Stock Take Part One: Work

October 28, 2013November 7, 2013Leave a comment

Looking Through Rose Tinted Glasses (c) R Dennison October 2013

It’s that time of the year. British Summer Time ended on 27 October. Stand by for Argos Christmas gift offers; wintery warming recipes on television; Top Ten lists of the year.

Meanwhile, if you are reviewing your Work-Life-Everything Else list in 2013 here is the first three posts which might help. This part looks at actions you can take to help yourself if your focus is work (well-being and wealth will follow).

Work

Research commissioned by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development suggests that ‘trust between employees and senior managers is more likely to be weak (34%) than strong (29%)… and that trust is particularly weak in the public sector (43%)’.

Seemingly some senior managers wear rose-tinted glasses when they look at their teams’ performance. Their junior colleagues feel they can’t speak up. That could make for unhappier workplaces. If so that’s an unfortunate outcome, as demographic trends seem to show people working for a greater proportion of their lives before retirement.

So a couple of good stock-take questions to ask are:

How can organisational leaders display honesty and integrity to build more trust into their relationships with their employees?

What else can staff do to voice their concerns in a way that captures leaders’ attention?

Hopefully thoughtful answers to those questions can produce more trusting, and productive, workplaces.

For more on the CIPD you can visit them online at www.cipd.co.uk

Less than a third of workers have faith in top bosses (telegraph.co.uk)

Lighting Up The Future

October 17, 2013Leave a comment

A bit of illumination (c) R Dennison October 2013

It almost goes without saying, that work plays a huge part in most people’s lives – and according to the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figure there are 29.87 million people in work in the UK.

However the days are long gone in which employees started work with an organisation in their 20s and stayed there until retirement four decades later.

Even a thorough PEST analysis of the political, economic, social and technological climate now could not identify the sort of jobs that will be the backbone of the economy in 2053 .

If only there was some way of being able to light up the period 40 years ahead, and know what make a future career meaningful and exciting.

I would argue (based on the people I have coached) that self-knowledge can help light up that darkness. If you are supported in developing an understanding of: the qualities you value; the skills you offer; and the work you find stimulating you are closer to where the next few steps in your career might take you. Having some light shed on the future makes it seem less uncertain.

The Guardian’s Work Blog sets out the quandary quite neatly. The discussion below the line is useful too. My comments are shown under the name RogerAD.

How can I break out of an unfulfilling job and sector? (theguardian.com)

Steady progress

October 17, 2013Leave a comment

Pursuing goals can be challenging (c) R Dennison October 2013

Last week I was waiting for a train across London just after a heavy rain shower. Although the rain wasn’t falling the platform was alive with thirsty slugs and snails. I was struck by the determination those molluscs were showing, as they headed to where ever they were going. Despite the obstacles in their way they kept moving toward their goals. They covered a fair bit of ground too, in the short space of time I spent watching them.

I think there is an analogue between that image and the coaching process. I can think of a couple of clients whom I coached over a year where progress was steady, and purposeful rather than explosive. Their sense of accomplishment resulted in taking actions which gave them a buzz of achievement. Depending on the client sometimes significant coaching outcomes are most noticeable by standing back and looking at the bigger picture.

So, for one person their valuable outcome was an insight: changing their working pattern was actually their way of opening the door to a significant career change. For the other client their major learning involved a point of clarity: structuring their time effectively – rather than going off in different directions at once – meant that there would be more time to take small, but significant, steps. Those steps led them to make inroads on their key milestones.

Bottom line: the terrain may be difficult; the distance to travel may be great; life planning or time management maybe challenging, but gradual progress is possible. However close to the ground you are.

What’s Next?

October 1, 2013Leave a comment

Choosing a Slice of Life (c) R Dennison October 2013

Would it be great to be 25 years old again? What if you could view the rest of your life as you did then, with every possibility still open to you?

Life would be the most delicious treat, a cake perhaps from which you have only taken one slice. You could then make positive changes whose impact would be felt over the next 50, or 60 years. The rest of your life could be incredibly memorable.

A query in the Guardian Work blog explores the territory of later life choices, from the vantage point of someone at the age of 55. He is trying to find his occupational passion to improve the final part of his working life.

It makes sense to ask ‘what do I want to do now’, since the latest Office for National Statistics figures show a man of 55 can expect to live for another 12 years. Life expectancy for women is slightly longer.

The question is, if you have the choice, what should you do with the remaining 20 per cent of your life?

You can see the below the line comments if you click the link below. My views are shown there (I’m Roger AD) and you can see them on Twitter too (where I am RogerD_said)

http://www.theguardian.com/money/work-blog/2013/sep/23/job-inspires-passion

Trapped In A Golden Cage ?

September 18, 2013September 18, 2013Leave a comment

A Well Paid Job Or A Gilded Cage? (c) R Dennison September 2013

I’ve blogged before about the intriguing work-life issues which the Guardian newspaper features. Here is one issue from last week, which is well worth a read.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/sep/13/hard-work-time-off

The key points are these, he:

– seems keen to get off the work ‘treadmill’ and out of the gilded cage of a well-paid, but all consuming, job.

– is also clued in about the employment situation he wants for the future.

– values interesting work (with adequate downtime to maintain a social life & his personal relationship).

– has a job currently at right angles to his values.

It would be great to coach him, as he does some action planning. He may want to decide when he wants his values to complement the other elements in his life.

