Many years ago working in a large corporate, I had a team member who could be described as challenging. What I really needed to do was to have a conversation about the gap between her behaviour and my expectations. But I didn’t. I did my best to get on with her. I made copious notes…
Have you heard the tale of the boiling frog? The story goes that if you put a frog in boiling water, it will jump out. Whereas if you put it in lukewarm water and gradually heat it up, the frog won’t notice the danger and will get cooked to death. It turns out that this…
I’ve been revisiting a great little leadership book that I often send out to my coaching clients, Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps : How to thrive in complexity by Jennifer Garvey-Berger. It’s about how some of the quirks of our human wiring can sabotage us in the modern world. I particularly wanted to dip into her chapter…
If you’ve opened this article, I’m guessing that, like so many of the leaders I work with, you’re afraid of letting people down, whether it’s your boss, colleagues or team members. I’m thinking of one new Operations Director I worked with – I’ll call her Val. Val wanted to prove to The Powers That Be…
How do you feel about delegating? It’s something that comes up a lot with the leaders I coach, particularly when they’re new in role. Paul*, a recently promoted Finance Director I worked with, is a good example. Stepping into the FD role, he felt overwhelmed by the volume of work. His tendency to people-please didn’t…
A lot of leaders who come to me for coaching are struggling with impostor syndrome, especially if they’ve just stepped up to a new leadership role. Common themes are feelings of anxiousness or panic, and a noisy inner critic saying things like, “You don’t deserve to be here!”, “Who do you think you are?”, “What…
Have you ever come out of a meeting kicking yourself because you didn’t say anything? This is such a common theme in my coaching conversations with leaders, especially when they’re meeting with authority figures or important clients. Perhaps you wanted to say something, but the more you thought about it, the more you worried whether…
When I started working with Steph*, a Finance Director, every day felt a struggle to get through the volume of work on her plate. She was always feeling behind or as if she was missing something. Steph ended up working late and often at home in the evenings, anxious to try to keep on top…
Jack* approached me for coaching because he felt overwhelmed. He’d recently been promoted to Head of Finance and was being bombarded by demands from all directions. He believed that he needed to keep on top of everything, “everything” meaning not only delivering what he was paid to do, but also dealing with everyone else’s requests….
Do you sometimes wonder why people can’t see right through you? That they’re bound to find out sooner or later that you’re only masquerading as a competent leader?