Coaching and mentoring gets a lot of publicity, to the point that one could believe success is not possible without a personal coach or mentor.
The word ‘mentor’ comes from Greek mythology. In Homer’s Odyssey, Mentor was a friend of Odysseus. When Odysseus went off to the Trojan Wars, he left his son Telemachus in the [...]

When it comes to communicating about feelings, it is noticeable how most people operate in one or other of two modes.
Most of the time, they do not share their feelings. You never quite know what they are really thinking, or where you stand with them. You get hints in their non-verbal behaviour or in humorous [...]

‘I can see how this works – but it’s difficult for me. I’m from the old school – it’s either right or it’s wrong. Somebody either performs properly – or you discipline them.’
The speaker was a man in his fifties who was trying hard to get his mind around the idea of Win Win conversations [...]

I’ve been thinking about the week that was and the reactions of participants on my workshops to the Straight Talk process. I’ve been thinking about the patterns of behaviour that I commonly see, and how they affect the ability of people to hold effective conversations that get results and at the same time build better [...]

It starts like this.
‘We need your help. Sam is not performing, seems demotivated, doesn’t follow instructions and has become quite surly toward everyone. Can you come in as a coach to find out what is wrong and to help improve the situation.’
Sam could be anyone at all: an expensive graduate with potential, someone nearing retirement, [...]

They sent me on the training course
They didn’t make it clear
They haven’t come back to me
They didn’t do it right the first time
They never answer the phone
I have heard all of these statements this week. It’s been quite a week! They seem to be everywhere, messing up our lives as usual. They have a lot [...]

One manager I’ve seen recently uses the all too familiar tell or authoritarian style with her team. She knows it all; what is wrong, who is at fault and exactly what they must do to fix it. She even knows what others think! In a meeting from which one of her people was absent, she [...]

I was reminded again this week of the many ways organisations can be incompetent.
I had been asked to help a manager whose staff were argumentative, surly and uncooperative. ‘There’s nothing I can do with them,’ he said. ‘They just don’t want to work!’ On the surface it looked as if this manager had indeed inherited [...]

Managing employee performance is all about managing inputs and outputs. That sounds easier that it is in practice.
It all seems to go wrong from the start – with agreement on outputs.
Jobs are created so that certain outputs will be delivered. If you deliver the output required by your job, you deserve to be rewarded. [...]

I’ve spent the last week talking about KPAs and competency frameworks with three different clients. Two have been with HR people who are trying to get acceptance for their performance appraisal processes. One has been with a line manager who is confused and frazzled by the whole thing.
Some things change. A lot of things stay [...]