Author: angusmcleod

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NEWS NSA launch

National Skills Academy for Manufacturing launches new coaching courses

Semta, the Sector Skills Council for science, engineering and manufacturing technologies has today announced the launch of three new flexible learning coaching programmes.

The courses, which are now available online through National Skills Academy provider Angus McLeod Associates, have been specifically designed to meet the needs of employees required to coach other staff, helping them identify and enhance existing skills and competencies. Contact Angus McLeod Associates. Continue reading NEWS NSA launch

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News: e-learning

In partnership with AMA Coaching School, we are now able to offer e-learning programmes to organisations wanting whole cohorts of people to upskill in applied coaching skills or other managing and leadership skills too. With about 20,000 learners having enrolled in Angus McLeod’s e-learning coaching programmes since 2004, you can be assured that the learning is not tick-box ‘knowledge-only’ learning, but applied learning for use immediately. Corporates have the option of Open College Network qualification programmes or those offered by the AMA Coaching School itself and externally endorsed by the Coaching Foundation.

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CBT coaching

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is predicated on looking at the human reactions to events rather than the events themselves. Performance Coaches are of course already doing this and in meta-coaching (Hall) this represents one set of a panoply of interventions regarding the perceptions and ‘frames’ of the coachee. CBT methodology involves ‘Socratic’ questioning to create discovery. Again we see links with best practice in coaching where questions are used for the benefit of the coachee’s self-understanding rather than the benefit of (for example) a very poor coach who is struggling (and misguided) to decide where to ‘lead’ the coachee. Continue reading CBT coaching

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Mental Toughness in Organizations

Would you wish to do a ‘mental toughness’ course? Odds are that most executives will say “no!”. However, in a trusted setting, what response will the same manager give you when discussing the following work-based issues: being calm in times of stress, being more disciplined about the focus of their attention, balancing the demands of apparently conflicting goal-demands, feeling comfortable and positive about feedback, mental adaptation to stay ‘high-performing’ when there are inherent frustrations and pitfalls designed into the procedural and political deficiences of all medium and large organisations.

Now, there is a raised opportunity for engagement and a commitment to learning!

Continue reading Mental Toughness in Organizations

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Micro-World


There is beauty in the human scale but also in the microscopic. A slideshow showing pictures through the electron-microscope and taken by Catherine Draycott (Head of Wellcome Images) can be seen here. As coaches we can listen and learn from the macro-scale communications of our coachees – but we also have to drill down to help them find root-causes. With electron-microscopy one can drill down to fine detail, sub-cell. As coaches we use the coachee’s language to help us to help themselves. What they learn from drilling down helps them make macro-level decisions. This too is one of the beauties of exquisite coaching. Angus.

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The Performance Organization

The problem with management science is that there invariable remains a tension between the logical business needs, as described by KPIs (including financial results) and the latest fad in HR-oriented models (from Mazslo to the Leadership Pipeline). The problem is that the two approaches never seem to meet where it matters, in the Board room. Even the so-dubbed ‘High Performance Organization’ (HPO) Model is principally an HR assortment of 5 goodies put in one box: these include employee engagement, self-directing teams, integrated production technology, organisational learning and Total Quality Management. Shouldn’t there be something more acceptable to Directors that incorporates the measurable people-performance benifits AND the business management in one package. Enter the founding principle of TPO – The Performance Organization! Continue reading The Performance Organization

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News: Resilience

Resilience is sought after and as single term for a multifactoral set of traits, understanding the basics can be hard. In a 4 minute video, I propose one major component of individual resilience and a methodology for its increase over time. Factor that up for organisations and you have a resilient culture. Find out how! Continue reading News: Resilience