Coaching

In a recent study, I found that a child’s gifts may actually be at odds with the way he is expected to learn: the very gifts that will help him in life, hurt him in school. The conflict between teens’ gifts and school demands is a good reason to question whether our approach to education is best for teens. Yet there is an even more fundamental reason to re-think this myth.

Since this month’s topic is on change, we thought about how business leaders can change the questions they ask. Here is a sample platter of options for business leaders that want to bring an individual and strengths focus to their organization.

The vast majority of people, particularly, working parents, struggle to combine work and family. They report feeling guilty, rushed for time, and overloaded. The work-family balance concept assumes a scarcity model.

What separates people who achieve lofty goals from people who procrastinate with even simple things? Creating Your Best Life: The Ultimate Life List Guide is the best and most comprehensive resource I have come across on this topic.

I found this quotation on a billboard in the City Hall Square in Copenhagen while on holiday there last month: “Replace fear of the unknown with curiosity.” Recognizing moments of fear or anxiety is simple enough but entering a state of curiosity is a real challenge for me, probably has something to do with my practical sensibility.

It keeps beeping, interrupting even the most focused thoughts and conversations: the call waiting signal.  Do you answer? Hope the sound will go away? Hope that voicemail will pick it…

Well-being: A Dirty Word? As an ex-financial controller, I can imagine the furious activity that must be taking place in the finance departments of businesses around the globe as they…

What would it mean for your business if you could improve productivity by 30%?

Now imagine you could achieve these productivity gains without ever having to spend a dime. Also imagine that this productivity improvement is so simple that virtually every manager could implement it starting today – no costly training or certification programs required. Would you try it? Of course you would – you’d be crazy not to.

“Who doesn’t need a coach?” is the question I am left pondering after attending this weekend’s sold-out conference presented by Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital, its largest psychiatric affiliate…

Do strengths translate well to workplaces in China? I recently came across an experience in which the strengths-approach was challenged. “This assessment doesn’t tell me my weaknesses, it only contains strengths. I don’t get it! How can I improve if I don’t know my weaknesses?” Chen shouted from the back of the room.

Louis J. Alloro is a consultant to schools in the area of character education. He has an intriguing perspective on making leadership come alive in organizations. I wanted him to share some of his thoughts this month.

Nearly all of us have had the sudden awareness that while we have been driving along, sometimes for many miles, we have not been paying attention. How did I get…

Every time you don’t follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness.    Shakti Gawain The word “authentic” emerges as…

If you have not read it, I highly recommend Jonathan Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis. One of Haidt’s metaphors, more thoroughly explained in the book, is the very accessible image of…

Perhaps you are a coach working with corporate or individual clients, perhaps you are a manager working with a team of employees, or perhaps you are a parent of a teenager. In every role, you will likely find the Strengths Cart Sort a practical tool to help others understand, own, and apply their strengths.

In education there are a number of cookbooks. They serve the same purpose as kitchen cookbooks (attempting to guarantee a consistent outcome) and are bound by the same limitations. However, in an education system under fire, cookbook education can sometimes rightly be seen by administrators as the most easily defensible program a system can take.

I was blessed to have the opportunity to attend a two-day seminar on “Caring in Education” led by Nel Noddings, professor emeritus from Stanford University. I had known of her…

Don’t ever let anyone tell you a dream is unreachable. Persistence, stubbornness, passion and heart will fill in the gaps where you need a boost, and you’ll never know how many people you will touch with your spirit, changing their lives as well. Dustin Carter is changing the world, one wrestling match at a time.