Thoughts from that Coaching bloke

I've moved!

2009-04-29T14:53:00.001+01:00

Hi there, thanks for visiting.

You can now find my Coaching Bloke Blog at

http://coachingbloke.wordpress.com

See you there :-)

Matt

Coaching company set for stronger brand image

2009-03-11T12:19:00.002Z

Here's a wee PR thingy that our friends at Pulse Creative Marketing produced. The rebranding exercise referred to was an interesting exercise in how we all need to make sure we're communicating a consistent message these days. I think that applies to big corporates and individuals alike. Whether your promoting a multi million dollar ad campaign or putting your CV together, it's all about creating a brand image.

Anyway, here's the piece:

A leading Sunderland-based training company is set to boost their own performance, after receiving an extensive rebrand from a growing marketing agency.

Matt Somers, author, practitioner and coach, established Peak in 1999. Since then the company have delivered coaching skills training to managers and team leaders across the UK and Europe, building an impressive client base which includes Citigroup, Scottish & Southern Energy, Toyota and Northumbrian Water. After realising different strands of the company were clouding the overall perception of Peak, Matt called upon Pulse Creative Marketing for a rebrand.

Matt said: ‘Having worked with Pulse in the past, I knew they understood the different parts of Peak and would help us to create an image that would appeal effectively to all of our customers.”

Pulse and Matt outlined two clear elements of Peak, which needed to be refined and branded separately. Matt’s growing individual reputation often preceded the Peak brand, so it was decided that the coaching and training services, offered for SMEs, and new businesses, would be branded simply as Matt Somers Coaching Skills Training, allowing this arm of the business, and Matt’s growing reputation, to become prominent within the company image.

Matt Somers said: “The entire marketing process with Pulse has allowed us to re-imagine the way in which our business is perceived. Since the rebrand, we have seen an incredible increase in sign up for our entire range of services, and we have recently been recognised by the Association of Coaching, for our two day residential course, one of our many programmes under the Matt Somers – Coaching Skills Training brand.”

Paul Finch, Pulse Marketing Manager said: “After working with Matt sometime ago it was nice to work with him again to help develop the brand so the business can continue to grow and develop. I wish him every success with the future of his business.”

Stand and Deliver!

2009-03-02T16:22:00.005Z

I've just been booked to tread the boards at the 4th annual Training Journal conference.

It takes palce at the Commonwealth Club in Northumberland Avenue, London on Tuesday 23rd June.

It looks like a fabulous event and the organisers have been kind enough to line me up several 'warm up acts' (ahem) including Elaine Grix, Head of HR at BAA Heathrow and Jackie Orme CEO at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

If you're interested in attending drop a line to carol@mattsomers.com

My talk is entitled "Coaching through the Credit Crunch". I intend to set out a range of low or no-cost ways that line managers can make sure that learning and development continues despite the economic downturn.

I have produced a short report on the subject which you can get if you Click Here

Hopefully see you there!

Oh look, books!

2009-03-02T12:01:00.003Z

Books are a passion of mine.

I have written three (all on coaching; don't know much about anything else) and read hundreds more (not all on coaching, but a lot were!)

The tale of my getting published the first time is an interesting example of ignorance is bliss. Many consultants I speak to are keen to get a book published and regularly ask me which literary agent I used or which service I used to distribute my manuscript.

The truth is I didn't. I had several titles on my own bookshelf from Hodder & Stoughton's 'In a Week' series. I think I had 'Time Management in a Week' and 'Project Management in a Week'. Noticing that they didn't have a title on coaching I decided to see if they'd like one.

Not knowing who to talk to I phoned main reception and said "I'm Matt Somers and I'd like to write a book on coaching for the in a week' series. They must be trained to look kindly on happy amateurs because I was put through to the series editor who patiently explained that I needed to write a synopsis and a sample chapter.

This I did and they must have liked it because I was duly contracted to write the full title. I followed this with a fuller treatment of coaching for John Wiley & Son in Coaching at Work (2006) and have again written for Hodder with Instant Manager: Coaching (2008) which replaced Coaching in a Week when the series was revised.

I've recently created a mini-site to promote these books and recommend a number of other coaching titles. You can find it at http://coachingbooks.sapphiredev.co.uk

How I became the Coaching Bloke

2009-02-16T17:05:00.002Z

My life changed forever in 1994. I was a newly promoted Training Manager with a high-street bank and had a range of courses I needed to attend as part of my own induction.