Once those timings are clear he can get the support he needs to plan his steps to reach his destination. The actions he takes from now on will help him reach his ideal situation, at a pace with which he is comfortable.

Overworked and undercontributing? (psychologytoday.com)

Value Added

September 11, 2013September 11, 2013Leave a comment

Best Ever Value (c) R Dennison September 2013

If you were to list three of your core values what would they be? Dedication? Reliability? Thoughtfulness perhaps? Now the tricky question, where did you acquire those values? How many of them came from your schooling?

This is a topical question. Research by Populus for the Jubilee Centre for Character and Values suggests 84% of parents sampled want school to instil key morals and values in their pupils.

I don’t know if there is a consensus as to what particular values should be transmitted. If a top three set of positive values could be taught (like the ones I mentioned in the first paragraph), they would be a powerful foundation on which to base some goal setting later in young peoples’ lives.

They might also lessen the number of young people who end up within the criminal justice system. A revealing feature story by BBC Home Affairs correspondent, Tom Symonds, touches on one young man’s value system which led him to commit a second knife-point robbery and end up in prison. The young man sounds like he considers his own needs first and foremost, when he says he did the robbery because “[he] was going shopping in the West End the next day and … wanted some money to spend”.

If in future that young man was motivated to identify more positive values he could be coached successfully. It would take time to build enough rapport to support him in action planning. The key achievement would be to help him identify a decisive action, to answer the question ‘what else’ does he want to do with his life after his sentence ends.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24022774

Prime Numbers

September 5, 2013Leave a comment

A Slower Pace At Mid-Life (c) R Dennison September 2013

If you are 23 years of age your life may be coming together nicely in line with your life plan (although recent figures from the Office for National Statistics on young jobless people show an upward trend). Nonetheless hopefully you will be gaining life experience through working or studying. Perhaps you are settling into a steady relationship. Fingers crossed you are enjoying the best days of your life.

Three decades later, at 53, you will still be in your prime: using your life experience; enjoying time with your partner and wider family; these could be the best days of your life for different reasons. Time to stop and smell the roses?

According to the recent Benenden Health survey many people identify that as the point which middle age arrives. The survey suggests there are downsides to this milestone (like losing touch with technology, youth culture and fashion). With demographic changes the ageing members of society are also in the majority.

My experience of people in that age bracket is that they are well in tune with their inner wisdom. That is reassuring and would be more so, if employers were more motivated to take on staff in their fifties.

From a coaching perspective it would be powerful to build on that idea by:

– exploring a 50-something client’s attitude to reaching their mid-life point

– establishing what they wanted to do as a first step towards an even better future

– energising them to take that step and the ones which follow it

It would be wonderful to support clients ready to look into those topics, as they are now in the prime of their life.

https://www.benenden.co.uk/media-centre/study-reveals-changing-attitudes-to-%E2%80%98middle-age%E2%80%99/

A Healthy Balance

August 24, 2013Leave a comment

One Portion Of Five A Day (c) R Dennison August 2013

It isn’t fair. You work really hard, get the job you always wanted, start to enjoy your success and then your weight becomes an issue.

If you are David Cameron (photographed on holiday recently displaying a bit of middle aged spread) there will always be someone to remind you about your weight and the impact on your health.

All this in a climate in which: Central government promotes a healthy diet including five portions of fruits and vegetables per day; Birmingham council has promoted free sessions in their leisure facilities to encourage good health http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22350807 ; the Royal College of Psychiatrists draws attention to the link between physical activity and positive mental health.

Since the consensus is that being healthy is a good thing, how might an average person use coaching support to form a health goal?

Well, any success goal will be more powerful if it is phrased in a positive and forward looking way. So the plaintive cry of ‘I don’t want to drag around this middle aged spread’ will benefit from some further thought.

To help the coachee refine their goal the coach might ask some questions to establish what the personal benefits of ‘feeling healthier’ would be. For instance: what has the coachee done already to change their situation; how many steps are there to get from where they are presently to the healthier state; what will friends and family be saying when the coachee reaches their healthier state.

Answering these questions starts to build up the background to the healthier state the coachee hankers after. It also may start suggesting what powerful initial step he or she could take to move them in the right direction.

Ultimately, the coach can help the coachee clarify their situation. Taking the action necessary to start to attain the goal is the coachee’s responsibility.

Money Matters

August 19, 2013Leave a comment

Carrots Beat Sticks Every Time (c) R Dennison August 2013

It is that time of the year when thoughts turn to personal finance. It can seem tempting to beat oneself over the head about having an easy-come-easy-go attitude towards money.

I think a strategy that is more carrot than stick, helps. Keeping track – on a simple spread sheet – of sources of income; where expenditure goes; and where economies might be made, helps. Clarity could certainly supply answers to questions such as:

Will there be enough money in the bank after the family holiday to make the autumn and pre-Christmas period bearable?

How tempting does a pay-day loan look?

Is it time to start buying supermarket own brands instead of the costlier versions advertised on the television?

There’s definitely value in having a personal goal around the effective management of money. There’s also something positive in having control over personal finance, instead of feeling it has a strangle hold over you.

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Category: Uncategorized

Stock Take Part One: Work

Steady progress

Trapped In A Golden Cage ?

Value Added

Prime Numbers

A Healthy Balance

Money Matters

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