Be funny about HR/L&D = you winning cake. That simple.



I tried convincing myself there is one of my five a day in here. It worked.



I over indulged at the weekend – I hammered through everything in the photo above (with a little help but not as much I would have liked!) and needless to say felt all the worse afterwards.



To try and avoid the temptation of such gluttony again I am going to use this image as motivation but need a suitable phrase/set of words to make it memorable.


If anyone can come up with a caption related to HR, Learning and Development, mentoring or personal development that is witty and relevant to this photo please post a comment or email with your suggestion. Best entry wins – yep, you guessed it – the cake/savoury snack of your choice from the photo delivered to your place of work.


(NB To avoid people meeting the same fate as myself the winning entry will only be allowed one of the three on display – trust me you will not feel better afterwards if you eat anything more than that)


Closing date for entries is 16.00 (GMT) on Wednesday 4th May. Look forward to some sweet entries!


A pun too far? Now that’s blogging gluttony in action for you

Going Underground

Learnt a great lesson in the value of how to ask a question this weekend.



Going to the British Library I asked an attendant at Kings Cross station whether he knew how to get there – he responded “Yes… but more to the point do you need me to tell you?”


It could have been very patronising thing to say if he had not followed it up quickly with “Because if you do I would be glad to help” and a booming belly laugh. We are talking BIG, a la Brian Blessed laughing in Flash Gordon big, with a broad smile.

It was a lesson in (elementary!) directive questioning and a reminder to both parties of the value of knowing what information needs to obtained. The irony was I was just recently commenting on a Linkedin forum about the best coaching/mentoring questions with my own suggestion – have a look here if you fancy taking part. Needless to say this attendant was a gentle reminder that we are all, myself included, a work in progress when it comes to such areas.


So what are some of the ways to approach such conversations so you avoid similar awkward laughter at yourself with members of the public? Here are some tips:


1. Ask a question if you want to know, not to massage your ego


Use questions as an opportunity to clarify, dig deeper, encourage your inquisitive nature – don’t use it as an means to reaffirm that you know your stuff. Put your esteem to one side, embrace the vulnerability of the unknown and get excited that you are about to pick up something new.


2. Never compromise yourself by not asking a question


I see this all the time at events where you have people judging others on the quality of questions being asked – do not allow this to affect you, more than likely there are 5 other people in the room who want to know. Sure the presenter will also appreciate your interest in what they are saying to boot!


Added to this I think coaches or mentors can shy away from asking a question for fear of offending the client or being misunderstood. Remember – when you are talking you learn nothing new about the situation or that of the client’s you are dealing with. View it as an opportunity to get nearer to the result you both want. If noting else the person concerned should want this above all else and if they know you are sincere in what you are asking will be receptive.


3. “No matter where you are in life, there is always more journey ahead of you”


Thank you to Nelson Mandela for the above, which neatly articulates the folly of giving in to fears and not asking questions as we go through life, let alone when chances for learning and development present themselves. In accepting the above statement I find I have more freedom and believe in the value of my questions, knowing that however much the answers to my questions move me further along there is still (depending on life expectancy of course!) more of the same ahead of me.


So welcome the uncertainty, enjoy searching for the knowledge. And if lost at Kings Cross you know which one of the London Underground attendants will direct you to the right place.

Related articles

• The Most Important Question to Ask Executives on Social Media Investment (jmorganmarketing.com)
• BK Learning Research Skills (bl.uk)
• Is Quora, 'The Answer' to all Questions ? (blogs.vinuthomas.com)

How to be a courageous professional? Be vulnerable!

It seemed a good idea at the time.

New Year and I was looking to get things back on track with mind and body this weekend. Covering the later I attempted running home from my office in South Kensington to Embankment underground- for none UK/London based readers its a long enough run for the month of January, if you follow my drift!

(Top tip - if you ever do it is to always be on the opposite side of the road to Harrods in Knightsbridge. I have collapsing on tourists in a wheezing, exhausted heap is not what they expected from their trip to London and not what you want from a pleasant Friday night jog)

You do not want to be on this side of the street. Unless you have a small fortune to spend - and do not fear knackered runners (Image via Wikipedia)

As for my mind I am attending The Coaching Academy's free introductory course this weekend. If any one is interested how I get on with it give me a shout next week but I am hopeful to get something from it from the anecdotal reports I have had. The three areas they seem to offer being life, executive and NLP coaching, the last which seems to keep cropping up in texts and books I have been reading up on recently.

The most recent of these, Robbie Steinhouse's 'How to Coach with NLP', is proving to be an interesting read for this relative new comer to the field. I love his summing up at the end of the section on Mapping the Client's Inner World - essentially it is saying don't expect to have all of the skills and techniques nailed when you first step up to coach clients. Everything requires practice and development but you need to get amongst it, get involved so to speak.

It made me think about the value there is some times to being vulnerable or, at least, being able to admit when you are coming up short in terms of skills or experience. Sure.you need skills to get hired to help any client/department/organisation move forward, but don't be afraid to put your hand up to admit when you are going out on a limb and perhaps need to draw on the resources of others.

Don't want to take my word for it? No worries - perhaps its a reflection of my vulnerability to writing unconvincing blog posts!

But before you do dismiss it, check out this TED talk from Neil Pasricha in September 2010.

I was staggered at his honesty when talking about his personal life near the beginning of the presentation and felt it immediately drew you in to listen to him talk further about his 1,000 Awesome Things blog/book etc.

Why? I think because he revealed elements of his life which would have been difficult for any one to deal with, let alone speak about on such a stage and it gave an authenticity to what he had to say.

One could argue that in showing a certain vulnerability he showed real courage - who would not want to be a little bit more like that in their approach to either their professional or personal life? 

Those who can, teach. Those who can coach...?

With the economic downturn organisations have been looking for means to maximise their return from their resources, including staff.

Some really do believe the children are our future – well not quite, though it is really heartening to see how much McDonalds were last year throwing their weight behind (no pun intended) apprenticeship schemes aimed at getting young people on a career path.

However, not all organisations have the financial resources to support such schemes and are looking for more cost effective means of a return from their employees. Recent studies from the CIPD have shown that there has been an upsurge in coaching activities, with 82% of those organisations surveyed taking up more coaching opportunities from only 69% in 2009.

Virginia Matthews wrote an interesting piece in XPert HR (afraid you will need to be able to log in to view the article in its entirety) about how the business world might use some of the examples from the sports world and apply them to the world of work.

What is encouraging for someone in HR who is an unashamed sports nut is the suggested parallels between the two disciplines – setting long terms goals, intermediate mile stones to be met, examining problems as they occur and coming up with solutions and so on. What is shared by both is how the need for the coaching must come from the person concerned. Individuals must be seeking out the means for improvement in their performance.

Interestingly, some of the examples sighted by Matthews have internal coaches – so the individual uses someone else employed by the organisation to help guide them through means of improving performance (though it is not clear whether they are their line manager in most instances). Does this make improving team, departmental and, therefore, organisational performance more difficult if there is the possibility of previous history or agendas between both? Do external third parties have a more objective, possibly more effective (but undoubtedly more expensive) approach as coaches?

Personally I would worry that the ‘coach’ would have been forced on to the individual in such circumstances – rather defeating the spirit of the exercise. Has that been your experience, or has it always been learner led? Also does anyone have any examples of schemes/suppliers they would recommend?

In the meantime, might be useful to keep in mind some thoughts from Jan Brause’s at HR Zone on the subject and the pitfalls of its perceptions…