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 [...]

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 [...]

Coaching, counselling, mentoring, one-on-ones; performance management, appraisal, review…I see managers spend enormous amounts of time talking to employees in an effort to help them improve their performance.
But with what results?
The logic starts with the assumption that there is an effective selection process in place that ensures people are placed in positions where they have the [...]