Over twenty-six years ago, my very first foray into the business world was on an assessment centre where I role-played a disgruntled customer in a meeting with the ‘CEO’ of a fictitious company. The senior executive (whose leadership skills were being assessed) dazzled with brilliant strategic solutions to my situation, and yet, I experienced him…
My client, Graham (not his real name), announced at the beginning of our session that he was sick of waking up each day focused on things that weren’t working well. He would obsess about all the aspects of his life that he wanted to be better—and that seemed to include most areas—such as his work,…
This research project set out to investigate if and how coaches actually respond to emotions that they and their clients have. They were also asked for their views about what have been the main influences on their orientation to emotions. In addition, the participants were asked about their perception of the boundary between coaching and…
Chapter 6: The theory of social defences has changed little since Menzies Lyth’s development of Jaques’ initial hypothesis. Yet despite its utility, the problem of bringing about organisation-level change in the contexts in which its use was originally intended has remained. Arguably this is because it prioritises the psychological dimension over the social causation and…
As we look into the future, it appears that non-statutory responsibilities will be the area that will be most demanding for those working in governance. Even now, the focus is changing from a reactive to a proactive approach, and from dealing with the past to planning for the future. More than ever, boards need to…
How often have you had these thoughts or heard your colleagues say, ‘No-one seems to want to take responsibility around here’, or ‘There’s not enough accountability for results’, or ‘I’m sick of people passing the buck and finding excuses for not performing their job properly’? We can all imagine how much more effective and easy…
People issues in the workplace can often be confusing, unpleasant and stressful to all concerned. Most of us have experienced situations where we have worked with a colleague who has a reputation for being ‘difficult’; or colleagues who seem to be in constant conflict with each other; or a team that is not functioning well…
Leadership requires emotional literacy and the ability to read the situations you are in. This is best learnt experientially. A powerful form of experiential learning for leadership – the Group Relations Model will be discussed. Everyone in business has learnt something about leadership. Yet how is leadership actually learnt and how effective are traditional learning…
Most of us have attended meetings or training programs during our working lives that have either bored or frustrated us, been far too long or were perceived as simply a waste of our time. Common experiences include unnecessary detail, dominating people, uninvolved participants or an agenda not followed, non-existent or irrelevant – the list goes…
Many people, it seems, have heard of the term, emotional intelligence. Books, courses and tests have been available in the area in increasing supply since around 1994. However, if you’re confused, sceptical or even downright ‘turned off’ the whole idea, it’s not surprising as there are some good reasons why this might be the case….
