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
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
Most of us are always learning in some way: to build our knowledge, master a new tech tool, or to boost our presentation skills for example. Beyond the workplace, we might be learning a new language or trying to improve our technique in our preferred sport. As adults, we learn differently to young children, who… Read more
Reflection is essential to make sense of our everyday lived experiences. Without reflection, we’re doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over. Reflection helps us process our experiences, thoughts and feelings; we can spot patterns of behaviour that may be helpful or unhelpful. With methodical reflection we can begin to plan new and more… Read more
It’s no surprise to this reader that ‘Optimize Your Strengths’ comes with endorsements by some pretty big hitters, such as Facebook, BNP Paribas, the London School of Economics – and an Olympian. Both the book and its theoretical foundations are being adopted by employers big and small. This is a slim volume and an easy… Read more
1. What’s your understanding of ‘coaching’? Maybe you know someone who’s worked with a professional coach; it may have been on an aspect of their personal life, or to focus on their performance and success at work. As the ‘coachee’ (clunky word, but we know what it means) told you how it was working for… Read more
It’s great when participants on Zoomly’s ‘How to coach your people’ workshop start to see the difference they can make when they add a coaching approach to their toolkit. They experience the power of switching from being in ‘tell’ mode all the time to ‘ask’ mode. Indeed they can get a bit evangelical and want… Read more
I recently listened to an interesting podcast on BBC’s ‘The Bottom Line’ series entitled ‘Lonely at the top?’ Evan Davis hosted a discussion with an executive coach and two senior executives: one who’s worked with a mentor, another who at various times has worked with an executive coach. Unsurprisingly, there was a chunk of time… Read more
We will keep your details safe.