There are four possible reactions when someone gives us feedback, depending on a combination of how open we are to the feedback and how confident we are in our own ability to handle and learn from challenges. Defensive (Low Openness/Low Confidence) Take the feedback as an attack, whatever the intention behind it. The feedback may
Bearing the principles for delivering emotionally intelligent feedback from the previous article in mind, here are the steps for actually delivering the feedback. As a reminder that what you should be doing is stirring the recipient to change their behaviour, it has the acronym STIRS: 1. Set the stage Make sure that you are in
I haven’t written many posts for the ‘Emotional Stupidity‘ category of this blog, as I usually prefer to look at things in an appreciative way. Occasionally, though, something comes along which is so emotionally ****witted that it just demands a little rant… Today I received a nicely formatted email from ‘Newsle’, which said: Hi Andy,
Sometimes, when a tough issue needs to be resolved, you have to confront a colleague with your perspective on the consequences of their behaviour. Many managers shy away from doing this, for various reasons: being uncomfortable with confrontation, not wishing to upset the other person, being afraid of opening a can of worms, hoping the
I’ve been sent this infographic from the people at Learnstuff.com which presents some rather alarming findings about bad bosses. I hesitated for a while to post this because it’s so unremittingly gloomy, but in the end I thought that it’s worth posting because it conveys a message that if you’re unhappy or stressed at work,
Well, most countries not covered by PayPal anyway. The Coaching Leaders online store uses PayPal to take payments. I had not realised, until alerted by a frustrated customer in Egypt, that there are certain countries that PayPal does not operate in for some reason. After some research, I found that Google Wallet is available to
If you’ve looked at the ‘traditional’ appreciative interview format set out in most books about Appreciative Inquiry, you might have decided it wasn’t quite something you could use in a work context. Too touchy-feely, you may have thought, or too focused on patting oneself on the back, something we Brits are rarely comfortable doing. A
It’s as if you’re the king of a vast empire, and in a far-flung border province there’s a famine or a flood that’s causing hardship. The people try to deal with it on their own, but eventually they send a messenger to the king to plead for help. And the king… shoots the messenger. Times
If you are looking for an accessible introduction to AI, here is a quick 10-minute Appreciative Inquiry video intro by Jacqueline Kelm. It’s a big subject to squeeze into 10 minutes but she does a great job! Only one thing I would add – in the Omni Hotel case study that Jacqueline mentions in the
In response to a question on a trainers’ forum asking for an hour-long activity to celebrate a team’s accomplishments, this is what I came up with off the top of my head. I hope you find it useful. First off, get the team into pairs. If you can pair up people who don’t usually work
“How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.” – Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments In other words, however individually
“If I have seen further it is by standing on ye sholders of Giants” ~ Isaac Newton, natural philosopher What are we to take from Newton’s observation nowadays? What advice does it hold for us? I take it to mean that we should look at what has already been discovered. Marvellous new insights about how
