Managing Change - Executive Coaching and Leadership Development
  • Home
  • Our Services
    • Development >
      • Executive Coaching
      • Leadership Coaching & Development
      • Psychometrics and 360 Feedback
      • Programmes >
        • Leadership Development Programmes
    • Transitions >
      • Career Coaching
      • Parental Leave Coaching >
        • Maternity Coaching
        • Paternity Coaching
      • Outplacement >
        • The Programmes
    • Well-being
  • About Us
  • Our People
    • Credentials
    • Sarah Jaggers
    • Simon Foster
    • Christine Peck
    • Annabel Purves
    • Lesley Trenner
    • Roberta Bantel
    • Mark Powell
  • Our Clients
    • Testimonials
  • Contact Us
  • News and Views

Working under lockdown #Covid-19

27/5/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
The last nine weeks have been a challenging time of uncertainty, isolation and anxiety. We have all had to adjust to new ways of living and working without knowing when this will all end and what life post-coronavirus will look like. 

For a lot of people, this means now working from home. This brings a different set of challenges, and we were curious about how people have experienced this situation and keen to understand how to best shape our coaching and support to help. A couple of weeks ago we asked people to tell us about their experience of working at home during the pandemic. 

What we found most interesting in the responses was that people were not overly challenged by technology or the logistics of working from home. What they did find particularly challenging were the more emotional aspects. We asked what respondents found to be the top 3 biggest challenges in working from home. Just 9% included poor internet connectivity as a problem. The top challenges were:
            1: general anxiety about the impact of coronavirus on my life (54% mentioned this)
            2: difficulties communicating with co-workers (45%)
          =3: social isolation (36%)
          =3: being motivated to keep a regular schedule (36%)

Others included:
  • too many distractions at home
  • childcare
  • fear of the return to work
Interestingly, despite these being listed as common challenges, 91% of people considered that they could continue comfortably working from home with their current arrangements for three months or more. Given that the most commonly given concerns were job security, redundancy and the return to work, this is a curious finding. One possible interpretation is that the current lockdown situation has created a sense of psychological safety for people which might, for some, postpone having to confront the reality of the post-coronavirus world.  This is an area we'll be looking at further.

These have been fascinating insights for us to consider as we continue to develop our programmes to support people in the workplace. Specifically, we have shaped a new resilience programme to incorporate these findings, which we are particularly excited about.  The new programme will help people find strategies to bolster social connection, develop their realistic optimism responses and manage effective transitions to the world, post-coronavirus.
​
You can see the results of our survey here.
​Managing Change provide specialist coaching and development programmes in resilience and well-being throughout the UK. For more information about how we can help you support your people, do get in touch - e: enquiries@managingchange.org.uk or call us.

​If you would like to take part in the ongoing survey series or wish to share it, the link is here.  And we're always interested in your experiences, so please do leave your comments below.
0 Comments

Is positive thinking positive?

2/1/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
For years we have been encouraged to embrace positive thinking - "dream big", "be positive", "live your dreams" - these are all familiar to us. The message is that if we dream and keep hopeful, that very positivity and focus will help us to achieve those dreams. 

In contrast we are also encouraged not to be negative or to point out challenges or possible pitfalls as this will be demotivating and will make it harder for us to succeed. Those who dispute this approach are sometimes described as being slightly Eeyore-like characters who are simply being pessimistic. But it would seem that they may be on the right track!

Looking at the studies of positive thinking over a couple of decades psychologists have noticed that dreamers are often not great 'do-ers'. Dreaming about a desired future can actually be so satisfying and soothing for people that they fulfil their wishes virtually. In the process this drains the energy needed to make the effort to achieve their dreams in the real world. As a consequence, they are often even more frustrated and less satisfied, which can then lead to more fantasising, and so on.

A better approach is to actively visualise the obstacles or challenges you might face in achieving your dream or goal. The process of doing this can make it more achievable. By continuing to fantasise whilst also thinking about the potential obstacles, prepares us better to face our fears, develop better strategies for challenges, make plans and take action. Using 'mental contrasting' in this way is a more effective approach to turning dreams and goals into reality.

For further details see the work of psychologist Gabriele Oettingen and her WOOP (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan) technique - www.woopmylife.org

0 Comments

Celebrating Success

12/7/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture

​We've been running our Employee Feedback Culture Survey for some time to help us gauge trends and needs. Over time, we have seen a general uplift both in capability and willingness to give and receive feedback at work. Our latest review supports these general trends but still reveals some difficulties.

For example, 40% of respondents disagreed with the statement "in my company we celebrate success and recognise people's achievements", with a further 13% neither agreeing or disagreeing. (On the positive side, just under half of those surveyed agreed with the statement).

The survey also found:
  • 40% said that giving and receiving feedback was not valued, widely practiced or done well in their organisation
  • 43% don't feel that they or their contribution is valued

​As we have previously discussed here (and elsewhere) recognising contribution and achievement works - we all work better when we consider that we are valued. Many people are demotivated when they feel unnoticed or unappreciated. Giving and receiving feedback on our performance helps us to build (or maintain) confidence and boost skills.
  • 43% don't feel that they or their contribution is valued
Celebrating successes, particularly in teams, presents an excellent opportunity for all to pause, reflect, evaluate and mark a project or performance period with some degree of emotional connection. This doesn't need to be a huge or expensive activity. This enables us to learn, to feel good and to connect with colleagues. It helps to mark the completion of something and take a breath before starting on the next thing. When we talk to managers of really busy teams, they will often say that they don't carve out time for this and can see how tired and sometimes jaded their people are as a result. These activities do not need to be difficult - they require intention, time and some skill. The benefits are certainly worth the investment. ​
If you're an employer how would your people rate your company? If you're an employee, how appreciated do you feel? We'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences on how success is celebrated in your company. Do leave any comments below or email us.

