When it comes to running effective meetings and making good decisions as a result, we usually focus on practicalities. What is the purpose of the meeting? What decisions need to be made? What is the agenda? Who needs to be…
Paul Norris
Decision making in uncertain times
A friend called me this morning for help and advice. They run a local restaurant and are considering whether they try to continue trading and the implications for their employees and their family. Like most of us, they're trying to…
Toxic culture is bad for business
"RBS culture labelled 'toxic' as bosses are grilled by MPs..." "Unilever threatens to pull advertising spend with tech giants Google, Facebook, and Twitter over toxic culture..." "Game developer Quantic Dream accused of 'toxic' and 'sexist' working environment..." "Uber's toxic corporate culture…
I have an executive coaching hammer, but not every problem is a nail!
Executive coaching can't fix everything. There, I've said it. Even if executive coaching was a hammer, not every problem is a nail. It's an amazing tool for aligning leadership behaviour with organisational expectations. It's fantastic at helping managers understand what will…
How to shortlist executive coaches
There's a lot of executive coaches out there. An awful lot. The Association for Coaching lists over 1,600 members. The International Coach Federation has over 20,000. There are multiple LinkedIn groups dedicated to coaching practice with 30,000+ members. The eventual…
Mindfulness – an unhelpful cliché that misses the point
Mindfulness and the broader topic of employee well-being has swept onto the development agenda over the last couple of years. In its wake are thousands of managers frantically trying to jump on the bandwagon. Happier employees work harder, stay longer…
Leadership development in action: Nyomi’s story
Just under a year ago we completed a 2 year high potential (HIPO) development programme with Shred-it, the the world’s leading secure information destruction company and part of Stericycle Inc. We welcomed participants from across Shred-it's EMEAA operations, from the…
Success requires lots of small steps in the right direction
It's been a pleasure to work with the team at Sapphire over the last 6 months. A hugely successful design and manufacturing business, we've been supporting them in the building of their operating strategy and the development of clear behavioural…
Am I coaching or mentoring? Know the differences, but don’t worry too much…
At our regular, free Executive Coaching BootCamps, one of the most common questions we get is the difference between coaching and mentoring. Whilst it would be lovely to give a black and white answer to this, the reality is it's…
Mind the gap – maintaining learning away from the classroom.
Leadership development can be a considerable investment in time and money. There is often a temptation to extend the perceived life of this investment by delivering programmes over long timetables, with extended gaps between the formal, classroom-based learning elements. Instantly…