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 >>
Category: Blog
That tricky question of ‘polish’ in career coaching
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 >>
Being merciful about Boris
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 >>
Following the coaching rule book: yes or no?
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 >>
Coaching going nowhere? Could hidden trauma be the problem?
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 >>
Safeguarding, whistleblowing, #MeToo – and coaching
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 >>
Beware Diet Books with False Promises!
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 >>
Managing pain after surgery
I am recovering from knee surgery. Two weeks ago tomorrow I had a patello-femoral implant in each knee. Everyone tells you that it will be painful, and it is, and that recovery will be slow, and it is. I am having skilled physiotherapy and that is helping to get me mobile again, though slowly. Codeine … Read the rest >>
How to Survive People who treat you Like Dirt
I’ve just read Robert Sutton’s excellent book The Asshole Survival Guide and I heartily recommend it.
Yes, it’s a vulgar title and I can imagine the fights he had with his publishers over it. And maybe it’s a little less shocking than the British version of the a-word. But really there is no other word … Read the rest >>
A compass point in the wilderness: coaching with personality type
The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a popular psychometric tool used in personal, professional and team development. Jenny Rogers demonstrates its effectiveness in coaching and argues that knowing our preferences can be a useful starting point for self-acceptance and transformational change in our personal and professional relationships.
To read the rest of this article, … Read the rest >>
Theresa May and the Perils of Introversion
When you ask people how they define introversion, the most probable reply is that an introvert is a neurotically shy person terrified of other people and at an enormous disadvantage compared with the audacious swagger of the natural extrovert. If you are familiar with the Jungian approach to personality, as exemplified for instance in the … Read the rest >>
Can coaches ‘make’ clients change?
When I opened the email – and I had certainly never heard of the sender – I saw that it promised me something amazing. If I signed up to a particular training course, I could learn ten questions which would guarantee that my clients would change! Really, truly, they would not be able to help … Read the rest >>