How do we best give challenging feedback to others? What are the little tips and techniques that can make the difference between having our message heard and understood rather than triggering a defensive and hostile reaction? Recently, I learnt a new coaching tip on this topic which surprised me through its simplicity and its impact.
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One of the most common challenges faced by business leaders is to keep a proactive focus on what is important in the long term rather than to be consumed by reactive and urgent daily tasks. Many a courageous goal has been undermined via endless distractions. To counter this risk I find that Steven Covey’s story of the ‘big rocks’
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As the Americans would say ‘Brene Brown you rock!’ I finally got round to reading Brene Brown’s hot-to-trot book ‘Daring Greatly’ and, after all the hype, I was not disappointed. Given Brene Brown’s role as full-time academic researcher, I expected the book to be highbrow and sophisticated so I was surprised at the simple,
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Sheryl Sandberg’s recently published book ‘Lean In – Women, Work and the Will to Lead’ is causing quite a stir. Currently No.1 in the Amazon leadership best sellers, the book is Sheryl’s manifesto for helping professional women get to the top; as COO of Facebook she certainly has the war stories to be a credible author.
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As you set your goals for the coming year you might find it useful to read the LeadershipIQ white paper – Are SMART goals dumb. This US based leadership and training firm surveyed over 4,000 workers across 397 organisations to find out whether SMART goals (usually defined as specific,
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Last week I had the pleasure of hosting a conference session with Olympic gold medallist rower Martin Cross. Over the Summer I had read Martin’s book ‘Olympic Obsession’ in which he talks about his long career performing at the top of his sport. As I read Martin’s book I was struck by his penchant for engaging in challenging conversations as he and his rowing colleagues pursued their courageous goals.
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It has been a big week for us in terms of the ‘F’ of FACTS – feedback. On Monday, Ian had an article published in ‘People Management’ on the topic of ‘How to give challenging feedback’[no longer available online]. On Thursday, I delivered a short session on the topic of feedback to the leadership team of a major UK company that has recently gone through a significant merger to become the market leader in its sector.
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I recently joined one of the pre-conference webinars for the World Business & Executive Coach Summit (www.wbecs.com) which was being led by Sir John Whitmore. Sir John kindly wrote the foreword for ‘Challenging Coaching’ and I was keen to hear his latest thoughts since he has been a valued mentor and inspiration to me in my coaching career ever since I read his classic book ‘Coaching for Performance’
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This week it has been great to hear how others are experimenting with their own balance of support and challenge in their coaching work. After all, it is one thing to write a book but it is even better to have an interesting conversation! Judy Walker came to the NHS coaching summit where we presented the other week and wrote to say that she had been ‘a lot more challenging’
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I don’t know about you but if I read a book I’d like to know that the authors have ‘walked the talk’. Chapter 6 of our book ‘Challenging Coaching’ is titled ‘Courageous goals’ – this is the ‘C’ in our FACTS model. So, as the reader, I would rightly want to challenge the authors by saying ‘Tell us about the courageous goals you have achieved in your lives –
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