– When listening to him I just shook my head, left the room and started looking for a new job. We have all had managers about whom we have said similar things. But if there is one thing that has become clear to me over the years it is how difficult the role of manager is. So it can be interesting to contemplate what determines success in managerial roles. One study reveals that 70 per cent of success is down to training, and 30 per cent is due to inherited qualities. These pe

Sometimes I read or hear something that is so perfectly well worded that I wish I had come up with it myself. In a coaching session my client described her professional philosophy to me. It applies to every single person in a workplace, but I think it is even more applicable to leadership. It goes like this: Don’t take things personally and understand why you are at work. I was exhilarated when I heard this statement, which may be the most succinct summary I have ever heard o

– Because he doesn’t deserve it! The moment my client uttered these taboo words the problem was basically solved. The course of events that had led me to this point caused me to reflect on how I view leadership development and coaching. For the most part I consider my role is not to tell the client anything new. Instead my contribution is more often than not to identify restraining forces. And that’s because when the client understands what is holding them back they can start

Today I want to talk about a manager whose sparking reputation became a burden. To put the story into context I first need to establish a psychological concept – namely cognitive bias. For those of you who have not come across this term before, cognitive bias is a psychological pattern that results in a person's subjective image of the world around them deviating from reality. Any good psychologist should be aware of their own biases and thanks to a triple digit number of hou

When was the last time you discussed your shame? Today I’m going to discuss mine. During a fascinating seminar I was attending on the concept of shame, I got firsthand experience of how shame restrained me. Following an introductory lecture we were asked to reflect on what we had heard. After being divided into groups of five, each group got the opportunity to talk while the others listened. I was in the last group and heard lots of interesting points and wanted to comment on

Have you ever had a conversation and truly felt like you were being listened to and taken seriously? Then there’s a good chance that the person you were speaking to had used one or more of the methods I’m going to explain below. The reason why I’m addressing this topic is that I recently had a coaching client who was afraid of being perceived as someone uninterested in other people's feelings and opinions. The truth, of course, was that she is interested but wondered how she

Imagine you are sitting on a motorcycle and revving the engine while applying the brakes on the front wheel. The rear wheel keeps spinning but the motorcycle is not going anywhere. To move forwards, would you keep the brakes on and rev the engine even more, or would you ease off the brakes? If you chose the latter option, you have just embraced the principles of force-field analysis. The method in a nutshell: In relation to a goal, there are driving forces and there are restr