In August 19, I posted a blog entitled, “What if Greta is correct?”, see https://www.tsp-uk.co.uk/general-leadership/what-if-greta-is-correct/. I want to come back to the topic of Climate Change. During my recent holiday I read Bill Gates’ book, “How to avoid a climate disaster”, as well as the Economist’s special report on Climate Change published to coincide with COP26 in Glasgow.
Leadership and Sports Coaching Interview: Pete Walton
Ten lessons leaders can learn from top level football coaches.
What is common to both leadership and sports coaching? What is different? How transferable are the principles of coaching? And what can leadership coaches learn from sports managers and coaches?
To answer these question and more I turned to an old friend of mine, Pete Walton. After a successful career as a manager in business he transferred his talents to Premier League football as a referee. During a professional career spanning nearly 20 years, Pete refereed a number of notable matches, including the 2003 final of the Football League Trophy and the FA Community Shield in 2008. He officiated in the Premier League from 2003 to 2012. From 2013 he was General Manager of the Professional Referee Organization in North America until Howard Webb took over in January 2018. From 2019 Pete has worked as a referee analyst for BT Sport’s coverage of the UEFA Champions League, discussing key decisions and explaining the usage of VAR, both in-game and post-match. He also regularly appears on ESPN FC. He was part of ITV’s pundit team at this summer’s Euro 2020 to provide expert insight on all the major decisions during games.
The worlds of sport and business have been closely linked for as long as I can remember. Major sports events are big business. They involve big cities, big egos, and big bucks for the players and team owners. Perhaps big business – indeed, all business – can be seen as sport. Just listen to the sports-like language used by people in business. I often use sports metaphors myself in training and coaching sessions.
With Pete’s help, in this this article we’re looking at ten key areas of sport and leadership coaching.
Continue reading “Leadership and Sports Coaching Interview: Pete Walton”VOX-POP SERIES – Coaching Case Studies #2
A Coaching Case Study as reported by a leadership participant in my 2018 UK Coaching Master Class programme.
This is Coaching Case Study #2. Vox-Pop is from the Latin vox populi and refers to popular sentiment or opinion on a subject – in other words, the voice of the people.
In this series of Blog Posts I explore the sentiments and opinions of leadership participants in my Coaching Master Class (CMC) programme. What do they think about the main coaching topics we explore together in this programme? I look at STAR Coaching Case Study reported by a Leaders of Leaders participating in a UK programme in 2018. By this time my CMC programme had evolved to version 3 and I was using a much more comprehensive STAR template for coaching case study feedback. I look at how the Leader used the GROW Coaching Model and the Coaching Tools taught in the CMC Workshop, and the outcomes they achieved with coaching.
Continue reading “VOX-POP SERIES – Coaching Case Studies #2”Ever Heard of the ‘Jonah Complex’?
Are you running from something you know you really need to do?
Ever heard of the ‘Jonah Complex’?
Possibly not – not many people have heard of the Jonah Complex. It doesn’t seem to get a lot of air-time alongside things like ‘Imposter Syndrome’ and some of the other better known ways of thinking about our many peculiarities.
But I think the Jonah Complex deserves some time in the limelight. It has a lot to offer, especially in this brave new world where so many people are reaching for a more balanced, purposeful way of living and working and where we really can’t afford people’s best talents to go to waste!
Each One Teach One
I feel that now our team looks like that Boy Scout patrol I used to lead during my childhood: we worked hard, we laughed a lot and we would get things done.
I haven’t written in a while because we have been busy putting something together that dazzles me everyday and now when all is starting to make sense, I am writing again. We have such a great group of people that I do not even know who is leading. Everyday I show up to work and there is a continuous 360 degrees feedback session.
When I was a boy, I spent a long-time being part of an organization founded by Lord Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, the Boys Scouts movement. There were some practices that until now just made sense to me like each troop was divided into patrols formed by 8 members. These patrols adopted names from animals that represented the spirit of the team. They participated in all types of competitions, but there were never individual competitions. When one competed, you were always representing your patrol, a group who always walked with the leader up front and the sub leader at the back to ensure that we all moved at the same speed and no one was left behind. I feel that now our team looks like that patrol I used to lead during my childhood: we worked hard, we laughed a lot and we would get things done.
Continue reading “Each One Teach One”VOX-POP SERIES – General Ideas from Coaches (Part 2)
What general insights and ideas about coaching are reported by leadership participants in my Coaching Master Class program?
