Category: Stress

The Determinedly Difficult Person: Survival Tips

So you go into a meeting/workshop/tutorial room feeling on top of your game… looking forward to your session…and positive interaction – and then you spot them.

Sitting slightly away from everyone else, they will be demonstrably engrossed in their smart phone, i-pad or incredibly pressing work. Yes, they are a member of that global tribe, who turn up when least expected or needed … the lesser-spotted Determinedly Difficult Person.

A couple of weeks ago, I had one of these in a group. She was on the offensive from the outset – maybe to do with me, or maybe to do with her having better things to do (the big boss had organized the session).

She’d run workshops and presentations herself she said, but we differed fundamentally over what this meant. Hers was that this involves ‘exercising power and control over the audience’. Call me lily-livered, but mine was about ‘hoping to be mildly influential and engage people’.

She works in a singular role in Continue reading →

33 Ways to Deal with Panic

1.Take low breaths, not deep breaths, but breaths which drop into the bottom part of your lungs.
2.Let the breath out slowly
3.A good sequence is In for 1, 2, out for 1,2, in for 1,2, out for 1,2,3 extending it up to 5
4.Remember bringing down your rate of breathing can help bring down heart rate
5.Just stop, sip a glass of cold water Continue reading →

Save Money: Be Your Own Shrink

Is your role giving you a headache at the moment?

You were enjoying it and it was absorbing you. Yes, there were challenges, and yes, it needed energy – you maybe had a lot to learn. Then bang! the economic downturn. Your developing, growing and exploring stopped. To be replaced by curbing, policing and saying no.

‘Up and at them’ turned into reduce and retreat.

You notice Continue reading →

Spot Your Talent

Compering a couple of conferences last week for uber-coach Russell Amerasekera reminded me of the importance of identifying our own truth. Russell left corporate life when he was at the top to pursue his most important values in his work. One of which is that we should play without fear.

So without further ado folks, cast your doubts aside, please, to play… Spot Your Talent.

Find Your Flow

What activity engrosses you so you forget about yourself, time flies and from which you get a huge sense of satisfaction? (ignore the carnal). This activity will have defined your best memories of performing well. Is this activity permitted/encouraged/endorsed at work? Are you doing enough of it there?

Position Your Flow

Are you linked to the best people to get this activity and what it produces, valued? You may be the most amazing computer programmer in the world, Continue reading →

The Free and the Fee

money

‘Look love, you either know what you want or you don’t here, and you either want me or you don’t’. This is what I should have said when talking to a potential client on the phone recently – but did not. Instead I supplied heaps of useful information acquired over 22 years, for free. In the City in London this would rack up about £500 – in rural South Wales: nada.

Now I wouldn’t be writing this post, if I didn’t believe in working for free. And at WordPress (host here) alone, there are Continue reading →

hounds and fox

When Your Face Doesn’t Fit…

A couple of years back, I got hired to mentor someone we’ll call Reynard. He was sent to me because he felt ill-at-ease, lacking in confidence and that his career was going nowhere. When we first met, he surprised me by asking for a view on what he was wearing. He did not stop talking and I liked him enormously. He was uninhibited, emotional and extrovert.

As our sessions progressed it became clear that his organization was introvert Continue reading →