Stuart Eglin Online

Stuart Eglin Online

Archive for category Coaching

Learning Academy 2

Nov 28

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It has been a few months now, and the Academy is progressing really well. We have used the Myers Briggs Type Indicator and had a really useful workshop on that. Then we started work on our first book – ‘Transitions’ by William Bridges.

The book we are working on at the moment is ‘Do More Great Work’ by Michael Bungay Stanier. I wrote to Michael a few weeks ago to see if he would be interested in working with us. He lives in Canada so there were some practical difficulties to overcome. However, thanks to the wonder of Skype we managed to plan and deliver a 1 hour workshop at the end of last week. The technology worked beautifully thanks to a team with plenty of bright ideas. In the end 12 of us worked with Michael and we had a small camera crew in the
space with us to capture the event. This will be online soon on the work website along with a few small clips on YouTube.

One of the interesting things about the workshop was that we invited in some of the freelancers who work with us on various projects. It was a great opportunity to recruit the wider team to work together – and the
feedback from the freelancers was incredibly positive. “The first time in years I have had the chance for any personal development” said one of them.

All in all, it was an incredibly positive experience. Michael’s input was really helpful and very focused, and as a team it was a really productive experience. One of the team commented that it was as though Michael was in the room with us.

The Development Academy will continue over the next few months.  I will post further feedback on its progress.

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A Learning Academy

Aug 16

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I manage a small team in my “day job”. Recently, at team meetings I have been introducing some of the writers who have influenced me in my working practise. I have also shared a number of videos which I found particularly interesting.

At the last team meeting before the summer break, I introduced 6 books which have had a particular impact on the way in which I work:

  • Michael Bungay Stanier – Do more great work
  • William Bridges – Managing Transitions
  • Tom Peters – Re-imagining
  • David Allen – Getting Things Done
  • Robin Sharma – The monk who sold his ferrari
  • Stephen Covey – The seven habits of highly effective people

In the meeting we discussed the best way to work with these as a group. We decided that a form of ‘book club’ would be the best idea. So, we will each read one of these books over the period of a month and then have a discussion about it at the next meeting, looking at implications for the way we work as a team.

I guess you could call it a learning academy. I intend to further develop this academy idea as the months go by. I am also keen to look at ways in which we can use videos and other materials to build the learning. Hopefully this will help us as a team to build in a strong value base to our work.

Watch this space….

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Ownership and demonstrating value

Jun 10

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A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.
Lao Tsu
The quote above represents a value which I regard as pretty central to the way I function. It is important to avoid the ego dominating the way in which we lead. Achieving what needs to be achieved is more important than getting recognition for it.
But this issue has been compromised for me recently. There is a natural tension between the idea of ensuring that people feel ownership for something, and the need to ensure that we demonstrate value in the work that we do. How do we balance that tension? I think earlier in my career I would tend to take Lao Tsu’s words to their natural conclusion.
Now I realise that we need to balance that with a bit of healthy pragmatism. If we don’t get acknowedgement for the value that we add to the world around us (not just in monetary terms of course), then it is difficult to argue for resources to continue to do our work.
As in so many things, it is a matter of striking a balance. And that balance will shift on different issues.

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Vision On

Jun 6

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Vision On - TV series from the 70s

Vision is what drives leadership. We need to feel a passion for what we do so that we can motivate others to work on it with us. That passion comes from deep within – down at our core. For that is the place where we find the drive that moves us forward with a crazy sense of purpose. And that drive comes about when we work hard at finding the vision.

Describing vision is like taking something that is achievable and then pushing it just a little further so that it takes us out of our comfort zone and into somewhere that is deeply seemingly beyond reach. Pushing this far out beyond the boundaries and underpinning it with core values that we have unearthed, is the way to find vision and create passion.

Go and look for your own deeper passion within. Find it and then talk about it to everyone you speak to – fashion it with the reactions you get until you see the energy shine in the eyes of those you share it with. Then you have a vision which can draw people in and achieve amazing things.

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Somewhere between head and heart

Mar 24

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I found a completely new idea, startling me as I considered it, and it appeared in a fascinating conversation with a colleague. We had co-created it.

I am looking for the point of balance between head and heart. It’s the dance between the known and the unknown. I have written before about the way in which so much of the work that we do is a performance. Well, that has made me think more about the nature of the performance. Sometimes we work from a very scripted place – at such times it might be a meeting with a formal agenda, clear goals and a project plan. There is little space for innovation or creativity. This is the head space.

