The Professional Business Coaches: Blog

Stop Doing 4 Things to Build Your Emotional Intelligence

4 Misbehaviors that suppress our EQ

1. Stop criticizing people to make yourself feel good in the short term. Why? Because at the end of "Remorse Road" lies "destination Anguish." Why do we criticize others so much? We aren't made taller, nor even appear to be taller, by knocking other people down. So, what emotional payoff do we get from this common unconscious action? Psychologists like Nick Wignall know it for what it is, a defensive reflex that temporarily masks our...

Guidelines for Managing Remote Working...

...especially for first-time remote workers

There is so much to think about when adapting your business to this new COVID-19 world. Ideally, remote working should be planned for and trained in, but urgent quarantine of our employees precludes this. Even with remote workers with their own computers, phones, and work processes, it is a challenge to "distance manage" team cohesion! How do you ensure quality work? How can teams continue to thrive or collaborate on new projects,...

It's Never Too Late to Learn!

Do not blame the iceberg!
It was bad decision-making that sank the Titanic!

Joseph Bruce Ismay, CEO of the White Star Line, planned in 1907 to build four transatlantic liners. They would be the biggest and most luxurious ships since his father built the RMS Oceanic. Was this decision guided by Ismay's ego and desire to outdo his father and his rival shipping line, Cunard? Probably so, but would he have decided to put just 16 lifeboats on the RMS Titanic (instead of the...

Five Things NOT to Say at Your Strategic Review (or at any meeting)

Two Must-Do Guidelines and Five Clichés to Avoid.

Your strategic review is a rare opportunity to take an objective overview perspective on your business. It is a time for questioning assumptions and a space in which to encourage creativity and involvement. It is not a place for rigid thinking or hackneyed business phrases. In the ideal business world, all meetings should accomplish one or more of four things. They should 1) Generate new ideas to add value. 2) Share...

Delegate The Problem. Not The Task!

Nature or nurture? It's what you believe that counts.

Delegation, when we don't do it right, is a frustrating business. We discover down the road that things never turn out as we thought they would. We find ourselves looking at deadlines in the rearview mirror. It drives us crazy and reinforces the conviction that "if it has to be done right, then there is only one person to do it."