By far the most intriguing was a 2-day Coaching for Performance event hosted by Sir John Whitmore. I knew John had something to do with Motor Racing but was more curious about how coaching in sport could transfer to the world of work. How could it help me to help the managers my role was there to support?

The course took place over 2-days and was held at the Bisham Abbey sports facility in the South of England. This was also the base at the time of the England Football team, but sadly – perhaps – they were not there at the same time as I was.

The course was very enjoyable and we all had a lot of fun, but best of all it gave me answers. How to motivate people in ways other than just paying them more. How to get people to step forward and willingly accept responsibility to see a job through. How to operate in an environment of openness and trust. Best course I ever did.

When the bank wanted to make the course an internal one to be delivered in-house, I was first in the queue to volunteer to become a licensed trainer.

The first time I delivered the course, a participant arrived early. I was puzzled by his disappointed expression but heartily introduced myself. “Hi, I’m Matt Somers and I work in the Training Department.” I said while shaking his hand.

“Oh,” he said, “my wife thought you were a downhill skier!”

I realised then that I needed to drop the sporting analogies and concentrate of the world of work which I understood much better.

Fast forward a few years and I’ve left the bank and set up on my own. I took a redundancy package and joined the 'best thing that ever happened' club. I now run my own 2-day programme using models, exercises and concepts based on the world of work. I love going back to organisations I’ve worked with for someone to say “I remember you, you’re that coaching bloke!”

I do my best to pass on that initial enthusiasm for coaching in my training seminars, books and articles. I know that coaching makes the big difference and I see my challenge as spreading that message as far as I can.

Most recently I decided to join the web 2.0 revolution and have set up a blog called (appropriately I hope you’ll agree) “Thoughts from that Coaching Bloke” you're reading it now!

Perhaps you’d like to join me on one of our programmes and become a coaching bloke (or coaching lady?) too.

Call us on 0191 516 6237 or visit www.mattsomers.com

Five go mad at Longhirst!!

2009-01-20T13:24:00.008Z

Last week I ran my training course Coaching at Work for a group of managers interested in using coaching skills to improve motivation and performance in their businesses.

Here are their personal learning objectives along with my closing tips related to them.

By the way, I've changed the names to protect privacy.

Sarah: "Coaching for customers and staff"

You now have an approach you can use with customers, staff and just about anyone else you can think of. I guess the ‘ballet dancer’s mirror’ is the perfect metaphor for the way you’re trying to position your advisory support and I hope you left with a number of ideas to develop.

Nadine: Develop myself....to develop my staff"

As you recognised from the start, we can’t change other people we can only change ourselves, but those people that take up the coaching approach become very positive role models and it does wear off on others.

Cheryl: "Coaching myself and my flexible team"

Where people work in loosely structured teams without formal reporting lines, coaching is really the only approach likely to get you anywhere. The three stage team development model would definitely be something you could use too.

Kimberley: "Coaching for relationship building"

Coaching is great for relationship building because it positions people as central to everything we do. We can get tasks completed and relationships developed all at the same time.

Nichola: "Coaching for communication and letting go"

Letting go is the hardest part of becoming a great coach. The biggest challenge is giving up the need for control and the belief that, as managers, we must have all the answers. You’ll get there!

(Actually, there were men on the course too, but my daughter's a big Girls Aloud fan and I had to get my name changes from somewhere!)

As the picture here suggests we ask participants to undertake physical exercises designed to illustrate coaching principles. There is no real exertion involved and we’re certainly not talking about ‘outward bound’ style activities.

We don't insist on anybody doing anything that makes them uncomfortable and we don't ask folk to ‘confront their fears’ by walking over hot coals or smashing a house brick with a Karate style chop.

There are two main reasons we use physical activity:

We want to convince our participants that coaching works. To do this we have to prove it. It is not possible to model real business results in a few minutes but it is possible to see how coaching can radically improve a golf swing or a person’s ability to catch a ball.

To be truly memorable, learning needs to be impactful and fun. There is only so much you can do with a flipchart and Powerpoint.

12 days of Christmas: A personal view

2008-12-19T11:55:00.003Z

My true love, if you're reading this, I'd like....

12 months without relentless misery in the media
11 QPR players giving their all every week
At least 10 minutes each day for everyone to spend doing nothing
9 months of easy pregnancy for anyone woman due to give birth in 2009
8 hours sleep every night
Year 7 to start well for my daughter, Evie
6 months when everyone can work without paying tax (Any chance Gordon?)
5th series of Lost to start revealing what the Hell is going on
4 weeks of uninterupted sunshine next summer
3 guys in Depeche Mode to wow us all on their World tour
England 2 qualify for the World Cup (sorry)
1 new US president to start to repair the damage of the last eight years

Have a peaceful Christmas everyone

It's lovely to be recognised!

