Does a duvet day in bed increase employee engagement? There are a number of week days a year when truthfully, I don’t feel like getting my not so little bottom out of my bed. It’s not that I’ve had a wild party the night before, but it might be cold, raining, snowing or the day just…

Or why does no one write books about men not smiling enough? A few weeks ago I wrote a post “10 ways women supposedly sabotage their careers“. It sparked some heated discussion. The 10 ways were lifted somewhat unceremoniously by Citibank’s Diversity Department, from the book Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office by Lois…

Can careers be launched from the university of life without a formal degree? Graduates are flooding the market in ever-increasing numbers to very uncertain job prospects, many with significant debts to pay off for the privilege. Employers are sifting through thousands of applications from candidates with soft degrees covering courses as disparate as puppetry to…

Onboarding And why probationary periods are Ok So you’ve  created a winning resume,  negotiated any number of telephone screenings, sailed through all the face to face interviews, maybe even  aced the behavioural tests.  Finally you are opening that coveted offer letter.   Your heart races as you realise you’ve landed a great job, maybe a salary increase and fantastic future career opportunities. But one phrase stands…

Yes really … there’s a connection OK – bear with me! I know at least one Olympic sportsman who might smile at this post and other high level athletes among you who could well howl laughing. I’m clearly not some sporting, ATP wunderkind champion, turned coach, just an ordinary, club level tennis enthusiast, of a…

Why I don’t think so Over the past  few months, I have received a number of emails from individuals who believe that coaches in general (and that includes me) are aiming the content of their blogs, articles and programmes at people who are already successful, but are somehow just temporarily, and somewhat inconveniently, experiencing a little glitch on the golden…

Challenges for Career Changers 50% of my coaching clients are career changers aspiring to move out of their existing sectors, some perhaps that have been hard hit by the recession (automotive, logistics, manufacturing, financial services) and into hot  predicted growth areas for 2010 such as  Clean Tech, IT, renewable energy, healthcare, personal development education and re-cycling. Many job seekers complain bitterly of…

Women who make it happen! Start up success stories. Women as Entrepreneurs

  I saw a statistic last week that suggested that more than half the women of pensionable age in the UK are choosing to work beyond retirement with a late career start-up.  Whether this is because they want to work, have to work or simply because  men are incapacitated/rich/lazy or dead wasn’t clear. The one thing  we can…

Personal Branding and the 50-somethings! Every week I get messages from executives of a certain age , partly because of my post “ Job search strategies for the 50 something’s “  A typical one would be “I  m working really hard, I have contacted 4 head hunters, sent off 25 CVs, been called for 8 interviews and…