Then, at other times we are drifting in creative space, looking for ideas. Perhaps we are brainstorming or generating new ideas in other ways. This is the heart space.

The place between head and heart brings these things together into a creative tension. The closest of comparisons would be with improvisation. Especially with musical improvisation. If you haven’t listened to a CD of one of Keith Jarrett’s live improvisations, I would recommend that you do. He goes onto the stage with the parameters of the live event as the only boundaries. Beyond that, he empties his mind of pre-conceived ideas and creates new and fresh music on the spur of the moment. It is remarkable to hear and incredible to watch.

It is this space that I am thinking about. Thus, somewhere between head and heart, we find a creative space of improvisation. It can come in giving a presentation, running a workshop, in a coaching session. When it arrives, we find that the words springing from our mouths are a surprise. The ideas that come forward are new, they form in the interaction with others. We find a completely new perspective in the connecting with others.

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From a place of passion within

Dec 10

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I was asked recently how it is possible to create real impact. How does anyone create a larger than life presence so that they can truly make a difference?

There is a huge literature on the idea of the charismatic leader. Some argue that this charismatic nature is born into the person and manifests as they show leadership qualities. Others believe that it can be nurtured.

I want to go for a very different take on this. But first, let’s think about the idea of the leader as performer. In fact, let’s look at the idea that we are all performing in the world each day as we get out of bed. The day is a performance – we are projecting ourselves on the world, having an impact on those around us. So, we have the idea of life and living as a daily performance.

Thus, it can be useful to develop similar skills to those developed by an actor. However, that is not to say that we are trying to mask authenticity and develop a false front for the world. If you sit in a theatre and watch an actor who puts on a false ‘front’, there is no authenticity to the performance. An actor has to learn to get into a part, find an authenticity in it and really convince the audience that they are the person that they are playing.

And this brings me to the point. Yes, in order to create real impact and have presence amongst those we work with or lead, we need to develop a performance. But the performance needs to come from a place within. We need to dig down into ourselves and find our authentic passion. What is it that drives us to do the work that we do? Once we are clear what it is, we can tap into it, find our inner passion and work from a place of authentic conviction. Then we are able to have a massive impact because anyone who talks with passion about something will have a significant impact on others.

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The Coaching 30: ten to keep you going

Nov 16

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OK, I wrote a few months ago about the book I am writing called ‘The Coaching 30‘. Back in April of this year I sent out ‘The Coaching 30 - four for starters‘ to a group of 30 people to get feedback. This was really useful as it gave me lots of ideas for the manuscript as I continued to work on it.

Time passes, and I am nearly ready to send out the next instalment. It will comprise 10 of the 30 tips / ideas developed from my coaching practise. The distribution list is growing. Let me know through the contacts page if you would like to be included. What does that mean? Well, I will send you the pdf of the 10 tips and ask you to give me feedback on it – not a lengthy review, just your reaction and any useful comments you may have. I also ask you to send the pdf to anyone else who you think might find it useful.

So, do get in touch if you are interested.

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Five ways to well-being

Nov 8

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The New Economics Foundation has a page which highlights the five ways to well-being. I really like this. There is more information at the site, but in summary the five key factors are:

  1. Connect
  2. Be active
  3. Take notice
  4. Keep learning
  5. Give

The more I mull over these factors, the more I realise that they are the key principles to an active and engaged life. Try it yourself. Think about times in your life when you have felt at a low point. What a difference it would make if you connect with others, exercise, take notice of the things around you rather than being self-absorbed, keep learning and being curious, and give to others.

Interestingly, the New Economics Foundation has as its strapline “Economics as if people and the planet mattered”. In the current political climate in the UK, it would be useful to apply that message! Understanding the value of everything rather than the cost of everything.

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Podcasts I listen to #01: Great Work Interviews

Nov 2

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This is the first of a series of posts in which I will describe some of the podcasts I listen to. I spend a lot of time travelling, often by car, so have a lot of potentially dead time in the average week. A few years ago I realised that a good use of this time was to either listen to music, audiobooks or podcasts. I am subscribed to 36 podcasts at the moment. They appear in my iTunes and arrive on my ipod with differing frequencies. Some are weekly, others less frequent. This makes travelling much more fun. I can either listen to music or listen to audio. It turns the car into a learning space where I can be productive. Travelling is no longer dead time.

The first one I wanted to mention is called ‘Great Work Interviews’ . This podcast is an interview series put together by Executive Coach, Michael Bungay Stanier. He is Australian and lives in Canada, having also spent some time in the UK in the past as a Rhodes Scholar. He interviews really interesting people, and the focus of the interview is getting them to identify how they do ‘great work’. There are many insights and useful ideas in the interviews.

