Psychometric Testing: Friend or Foe?

I’ve seen it before. It’s amazing. You can’t believe how badly you got it wrong. And then you go back to the psychometric test results in the personnel file and the concerns that were identified or the markers that should have given you ‘cause for pause’ and you think, “Why, oh why, did we hire this person?”As a consultant, one … Read More

Feeling Better by Thinking Straighter

Around 10 years ago if you went to a café you had a choice between a Nescafé Blend 43 and a cup of Lipton’s tea. These days we are spoilt for choice. First we have to choose if we want a tea or a coffee…if it’s a tea is it black or white or a chai latté…and if it’s a … Read More

The times they are a callin – For courage and empathy

Down here in sunny Melbourne it’s easy to forget the turmoil happening right now in Queensland and New South Wales in the wake of treacherous Cyclone Debbie; especially if like me, you limit the amount of news and current affairs you will expose yourself to on any given day. I refuse to go into the specifics of tragedy as I’m … Read More

The key to HR Relevance: Getting Feedback “Fat Controller style”

If there is one thing not lost on my kids it’s that they are never allowed to give me the Fat Controller compliment – at least not publicly. When Thomas the Tank did something praiseworthy, The Fat Controller (his name, not my description) could give the beaming young engine the ultimate compliment which was: “Thomas, you’re a really useful engine”. Of course … Read More

The Obamas and why they are the exception that must become the rule

As I contemplated the final weeks of the Obama White House and am now more than a little Trumped out, I can’t help but think about the recently departed power couple as quintessential outliers. Malcolm Gladwell certainly doesn’t need any further publicity from me for one of his books of the same title. And are the Obamas really that exceptional? … Read More

Ode to the Oscars: The agonising dilemma of merit and morality

It would be a rare thing indeed for me to be immersing myself in Hollywood pop culture, glitz and glamour on a work day or truthfully, any day really. But this is no ordinary day. It’s the Oscar’s and it’s no ordinary Oscar’s day. The 6,687 voters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have had to make … Read More

A Different way to be Smart

I shouldn’t name drop. But think: Roger Federer. The Australian Open. Practice partner. Tennis ball. Fractured foot. They were all involved. Just not the way you might imagine. It was a year ago. Roger was warming up. At the Australian Open. He was on the television screen at the time. I stepped out into my back garden…onto a tennis ball and fractured … Read More

A Tale of Two Mindsets

                                          Last week I bumped into the mother of the young graduate who had starred in all the musical productions at my children’s former school (They didn’t change schools. They have all since graduated!). Now, please understand that as far … Read More

Coaching, coaxing or counselling?

Kind of freaky but three clients in the space of a fortnight asked me if I’d seen an old Harvard Business Review article by Steven Berglas on “The Very Real Dangers of Executive Coaching (June 2002).” One client was particularly interested in my reaction to the article’s contention that coaching services provided by people who were not psychologically trained, experienced or … Read More