Category Archives: Blog

How ethical mentoring can make a difference

GUEST BLOG Ethical mentoring can manage reputational risk It seems every day, there is another story of organisations, which were once respected, betraying the trust of their stakeholders. The scenes at Fifa (pronounced Thiefa), when staff applauded the boss, who had presided over years of corrupt practice, may have seemed inexplicable. Yet they demonstrate just […]

Humour in Mentoring

Finding the Funny Side of Mentoring When asked to describe the mentor or coach they would dread, learners typically refer at some point to the person without a sense of humour. Not surprisingly, mentors and coaches have similar feelings about trying to form developmental relationships with humourless learners. The person who is too intense, too […]

Employee-Led Mentoring

How to Support Employee-Led Mentoring Programmes One of the biggest barriers to widespread use of mentoring in organisations is HR time and focus. Lean HR teams in many companies have a wide range of urgent tasks and projects that tend to take priority over deep learning initiatives. Minimum effort solutions, involving matching platforms that put […]

Helping a Mentee Manage Uncertainty

When Uncertainty Becomes a Barrier   Much as humans generally crave certainty, we have to live with constant uncertainty.  It’s how we manage uncertainty that counts. In organisations, uncertain comes in two kinds: prediction uncertainty and decision uncertainty. Prediction Uncertainty Prediction uncertainty comes from operating in a VUCA environment, where we know that “best guesses” […]

Helping a Manager Understand His or Her Leadership Style Options

Manager Intervention: Helping managers understand their leadership style options How a manager behaves in any specific situation depends on many factors, including how much preparation time they have, but the two most significant factors are their general style preference and the range of options they have within their preference. The role of a coach or […]

Time to Man Up to Men Mentoring Women 

When will the tide turn on the impact of #MeToo?   We published our research “Cross-Gender Relations in a Post-#MeToo World” in 2018. It was our fervent hope that this would start a conversation about the unintended consequences of the #MeToo movement – namely that men were starting to avoid contact with women in the workplace, most notably, in […]

Mentoring People with Autism

Autism is a broadly misunderstood condition. While severe Autism may be disabling, it’s a mistake to think of all people on the Autism spectrum as disadvantaged. In reality, many autistic people have significant advantages over neurotypical people in general. They are better able to absorb and process large amounts of information, more focused and often […]

Mentoring and Menopause in the Workplace

Menopause in the Workplace: The Missing Life Stage in our Conversations. “I feel ripped off that no one talked to me about it.” [1]  “I’m 46 and I felt so unprepared and shocked when it happened.”  “The silence – it’s the worst thing, especially when you get to the top of organisations where the percentage […]

When a Mentee is Unhappy at Work

Unhappy at work? Everyone has times, when their job just doesn’t seem to give them the same satisfaction. These feelings of being unhappy at work don’t always last – simple shifts in role or responsibility can make a radical difference, for example – but when ennui sets in, the potential for disengagement and quitting rise. […]

Negotiating the Balance of Power Between the Team Leader and the Team

Power struggles in team performance One of the biggest impediments to team performance occurs when there is a mismatch between the leadership style and behaviours the team needs and those that the leader and the team default to. The word “default” is appropriate because there is usually an unconscious process of adaptation, which may be […]