Friday 30 March 2012

Who complains about Professional Conduct?

Earlier this week I picked up on a few tweets about the @CIPD revised Code of Conduct. There's also a good article (& comment) over on People Management. You may have seen some of the exchanges on Twitter between myself and @FlipChartRick, @MJCarty and @RobertBlevin. For a mini case study touching on the subject you might appreciate this post from @FlipChartRick - "The BNP HR Manager"

Me & the EMCC 
As a member of the EMCC I readily abide by their Code of Ethics - it's a standard that is important to me personally and as a professional. It's supported by a Complaints Procedure that can be used to investigate complaints of professional misconduct by EMCC members. 

I believe these are both important underpinnings for a professional body like the EMCC. It's sets expectations and helps protect standards for both the profession as well as clients themselves. Yet in all my encounters with fellow EMCC members, I've always felt that they joined because they hold these standards dear. They are in my eyes the least likely to deliberately breach the Code of Ethics. 

Enforcing Standards 
By it's very nature, the membership and exposure to the HR agenda is much greater for the CIPD than the EMCC. However, I was surprised when @FlipChartRick asked on Twitter "How often are people chucked out of the CIPD and what for?" and @CIPD responded "Rarely, but has happened in case of serious breaches - typically where law’s been broken". 

I'm very supportive of both the wording and the intent of the CIPDs Code of Conduct.  However, I wonder what this revised Code of Conduct heralds? 

The Case for Standards 
Codes of Conduct & Professional Standards supported by an appropriate and diligent Complaints Procedure make perfect sense. Why wouldn't you have them if you were serious about standards of practice? 

These don't have to brought into play only when there is a breach of the law. For me this is a sign of a professional body who cares about the practice of the profession rather than protecting its membership. 

The Conundrum 
I think there is a conundrum here especially with regards to complaints...

Members are likely to work within the Codes of Conduct as a matter of course. Those members who don't are not likely to complain about themselves. Do fellow members feel inclined to complain about each other? 

Non-members be it individuals or organisations are most likely unaware of any Code of Conduct. Effort can be made to make non-members aware of what Conduct is expected of members but few organisations actively go out of their way to seek & encourage complaints. So who will complain? 

Perhaps this is why historically CIPD has not seen many cases of expulsion due to serious breaches... 

What do you think?
Do Codes of Conduct really make a difference to standards? I think they do if you are personally inclined to maintain appropriate professional standards. They act to guide your practice. 

Do they encourage legitimate complaints to be made to deal with transgressors? If not then how do professions seek out and deal with poor practices?  What do you think?

Friday 23 March 2012

Friday Wondering - Why don't we say hello?


Each Friday I'm posting a "Friday Wondering". These posts are meant to explore & discuss observations or issues which I think would benefit from discussion. