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

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

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

  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

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

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 we… 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

It’s depressingly well documented that when a woman makes demands, challenges the status quo and generally speaks up, there is often a backlash from those around her. And that backlash isn’t just from men; there’s a great deal of research supporting the dismal view that both men and women penalise the woman who dares to… Read more

Image by Ron Harvey/Deposit Photos The ‘10,000 hours’ theory often comes up when I’m running workshops and the discussion turns to practising and applying learning back at the day job. Many participants have read or heard of Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘Outliers: The Story of Success’ (2008), or Matthew Syed’s ‘Bounce: The Myth of Talent and The… Read more

Image by vectorlab (Pavlo Syvak) Ouch, that’s a tough one. If it’s any consolation, you’re not alone. Yes really, many of us (me included) have had a stinky review or two. Sending you a virtual hug now. Take a few deep breaths. Don’t do anything rash. Stop and think – and consider these prompts that… Read more