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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In preparation for a workshop I’m delivering I’ve been reading “The five dysfunctions of a team” by Patrick Lencioni. This book has received a lot of interest and seems to be a core text around team work. It struck me that the Zone Of Uncomfortable Debate (ZOUD), speaking your truth and the ‘A’
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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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The Trusted Executive Ltd operated from May 2017 to January 2025 and successfully pioneered the organisational implementation of the Nine Habits of Trust model, originally researched and developed by Dr John Blakey at Aston Business School and featured in his book, ‘The Trusted Executive’.
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