Well, did you have champagne, roses and romantic cards for Valentine’s Day last week? Followed by unexpected thoughtful gestures for Random Acts of Kindness Day? Valentine’s Day isn’t really my thing and I had an interesting experience with Random Acts of Kindness a few years ago, which put me off that day a bit too! Here’s the reason. A few years ago, I came across the idea of Random Acts of Kindness and really liked it. It wasn’t the actual day ...
I missed posting this article last week; I was ‘bubbling’ with my niece, helping with her three-year old toddler and four-month-old baby, neither of whom seem to find that sleeping (either day or night) is a requirement. Once again, hats off to every parent of young children in this lockdown situation. What a tough gig. Back to my rather quieter office this week so let’s get to work with a bit of mathematics. Which of the following questions can you ...
It’s almost 30 years since “Coaching for Performance” by Sir John Whitmore catapulted coaching into the leadership psyche. Before that, coaches were found in the sports arena, not the Boardroom. It’s a good book and its impact endures – there’s a very strong chance you have used Whitmore’s GROW coaching model. There are spin-offs too – there’s TGROW and there’s GROWER and there’s GROWLER (actually, I don’t think there is a GROWLER, but I like the sound of it 😁). Coaching ...
I guess we start this year with optimism and yet less certainty than we would normally do. I know most of my friends are much more likely to say ‘If I can…’ rather than ‘I intend to…’ when it comes to personal plans and projects. 2020 was a stark reminder of both how resourceful and how powerless we are as individuals and as humanity. So, within this ongoing unusual context, I wish you all the very best for 2021. Over ...
It’s Annual Performance Review time of year again for many organisations. APRs are amongst those conversations that everyone involved should welcome because of the value they bring. Instead, far too often people dread them. In fact, according to a 2019 Gallup report ‘only 14% of employees strongly agree their performance reviews inspire them to improve. In other words, if performance reviews were a drug, they would not meet FDA approval for efficacy.’ Now, if I were to ask you to list ...
CommsMasters Insights The prospect of ‘giving feedback’ can make even the most confident of leaders stumble over their words or struggle to articulate what needs to be said. A recent Gallup poll found that 69% of senior managers have difficulty communicating, and 37% find it hard to give negative feedback. [1] In our experience, issues with feedback don’t just arise where a leader needs to communicate what isn’t going well – it can also be hard to tell someone they ...