I’m also reading his book at the moment. Called ‘Do More Great Work‘, it’s a really practical guide which explains the difference between busy work, good work, and great work. There are plenty of exercises to do in it.

The benefit of the podcast is that it brings a lot of the thoughts in the book to life. Each interview is about 30 – 40 minutes long. Michael is a great interviewer and has chosen some fascinating guests to speak to. Give it a try here.

Over the next few weeks I will recommend other podcasts which are worth listening to. Watch this space, as they say.

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Coaching and the Laws of Physics

Oct 11

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Spinoza said, “Nature abhors a vacuum”, by which he meant that empty or unfilled spaces are unnatural as they go against the laws of nature and physics. If we create a vacuum, nature will conspire to fill it.

What does this have to do with coaching? There are many ways in which we can use the metaphor of a ‘vacuum’ and apply this law to help us to understand what is going on.

We often find ourselves needing to create an empty space in our diary. We may have a big project to do, or need to clear a day so that we can do some serious strategic thinking. And then once we have that space created, something weird happens.

Instead of getting down to the task in hand, we find countless distractions filling the day. The emptiness of a day becomes filled with detritus before we get to the big thing we were going to work on. So, the presence of a ‘vacuum’ in our schedule creates this strong urge to fill the space. We often criticise ourselves with this habit, seeing it as procrastination. Perhaps a better way to see it is simply as the workings of this natural law. If we are not careful, we find the wrong things filling the gap.

One way to overcome this, is to change the order in which we do these things. It is often better to put the new task in to the mix before we create the space, so that it is the first thing to drop into the vacuum ahead of anything else. So, create overload, then a space in the diary. The sequence of this is critical to success.

There is an equal and opposite law which is often referred to which explains what is happening here. It is called Parkinson’s Law – work expands to fill the time available. So, if we start creating spaces in our diary, we need to be clear what we will do with them if we are to be sure that we will focus on the right things.

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What would you do if you won the lottery?

Sep 14

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OK, it’s a simple and almost silly question, but let’s frame it in a useful way. Imagine you have woken up on a Sunday morning, checked your lottery ticket and you are the only winner of this week’s jackpot – £4.3 million. To quote the presenters of the Lottery programme, “it’s a life changing amount”.

It’s significant enough in your life for you to start to think a lot of things that seemed certain are now up for grabs. It’s enough money for the choices which you think you have available to you to suddenly open out.

  • So, what would you do next?
  • Would you go to work on the Monday?
  • How important is work to you?
  • How important is the specific work that you are doing?
  • What would you choose to do now that you have sufficient money to free up your options?
  • How would you use the time you have?

I could continue to generate questions like this. The point of each of these questions is to create a frame of reference within which it is possible to start to ask what the really exciting things are that you want to do with your life. Often, when faced with this scenario the suggestions which emerge are accompanied by an increase in energy levels. Body language becomes more animated.

And of course, in such a dream world, it’s no wonder.

But we can’t all win the lottery. So what is the point of pursuing this line of thinking?

There are several issues being addressed here. On one level, we can see what work means to us – and what the job we are doing means to us. Sometimes when I ask this question the answer will involve going to work on Monday, because it is an important part of that person’s life. They aren’t just turning up to be paid.

As well as this, these questions free us up to think about the things we dream of doing. For a moment, the restrictions of our circumstances are suspended.

Then we can get back to the reality in front of us and start to ask what the limits are to doing these things. Often these limits are not to do with lack of money or time, but are self-imposed limits.

When we realise this, the door unlocks. We are now able to start some credible work to realise some of these dreams.

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That Extra Push

Jun 14

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I know this isn’t terribly original, but it is very important!

First a comparison:

When we take a walk, and we don’t know the route – the walk out always feels slower and longer than the walk back. Of course it isn’t, it’s the same length. Because the route is unfamiliar and there are no points by which to judge how far we have got, it can seem like an incredibly long way. Sometimes we do the walk – and just before we reach our destination, we feel like we can’t go any further. There is an overwhelming desire to give up. Only when we actually get there do we find that we could have given up so close to our goal.

The analogy is clear for something like a walk. But what about the goals we set ourselves? What about the dream we have, something we really want to achieve? We push away at it. To misquote Robin Sharma, we need to take small steps each day which add up to something huge over time. But just before we get there – and of course, we don’t know we are nearly there – we feel like giving up on it. It feels like a futile effort – too much time being spent on something that may ultimately come to nothing.

