According to Wikipedia an Auto-responder is ” a computer program that automatically answers e-mail sent to it. They can be very simple or quite complex.” A neat solution if it was just one machine communicating with another. However, what does it feel like to be a human receiving a message from an auto-responding programme? Practical?… Continue Reading
I’ve written in previous posts about how we should, as great coaches, aspire to empathise with people that we are working with but also about how difficult – nay, impossible? – it actually is to achieve in reality. You can’t put yourself in someone else’s shoes. You haven’t lived their lives, you haven’t been through… Continue Reading
Why would you bother with executive coaching? Let’s be truthful, the first thing most people ask when considering engaging in change is “What’s in it for me?”. The great news for you is that the answer to this question, is “Within reason, pretty much anything you want”. Results Great executive coaching is about generating change… Continue Reading
As a coach, I can spend two hours with a client and feel that for a high percentage of the time I am able to be fully ‘present’. I’m able to be fully with with them and also be aware of my own state. I’ve practised this mental endurance over the last twelve years to… Continue Reading
I have just settled down for a Flat White at a motorway service station on my way to lectures at University. At a nearby table are some students who look like they are going on a school trip for the day. They are happily chatting away, not a care in the world. Enter stage right,… Continue Reading
I wanted to take the chance to share more coaching information with you and bring together some of the key insights from the blog and some new thoughts too. I also wanted to offer you all of that in an easy format. So, I have taken some time to create “Please Mind the Gap: How… Continue Reading
Dan Pink is a writer who gets a lot of press and unlike many ‘popular’ writers his ideas do seem to be grounded in some research-based evidence. Here he shares his idea that we are all either in sales or ‘non-sales sales’ i.e. the art of influencing others. He deduced from the evidence three key… Continue Reading
Coaches ask questions as a key part of their approach to helping their clients. In this humorous and inspirational TED talk, Amanda Palmer, discusses asking for help from her fans. Her reasons for asking are, of course, quite different to those of a coach but perhaps less different from those of a manager and leader… Continue Reading
In my previous post I discussed the idea that being empathic – or empathetic if you prefer – and the challenges that can go with that. In summary I don’t think that 100% accurate empathy is possible but it is something we should aspire to. On Receive What about when you are one the receiving… Continue Reading
I was driving my daughter to school recently when I rather proudly announced to her that I had heard a tune by a band called Junior Doctor that I thought she might like. Like a trendy Dad that I am (ahem!) I plugged my iPhone into the car and played the song. My daughter’s reaction?… Continue Reading