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A recent post in a LinkedIn coaching forum managed to encapsulate most of the worries new coaches must have (though it omitted one rather important thing).   This was my reply: 1  You say “I am struggling with… understanding my assumptions/past experiences/knowledge”. You... Read More

A recent post on LinkedIn asked this question. “EQ” is a term deliberately coined to be like “IQ”. IQ stands for “intelligence quotient”. It’s a number derived from marking a person’s answers to a standard set of tests. The tests,... Read More

… and how Bristol city council couldn’t get it more wrong This blog is one of an ongoing series discussing examples of good and bad customer service. Google “parking Bristol” and the first search result is that of Bristol City Council’s site. Fair enough. T... Read More

  The sublime For some time, a relative had live-in 24/7 care to help them cope with worsening dementia. As their care needs became more challenging, it was clear that they would have to move to a care home. It fell to me to look for one. Luckily, my relative could afford one of... Read More

About ten years ago, when I was a member of the then Gloucestershire chamber of commerce, the chairman said a very wise thing. “What is a chamber of commerce?”, he asked. “It’s a room (a chamber), in which people meet to do business (commerce).” If a chamber of commerce is not... Read More

How to sing in a choir 3 The choir meets the conductor for the first time When the chorus master has honed his pride and joy to musical perfection, or four days before the concert, whichever is the sooner—and I’ll give you three guesses as to which of these comes first in... Read More

How to sing in a choir 2 The chorus master is the poor sod who has to rehearse the choir and bring them just to the peak of perfection, only to hand the songsters over to the conductor of the concert who then takes the credit for the fine job they’ve done on the night. If he (or... Read More

How to sing in a choir 1 England has a fine tradition of choral singing. Of course, Wales also has a fine tradition of male voice choirs, but this gender exclusion, due to the historical reason that the women were all down the pit hewing the coal while the chaps were up above... Read More

As Tolstoy observes at the start of Anna Karenina, Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. [*1] Equally, happiness at work is a doddle;  unhappiness is much more complicated, runs much deeper and is more likely to be exogenous, ie not... Read More

I was grimly amused to read, “A bungled execution in Oklahoma “fell short of humane standards”, the White House said on Wednesday [30 April], as the state announced an investigation into how a condemned man ended up dying from a heart attack after writhing and thrashing on... Read More