I don't enjoy networking. If you put me in a room with a beige buffet and a warm glass of wine and tell me to 'mingle', I'll last about ten minutes before I head out the door with an Irish goodbye. But, as my networking dial was looking a little depleted whilst I was head-down in a few interesting projects recently, I thought about how I could top it up. The data tells me I'm not alone in a depleted Network dial. Looking at the results so far from people completing the Core Career Dials...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Career development is what people do when they're not in job search mode. Actually, that's not entirely true. Lots of people don't do it very intentionally at all. But when people do get that they need to be creating the conditions for ever-readiness, even when they're not actively looking, the next question is usually: where do I start? It's a question I hear a lot. And it's one that coaches and people managers often find tricky too, especially when someone doesn't have a clear next move in...
4 months ago • 1 min read
My co-author Dan and I were chatting with a colleague about the things that didn't make it into The Core Career Dials. Every book has them - every chapter in ours could have been a book in itself (and there are plenty of whole books out there about each topic). Creating a book was one of the hardest things I've ever done - all the decisions about what gets cut, what makes sense for the overall shape of a chapter - these all mean that stuff gets left out. And even beyond publication, there are...
4 months ago • 2 min read
My coaching client, let’s call her G, was talking about the things that are important in life, working through what a change of role could look like and how it could meet her values more effectively than the current one. G wasn’t unhappy in the organisation - their values of integrity, courage, and collaboration were genuinely her own too. These are what we might call the macro values. They’re often to be found in a company’s values statement (if there is one) and, more importantly, running...
5 months ago • 2 min read
If you're familiar with minimalism, you'll have heard of the idea that every object in your home consumes your energy and focus. That's why I mostly can't do ornaments or knick knacks - I'm not a fan of dusting. As a keen advocate of maintaining both energy and focus - understanding that losing focus drains my energy, I'm currently on a mission to apply minimalist concepts to my home whilst retaining cosiness. It's an ongoing endeavour but I'm enjoying the feeling of binning all the stuff I...
6 months ago • 1 min read
Self-doubt is popping up all over the place in the coaching room these days. So many of my coachees talk about their frustration at how they second-guess themselves more and more when believe they should feel more competent as they progress in their career. And I get it because I'm finding exactly the same thing myself right now. I've been deep in my own professional development lately, preparing for the next stage of my coaching accreditation, PCC (Professional Certified Coach) with the...
6 months ago • 2 min read
I spent a day this week teaching senior leaders from across the world about gravitas. The most common reaction from delegates at the start was, "I'm not sure this can be taught." But by the end of the day, most of them had changed their minds. Let me try to define it briefly, without going down a rabbit hole. The Cambridge Dictionary offers something that comes close-ish to the message we were trying to convey: seriousness and importance of manner, causing feelings of respect and trust in...
7 months ago • 2 min read
A client recently shared with me that she deliberately puts herself in energy-saving mode in January. We do it for our phones when we want to make sure they're running effectively and to save their battery for the important stuff. So doing it for our human selves makes perfect sense. Her deliberate approach gave me a bit of a tickle because my January was the opposite: relentless busyness forced me into low-power mode, focusing only on what was both urgent and important - coaching, workshops...
8 months ago • 2 min read
Networking is such a loaded word for so many people. When I mention it in the coaching room I so often see the subtle signs that someone is very uncomfortable with the idea of reaching out to people for a conversation. The grimace, the slight sideways shift of the eyes, or even an actual 'yuk' escapes the lips. I get it. From our side of the fence, reaching out to someone can feel a bit desperate or needy or it might feel like we’re inconveniencing someone or putting them in a position where...
9 months ago • 2 min read
I'm feeling like a little squirrel as I write this, gathering my nuts, trying to capture all my snippets of information like podcasts, tools and articles in some kind of mega receptacle so I can keep track of everything. Organisation is not my strong suit, so right now many of my nuts are shoved into my little cheeks. I'm determined to find some good spots to hide them and become more organised once and for all this year. But this edition isn't about my organisational challenges. It's about...
11 months ago • 2 min read