Executive Coaching

Discussing the Undiscussables

“Will you share your concern at the next EXCO meeting?”, I ask my client. He looks horrified, “No. This is a taboo subject around here and being the one to raise it again will leave me at risk and unpopular”. But how will you learn from it, I ask? My client is experiencing what many people experience in many organizations— a significant barrier to team learning; the existence of topics that are “undiscussables”. In exploring a process to assist my client and his team to ‘come clean’ with one another, I turned to The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (Senge, Ross, Smith, Roberts and Kleiner). If you or your team are in a similar situation, this exercise can help (and I highly recommend an external facilitator); […]

I work with only a select number of clients at any time. If you think we are a good fit, please email me on motivcoach@gmail.com

The Authentic leadership Paradox Wheel

I am currently in coaching relationships with a number of leaders who need to make a shift from operational leadership to strategic leadership. This requires some paradigms shifts, to move from the place of working “in” the business, to working “on” the business. It’s a real challenge to take a hands-off approach when you are so familiar with a hands-on approach. I like to offer my clients different leadership perspectives that might help them to articulate and start to practice their leadership in a new way. One of the tools that has has been helpful in this process is The Authentic Leadership Paradox Wheel. […]

I work with only a select number of clients at any time. If you think we are a good fit, please email me on motivcoach@gmail.com

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Skills, Performance, Development or Free Agenda Coaching?

Executive Coaching

Skills, Performance, Development or Free Agenda Coaching?

Coaching is a valuable adjunct to most leader's performance. A highly personalized learning process, it [...]

What is REALLY VALUABLE to YOU?

If we want the deepest level of life fulfillment, we can achieve it in only one way: by deciding upon what we value most in our life, what our highest values are, and then committing to live by them every single day. If you and I are not clear about what’s important in our lives—what we truly stand for—then how can we ever expect to lay the foundation for a sense of self- esteem, much less have the capacity to make effective decisions? […]

I work with only a select number of clients at any time. If you think we are a good fit, please email me on motivcoach@gmail.com

The Real-Time Benefit of an Accountability Partner

We're 10 minutes into our coaching session and there's an urgent knock at the door. [...]

There are many paths

A friend reminded me this morning of Carlos Casteneda, and how much I admire his work. This reminder sent me looking for an article that I wrote for my newsletter in 2007, when I was engrossed in Danah Zohar’s book; Connecting with our Spiritual Intelligence. At that time, I was grappling with the notion of choosing one path (career-wise, spiritually, intellectually) when I have an intense desire, paradoxically, to be on many paths simultaneously. The article is nothing more than a re-quote of Zohar’s words, and it still rings true to me today. How does it resonate with you?; […]

I work with only a select number of clients at any time. If you think we are a good fit, please email me on motivcoach@gmail.com

The Truth about Executive Coaching

Does the title of this post intrigue you? Does it attract you because you suspect it might shed light on this somewhat intangible and elusive ’product’ that has mushroomed into the corporate and business world over the last decade? I know there are many executive coaching naysayers, or even aspirant wanna-be’s, who are waiting for the big truth to be revealed – how do a group of change agents manage to sell conversation for a living, and more, appear to be financially successful at it, in some instances, more so that any helping profession before them? […]

I work with only a select number of clients at any time. If you think we are a good fit, please email me on motivcoach@gmail.com

Brand Blisters? Take a brand break!

What are brand blisters? Here is a personal experience to clarify this very real symptom of continuous hard work throughout the year. This week I sent the same proposal to a client three times. After receiving the first proposal he returned it to me asking me to correct the date, which I then duly did. He returned the second copy and again the date was wrong! And, if you can believe it, the third also needed a date correction. I apologised profusely, but he was very kind about it, saying, ‘Hey, that’s just end-of-year blisters’. […]

I work with only a select number of clients at any time. If you think we are a good fit, please email me on motivcoach@gmail.com

Give your Brand Personality!

When it comes to someone’s work ethic, most of us are familiar with the phrase “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” but this can also be applied to personal branding. Personal branding needs to be just that; personal. If all we ever do when we network, meet people or share status updates, is speak about business, we render ourselves flat. It could be said that “all work and no play makes Jack a dull brand” too. […]

I work with only a select number of clients at any time. If you think we are a good fit, please email me on motivcoach@gmail.com

13 Tips to Starting your own Business

Sometimes I need a good kick in the behind to get a blog post up. This one is thanks to People Magazine who have asked me to contribute to the January 2012 edition with some tips on starting your own business. I’m not convinced that people Magazine readers are my ideal target market (never be too hasty, I hear you say), and the tips, as I see them, apply to all aspirant entrepreneurs. They asked for 12 and I couldn’t help including 13 (for luck!). So here they are, ala Michelle; 13 Tips to Starting your own business in 2012; […]

I work with only a select number of clients at any time. If you think we are a good fit, please email me on motivcoach@gmail.com

Keep Walking! and other techniques for moving beyond the limitations in our heads.

Although I’m not a whisky drinker, for some years I have adopted for my own inspiration the slogan from the Johnnie Walker Advertising campaign that encourages me to just Keep Walking! It’s my habit to look for personal motivating slogans (from within and without the advertising world) to use as personal prompts to help me to stay focused on implementing my ideas. Thanks to Nike— I ‘Just Do It’! Thanks to the Olympic high-jump coach, I ’Throw my heart over the bar and the rest will follow’. Thanks to my yoga teacher, I ‘Go there and make that effort’. […]

I work with only a select number of clients at any time. If you think we are a good fit, please email me on motivcoach@gmail.com

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6 Characteristics of the Mentally Healthy Person

Executive Coaching

6 Characteristics of the Mentally Healthy Person

Whilst browsing through websites and pages of notes, as I do when researching, I happened to come across some really exciting and interesting information that the legendary Marie Jahoda, the late Austrian psychologist, wrote on mental health. What really interests me about her work is the concept of ‘positive psychology’ which she addresses in her book ‘Current Concepts of Positive Mental Health’. Marie Jahoda was a true warrior; a Jewish woman who survived World War two by fleeing to Austria in 1937. Despite these unhappy circumstances, Jahoda became a woman of great distinction and wrote no fewer than five scientific works and co-authored five others – most notably her work on how unemployment affects communities as a whole and her work on the six characteristics which generally make up mentally healthy individuals. […]

I work with only a select number of clients at any time. If you think we are a good fit, please email me on motivcoach@gmail.com