 This is the critical spot – the point where we need every resource we can find to persevere. How do we do that? What will help?

  • A support network to help us with perspective
  • Revisit the reason why this is a goal – find the passion again
  • Think again about the effort that has got us to this point
  • Just do it – just stay with it and find a small reward to keep going

Then, as the summit appears, we can stand on the top, hold our hands above our heads and feel the cold air on our faces as we look the furthest we have ever seen. And feel the soul rush of being on top of the world.

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The Coaching 30 – 4 for Starters

Jun 8

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Over the last few months I have been working on the latest book, “The Coaching 30″, which is a set of 30 tips drawn from my coaching practise. They will be useful for coaches, and also for anyone looking to improve their creativity and productivity. I have 28 tips prepared and undergoing editing. So I thought it was a good time to share some of this. I’ve already posted a few of them on this blog. But I wanted to share 4 tips in a booklet form, so that readers could see what they will get in the full 30 tip e-book. I have sent this booklet out to a small group of contacts who are acting as a ‘Critical Friend Circle’. The feedback from this so far has been incredibly helpful.

I’m keen to keep building this circle of support, as well as building a readership for the finished book so if you would like a copy of the booklet please do get in touch using the contact form and I will send it to you.

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The Coaching 30: #4 – Knowledge, Skills, Experience and Deliverables

May 24

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If you have encountered pay scales in the NHS, you will be aware that they were overhauled a few years ago. This was done using something called the Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF) which was the basis on which comparative grades were built up in the service. The theory was that skills could be compared across professions, so that everyone (except for very senior managers and medics, interestingly!) could be put on a single pay spine with grades stretching from the most junior to senior managers.

Well, I was thinking about this the other day. I was in conversation with someone about how to best market oneself when looking to change jobs . (They were looking to change jobs, not me, I hasten to add). There is no doubt that the Knowledge and the Skills that you have are important attributes to describe. But if you stop there, the CV ends up looking very dry, just like everybody else’s. Sure, we need to describe our Experiences, the depth and breadth of it. That helps – but there is one more dimension to ourselves which really helps us to stand out from the crowd.

Deliverables – the things we have achieved in the jobs we have held. In some cases deliverables might be actual products – a report, publication, a new innovation. Sometimes it might be a significant change in a service. Identifying these deliverables – perhaps, 5 or 6 key ones – and setting them out clearly in your CV will really help to differentiate you. Above all else, it shows that you can really deliver in jobs that you do.

So, perhaps we should be talking about Knowledge, Skills, Experience and Deliverables.

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The Coaching 30: #3 – A Working Model for Handling Change

Mar 22

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The model which follows was developed in a coaching session with a client who was experiencing a process of massive change for the organisation that she was leading. 

At these times it is often difficult to see ‘the wood for the trees’. One can easily feel overwhelmed with the volume of work that needs attention, and confused as to the priorities. The model identifies three pillars of activity – business as usual, transition, and self care. The model applies equally to issues relating to the organisation as a whole and to the individual working within the change process. 

The first pillar is the essential activities which the organisation needs to address to keep going whilst change is taking place. It is important to stay focused on this if organisational and individual performance is to be maintained. 

The second pillar addresses the activities that need to take place to create the transition to the new. This may involve setting up time limited task groups, a wide range of organisational development activities, helping people to adapt to the change, offering key support. 

The third pillar is important because it acknowledges the fact that it is all too easy to forget our own needs as leaders of change. Addressing self care ensures that needs are met, and resilience during the change is maintained. 

Above the pillars sits ‘Legacy’ – the need to ensure that the organisation looks at the things which it has been doing in the past that need to be retained – either as activities or as tacit knowledge. Ensuring that we capture the legacy is a way of maintaining respect for the work that everyone has been doing. 

Below the pillars sits ‘Values’. We work from a value base which determines how we function on a day to day basis, how we make decisions. It is important to stay in touch with our core values as we lead people through the change to ensure that we maintain integrity and are able to take people with us on the journey. 

So, that is the model. How does it work? It helps us to see that there are activities in each of these boxes that we need to give attention to. In order to take things forward with balance we need to be mindful of activities in each box, so that we do not neglect any particular area. 

The model builds on the work of William Bridges in his book ‘Managing Transition’, and on the work of Stephen Covey in ‘The Eighth Principle’ which looks at the importance of leaving a legacy. 

The coaching client I worked with on this model found it really useful to orientate herself as she worked through the change process.

