Author: admin

Organisational life can be tricky as we have many calls on our time each day.

If we are a perfectionist we can lose time by fretting over tiny details and can forget the big picture. Unlike school, where neatness tends to be a virtue, in organisations we can spend too much time polishing, instead of hammering out a piece of work and supplying the salient points in a speedy fashion.

Conversely, we might like to indulge ourselves in a wide variety of tasks and enjoy being a chatty and spontaneous sort of person. Although this makes for a lively working atmosphere we can find it hard to actually complete projects, as we allow ourselves to be excited by a juicy new task which is just begging for us to have ‘a quick look’ at. 

Awareness is the key to success. With it we can notice how we derail our working day and can take steps to make amends. The trouble though with our little habits is that they become ingrained and we don’t realise we are doing them.

Which brings me to an aspect of coaching that is often overlooked.

When working organisationally the coach has to keep asking herself, the bill payer and the coachee ‘what does the organisation really need?’

This question focusses the work on achieving relevant outputs and creates openness and objectivity. The coachee can then be held to account more effectively because coaching funnels them towards the organisational goals for the piece. 

If a coachee commits to do a piece of work and then fails it is obvious in the next coaching session. This should prompt the coach to explore underlying reasons for the failure and offer permissions and honest challenges to the coachee. This can be tough for both parties, but it’s what the bill payer is seeking. 

This is the coaching funnel, where the coachee is continually made aware of the truth of their situation, which encourages them to realise the problem isn’t going away and needs to be sorted.

The result is that things get done! 

And ‘getting done’ might also mean the task is refined somehow, or the bill payer and the coachee review progress and reset the task. Either way the organisation benefits.

Coaching isn’t fluffy. Rabbits and cats are fluffy and to date I’ve not met any of them working as coaches. They prefer to roam the great outdoors and good luck to them with that.

If you have a colleague who is struggling with their time management in someway, offer them some coaching support. The coaching funnel is there to get things done!

Next week: Own It!

When I drive past a cyclist, or see a group of runners, I often wonder. I wonder if those people enjoying pushing their bodies to the limits spend an equal amount of time on their mental health.

Flick open any news feed and there are items about healthy eating, the latest carbon framed bike and ten ways to get a perfect six pack. As for me, I have a one pack…well, you’ve got to start somewhere!

Businesses offer discounts to gyms and health spas, encourage people to walk or cycle to work and recommend the removal of chocolate and fizzy drinks from vending machines.

All this is good, no doubt, but how much effort do they really put in to mental health?

Cycling to the office and then spending 10 hours under pressure isn’t really that good for us. Reporting to a malevolent manager quickly unwinds any benefits our fruit and muesli breakfast may have bestowed upon us. 

We are all under a stress load from the moment we wake up and it’s curious that organisations often hire people for their brains and then do very little to keep those brains in tip top condition.

Mental health is harder to discern than a six pack and doesn’t have the same sexy appeal as a go-faster mountain bike, but it is arguably the most important thing for any business to pay attention to.

A great way to stimulate our mental well-being is to get some blue sky above us. Beaches are the best for this, given the brightness of the light, the salt air and the general other-worldliness of the seaside. 

A handy river will do just as well, or failing that we can spend an hour sitting outside under a clear sky. I do mean sitting too …not outside washing the car or pruning the roses. 

We need to be still. To rest our brians. To let our senses recover from the overload of the working week. To just BE for while and to listen to the world around us.

Maybe your organisation could insist that at least once a week all staff will spend time under a blue sky. Perhaps, instead of subsidising cycle purchases, they could do what businesses did 100 years ago and hire a charabanc and take everyone to the seaside for the day. How cool and groovy would that be!?

This week take time to think about mental health and write an HR policy for it, so that it becomes properly embedded in your culture.

As for me, I have great fun coaching MDs on the beach, or sitting in my deck chair, or just spending a quiet moment sipping a cup of tea and watching the ducks on the river.

What will you do to make friends with Dr Blue Sky?

Next week: The Coaching Funnel