2008-11-19T15:24:00.002Z

Feeling like the cat the got the cream right now as I've just received news from the Association for Coaching (AC) that our training has received their quality mark.

I'm revamping our core 2-day training programme to coincide with our rebranding project and wanted to take the opportunity to subject the programme to outside scrutiny.

The AC were scrutinous (is there such a word?) indeed and I feel more pleased knowing that these things are not handed out willy-nilly and that the process is not just a "rubber-stamp" job.

People who train with us now have extra confidence in knowing that the skills and concepts we teach are up to date, valid and seen as 'industry standard'.

My next step is to have the programme accredited by an awarding body so that our participants can gain a nationally recognised qualification for their efforts. Something that I hope will prove invaluable as we all seek to improve our employability in these turbulent times.

Watch this space or get in touch if you'd like to know more.

The Brand/Ross guide to Communicating at Work

2008-11-03T14:44:00.003Z

Since the whole world seems to having its say on this unsavoury incident, I thought I'd chuck in my view too.

Firstly, I'm in the camp that says what they did was plain wrong. I haven't heard the now infamous answer machine messages, but I've read the transcript and I think it's horrible. It just isn't funny.

In the aftermath, I think Brand emerges with slightly more credit by having the decency to fall on his sword. Can't imagine him struggling for work though; it's probably increased his value to MTV et al quite considerably. Meanwhile Ross has managed to hang on but is losing an estimated £1.4m in pay. I don't have a view one way or another whether he's worth his pay, but I would expect somebody in receipt of that amount of money to exercise better judgement.

I was surprised to learn that the show was not live and that a fairly junior producer had decided to broadcast the segment. I wonder whether a coaching style conversation with his boss might have enabled slightly better thinking and an appreciation of the likely outcome to have developed.

Having said all of this I think the reaction by certain sections of the printed media has been quite hysterical and out of all proportion. The economy is a mess and war still rages in Africa and beyond. Let's return to the real issues.

Would you (a)credit it?

2008-10-14T11:14:00.011+01:00

In my last newsletter I plumbed the collective wisdom of my subscribers for their views on training accreditation. Here's a summary of the results.

1. What does the term accreditation mean to you?

Some kind of standards were reached and maintained.

Formal recognition of standard achieved tends to be practical work based including assessment.

Formal recognition of learning.

In many cases the term accreditation means another bright idea brought in by the Government to look as if they are doing something relevant, however, what it means in reality is bureaucracy, additional cost and something of little relevance to the business. In addition you normally have to employ a consultant or use some type of government employee to decipher what it all means.

Very Important when facing external inspection that training has been awarded an accreditation.

Approval from a recognised body to allow the development to be part of the qualification framework.

Externally recognised/ratified development programmes.

A recognisable "badge" showing that national standards have been met to ensure consistency and quality of qualifications.

A formal recognition of a particular standard achieved.

Ensuring that any training that takes place has a true value against it, based on nationally recognised standards.

It's recognised and quality assured.

2. What value does accreditation add to your training and development approach?

Peace of mind that the quality of training are achieved.

Focus minds and weed out non committed staff .

Adds a sense of achievement to the learning; shows that a specific, measurable standard has been attained.

In most cases nothing . In some cases it can be a positive for the emoployee to receive a nationally recognised qualification.

Accreditation strengthens CPD.

Transferability of qualifications/training, a bench mark and set levels all adds value.

Little real value. The culture expects/prefers accredited programmes. The performance of individuals does not reflect their 'qualifications'. This suggests to me that the accreddited programmes used historically is more about wearing a badge (or collecting a trophy) rather than developing performance.

Again, a national standard which might make us an attractive employer (rather than some in-house training which isn't recognised outside of an organisation), able to benchmark individuals, departments and occupational areas.

I rarely use it.

It adds a great deal of value, it ensures the individual has been tested, but it must be backed up with practicle ability to do the required task and not just a tick box recognition.

3. Does the offer of accreditation influence your choice of training programme?

Yes (72.7%)

4. Do you pay a premium for training which offers accreditation?

Yes (63.6%)

It's all too much stress!