Vox-Pop is from the Latin vox populi and refers to popular sentiment or opinion on a subject – in other words, the voice of the people.
In this series of Blog Posts I explore the sentiments and opinions of leadership participants in my Coaching Master Class (CMC) program. What do they think about the main coaching topics we explore together in this program?
In this article I look at some general insights and ideas about coaching as reported by Coaches participating in my CMC program.
Continue reading “VOX-POP SERIES – General Ideas from Coaches (Part 2)”Nothing new under the sun
I realised a couple of weeks ago that I haven’t had a proper break from my work for two years. Suddenly, I felt wearied. Accordingly, I furled in my sails and allowed myself to float about on the waves of content concerning leadership, organisational design and development, culture, purpose, values, and finance that flood into my Inbox.
All the big consultancies and individual practitioner experts like myself issue so much stuff from articles to webinars to videos to memes to animations to… well, nothing new. In writing my essay, I’m conscious I risk adding to the cacophony.
However, my aim is to identify some “crotchets of note” that will scythe through the noise. Hopefully, these will provide a clear tempo for healthy organisations to create the conditions that raise rather than harm the well-being of the individuals who work there.
I’m old enough to remember the Irish entertainer Val Doonican singing about O’Rafferty’s motor car, “… used to be as black as me father’s hat, now it’s forty shades of green”. This seems to fit with all I’ve been reading, watching, and listening to. Material is cited as being distinct, discrete, and differential in its hue, yet so much appears to be another Pantone shade of grey (rather than green).
All this got me thinking about whether the principles of leadership that I first encountered in a book from 1968 called “Motivation and Organisational Climate” written by George Litwin and Robert Stringer contain the golden threads on which we should not lose our cognitive and physical grasp. Their work was informed and influenced by that of David McClelland, Kurt Lewin, and Robert Blake and Jane Mouton amongst many.
McClelland’s work on motivation identifies people having three main motivational drivers, achievement, affiliation, and power. The latter has two faces, personalised and social or institutional. Are we mistakenly celebrating some leaders’ personalised power? What risks arise from their “must win, me, me, me” drive? For instance, how much is the pandemic crisis and our world standing on the brink of climate catastrophe due to this self-centred rather than selfless leadership (see later)? As we combat the global climate challenge, what must be done to nurture and sustain healthy climates in organisations?
Continue reading “Nothing new under the sun”VOX-POP SERIES – General Ideas from Coaches (Part 1)
What general insights and ideas about coaching are reported by leadership participants in my Coaching Master Class program?
Vox-Pop is from the Latin vox populi and refers to popular sentiment or opinion on a subject – in other words, the voice of the people.
In this series of Blog Posts I explore the sentiments and opinions of leadership participants in my Coaching Master Class (CMC) program. What do they think about the main coaching topics we explore together in this program?
In this article I look at some general ideas and insights about coaching as reported by Coaches participating in my CMC program.
Continue reading “VOX-POP SERIES – General Ideas from Coaches (Part 1)”The Challenge of Changing and Developing Corporate Culture
The classic summary of ‘the way we do things around here’ is not always enough for us to challenge and change corporate culture.
Clients regularly talk about ‘…changing culture in the organisation’ as one of the key outcomes of a project.
Behind this deceptively simple statement is a myriad of guides, surveys, benchmarks, information, books, and advice on the topic. Try an internet search and it’s likely that there will be some 50 million hits. In particular, informed and experienced researchers, authors and writers such as Ed Schein, Gert Hofstede, Peter Woolliams and Fons Trompenaars offer various views on changing culture. So against this background there is little doubt that this is a significant topic. And therein lies the challenge…just where do we start?
Continue reading “The Challenge of Changing and Developing Corporate Culture”VOX-POP SERIES – Coaching Case Studies
Ten Top Coaching Case Studies as reported by leadership participants in my Coaching Master Class program.
Vox-Pop is from the Latin vox populi and refers to popular sentiment or opinion on a subject – in other words, the voice of the people.
In this series of Blog Posts I explore the sentiments and opinions of leadership participants in my Coaching Master Class (CMC) program. What do they think about the main coaching topics we explore together in this program?
In this second article in the series I look at Coaching Case Studies.
Continue reading “VOX-POP SERIES – Coaching Case Studies”
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