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? 

Card Games and Coaching

Welcome back to mentoring Mullarkey! Apologies if you have been desperately waiting for your fix of me talking all things HR - I have been in Mexico for my brother's wedding for the past couple of weeks.

For those who have not been I can strongly recommend it - people awesome, food great, tequila... mixed when drunk to excess. Whilst there I spent a large amount of my time in the evenings working on my negotiation, tactical and analytical skills with the following exercise...


 

Rummy - beer optional

... yep you guessed it - Rummy! Above is my first ever winning hand - I know, a pair of 3s, who would have thunk'ed it?

I also got up to some reading whilst I was away reading Mick Cope's 'The Secrets of Success in Coaching' and Joseph O'Connor and Andrea Lages' 'How Coaching Works' - there is a theme in the subject areas somwhere here...)

I would recommend both, with perhaps Cope for a short whistle-stop guide to the area. However for the benefit of this post am talking about some useful resources that came out of the O'Connor book.


The book gives a great overview on the history of coaching, how it has developed and its relevance in the modern workplace. It also deals with many different strands and theories in the subject area (NLP, Coactive Coaching, Ontological Coaching etc), so I felt covered a level both applicable to experienced practitioners or those looking to get an overview of the subject area.

In the section of Positive Psychology - hold it! Don't minimise this post! Appreciate in some circles this has some negative connotations (don't player hate on Tony Robbins and Dr Phil - well if you must but keep it brief) but the way I look at things is that if you believe something will or will not work for you then you are correct.

(let that last comment marinate in your brain a little while if you did not immediately catch my drift)

In the section they mention the Via questionnaire, developed by Chris Patterson and Martin Seligman, which examines your character strengths and how these derive from your core values, where your interest lie etc. Its free and can be taken via the University of Pennsylvania's website (just to mention you will have to register but that is quick to do).

I wondered in light of the current economic climate whether this might be of interest to anyone considering a 360 in terms of their careers, to have an examination of what some of your strengths are? Have a look at and see what you think - its free and surely any thought provoking exercises are all good, no? 

Just like any good game of Rummy.