Do you have a solution filter?

Are you constantly solutioneering? The modern business world is full of metrics, KPIs, results, percentages and we're berated if we don't have solutions to problems quickly. Practical ones that we can evoke immediately to give business a profit boost. "I don't want problems, I want solutions" yells the Managing Director Sound familiar? it's this context that many coaches find themselves particularly front line coaches with hectic timetables and results oriented targets. And when faced with this scenario, as we coach with the intention of listening and helping the coachee find…

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We can’t persuade people anymore

I love a good TV commercial advertising cars. Sleek lines, colours, speed, motivational music as the car floats along the highway. But a recent commercial for a major car manufacturer didn't harp on how wonderful the car was, the fuel consumption, the green credentials. No, it directed buyers to a website where they could find hundreds, if not thousands of reviews of the car from other people. People they could trust. In the old days we had to persuade people to buy, to convince people to make the purchase. We'd…

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Solutions not problems

Our building work has thankfully all but finished and I look back with fond memories of our builders.  Not. One foible that used to really wind me up was their ability to bring problems to me on regular basis and this used to cause me all sorts of stress. Reading at the weekend that Lord Young is tackling the compensation burden of our "Elf "n" Safety" culture, and he has plenty of admirers.  Margaret Thatcher said that when he was her trade secretary, he used to bring her solutions, not…

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