Category: Effectiveness
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Banish email overwhelm – from ‘oh no’ to zero
I was recently asked to help one of my favourite third sector clients with handling in-box overwhelm. This is such a huge issue in our sector I’ve decided to share my ‘Banish email overwhelm blueprint’ here on my website. Please share the love, and send this link to friends and colleagues also struggling under the…
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Difficult conversations – mistake #2
Having difficult conversations Mistake #2. Not being clear about what behaviour you want to see exactly Phew! Thank goodness that’s over. You’ve had the difficult conversation you were dreading. You think the meeting went quite well and your report seemed to take on board what you’d said. You’re hopeful things will start to change for…
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Managing your time – summer tips
The sun is shining. The sky is blue. The birds are singing… And you are sweltering in your office wishing you could be outside..? If so, here are three top tips for getting the most out of our last few weeks of summer. Make every moment in the office work super hard for you and…
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Work-life balance in a nutshell
Work-life balance (or life-balance as it’s becoming known) is everyone’s Holy Grail. But what does it actually mean? In my years of coaching in the charity sector, where life balance can be a challenge, I have come to see it as four related areas. In a nutshell: A satisfactory balance between the hours spent on…
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What makes a great team player?
Love her or hate her, not many people would say that Margaret Thatcher was a great team player. These days even top leaders recognise they need to be team players to get the most out of their people. Team working really matters. Tensions and conflict from poor team playing wreck havoc on productivity and take…
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Make it up – make it happen
The pressure is on me at the moment. And it’s all of my own making! At a recent training day, I challenged participants from the charity I was working with to choose a task they’d been procrastinating on and make a pledge to the group about when they would get it done. I found myself…
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10 good reasons to get on the phone
We’re all busy, so it’s tempting to whizz through your to-do list firing off emails and ‘getting things done’, but I encourage my third sector clients to take a break from the digital world every now and again, and make use of the old technology. Here’s why… 1. You really do get the job done.…
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21-day challenge
21 days until the Olympic Games! You can bet your bottom dollar that all the athletes taking part are firmly focused on their medal goals and doing everything in their power to be winners. There’s a lot you can do in 21 days, too, to get a task achieved that you’ll be really satisfied about.…
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What are Aung San Suu Kyi’s values?
I was talking to a third sector coaching client yesterday about the stunning victory of Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, in Burma’s recent byelection. We’d just finalised a list of her unique set of core values and wondered what Suu Kyi’s values might be? Patience, we could only presume. She…
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If emails cost 60p
Were you amazed by the recent rise in the price of a stamp? 60p for first class!? Charities are rightly worried about the impact of this bombshell – from the increase in the price of direct mailing to the cost of communicating with often elderly volunteers who may not be on-line. This price hike…