blog: news and opinion

Teams, listening and connection

9th December 2013

Leaders are sometimes solitary and lonely figures, disconnected from their team . Leaders who who listen to their teams see in return greater engagement, better retention rates and bigger, more long-lasting results.

Extremes of uncertainty in coaching

29th November 2013

Lindsay's article on extremes of uncertainty in coaching has been published in Coaching at Work magazine, November-December 2013 issue. The article explores what works when clients find themselves adrift, or when the foundations of their careers or their lives have seemed to disintegrate.

Optimism: a route to high performance

11th November 2013

Humans tend to overestimate the likelihood of positive events, and underestimate the likelihood of negative events. Optimists work harder and longer hours than pessimists, which may account for their higher pay - and optimism has been linked to achievement in education, business, sport and electoral politics. This doesn't seem to fit with our society's tendency to drive for perfectionism, condemn mistakes, and focus on what's gone wrong.

Resilience, the bottom line and Ordinary Magic

30th September 2013

Research has shown that engaged organisations experienced 11.74% quarterly revenue growth compared to a 6.30% decline in revenue at organisations with less engagement - and resilience helps build engagement. resilience is often the backdrop to my executive coaching, Success isn’t about travelling a smoother road but rather about climbing out of the pothole and bouncing back – and the key to being able to do that isn’t just to keep going, but to keep learning. Also relevant is the work of Ann Masten, on Ordinary Magic: children’s resilience is linked to: connection with competent and caring adults, cognitive and self-regulation skills, positive views of the self, and motivation to be effective - just like leaders in many ways.

Article on coaching that's free of the coach's ego

26th September 2013

When I’ve been truly present, when I’m delivering a deep level of listening, when I’m in a relationship of ‘connected separateness’ with my executive coaching clients - without an attachment to the coaching objectives, albeit holding those objectives in focus - the quality of their development and transformation has sometimes been startling.

Self-awareness: the heart of executive coaching

9th September 2013

My belief is that leadership is about creating momentum for a better world by inspiring and engaging other people: in other words, enabling human flourishing. If leaders are to get things done through other people they need to create and nurture trusting, vibrant relationships, to inspire with a vision, to persuade and energise, and to engage with other people’s perspectives. This ability to connect with others is crucially dependent on the ability to connect with self: to become aware of one’s own behaviours and thinking, drivers and blockers. Equipping a client to become deeply self-aware is at the heart of executive coaching.

Chaos and organisational life

19th August 2013

In the chaos and confusion that sometimes is the hallmark of life at work, while their organisations are demanding big results, what leaders really need is the simplicity and peace to know who they are and that they have the resources to sustain and nourish themselves.

Creativity, innovation and leadership

29th July 2013

David Bowie, pop artist and visual artist, was a creative and innovative pioneer. The leaders we need in our turbulent and fast-changing climate likewise value experimentation, creativity and innovation, they read the market and the system, and they have the courage to pioneer.

Career refocus: stepping off the treadmill

8th July 2013

Several of my executive coaching clients feel like they're on a treadmill, stressed and under pressure. And yet it's exceptional for any of them to choose to get off the treadmill. Instead, they make career decisions based on a fuller sense of awareness, within a context of well thought-through perspectives, rather than being based on emotion, stress, exhaustion or just not seeing broader horizons

Development and transformation as coaching outcomes

24th June 2013

Development is the release of more of an individual's potential and transformation is a fundamental shift in thinking, feeling or behaving. In my experience the shift is often around a previously unresolved issue that an individual has kept carefully guarded for a very long time. When they make their peace with that old issue in a transformational way, the change sticks and the chances are higher that they will become a transformational leader.