Uncategorized

How can a simple gesture give work more purpose? 1. Send a note: This past week I received two thank you notes from clients – one from a leadership coaching client thanking me for “never giving up and helping me get back on track”, and the other saying thank you for our organizational work across […]

Which Witch Will YOU Stop Ducking? Last week I saw a wonderful post on Facebook (from @KarlyWhitaker) that read: “Who knows why we were taught to fear the witches,and not those who burned them alive.”   Yes!  Who were all those men (…and, yes, some women) standing round the burning stake, watching the scold’s bridle be fixed

(…or how to stop hating your co-workers) Sometimes it happens like this: you’re merrily going about your work, nothing remarkable has happened, then boom! You read an email from a co-worker and it wrecks the rest of your day. Or worse still: the email goes ping, you see the sender’s name, and even before you click open you

Are short sellers short-sighted? Are Robin Hood investors right? Should we be worried about shares, futures and our shared future? I have a number of High Net Worth and Financial Services coaching clients. Some are fund managers, some are founder-entrepreneurs running multiple businesses, some lead regional or global businesses within very large companies.  These are wealthy

Just as the Molotov cocktails burned themselves out on the streets of Hong Kong, the Covid-19 virus set the streets alight with fear. Clients put emergency protocols in place, events postponed, schools went virtual and loo roll became a coveted commodity. Uncertainty, commercial losses, professional and personal isolation, survival instincts… What fertile soil for growing

… And so we enter the Chinese New Year of the Pig.  The Year of the Earth Pig, in fact. Kung Hei Fat Choy!  Gong Xie Fa Cai! When I think of the words ‘pig’ and ‘earth’, I imagine a swine rooting around for truffles, using its sensitive snout to find those ugly fungi that transform an

As one year draws to a festive close and a new year opens before us, we wish each other health, happiness, family and fellowship… Those things are on my mind as I’ve just returned to Hong Kong from the UK, where I attended a family funeral. That’s particularly tough at this time of year, and

How to see your colleagues more clearly, so you can lead and develop them more effectively.   “Sawubona” is a Swahili greeting that means, “I see you”.  I wish every workplace I coach in would adopt it, especially for performance management conversations. Really seeing someone — the whole individual who is right here, right now — is

How to turn a “geeky expert” into a “people-person”… “That guy may be an expert but he’s not a people-person! Last week he lost us a massive opportunity because he was a bit too, hmm, lets say ‘forthright’, in articulating his assessment of a major risk factor on a client project.” Across the desk sat

Innovative approaches to learning & development.   In the first few minutes of a recent ‘Influencing Skills’ workshop, I invited a lady to stand up and tell a short story about her business unit’s go-to-market strategy. Let’s call her Zhang Min. The client is a global organisation, and the participants are senior VPs who had