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Thought Leadership

Please enjoy Karen and Ali's thoughts and musings on all things coaching and coaching culture.

Ditch SMART goals and take back control

14.11.2025

Ditch SMART goals and take back control

SMART goal setting messes with a crucial factor for well-being and optimal human function, namely our autonomy, which is one of three central components of self-determination theory.

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Setting coaching up for success: three common coaching scenarios

06.11.2025

Setting coaching up for success: three common coaching scenarios

There are a plethora of reasons that people arrive at coaching. Sometimes they arrive and they’re not sure why they’re there. They’ve been sent by HR, maybe as part of a leadership programme, but they’re not really sure what coaching is or how they might benefit from it.

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HR's Strategic Struggle - Shifting the Menu From Admin to Strategy

06.11.2025

HR's Strategic Struggle - Shifting the Menu From Admin to Strategy

I feel like I first heard the words, ‘HR needs to be more strategic’ in the womb… and I’m 52. But in recent months, speaking with HR professionals, many still feel that their role is more akin to waiting on the corporate table than being a strategic partner

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Getting ROI on your coaching spend: the power of aligning public and private goals

06.11.2025

Getting ROI on your coaching spend: the power of aligning public and private goals

When an organisation invests in coaching, they want to know that they’re getting bang for their buck. Having clarity on your strategic objects will go some way towards ensuring that the money you invest in coaching has an impact. But it won’t go all the way. For that, you need to openly explore the link between the public and private goals for each coaching assignment.

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Give Your Strained L&D Budget The Coaching Edge

06.11.2025

Give Your Strained L&D Budget The Coaching Edge

If training budgets were story characters they might easily identify with Bilbo Baggins and be heard to say, ‘I feel thin; like butter spread over too much bread.’

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Where has innovation gone

03.11.2025

Where has innovation gone

There is a recognition that innovation in the UK isn’t just taking a nap, it’s in a winter hibernation bears would be jealous of, and the deep freeze shows no signs of a thaw.

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Coaching: a truly individualised approach to personal growth

26.08.2025

Coaching: a truly individualised approach to personal growth

Coaching can feel a bit like a dark art if you’ve never experienced it before. Listen to some of the rhetoric around coaching on social media and it can start to sound a bit like snake oil. A cure-all for the multitude of problems and challenges that you might face in your professional and personal life.

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3 coaching skills I used to avoid annoying my son

24.08.2025

3 coaching skills I used to avoid annoying my son

I have found that true empathy, avoiding assumptions and carefully exploring options are the coaching skills that create the most fertile environment for hope, efficacy and agency to grow.

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