Presence is one of those words that gets used and abused for many purposes. One of the most common is as a synonym for charisma, in the sense of attracting admiration or followership. (This is in itself a corruption – the roots of charisma lie in caring for others.)
In the context of a mature and effective coach or mentor, however, presence is a phenomenon that bridges awareness and connection at three levels.
I once went through a battery of psychometric tests with one of the leading psychology consultancies. I wanted to understand them from the perspective of the client experience. For a lot of the questions, I found myself saying “From this perspective, I’d answer X; but from another perspective, I’d answer Y”. Clearly frustrated, the psychologist told me that my personality was too complicated for diagnosis!
The protégé effect: How mentors learn from mentoring1 The protégé effect describes how we learn by teaching others. Multiple experiments demonstrate that, to get our heads around a complex topic, explaining it to someone else can be highly effective. One such experiment took a class of schoolchildren studying the biological progress of a fever. Half...
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Whenever a valued executive retires after many years, he or she takes with them a wealth of experience, insight and wisdom. This valuable resource is lost for good.
It doesn’t have to be that way. A planned approach can ensure a significant knowledge transfer.
Daniel Ofman’s Core Qualities model seeks to explain how people react to each other in terms of the ways in which they demonstrate tendencies towards core qualities – natural ways of thinking and behaving that are innate to the person (not learned behaviours). They can be viewed as characteristics that are part of a person’s...
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Feedback loops are an intrinsic part of all but the simplest systems. They inform how we respond to stimuli by adjusting behaviour. They can be reinforcing or balancing. Reinforcing feedback loops confirm what we already know or do and typically result in our continuing as before. Balancing feedback loops tell us when an action has...
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Both individuals and teams often find it hard to focus on the future. We are just too busy in the present. What we need is constant nudges and reminders – a bit like checking the map and looking to the horizon to check we are going in the right direction. A simple technique that helps...
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Article by Deiric McCann, Genos Trustworthiness often seems like a mysterious quality, something inherent and unchangeable. However, the reality is that trustworthiness is a skill that can be intentionally developed by focusing on specific aspects of how we interact with others and how we present ourselves. Similarly, psychological safety, which builds on trust, is crucial (more…)
When a team is all aligned and coherent, we talk about “all singing from the same sheet”. It’s an apt metaphor, capturing the concepts of pace and flow, rhythm and attentive listening. Another metaphor that captures the way teams come together to release greater energy than would happen when they are working individually is “coming (more…)
David Meggison & I explored the concept of organisational coaching cultures in our book ‘Making Coaching Work’ (first edition published 2005). The subject has fascinated me ever since & continues to be a major ongoing theme. Based on multiple case studies, we were able to identify four stages that organisations went through in creating a (more…)