2008-09-23T10:21:00.002+01:00

At the time I sent out my last newsletter there was a lot of huffing and puffing about Kevin Keegan's future (or lack of it) at Newcastle United FC. I asked my subscribers some questions about the nature of stress at work and I thought I'd summarise their views here:

1. Are managers in organizations working under too much stress?

This produced a 91% Yes response which is perhaps not suprising. But how do we account for 'stress-envy'; that modern phenomenon of building our self-worth by claiming to be frantically busy at work; getting the most emails; taking most work home; working the longest hours?

2. What are the causes of such stress?

Trying to meet demands from both above and below.
Trying to apply 'their' solutions to other people's problems.
In terms of Newcastle United: Unrealistic ambitions fuelled by the fact most teams in the Premiership are better.
Staff attitude/ability to work and complaints of poor/inadequate communication.
Not enough time to think things through and spend good time with their people
There is no such thing as stress! it is not a disease nor is it a symptom. People do suffer from apprehension, trepidation, fear and nervousness.
Incompetent staff, restrictions, not enough support from fellow collegues, overwork.
Long hours/lack of flexibility in working hours Constant interruption Insufficient resource Being expected to achieve specific outcomes in situations over which they have insufficient control.
Longer work hours, micro management, aggressive top management behaviours, feeling of failure and the corporate consequences, lack of support, culture of politics.
Unrealistic expectations and poor communication. short of staff, money and control.
Poor organisational skills, working to objectives which are not SMART. Lack of assertion ie saying "yes" to tasks without considering impact.

3. What more can be done to alleviate stress?

Learn that not everything (system) that is broke needs fixing - sometimes it needs 'thrown out'. Realising that cooperation works much better than coercion - find ways to get people onside.
In terms of Newcastle United: sell your best players, realise you're not good enough and serve a couple of seasons in the Championship; drinking lager in front of 50,000 people and the TV cameras always helps....
Time management and clear boundaries and limitations....for you and your staff.
Better selection procedures for managers to ensure they have good people skills. More people. Clear job spec.
People need to prepare to plan their actions better, then evaluate their actions. Planning is the key issue here. All business must enure that they have rigid processess and proceurdes in place and that all staff adhere to them. Do not challenge any processess as this will only cause anxiety. Excellant communications and compliance with the system. In fact business should do more to weed out weak personal characteristics, as stated in 2, during the recruitment process.
Meetings to voice misunderstandings, team work, Basic communication.
More use of flexible hours/home working Improved communication, reality check on expectations of Boards/shareholders; set people up to succeed rather than to struggle and/or fail More respect for home/private lives.
Progressive and supportive top management who trully listen and do not seek to clone more managers in the current macho style and who walk the talk, a culture of respect and focus on performance in the positive sense.
An acceptance that one person can't do it all and that short term fixes are not effective management in the long run.
Coaching managers to be more organised and assertive. Encourage communication to raise and address issues and concerns.
Better training.

4. What can business teach football about the art of management?

I have no idea - it would depend on the business and the management expertise and experience. And, of course, what the footballers wanted/needed... But I guess the footballers could teach business about the benefit/necessity of teamwork and having everyone on the same side, aiming at the same goal. Maybe that's it - it could be reciprocal?
You are where you are because of the sum of your parts. Any team made of of felons such as Woodgate and Barton are going to get exactly what they deserve. Keegan's the only one on Tyneside with realistic ambitions and honest expectations.
Risk management. Evidence base to manage physical/emotional/mental health of the players. Education - do the players understand their bodies and how to make best use of them - Determination - personal positive energy and collective purpose.
Ensure that there is absolute clarity in the hierachal staus and make sure the 'power' to make decisions is in the right hands at each level.
Football is a religion, business is profit the two do not mix. On the other hand both are about managing expectations.
The value of Money.
That real life operates in shades of grey The nature of a league table is that someone has to lose!!
Have a clear strategy and work on strengths.
How the impotant thing is 1 the customer and 2 the product ever thing else must support this.
Communication is vital.

I've been rebranded!

2008-09-01T15:36:00.002+01:00

As many of you know, for many years I've traded as Peak. This was because when I was starting out, a lot of potential clients were very uneasy about using this untried guy and wanted the reassurance of dealing with an 'organisation'. This usually meant an expectation of a track record, testimony, staff and an office (all of which I had) and sometimes of a marble reception area, a fountain and a fabulously attractive receptionist (only one of which I had)

In other words, I needed a brand which appealed to the "Nobody was ever sacked for buying IBM" mentality. There is nothing wrong with this; I quite understand. Purchasers of coaching and training are committing their organisation's time and money; always scarce resources.

