Apr 14
3

Facing our fears at work with courage

By | Self Awareness | No Comments
Take Courage S Khan

Take courage to face fears at work

Facing our fears at work

During my interactions with others through my work it is clear that fear is still a massive barrier for many regardless of their age, experience or job.  It’s a topic that many experts have addressed and you can find thousands of resources on thousands of fears but it still comes down to it being very personal.

There is no shortage of fear.  Wikipedia lists phobophobia as a fear of phobias — a fear of fear itself and there appears to be new fears being discovered all the time.   I still find selfiephobia (fear of taking a photograph of oneself) a little hard to accept – surely it’s a new name for not like being photographed (fotografizophobia)! Read More

Mar 02
10

Can we make SMART goals CLEVER?

By | Performance Management | 3 Comments

I have to hope the title of this blog hasn’t already turned people away because it contains the word “goals”.  In the corridors of many organisations across the globe there are a highly motivated bunch of people who love goals so much that the first quarter of the year brings rich excitement as they think about how to document what they want to achieve in 2016.  However, in the dark corners of many office blocks there sits in the shadows people cowering under the pressure of this hideous time of year when once AGAIN they have to try and think of something to show their Manager that hopefully somewhat resembles a personal, organisational, team, project, individual or other descriptive “goal”. Read More

Dec 22
13

A new year, a new life? Things are changing…..

By | Changing organisations, Self Awareness | One Comment

In case you hadn’t noticed life has changed but some organisations haven’t yet caught up and I am becoming more and more intrigued by why this is the case. Because from what I have seen our behaviour has changed in many areas of our lives and whilst our approach and attitude to work hasn’t yet been as impacted as some other areas I believe it won’t be long.

Let me explain myself. I met colleagues I used to work with for lunch today and pretty much everyone had done Christmas shopping on line.  One person had completed 100% of their purchases without stepping into a single shop.  You see the reputation of the retailer or the ability to know the staff or having previous experience buying from them is no longer a priority for us.  We no longer care how companies are structured, or how they operate – we only care about trusting them to do what they promise.  We don’t want to waste our time going somewhere to only find the things we want are not in stock – we can do it much my effectively online.  We want to save ourselves time and hassle and we are more than happy to take risks doing it.  When a service provider offers you next day delivery and they meet that promise with no extra charge we eagerly place that order without even knowing how they are going to meet their commitment.  We don’t know them but we trust them. Read More

Nov 25
12

Resilience: Are you winding down or hanging on?

By | Resilience | No Comments

As I am approaching the end of the year, like many of you, I find myself trying to combine all the activities on my to-do list with preparation for Christmas and balancing a very busy time of year.   I have a couple of my clients to finish work with, a few pieces of work for the charities I am a Trustee of and even 2 networking events (which are not my favourite thing to do but now necessary in my new work world!). Also for the first year ever we have the majority of my partners’ family coming for Christmas so recipes and online shopping are surrounding me in abundance!  Trust me there are lists everywhere.

This made me think about if there was ever a “winding down period” or if life today is so busy for everyone that it’s a continuous loop.  Read More

Nov 03
17

Appreciating the importance of understanding me

By | Self Awareness | 2 Comments

I’ve figured out over the years that if I understand me and then try and appreciate how “me” works (or doesn’t) with those around me there is a greater chance of something good happening. During my corporate life it became the basis of my leadership approach and I became a fan of Myers Briggs. Not to the degree that I became a practitioner but enough so that I understood my profile and the profile of those I worked with so I could not only be the best I could but also so I could understand people as individuals and therefore hopefully be a better colleague, team member, line manager, leader….. Read More

Sep 24
7

Can you really be YOU at work?

By | Self Awareness | 9 Comments

I get many questions about how it’s best to “turn up” at work – how should you be with peers, leaders or people that report to you. I also get asked a lot about leadership presence – people worried about giving the right impression as a leader or commenting that they don’t think they work for a “strong” leader. Read More

Aug 26
6

Motivated or Inspired?

By | Self Awareness | 6 Comments

As I started to write about my new company – Anything Is Possible – I found myself drafting text for my future web site explaining that I want to motivate and inspire people to believe that indeed anything is possible. My focus was on convincing leaders and/or owners of small companies that if they spent time understanding the people that work for them, invested time in appreciating differences and diversity then they could build a fantastic team, deliver incredible results at the same time as motivating and inspiring others. My own words then made me think – what makes us do something or act in a particular way? I have now found myself a little confused as to whether it’s about being motivated or being inspired or indeed something else and thought this would be an ideal topic for a blog. So here we are. . Read More

Aug 14
6

What’s Mentoring All About?

By | Mentoring | 8 Comments

I have to start with a disclaimer that there are many experts n who may want to challenge or even correct me. I’d welcome their insights so anyone reading this blog can have a balanced view rather than just mine! I am basing this blog on my experience and what I believe mentoring is all about. . Read More

Jul 28
6

The “Feeling” in Leadership

By | Leadership | 9 Comments

Like many people I am signed up to a number of different resources that occasionally send through something that makes me think. A while ago I received an email that did just that. Included in the email was this quote:

“All effective leaders learn to handle the internal world of feeling, particularly the big three: anger, anxiety, sadness” – David D. Goleman Read More