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Our thoughts on ways to develop leaders and teams using the latest thinking in fields including neuroscience, behavioural change and systems thinking.
Wish you were more visionary as a leader? Maybe you don’t need to be
This week I attended an HR Forum where EDHEC business school presenting some fascinating research around perceptions of good leadership and how men and women perceive diversity, inclusion and gender...
What it’s like to spend a day with a coach focusing on progressing your career
If you had a whole six hours and a leisurely lunch to talk with a highly-skilled coach about your career and skills, what would you love to get resolved? Get clear on your career direction and plan...
Try feed-forward instead of feedback
Providing feedback has long been considered an essential skill for leaders. Employees want to know from manager that they are meeting expectations while managers also have become accustomed to...
Get greater returns from your leadership training
Leadership training alone rarely creates the consistent changes in behaviour HR and the business expect for their investment of time and money. At Ros Toynbee Coaching we have long known that...
Discussing burnout with your employee
A member of staff is not coping with their workload. You’ve noticed one or more of the following: a decrease in their productivity and the quality of the work; working long hours into the evening...
Is Brexit making you angry?
We live in peculiar and unsettling times. Today the breaking news is that Scotland’s highest court of law, the Court of Session, has ruled that Boris Johnson’s suspension of the UK Parliament is...
Ever wanted to know what leadership coaching feels like?
Last year Claire Sanford, Director of Humanitarian Business Transformation at Save the Children, began a period of coaching over 12 months with Ros Toynbee Coaching. Here is her story of what the...
Feeling burnt out? You may not be playing to your strengths
The old adage “play to your strengths” is one we are familiar with. And twenty years of research in the field of positive psychology provides us with a body of evidence that confirms that leaders...
Can you develop emotional intelligence?
In other words are leaders born or made?
There’s been much debate however now research is showing us that while we are born with a baseline level of emotional intelligence (EQ) and it is influenced by the way we have been parented, it is good old fashioned practice that really raises that ability to relate to self and others.
How to give feedback or criticism without hurting someone
Giving feedback can be a great way to help employees recognise their strengths and improve on their weaknesses, but it’s not always easy to give.
No one, no matter who they are, enjoys feeling criticised – and someone who feels demoralised and unappreciated is unlikely to want to work hard or stay in a job.
The questions we live in determine our ability to respond
How do you respond to opportunities?
Do you always say yes regardless of whether you or your team have the time, energy or resources to complete it?
What if you could step back and assess whether this was the right opportunity (and what would make it so) for your team first?
Development conversations that motivate
January is the time when many organisations hold their annual reviews. It’s when performance objectives are set, and it should also be a time when meaningful development objectives are also set.
A mounting body of research is showing that the old ways of focusing on weaknesses to develop demoralises employees and doesn’t actually turn around their performance and may even decrease it by as much as 26%.