After a while though this branding began to creak a bit. Following the publication of my books, people wanted to deal with me in person; they didn't want to deal with some organisation called Peak - who on Earth was that? Did this mean they were going to get me when I'm trying to secure the assignment only for some 'wet behind the ears graduate' (not my words) to be sent to deliver the training?

In response I've renamed my company, Matt Somers - Coaching Skills Training. We do exactly what it says on the tin, i.e help managers motivate their staff to higher levels of performance through coaching. I deliver the training and am behind the increasing range of coaching related digitial products we're in the process of developing.

I've not abandoned the Peak name. I have a new company - Peak Training International Ltd, which will be my vehicle for non coaching related training and a means by which I can work with other partners without dilluting the simplicity of my new brand.

This has taken a long time and I've worked with a great firm called Pulse Creative Marketing on the design and imagery. I'd appreciate any feedback or comments on the new look and the thinking behind it.

Customer Service: Here and there

2008-08-26T12:58:00.003+01:00

Just returned from a week's break in Alvor on the Algarve in Portugal. An experience which has prompted me to post on the old chestnut of customer service.

Two experiences stand out.

Twice my family and I ate out at the Ruccula restaurant. (Don't have a web address, but you can all them up on 965 839 902). Outstanding food, but equally outstanding service from the owner Richard and his family; who also work there. Nothing was a problem and every time I asked "Would it be possible to.....", the answer was invariably, "Yes, of course..." The attitude was: you're the customer and we'll do what we can to give you an amazing experience.

Of course the old debate is whether this is an approach that is natural or learned, but that's a subject for another time.

Then, courtesy of Easyjet, it's back to dear ol' Blighty and a 30 minute queue to get through passport control at the airport. There were dozens of very tired passengers waiting in line as far back as the escalators, parents having to push in so they could at least get their children to a loo, and a series of hatchet faced jobsworths appearing to take great delight in the whole thing.

I know, I know, it beats getting blown to smithereens by terrorists. I'm aware of the reasons behind the increase in processing required, but WE'RE THE CUSTOMERS! We fund this whole thing one way or another, so why not make it easier for everybody? Why can't the passport checking gadget be made portable so extra staff could queue walk at busy times? Can't they at least let you use the toilet this side of baggage collection?

Arrrrggghhhh. I need a holiday.

Everybody was kung fu fighting

2008-07-28T10:27:00.003+01:00

As some of you may know, when I'm not absorbed in all things coaching, I've been learning about, and training in, Wing Chun Kung Fu.

One of the Chinese martial arts, Wing Chun is over 300 years old and was popularised in the West by the late Bruce Lee.

My teacher, Sifu John Agar, has spent the first six months of this year creating video based instructional videos for the complete beginner. They are in a downloadable format which means you can pop them on your laptop and practise whenever you like.

I may be biased, but they really are very good and something I wish had been available when I was starting out. For a preview and more details have a look at this You Tube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o13JYO118wM

Crunchy Credit

2008-07-19T17:07:00.001+01:00

Time for me to set down my thoughts on the so-called credit crunch I thought.

My first thoughts surround the law of the self-fulfilling prophecy. I'm one of those who thinks much of our current troubles are of our own making and have been exacerbated by media hysteria. 'Property prices down 3% this year' they trumpet. Well so what, they're still massively above where they were three or four years ago. Down 3% where exactly? Your street? Mine? 3% is an average so some property will have lost more than this I grant you, but other property will have lost no value or even increased. If you can afford your mortgage falling property prices are irrelevant until it's time to sell. Even then you might win because the price of your target property will have dropped too. What about a headline that says 'Property prices fall 3% this year: The first-time buyer crisis is over!'?

My second thoughts - and I've got my coaching hat on here - concerns how individuals react in these times. Who is responsible for the problems we face? Gordon Brown? China? The Bank of England? This debate could go on forever. But if I ask who is responsible for taking steps to improve your personal situation and respond to the credit crunch. There is only one answer: You. If a sales person decides to stop calling his clients because nobody has any money, then he won't make any sales: If he can't be bothered to ask for new business the answer is already No. If that same sales person decides that the current times mean they need to make twice the number of calls to maintain their ratios then I'll bet a fiver they'll do ok. Furthermore they'll absolutley clean up when conditions improve. And they will you know? I'm on my third recession and I've ignored them all.

