What we're thinking

When participants in Zoomly’s ‘How to communicate for clarity’ workshop pause to take a brief self-assessment, they often realise they default to one or two methods – which may not be the best for their message. Reassurance that they’re not alone is needed, and then we can get down to work. So first, let’s deal… Read more

Festivals. Melting rail tracks. Hosepipe bans. Thunderstorms. Must be summer. Note: Summer’s also a good time to update this post 🙂 I’ve added a few current links to boost some of the suggestions. When the days are long and it’s still light when we leave work, we can view life a little differently. There may… Read more

Poor you, that’s not a great position to find yourself in. First of all though, how on earth did you get here? Did your boss just wave, say ‘see ya later’ and disappear off to some beach? Or did you have an actual handover discussion before their holiday, where things were explained and you were… Read more

Around this time last year I created this post in response to requests from participants on Zoomly’s ‘Plan & prioritise’ and ‘Handle pressure’ workshops. It seemed to be popular so no apologies for updating it and reminding you how to handle email while you’re taking that well-earned holiday. With a big ‘Thank You’ to those participants… Read more

In Zoomly’s ‘How to negotiate’ workshop (co-created with ‘How to pay less for more’ author Marc Lockley), after participants have practised negotiating with each other, we debrief and ask for insights gained. One of the big ‘aha’ moments people report is the power of asking the right questions – and the perils of asking the… Read more

‘Happy sheets’ are so named because, by the end of a training session (if it’s been done right), participants are feeling good about things. When people have been asked to comment on what they enjoyed about the event, just before they leave the room, it’s no surprise to see praise and enthusiastic comments. ‘Great!’ ‘I… Read more

  Your colleague – maybe your best work buddy – just got promoted, and you didn’t. As well as feeling pleased for them, for some of us it’s natural to feel a pang of envy too. But don’t let this feeling get the better of you. Get jealous and it could sour an important working… Read more

I’ve written elsewhere – and of course in The Feedback Book – about the importance of getting feedback. We could all do with more feedback, so long as it’s of the considered, clear and actionable kind. We can also get feedback by practising self-review and reflection, to raise our awareness of how we did what… Read more

Often when I’m facilitating a workshop, particularly on topics that cover leadership, Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and our mental wellbeing, the subject of emotions comes up. Yet when I ask people to shout out some words for emotions, after ‘Happy’, ‘Angry’ and ‘Sad’ they can soon run out of ideas. Many of us seem to struggle… Read more

Here’s a round-up of psychology news, research, tips and comments that have caught my eye recently – I thought you might find them useful. As we emerge from a long weekend, there’s always someone who bemoans the UK’s stingy number of public holidays (see what I just did there?). England and Wales has 8 such… Read more