opinion

I’m approaching the end of the 30 Day Challenge, run by Screw Work Let’s Play. The idea is that participants set themselves a challenging project to fulfil in 30 days (and each person’s challenge has to be something they’re passionate about, they’re involved in personally and that serves other people in some way). This online programme itself provides challenge and support, as well as an online community. My project has been to get started on this blog – and to maintain it after the 30 days!

About half way into the programme, participants were asked to express their core messages – the messages that underlie what we do, who we are and what we want the world to hear. My core message is ‘Connect’ – make relationships and nurture them. When two (or more!) people connect, they care enough to hear what’s going on for the other person without judging it, pre-empting, advising or interrupting: they just listen. Out of that apparently simple interaction new perspectives, insights and solutions can emerge.

That really is the essence of my work and indeed my life beyond work. It underlies the trust that makes it possible for a client to confront tough issues about themselves and their own challenges. And it underlies my belief about the importance of respecting each person as an individual, and recognising that they have their own styles, preferences, and aspirations.

None of us really knows what’s best for another person (much as we often like to share our advice). I believe fervently – and clients tell me – that the difference I make is in connecting with them in such a way that I open doors and windows through which they see the possibilities and solutions they can create for themselves, and in being beside them, non-judgmentally, as they discover the resources they already have to make things happen. So they become more of who they are already: Eureka!

Photo by Adam Foster via Compfight

Connect!

My core message is ‘Connect’ – make relationships and nurture them. When people connect, they care enough to hear what’s going on for the other person without judging it, pre-empting, advising or interrupting: they just listen. Out of that apparently simple interaction new perspectives, insights and solutions can emerge.

The other side of the development coin

A humorous short video on the perils implicit in development professionals 'knowing what's good for their clients'.

The S-curve

The S curve, developed by Dr Peter Robertson, is a model of organisational development. To survive in the long-term, organisations need to jump from the stage of squeezing out efficiencies and closing down the old business model to starting again with designing a new future.

United Nations launches International Happiness Day

Higher GDP doesn't make people happy. Does being happy enable higher GDP? Does it enable more productivity, creativity and engagement in your organisation? And does being unhappy or stressed diminish your organisation's GDP?

The crazy ones

"The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do."

Trust at work

Leaders who trust their people, and who are trusted, tend to be rewarded with engagement, motivation, discretionary effort, creativity, retention, integrity and better decision-making. Look to the NHS for some examples of trust that's missing.

Throwing light on the coaching journey

“Visible reality is only a small crumb of what's really out there". 'Light Show' at the Hayward Gallery in London illuminates the coaching relationship as enabling the coaching client to see their challenges and their options with greater clarity.

Obvious to you, amazing to others

Obvious to You, Amazing to Others‘ is an engaging little 98-second cartoon about the value of not underestimating your creative talents: to you they’re normal and everyday, but to others they may be exceptional, exciting and inspiring. Thank you to the 30 Day Challenge, run by Screw Work Let’s Play, for alerting me to this. It’s an energetic programme, supporting and challenging participants to stop just thinking about or talking about what they love doing – and to start taking some action.

The coach's presence - and the leader's results

Simply by being there, in the room with the client, as coach or therapist or consultant, we impose our ego – whether by directing the conversation via the next question we ask, offering an interpretation, offering a particular exercise or experiment, or picking up on this or that point that the client makes. In the process of building a co-created relationship, how can we not get in the client's way?

The leader, executive coaching - and lack of ego

One of the foundation stones of executive coaching is the need for the coach (and the coaching) to be ‘ego-free’ (or at least ‘ego-minimised’). If the coaching client is going to achieve meaningful and lasting results, the coach has to get out of the way: they need to open doors (and windows) but the executive’s success will be what they create for themselves.

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