I'm not trying to be glib and ignore the real hardship some people now face. I believe our government could and should do more, but the sooner we all get back to oiling the wheels the sooner we can get the train moving in the right direction again.

I don't believe it!

2008-06-19T15:05:00.003+01:00

This story from Alex Mostrous in the Times yesterday really caught my eye.

"Most benefit derived from doping is in the mind, an Australian study suggests.

Over eight weeks at the Garvan Institute in Sydney, athletes were given either growth hormones, which are banned by the World Anti-Doping Association, or inactive placebos - without knowing which substance they were taking.

At the end of the study, volunteers who took placebos could sprint faster, jump higher and lift heavier weights."

So, it seems that people can do amazing things when they simply believe it is possible and they operate free from doubt. Something we coaches have known for a while, but it's nice to have it proven in this way.

Last year people scoffed when the pop psychology book The Secret suggested it was possible to attract success into one's life simply by focusing and believing that such success is already there. Well isn't this simply exactly the same placebo effect in operation?

I'm open for a discussion on this one.

Thank You Raymondo!

2008-06-12T13:24:00.002+01:00

Just returned from my annual sojurn to Marbella on the Costa del Sol. A fortnight to get away from thoughts of coaching for performance (despite my obsession with such things) and to just relax and unwind instead.

However, it's inevitable that on holiday you're going to encounter customer service of various kinds and qualities. I encountered airports, airlines, taxis, restuarants and shops and enjoyed varying levels of service in each. Customer Service is another passion of mine or to be more precise, helping teams and organisations get to grips with its demands, so I couldn't help but notice.

For now I just want to tell you about a very positive example. We enjoyed two gorgeous meals at La Paloma in Orange Square: part of Marbella Old Town. The food is unbelievably good but the prices realistic. The setting is rustic and wonderful and the service from the owner Raymond and his staff attentive without ever being over bearing. It can be done!

Unfortuantely, I don't have his number or web address, but if you're in the area, it's easy to find as you stroll around.

In the meantime here is a picture of a nearby Beach (The pale skinned Brit in the foreground is NOT me!)

Adios amigos

Well done Ronnie!

2008-05-06T16:22:00.003+01:00

Last night I watched Ronnie O'Sullivan win the World Snooker Championship for the third time. Not a vintage performance (that came in the semi-final against Hendry) but enough to prevail over Ali Carter. Both players appeared drained by seventeen days of this stuff.

I've been following this game since my teens. I love watching good players on TV and from time to time I try to play. It's actually incredibly difficult and makes you realise just how talented and dedicated the professionals are.

It also strikes me that this quaint English game undperpins many key coaching principles:

Performance is all in the mind

There are very few external variables in snooker. No wind, rain, mud, heat, etc that bedvil outdoor sportspeople. There is little crowd noise, the table is perfectly flat and when you're at the table there is little your opponent can do to influence what you do.

At a professional level, the players all have astonishing skill levels. What separates the winners and losers is surely their mental toughness; their ability to focus on sending the cue through in a straight line to hit a white ball where intended with the required strength. Do this as well as you can about 10000 times and you could be World Champion.

Awareness

The top players play with incredible awareness. They spot problems not set to occur for another half a dozen shots, they play to avoid landing in a position that would mean using the rest and they send balls safe once in a winning position. They are also aware of their opponent's mental state and know when to apply pressure or when to keep things tight. Even whilst trapped in their seats while their opponent scores heavily, the top players are incredibly focused on the game, monitoring every nuance.

Responsibility

Snooker is the ultimate example of self-responsibility: the ball ends up exactly where the player hit it. No one else is to blame, no one else is involved. This is pure self-realised feedback of a kind we can only dream of in a work situation.

It's good to look at lessons we can learn at work from other situations. What other sports can teach us about managing people?

Beat the crunch, while having lunch

2008-04-20T12:55:00.002+01:00

My new best friend is David Bass at London & Country Mortgages. These guys are the business when it comes to mortgage brokering. I have a fixed rate deal due to expire soon and, like many people, was panic stricken that any new deal may ending up looking like the national debt of Brazil!

I called up David one lunchtime and by the end of the day he'd hammered out an eye-watering deal of a kind that has City types slumped over their bar stools, spilling Champers all over their pin stripes.

L&C make their money from the lenders and survive by word-of-mouth recommendation. One I'm more than happy to give.

If you're in a similar position give David a call on 01225 341 348. Mention this blog or he's not going to have the first idea who you are!

