Burnout is a phenomenon we usually associate with individuals. It’s typically the result of long-term stress caused by an inability to get on top of challenges, such as increasing or overwhelming workload. When everyone within a team is experiencing similar stresses, they amplify the problem. When the whole organisation is in the same situation, the stress notches up even further.
The instinct to categorise and classify is one of the core characteristics of intelligence. It allows us to cope with complexity by creating patterns of connection that simplify decision-making. The downside is that it can easily also lead us to oversimplification. We tend to group people together by one or two characteristics, then over-emphasise characteristics that apply to only some people, who have those characteristics.
There’s no universal model of a board – it varies from country to country and from sector to sector. It can have a single tier; or a clear distinction between the executive board and the non-executive (supervisory) board. It can be there to formulate strategy; or to assess and approve it.
When a board is made up solely of executives, it benefits from being a team. However, it lacks the external perspective that challenges their perceptions and assumptions. On the other hand, when the board is a mixture of executives and non-execs, teamwork becomes much more problematic. The NEDs are – at least in theory – there to exert collaborative independence. If they get too close into the team system, they lose that perspective. Sometimes, a half-way house is possible, when NEDs shadow executives.
It’s called status inflation and it starts when kids are in their early teens (or before). They want to appear just that bit more mature than they are. You would think adult coaches would have grown out of this instinct. But we seem the same phenomenon in relation to executive coaching. It seems that any coach, whatever their experience or capability tags the word executive in front of their descriptor. As a result, the term executive coach has been steadily devalued in recent years.
It’s called status inflation and it starts when kids are in their early teens (or before). They want to appear just that bit more mature than they are. You would think adult coaches would have grown out of this instinct. But we seem the same phenomenon in relation to executive coaching. It seems that any coach, whatever their experience or capability tags the word executive in front of their descriptor. As a result, the term executive coach has been steadily devalued in recent years.
It’s called status inflation and it starts when kids are in their early teens (or before). They want to appear just that bit more mature than they are. You would think adult coaches would have grown out of this instinct. But we seem the same phenomenon in relation to executive coaching. It seems that any coach, whatever their experience or capability tags the word executive in front of their descriptor. As a result, the term executive coach has been steadily devalued in recent years.
Is middle management as we know it obsolete? There are more and more signs that this might indeed be the case. Among them: Taking middle management out of the picture is not a solution for large organisations. It would slow things down even more for top management to immerse itself in the day to day, (more…)
A few days ago, a newspaper item caught my eye. For the first time, young men entering the UK employment market were on average earning less than young women. I wondered: “Does this mean we are finally achieving a rebalancing of the gender pay gap?” Sadly, it’s a reflection of failures in education and social (more…)
The relationship between performance at work and psychological safety is well-established. High performance requires people (both as individuals and collectively) to be periodically in “flow”. That’s hard to achieve when our thoughts are distracted by fear of, for example, saying the wrong thing, or by the need to maintain a mask that protects us from...
One of the first things we learned when a company I chaired in the mid-1990s moved to a hybrid model of working was that people have very different perspectives and needs. For some, being in the office most of the time was important to their identity, social engagement and sense of efficacy. At the other...
