The neuroscience of change

Business leaders everywhere know that success isn’t possible without changing the day-to-day behaviour of people throughout the company. But changing behaviour is hard. (Even when new habits can mean the difference between life and death e.g. adopting healthier day-to-day habits after having undergone coronary bypass surgery, nine out of 10 patients do not manage to follow though.)

However, behavioural change – and business success – has a much likelier chance of occurring if we heed new evidence about change. Breakthroughs in cognitive science about how our brains function contain pointers worth taking serious note of.

How to get more results from coaching?

Most MD and managers have no idea how little their staff learn during an important coaching session.  What to do to ensure more learning and new behaviour?

Most of us know that our listening retention ability is between 7% and 9%.

Small wins mean progress

“Of all things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work.” “Everyday progress – even a small win – can make all the difference”… in how you and your employees feel and perform.

Crucial Conversations – and the free flow of meaning

Three clients indicated that I had struck a raw nerve with last month’s post on crucial conversations and confrontations. Two asked me to conduct coaching discussions. We used examples emanating from their workplaces.

While holding a crucial conversation can be sophisticated, mastering even a few principles can lead to immediate results.  Understanding these principles opens new opportunities and removes the inclination to rather be silent than risking a conversation which could turn out to become very uncomfortable and which might even derail.

Crucial conversations and confrontations

Every now and then a normal conversation turns into crucial conversation. We have all experienced this. We are rational human beings usually in charge of ourselves, but sometimes we loose it.  We get angry, we raise our voices, we glare. We say things we later regret. Or we withdraw and say nothing. We fester and sulk.

Sometimes we handle crucial conversations well, but mostly we don’t. When we need to handle a conversation that matters most we are often at our absolute worst.

In flow days

A friend and two of my clients are deeply immersed in getting a few marketing items into place. I too, since mid-February, spent time on marketing, revamped pages on my website, created new pages and gave attention to related items.

It struck all of us: If you are serious about getting something done, spend some uninterrupted time on whatever you do. The key to achieving something remarkable is the uninterrupted stretch of time that you devote to whatever topic.

In praise of praising

The number one employee complaint always pinpoints one issue: not being recognised for a job well done.

While it is so easy to praise, just ask around: When last did you get proper recognition for a job well done? I ask this question in group meetings with each of my clients and only a few hands will go up. When I ask: “Did the praising consist of something more than a brief “thanks, well done” and was a meaningful reason supplied?” even fewer hands go up.

Then the reverse question: “Did you in the past week provide praise plus an explanation to a colleague or someone outside your team? Please raise your hands.” More often than not, there’s a no show.

10 Principles of personal leadership

My recent clients and friends know that I have gone all soft in my approach to leadership and management. While one should have strategies, plans, processes and systems in place, the starting point is people.

This morning, while walking my two schnauzers in a park, I listened to a very inspiring recorded discussion with Howard Behar, the former president of Starbucks, who wrote It’s Not About The Coffee – Leadership Lessons from a Life at Starbucks. Behar grew Starbucks from 28 stores to more than 400 stores by the time he was named president. Under his leadership, Starbucks opened its first location in Tokyo in 1996 and over the next three years he introduced the Starbucks brand across Asia and the United Kingdom. He retired in January 2003 and is now a much sought-after speaker on leadership.

Taking control of your email

Are you swamped with emails and is your inbox becoming bigger and bigger?
A decade ago a South African consultant, Gerrit Cloete, taught me how to use MS Outlook to make my life easier and, well, to remove stress.

“How to take control of your email” was the topic of a recent post by an American consultant and author, Joel Comm.

Do you have a simple system that works? Many of my clients suffer from not having a simple system for controlling the content of their inboxes.

Perhaps you could do with three tips on how to cope?

Mental traps into which leaders fall

Some new clients easily take to new strategy development and execution. They experience fewer difficulties that most in obtaining support from their team members when it comes to implementation.

Others struggle. Why?

Planning is the easy part. Execution is the difficult part – and when it comes to execution few leaders lead well, even if they are brilliant. Why do they experience difficulties?

Leaders fall into mental traps. What are they? Robert H Schaffer in an article Four Mistakes Leaders Make in the Harvard Business Review (September 2010) provides valuable insights on this topic.