Your misery is my misery

2008-04-15T10:08:00.002+01:00

Blimey! I nearly spilt my cornflakes.

According to Breakfast TV this morning, one in six of the working population in the UK is utterly miserable in their job.

This is a disgrace! Even if the statistics are dodgy (64% of all statistics are made up on the spot) and it's only half that bad, it's still a disgrace.

The presenter turned to an HR guru for comment. The Guru supported the research and went on to explain that the source of this misery was often the employee's relationship with their manager.

Managers everywhere should hang their heads in shame, but so should people like me who are in the business of helping managers manage.

Something is going badly wrong. I intend going back to the drawing board and examining everything my firm does against this background.

I invite you to leave comments regarding what needs to happen to restore enjoyment of and in work.

Marketing stuff

2008-03-27T15:46:00.004Z

Lots of people have been asking me for details of the various bits and pieces, software thingies and wotnot that we use for our marketing, etc. So in one hit:

For our e-newsletter and other communications we use:

Constant Contact

For article dissemination I prefer:

Submityourarticle

For delivery of digital products we've just started using:

Click2sell.eu

For developing our marketing and strategies we use

Berandette Doyle

These are affiliate links and if you were to sign up I'd receive a commission. There are plenty of other internet resources I'm affiliated to that I wouldn't dream of recommending.

See what you think.

Sorry for the inconvenience

2008-03-16T12:31:00.003Z

Had a fabulous trip to london last week, that was marred by a dreadful journey back home to the North East.

On Tuesday night I met with my friend, mentor, and all-round coaching guru, Sir john Whitmore. I thought I knew a thing or two about coaching, but I am a mere beginner by comparisson. John's thoughts and plans on the future of coaching are amazing and if you get a chance to read any of his articles or better yet, hear him speak then grab it with both hands.

Wednesday was spent with another friend, Mike Butler. Mike is without doubt the best trainer I have ever known and a font of an incredible amount of knowledge in the people development arena. We spent a very pleasant day exploring ways we could work together and use the internet to get useful material out there. I hope to have news of our first efforts soon.

So, it was all going fabulously until I arrived at King's Cross to take my seat on the 18.30 to Newcastle, due to arrive at Durham 21.10.

The clapperboard at Kings X said 18.20 to Newcastle cancelled. No probs thought I, I’ll hop on the 18.30.

The clapperboard at Kings X said 18.30 to Newcastle cancelled. The power lines were down between Doncaster and York. See screens for further advice.

The further advice screen said “Do not travel today”

Now at this point I would happily have booked into the L'hotel D’Armpit on the Clerkenwell road were it not having a paid gig on Thursday to return for.

So I participated in the riot that ensued when 3 train loads of passengers went for the 19.00 to Newcastle.

The announcer then explained that we were just waiting for a driver who was ‘accredited’ to navigate the diversion we were going to have to make via Leeds.

Eventually rolled out of Kings X at 20.00, rolled into my brother in laws arms at Durham at midnight and rolled into bed about 1am.

National Exppress's comments on this? Sorry for the inconvenience.

Now I'm a mild mannered chap but is it any wonder we get travel rage when we're treated like this? I wasn't inconvenienced, I was exhausted by the whole thing and it nearly cost me a valuable assignment.

I appreciate that National Express couldn't do anything about the wind, but these things happen every year - it's called Winter. Why don't these people ever have a plan B?

Just a boy from Shepherd's Bush

2008-03-05T22:38:00.003Z

Ok. this is just for the record.

I was born down the road from Loftus Road stadium and have been a QPR all my life. I have followed the team through thin and even thinner over the years, including the recent heartbreak of losing to Cardiff in the League 1 play off a couple of years back. It was played in err, Cardiff and was against, err Cardiff. What a day.

Anyway, things are on the up. Our new owners are so rich that QPR is - by one measure - the richest club in the world. We are climbing the Championship and look destined for the Premiership in a season or two. The most recent (and outrageous) rumour is that a certain Mr Mourinho is being lined up for manager.

So, if things go well, don't accuse me of glory hunting! There will be a lot of nouveau QPR fans emerging in the next couple of years methinks. Where were they for Notts County away, eh?

Come on you Rs!

Playing with little thingies

2008-02-29T16:38:00.005Z

We're making rapid progress in making our ideas and concepts more widely available by puttting them on the net. My IT girl, Leanne and I have been having loads of fun using a little bit of software to make piccies of the tools we're creating. Look:

We think they're really cool.