It helps to keep looking at the model and ensure that each of them is being given the appropriate attention.

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The Coaching 30: #2 – Handling a crisis

Mar 18

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OK, so you have a crisis on your hands. And then that is followed with another crisis. You are really clear that the challenge for you above everything else is to find a way to avoid feeling sorry for yourself. Finding a way to ensure that you don’t start to look for as many things going wrong as you can. The slippery slope into pity is easy to slide down. So, what do you do to counter this?

Well, many people advocate positive thinking and taking your mind off what is happening. But that amounts to a process of denial. Ignoring negative feelings doesn’t make them go away. They just end up being submerged and surface sooner or later.

One solution, which creates a helpful balance, is to use a small notebook. If you already keep a daily journal then you could use that. Take two facing pages. At the top of the first page write “Pity Page” and write down everything that is going wrong for you – ensure that you get out all of the associated negative feelings too. Once you get to the bottom of the page you need to stop! Don’t be tempted to go onto a further page. The next page needs to have the following title at the top – “Passion Page”. Here you can write down everything that is going well for you, everything for which you can be grateful, everything you have done that was good. No matter how negative you feel, there will always be something great – even if it is the sun in the sky or the food on the table. Again, work to the bottom of the page and then stop.

You’ve had the opportunity to express some of those negative feelings, but have also balanced that out with the passion of living. Now take a deep breath and move on to the next thing!

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The Coaching 30: #1 – Celebrating Procrastination

Mar 16

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So we all find it difficult at times to apply ourselves to the things that need doing, when there are lots of things that don’t need doing, but we want to do because they are fun!

This morning I was supposed to be settling to the redrafting of the new book which I feel like I have been working on since the beginning of the 18th century. I have been sitting down to do this for weeks now, and only succeeding maybe one in six times. The rest of the time is applied to other useful things, but not the task in front of me.

It’s a great way to clear backlogs of papers, and wipe away the dust. There must be a good book to be written on the subject of everything that can be done when you’re trying to avoid doing the main task of the day. Except that you probably wouldn’t get round to writing it, because you would find heaps of other things to do. Let’s face it, even writing weblogs is a good way of avoiding doing that difficult task.

Well, this morning I managed to overcome the problem by spending half an hour on an exercise from Julia Cameron’s book ‘The Artist’s Way’. The exercise is called ‘Blasting through Blocks’ and is well worth a try if you find it difficult to get on with things. She focuses on the two big blockages – anger and fear. By bringing them into sharp relief we can unravel all sorts of baggage about fear of success, avoiding the risk of failure and so on. The key to the whole thing is that it really does work. It uses a simple set of questions which are worked through before settling to the project. You are basically looking for issues of resistance.

The questions are:

  1. What resentments do you have in connection with this project? 
  2. What fears do you have that relate to this project? 
  3.  Is that everything, or is there something else? 
  4. What do you stand to gain by not doing this work? 
  5. Make a deal with yourself – “Okay, Creative Force, you take care of the quality and I’ll take care of the quantity.”

Try working through these and see what happens.

Music and the letter B

Last night I surfed the internet and found musical downloads from Christian Fennesz (the guy who contributed to the last track on David Sylvian’s album, ‘Blemish’) – beautiful and mysterious music. And I found heaps of material in the archive of Resonance FM which is a London based music station broadcasting over the airwaves and the internet. Some interesting stuff here. I’ve also been listening to tracks by Farmers Manual and Autreche – strange noises, but interesting experiences still. On the CD player, I’m listening to Eno, Sylvian and the latest Radiohead album which is growing in my consciousness. In the car is ‘Heathen’ by David Bowie which has some incredibly catchy tunes on it. This morning my concentration was helped by listening to late Beethoven string quartets – Beethoven, Bartok and Bach really help me to concentrate. What is it about the letter B?

And why am I telling you all this? Sometimes music can permeate into the activities of the brain, and settle a distracted mind so that we can find our way to the work that we need to do.

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The Coaching 30 – an introduction

Mar 9

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Over the coming weeks I will be posting excerpts from a new booklet which I am working on. Called ‘The Coaching 30′ it will be available as a pdf downloadable file with 30 sections, each giving a tip or suggestion which I use in my coaching practise. Some of these tips will be ideas which I have developed in working with clients, others will be suggestions for materials, books and ideas from others – particularly leaders in the field who I have studied. The plan is to offer up some of the 30 tools and tips here on the blog. Then, if you want the whole thing you can get hold of the pdf. I hope you find the resources useful.

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