One of the characteristics of great coaches and great places to work is that they have Fizz and Buzz. Fizz is the enjoyment people get out of the tasks they do. Buzz is the enjoyment from the people around them as they do those tasks. Playfulness, good humour and laughter are three closely related functions (more…)
Research that suggests this is more than a hypothetical question comes from a variety of sources. One of the most powerful is the set of studies by Kathleen Vohs, associate professor of marketing at the Carlson School of Management of the University of Minnesota. These studies show that just thinking about money causes people to...
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Some 30 years ago as a young management writer, my role model was Peter Drucker. I only met him a few times, the last being in a small group seminar. At one point, in that heavy German accent and with a twinkle in his eye, he told us that one of the benefits of being a management guru was that, if you were stuck for a statistic,...
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“Which is more important to you in building and maintaining your reputation – fitting in or standing out from the crowd?” It’s an unusual question for coaches and mentors to ask, but it can be very helpful in understanding what motivates a client towards or away from different choices. Human beings are typically motivated by...
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The three-way conversation between coach, client and the client’s boss, is commonplace in coaching. Sometimes also involving HR, it provides a valuable opportunity to clarify agendas, establish the support needed from the boss, and improve the direct report-boss relationship. Yet in the context of mentoring, this conversation is typically seen as one to be avoided...
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Read More The three-way conversation in coaching and mentoring
Why would successful coaches want to join the growing ranks of professional mentors? One of the big distinctions historically between coaching and mentoring has been that coaching is generally paid for, while mentoring is a voluntary activity. As a consequence, professional coaches are expected to have invested in some form of professional accreditation requiring a...
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All the coaching professional bodies in Europe and many bodies in other continents require coaches to have supervision. Few corporate buyers of coaching in Europe would hire a coach, who did not have a high level of formal qualification and regular, professional supervision. So why isn’t the same expected of mentors? The traditional response has (more…)
Mentoring for disadvantaged young people can be divided into a start and five phases: 1. Commitment. 2. The Clarification Phase 3. The Confidence Phase 4. The Instruction Phase 5. The Maturation Phase 6. The Concluding Phase The phases are not of identical duration. The confidence phase, the instruction phase and the maturation phase occupy most...
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Two articles in the latest issue of Harvard Business Review (September 2014) provide food for thought about developing talent in a multi-cultural organization. One, by Tarun Khanna, explores the concept of “contextual intelligence”. His studies indicate that: One of the classic examples I encountered of this phenomenon at work was a US-based multinational, which told...
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As a line manager, one of your principal responsibilities is to develop your direct reports. Coaching and mentoring are two of the most powerful and well-publicized ways to support other people’s develop – but how do they work best in the context of a work team? Whatever approach you take to developing direct reports, it’s...
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