Where empowerment and micromanagement clash

A practical example of the challenge of empowering employees and yet protecting the image of your global brand.  Patisserie Valerie make great use of their customer email database.  Regular mailings with seasonal and speciality offers.  The quality of their produce… Continue reading

Coping with the negative overload (IoD Global – CV19 #6)

A survey released today showed that the UK public has very little confidence in the information that it is receiving about the CV-19 crisis. Surprisingly, to some, the Government came out as well as the more reputable media, and the… Continue reading

Finding the inner resources for creative, strategic thinking (IoD Global – CV19 #5)

It is hard to imagine ourselves being creative when we are in what feels like a crisis.  However, the same rules apply here as at any time, and let’s be honest people have come through crises far worse than this… Continue reading

The end of the world as we know it (and other catastrophic thoughts) (IoD Global – CV19 #4)

Anxiety is a natural response to situations that we anticipate in the future, where we believe that we are unable to control things around us, and the possible consequence of that is that we will be hurt. This week, I… Continue reading

Coaching during a recession…

A colleague pointed out that I’d worked through a recession and wondered if I’d got any tips? I don’t like talking about my own work too much, but the backstory might help explain the bullet points… Coaching through recessions… what… Continue reading

New course: Introduction to Reflective Practice and Journaling (Oxford, Jan 2020)

Does your profession expect you to use reflective practice (RP) to maintain the ability to practice? Increasingly professional bodies are seeing that attending workshops and conferences have limited long-term impact without the habit of RP. This is particularly true of… Continue reading

In the pursuit of productivity…

Many business school and professional development programmes are based on the same politico-economic model… one that assumes that economic growth is always for the good… that we should all seek for our organisations to become ever more productive… that individuals… Continue reading

University of Oxford Continuing Education 2019/2020 programme is released!

If you are interested in doing something a little intellectual, widening your worldview, or exploring new ways of engaging with life, then you might be interested to know that the University of Oxford Continuing Education programme for 2019/2020 has gone… Continue reading