David Bradford and Carole Robin, Penguin Life, 2021
It’s amazing how often the trail of what is good and lasting in social psychology leads back to the great Kurt Lewin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Lewin.) If you want proof of why leadership style influences performance, look to his classic action research with boys’ groups in the 1940s, … Read the rest >>
When the first lockdown was really biting in 2020, I was part of a coaches’ Zoom get-together. The overarching question was how the pandemic was affecting our income. Some coaches spoke despairingly about the way their training and facilitation work had vanished overnight. Many described the disappearance of most of their clients. Yet there were … Read the rest >>
A thoughtful participant on our recent coach training course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama raised this issue.
‘It feels as if sometimes it might be useful to say to a client that something similar has happened to me. But is it?’ In ordinary life we do create rapport with friends and … Read the rest >>
When your coaching is informed by learning about trauma, you will be able to elevate its value many times over.
The very word ‘trauma’ can strike coaches with horror. Isn’t this exactly the kind of territory that we are repeatedly warned to leave to highly trained therapists?
Well, yes and no.
First, let’s be clear … Read the rest >>
In a world where the supply of coaches exceeds the demand, the so-called ‘chemistry’ conversation is ever more important. Some organizations may even insist that their potential coachees meet or interview at least two coaches. But it’s so easy for this conversation to take a wrong turn. In my work as a supervisor I hear … Read the rest >>
Every now and then clients ask me for help on how to deal with intrusive comments about their health, or the health of a close family member. Typically the scenario is a very recent diagnosis of cancer. This is what works for people with cancer or other unpleasant conditions which invite unwanted sympathy and advice:… Read the rest >>
The BBC programme How to break into the elite https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000772n/how-to-break-into-the-elite asks good questions about why it is that so many of the most senior jobs still go to people from fee-paying schools. In one of the most telling interviews, Dr Louise Ashley, an expert in how social exclusion happens, explains that many employers prefer candidates … Read the rest >>
So, it’s Boris as Prime Minister.
This is despite sustained campaigns of vilification by so many people, including the Guardian, which ran piece after piece about his alleged sins and Channel 4 which did a whole programme on the same themes. I cannot remember any other prime ministerial candidate who has been subjected to this … Read the rest >>
My heart sinks.
Some providers of coaching qualifications are getting snippy about the rules. Now, for your recorded coach-client conversation to get accredited, you have to ask particular questions in a particular way, regardless, it seems of whether this is what the client needs.
I imagine the scene:
The coach is nervous. She is recording … Read the rest >>
Here are some common coaching scenarios from my own practice as a supervisor in the last year, all client details disguised:
Client A Is considering leaving his job abruptly with no alternative on the horizon. At their first session Client A describes a pattern of repeated sudden exits, sometimes triggered by him, sometimes by the … Read the rest >>
If you stand back and look at the revelations and accusations tumbling out of formerly beyond-reproach organizations you can see the same pattern, whether it is Oxfam, the Church, the BBC, the film industry, Parliament, local government – and many more. First there is the long silence where the abused dare not complain about the … Read the rest >>
As sure as the New Year brings a cabinet reshuffle it brings a truck load of diet books. There is always some science to justify the particular author’s approach and if they are a doctor the publisher will be extra delighted – look! An actual doctor has said this is the way to go!
But … Read the rest >>
