Stephen Covey relays a story in his book “7 Habits of Highly effective People” about how important it is to put the big rocks in life front and centre. In his analogy the big rocks are family, friendship, health, projects that will move you forward etc and the pebbles are the minutiae of life – […]
Make sure you have space in life for your big rocks. Read More »
I overheard part of a conversation in a shop last week, between a customer and member of staff. The customer was irritated that the price he was charged was higher than the price on the signage and he wanted the shop assistant to know what had happened. The assistant’s response was to leap to a
Why it isn’t their job to understand? Read More »
If you had some negative feedback to impart to a colleague, we were told to dress it up with something pleasant. So, you would find a couple of positive elements and then sandwich the negative comment in between. Imagine you thought a team member’s presentation was pretty good but that the slides they had created
How not to give feedback and what to do instead Read More »
You know what you’re doing and why but does everyone else? Have you ever felt you appear to be speaking another language? You tell someone what’s needed and yet when you come back it’s not even close to what you expected? Is it that everyone you’re talking to just doesn’t “get” it … or could
Do you give good instructions? Do others know what you mean? Read More »
This month we are delighted to have a guest blog from our friends at Action Coach West Hertfordshire. You can count on them to ask you great questions about what you are doing and more importantly WHY you are doing it? In this article they have included lots of food for thought and questions to
Are you a creative or reactive leader? Read More »
One of the major complaints I hear about Zoom meetings is that they can be quite confrontational. A bit like constantly attending a panel interview where you are eyeballing, and being eyeballed, by everyone in the room (including yourself)! However, the benefits of Zoom include things such as being able to see everyone at the
Where should you speak from in a meeting? Read More »
A client was recently complaining that she had heard that one of her team was calling in sick when she wanted a free day’s holiday. A few years back I received a mailing that had obviously been sent by a disgruntled employee or freelancer. It told me that the person running the company was everything
If something goes wrong, are you talking to your team enough? Read More »
At a recent workshop I was approached by a delegate, who was both young and newly promoted, saying that she found it hard to tell her team what to do. She explained that she was now managing her friends and cohort, some of whom had applied for the job she had been given. This lady
Becoming the boss of your mates. Read More »
There has been a lot of discussion about inequality in the papers recently and the impact of unconscious bias. We are all a combination of our own background, environment and personal experiences and these influence our decision making and our biases. Some of these biases we may be very aware of and can relate directly
How good are your decisions? Read More »
I read an email from a contact yesterday and it came across as really rude! Part of that was their choice of words but most of it was down to where I had put the emphasis in the last sentence. The way that we use our tone of voice is a really important part of
Using Emphasis To Change Meaning Read More »
