Practical tips. Prompts to get you thinking. The odd rant.

I’ve been on both sides of this experience. As the employee, I’ve felt the dejection when something I’ve worked hard at gets the ‘red pen treatment’, i.e. nothing but fault-finding and critical feedback, ‘must try harder’. Yet as a manager, I’ve also felt the frustration at having to explain something again – and again. And… Read more

  At this time of year I have many conversations with people about helping them to a) set their goals for the year and b) stay on track for getting them. Often I find that setting the goals is the easier bit – we’re all pretty good at coming up with a list of what… Read more

A question I sometimes hear from participants in Zoomly’s workshops is ‘How can I convince someone to step up?’ When we explore this it’s often the case that the person in question seems to lack confidence – even though their manager sees them as very capable. For example, they: Seek approval for every step of… Read more

I’ve been having some interesting discussions about mentoring recently, advising companies, mentors and mentees on the why and how of the process. If you’re thinking about becoming a mentor, check out my post ‘So you want to be a mentor?’ What if you’re about to become the ‘mentee’ (clunky word, but at least it’s clear… Read more

A tricky question and one that has tripped up many of us. Here’s some advice, based on words of wisdom I’ve read, heard about, or been fortunate enough to hear. Tread carefully ‘When will I get promoted?’ might not be the best way to start the conversation. There’s an assumption of ‘when’ not ‘if’; a… Read more

  You may well be thinking, “Really? Why should I bother!?” – and you may have a point. After all, things change: unpredictable events, unforeseen outcomes and unintended consequences. Life happens. On some level, we know that looking back is an essential step to moving forward. Yet we can give ourselves too many excuses to… Read more

Poor you, that doesn’t sound good. Yet what strikes me most is that you believe you’re stuck. Who says you must stick around and can’t leave? I wonder if you’re finding your present situation so tough you’re struggling to find ways through, around or out of it. If that’s the case, possibilities may not spring… Read more

I often work with groups or individuals on goal-setting. It may be as part of the annual appraisal (yes, there’s a Zoomly bite-sized workshop for that), 1:1 conversations about development and progress, or a coaching conversation. Within the work context, I think it’s a bit simpler to set goals, because when it’s done right, there… Read more

Whenever I lead Zoomly’s ‘How to coach your people’ workshop, there are a few things we need to clear up early on. For starters, what coaching is – and isn’t (for example, mentoring, counselling, consulting to name a few). After that, a perfectly reasonable question always comes up: When on earth am I supposed to… Read more

Sometimes people ask me this question in the same way I’d imagine they ask their friends if they should get a tattoo. Just because your friend’s got one, just because you’ve read a bit about it, and just because they’re out there doesn’t mean you should get a mentor. Not until you can articulate two… Read more