. If you’ve missed the previous blogs about this, catch up here: What will you do to celebrate Two-Day What is a Conversation Gap? Which conversations are most “gappy”? One of the reasons that there may be a gap in
What is a Conversation Gap?
Before I dig in to conversation gaps, a quick update on Katy. Thank you to everyone for your well wishes; your compassion was much appreciated. I am relieved to tell you that she has a calcium deposit under her tongue, which is harmless. No further action needed. Thank goodness. It takes these incidences to remind
What will you do to celebrate Two-Day
The 22nd day of the 2ndmonth 2012 is almost upon us. Two-Day. What will you do to celebrate? May I make a suggestion? It takes two to tango, so they say. It also takes two to have great conversations. People with conversation gaps are 280% more likely to say they intend to leave an organization.
Sick with worry
My gorgeous, eldest bloodhound Katy has just left the house to go to the vet for a biopsy on a lump under her tongue. I am sick to the bottom of my stomach. The vet assures us it probably isn’t cancer as she’s so young, but I can’t help being anxious…and not just about the
How to feel valued as a manager when delegation and coaching means there are less tasks for you to do
A manager’s job is not to DO all the DOING, but to delegate more and more downwards. Lots of good reasons for this: your people learn how to do more they feel challenged; and as a result, more fulfilled decisions are pushed down the pyramid, freeing you up to make the tougher decisions that involve
Coaching virtually
Almost all of the coaching I do is virtual, and in many cases, I have never even met my coachee face-to-face. So it can be done! Here’s how… The skills – contracting, ethics, powerful questions, listening, trust, intimacy, and presence, direct communication, designing actions and planning and goal-setting, and managing progress and accountability – are
Coaching a career counselee vs coaching a direct report
Today’s post revisits the subject of how to coach a career counselee/mentee vs coaching a direct report. The difference is in the focus, rather than the skills. The skills – contracting, ethics, powerful questions, listening, trust, intimacy, and presence, direct communication, designing actions and planning and goal-setting, and managing progress and accountability – are exactly
What’s the evidence that coaching pays back?
I’m often asked for proof that coaching is worth investing in. Bersins and Associates offer the following statistics, which give a good business case: “Organizations in which senior leaders “very frequently” coach had 21 percent higher business results. Further, organizations with “excellent” cultural support for coaching had 13 percent stronger business results and 39 percent
Creating Insight
Creating insight for yourself and others is the main function of a supervisor. Discuss! I read an interesting article on this subject of insight a while back, called “The Eureka Hunt” by Jonah Lehrer. I’d like to propose that instead of trying to do so many tasks themselves, the supervisor should delegate more, freeing up
A poem about listening
Please, just listen. When I ask you to listen to me, and you start giving advice, you have not done what I asked. When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why I shouldn’t feel that way, you are
