My Blog
This blog is for me, it’s my sketch pad where I think things through and work things out. Having worked ‘stuff’ out I think it’s good to declare it, so I am sending it to you. Hopefully you will also find it useful.
Latest Posts
Going round in circles: Coaching and the co-created pattern
What do you do with James? He’s not getting on with his boss and he has made it very clear he doesn’t want your advice. You’d normally bang their heads together and tell them get on with it, but from bitter experience you know that’s not going to work. And if he doesn’t want advice then what does he want from you?
In this coaching demo see how James works it out for himself and how he leaves empowered and energized to try a different approach based on his own insight.
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We need to talk about collaboration
“Kevin’s mother is worried there might be something wrong with him. His Dad insists Kevin is a normal little boy. Kevin grows up and does something terrible. The film, one of my favourites, is “We Need To Talk About Kevin”. Every now and then I get a platform to talk with people about my work; it’s a great privilege for me given all the claims on their attention. Inspired by the film, I called the session “We Need To Talk About Collaboration”. Here’s my overview and the video of the talk…
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We industry reformers need to get over ourselves
My mission is to change the construction industry and I am not alone, but it’s a tough ask. Successive UK governments have been demanding reform for at least 50 years and yet the typical project director’s focus is elsewhere. This PD is talking about a heart attack and we reformers are talking about a skin rash that isn’t going away. And there’s ships and stormy seas. Something has got to change…
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If you were really, really confident, what would you do?
What’s your job: Director, project manager, senior engineer, architect, other? And what if you were really confident in your role, what if you weren’t holding back, what would you do? I’ve been asking this question lots over the last few months and the responses are both inspiring and useful. Of course, I asked myself first and here’s what I came up with. And then, if you were a really confident team what would you all do and where would that get you? Think, write and manifest…
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The three big reasons why construction needs a coaching management culture
Here’s three big reasons why the construction industry needs a coaching management culture. It’s not only construction. We hear from Gallup’s chairman, Jim Clifford, who has firm views on this based on decades of global research by the analytics giant. The argument for culture change is convincing. We signpost the simple steps to get started…
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We don’t need another hero: Here’s how you can start activating your team
Hero leadership was the order of the day back when I was a young project manager. I thought I was being a hero though people around me whispered ‘he’s a pain in the neck’ and worse. 30 years on things have changed; young professionals don’t want hero bosses, they want to be coached to success. And “The Six Point Focus Plan” is as relevant now as it was then, probably more so…
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Yes, you can refine your management skills. Here are 11 tips
Few cyclists dedicate conscious effort to skill refinement; most get on their bike and ride, some of them very hard and fast. Here, I explore the parallel with managers in the construction industry where the default assumption is they are doing their job optimally and the same for their people. What would skill refinement as a manager look like anyway? Suggestions included…
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“Get out of that f@¡$%&! trench now!”
We have just launched an exciting MOOC on the Chartered Institute of Building’s Academy aimed at enabling young construction professionals to perform better in their jobs, become effective managers and eventually great leaders. At scale and over time this will change the construction industry from the ground up. Though Graham raised an interesting challenge…
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Needed: one project hero and an act of God
One member of a leadership team I was coaching asked “If we were working on the team, what sorts of things would we be doing?” I asked him what he thought. The day after I came up with forty fairly simple things a group of people can do to improve how they work together. Here are three. And a little quiz at the end.
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Quality, it’s about leadership. Right?
If you’re a leader in the construction industry and up for your thinking being challenged, this is for you. This week we’re talking quality and leadership. “Quality”, not your cup of tea? Well hold on, poor quality, and there’s lots of it, is hitting your bottom line and spoiling your reputation and it’s dragging the construction industry down into the dirt. If you are a leader in the construction industry then all you need to know about quality is right here, right now.
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