You can take the survey by clicking here.

If you would like to discuss developing a feedback culture in your company or developing these skills, do get in touch.
0 Comments

Mindfulness practice. Should you?

30/5/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Practicing some form of meditation, like mindfulness, is super fashionable now. It is considered by some to be as necessary to them as their daily workout. But is this yet another example of an over hyped trend or is there real benefit?

Mindfulness (and similar) meditation is a Buddhist-inspired practice that trains people to focus their mind on their experience (such as sounds, feelings, thoughts) in the current moment and to be fully present and aware. This usually involves a quiet space, breathing routines, relaxation and so on. People are often encouraged to develop a daily practice working either on their own or following guided meditations via phone apps or audio.

What is the evidence for the benefits and applications of meditation?

Practices such as mindfulness meditation have been found to provide moderate benefits in reducing pain, depression, anxiety, insomnia and stress in some studies. However many scientists remain concerned at what they consider to be the overblown hype around mindfulness given the limited studies and evidence to support it. In 2014 a group of scientists led by psychologist Nicholas Van Dam looked at these previous studies, collectively including over 3,500 participants, and found essentially no evidence for benefits related to enhancing attention, aiding sleep or controlling weight. This does not suggest that the practice is necessarily ineffective but that there is as yet little supporting evidence as to the benefits or applications.

Mindfulness in the workplace

Here’s where the effectiveness of the practice gets even more sketchy. The hype around it confidently says that mindfulness meditation will help with resilience, rational thinking, job satisfaction, clarity of thought, etc. It is hard to disassociate these claims with the increasingly lucrative market in promoting apps and books about it (a market valued in 2017 as worth $1 billion in the US alone). American behavioural scientists Kathleen D. Vohs and Andrew C. Hafenbrack recently wrote about the unintended negative consequences of mindfulness use in the workplace. Their studies suggest that the sense of calm achieved by mindfulness practice actually reduces motivation at work.   

Keep an open, but sceptical, mind

“Overall, I suspect that a large number of the health promises will not be fulfilled, mostly because therapies, phone apps and other interventions are being rushed to market without sufficiently rigorous testing and appropriate implementation,” Van Dam says. “But given what we’ve seen to date, I suspect evidence may accumulate supporting mindfulness practices for anxiety, depression and stress-related conditions.”

Many of us at Managing Change find mindfulness practice beneficial and will continue with it. We won't be recommending it for spurious purposes or overblown benefits though!

0 Comments

The Clue to Motivating People? Simply ask...

29/2/2016

1 Comment

 
Gloomy reading from HR Magazine which recently reported that in 2015 34% of UK employees could not think of one occasion on which they felt motivated at work. The top motivators were said to be a good work/life balance (45%), a credible and motivating boss (25%), and a supportive and motivating team to work with (19%).  ​

The difficulties with such studies is that whilst they are interesting and provide some useful pointers, they blur levels of meaningful detail which in this case relate to individual difference. It is a simple fact that people are different - they are motivated by different things and at different times. Their needs are different. Whilst 45% of respondents might have said that a good work/life balance was their main motivator, what that means will vary for all of them (and of course 55% didn't report it as their main motivator). We should also probe whether such external factors are actually motivating ones. Work in the area would suggest that they aren't. It is most likely to mean having control over working hours/location and flexibility.

In motivational science terms, the aspect of control is the most important feature. Unfortunately, the kind of approach reported seems to imply that people are a passive lump to which things can simply be done in order to achieve a different outcome. This thinking is probably at the heart of most disengagement and lack of motivation among people!

To enable people to do their best we need to engage with them (with each other!) as unique adults who have potential, and work with them to understand their drivers, values and needs. In collaboration, employer and employee may then create an optimal working arrangement.
1 Comment

    Categories

    All
    Anxiety
    Appraisal
    Authentic Leadership
    Breaking Through
    Career Coaching
    Careers
    Coaching Psychology
    Communication
    CVs
    Diversity And Inclusion
    Emotional Intelligence
    Employee Engagement
    EQ
    Executive Coaching
    Feedback
    Feedback Culture
    Imposter Syndrome
    Job Interviews
    Job Search
    Lawyer Survey
    Leadership
    Leadership Development
    Leadership Development Programme Model
    Learning And Development
    Management Development
    Managing Change
    Maternity Coaching
    Meetings
    Motivation
    Parental Leave
    Performance
    Positive Psychology
    Psychometrics
    Redundancy
    Resilience
    Returning To Work
    Strengths
    Stress
    Transactional Analysis
    Women Leaders
    Working Mums

    Archives

    March 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013

    RSS Feed

Picture


Managing Change (Cambridge) Limited

t: 01223 655667       e: enquiries@managingchange.org.uk

Copyright © 2016 - 2020 Managing Change (Cambridge) Limited. All Rights Reserved.

GDPR Privacy Policy
  • Home
  • Our Services
    • Development >
      • Executive Coaching
      • Leadership Coaching & Development
      • Psychometrics and 360 Feedback
      • Programmes >
        • Leadership Development Programmes
    • Transitions >
      • Career Coaching
      • Parental Leave Coaching >
        • Maternity Coaching
        • Paternity Coaching
      • Outplacement >
        • The Programmes
    • Well-being
  • About Us
  • Our People
    • Credentials
    • Sarah Jaggers
    • Simon Foster
    • Christine Peck
    • Annabel Purves
    • Lesley Trenner
    • Roberta Bantel
    • Mark Powell
  • Our Clients
    • Testimonials
  • Contact Us
  • News and Views