Giving Constructive Feedback
(April 3) A comprehensive practical guide to giving feedback on workplace performance. Why, when, how, how much and in which order. Principles and guidelines applicable to all workplace relationships and to many elsewhere. Liberally illustrated with examples.
Subscribe to read »
Assumptions for Coaches and Coaching
(March 25) Every technique we apply to coaching is bound to reflect our underlying assumptions about it, the client and the wider context. Which are "right" assumptions are matters for you to determine; what's important is that you do establish them. Here I discuss the basic beliefs and assumptions I've distilled from my 25 years a coach. Use them to shed light on your own. Subscribe to read »
The Coaching Relationship & Rules of Engagement
(March 24) Coaching should be experienced as a forum within which coaching clients may free-associate in search of insights or drill-down systematically into their issues as they choose, knowing they will not be judged but helped to clarify and make sense of their thoughts, however disorganised, and plan to address them. This article sets out some of the prerequisites of the ideal relationship. Subscribe to read »
Methodical Coaching Practices
(March 24) This simple guide to the coaching process provides a dependable system and consistently constructive results. Detailed illustrations of its application are given, with suggestions on where to begin and how much coaching to provide. The essential and generic skills of workplace coaching are listed, emphasising the centrality of listening practices. Subscribe to read »
Planning Successful Meetings
(February 8) When a meeting begins with a vague plan capable of differing interpretations, whether or not what is done is relevant, important, right, or whether where, when and how it is approached it is appropriate, are matters open to confusion and irresolvable argument. That this is so often the case partially explains why meetings are amongst people's least preferred and organisations' most inefficient activities. The foundation of a successful meeting is a simple, methodical plan. Subscribe to read »
Responding to Criticism and Negative Feedback - [Revised and expanded]
(January 27) Criticism is feedback. It is often given in ways that are hard to listen to but it is still and only feedback - about someone's problem with aspects of our own behaviour or to do with their unawarely projecting on to us a judgement that is more honestly about their own unresolved personality. Although we may have a responsibility to listen to it, to help them clarify it and to understand or act on it, dealing constructively with criticism is a matter of first helping someone clarify their own problem before responding to it. These comprehensive guidelines make that easy-to-say advice, much easier to do. Subscribe to read »
Planning and Managing Improvement Initiatives
(January 22) Before launching an improvement initiative, work with your colleagues to identify the underlying assumptions you hold about continuous improvement. It's an uncommon approach, but one that can significantly limit the number of initiatives that end up in the organisational swamp. I've constructed a list of useful generic assumptions for this purpose, to help you start the process. In this article I also discuss other often-overlooked considerations for saving time and heartache with improvement (change) projects. Subscribe to read »
|