If you want to know about these two factsheets, leave a comment.

If you want a link for the software we use to create these covers, leave a comment.

If you want to leave a comment, click Comments below.

Take care y'all

Back to presenting

2008-02-18T12:08:00.006Z

My little brain has been tickling away at producing presentation skills training without the need for giving a presentation. I know it sounds odd but it's along the same lines as people not being able to make the time management training because they can't find the time!

I have put together some 'quick wins' by way of a free report, which you can get your sticky paws on by............

MAKE A PRESENTATION? GET ME OUT OF HERE!

You’ve left it to the last minute hoping that something would come up, but it hasn’t and the day is coming when you Have to Make a Presentation! We’ve all been there and it’s a horrible feeling:

HaHHave you run out of excuses?

HaHHas the boss left you with a few PowerPoints and asked you to ‘see what you can do’?

HaHHave you left it too late to do any real preparation?

IsIIIs there really nobody you can fool into doing it for you?

Perhaps you’ve considered some of the training on offer but are thinking “I don’t want to become an ‘excellent presenter’, I just want to get it over with!”

If you've considered death as a seriously preferable alternative (and statistics suggest that many people do) - I CAN HELP YOU!

Simply register for our FREE guide

The Reluctant Presenters Survival Guide

http://www.mattsomers.com/peak/pages/other-stuff.php

I'm not pals with Paypal

2008-02-14T17:11:00.002Z

Is it me?

A while ago we decided to try to make it easier for our customers to do business with us by enabling them to pay by credit card.

First call was my bank who seemd to think £25 a month to service a handful of transactions a year was perfectly reasonable. 'nuff said.

So we turned - as many do - to good ol' Paypal; assured by their web page sales blurb that our customers could merrily brandish their credit card irrespective of whether they had a Paypal account or not.

I pasted in their little Buy Now button and assumed all was well. And indeed it was. Until someone actually tried using this button to give me some money.

They were met with a succession of error messages that I'll not bore you with but which amounted to "Go away".

Now, I'm no Richard Branson but it struck me that this probably wasn't too great for business so I decided I would call up the Paypal guys and have them restore my sense of Tickety Boo.

The automated voice interactive thingy eventually directed me to..... well I can only conclude it was the same island as the characters of Lost find themselves stranded upon. The explanation was equally baffling. It seems you can use your credit cards to pay for things from Merchants who use Paypal, but only up to a limit. Nobody appears certain what these limits are but I'm sure the numbers 8,15, 23 and so on featured.

I thought that because Paypal take a commission whenever someone pays for something via their intermediary system that the more they allowed this to happen, the more money they'd make. I'm clearly missing something.

Please leave me some comments or advice on this one. Would it be easier to ask my clienst to roll up a bundle of tenners and push them through my letterbox?

Make a presentation? Get me out of here!

2008-02-11T12:22:00.000Z

Browsing through the colour suplement that came with my weekend paper, I came across one of those 'top 10 worst fears' that they print occaisionally. There at number one was:

Speaking in public

Spiders were at number two and death was at number seven! Am I really to conclude that most people would rather die than make a presentation? (You don't have to answer that)

So this set me thinking. I train and present regularly and it doesn't bother me. Is this because I am some lucky soul with certain skills and attributes unavailable to other folk? Don't think so. I think it is because that - unlike many - I was given proper, well constructed training in these areas as I shinned up the greasy pole.

I spoke to a few folk who would happily sell a kidney rather than present and suggested I put them together a training workshop on the subject. No you pillock, they replied, do you not realise that because we're so fearful of presenting the last thing we want to do is go on a course where you have to give a presentation!

My challenge it seems then is to help people build their presenting ability without having to actually present. I have some ideas of how I could go about this, but would welcome suggestions and comments too. I'll also give regular updates on my progress here.

Well here goes!

2008-02-07T13:26:00.000Z

Hello Cyberspace,

I've spent the last few months reading about t'internet and how people like me (arrogant so and so's, pompus enough to think anyone is interested) ought to set up a blog and share their thoughts, plans, ideas and musings with the world at large.

So that's what I'm going to do.

I make my living turning managers into coaches and offering them tools to help with the people side of working life.

I've always loved the world of work, probably because I've had some diamonds for bosses and been able to sit back and watch others be managed by cretins. So I've learnt a lot.

However, my interests extend to, amongst other things, bass guitar, wing chun kung fu and wondering which there's more of; cabbages or pigeons.

I look forward to interacting with people in this brave new world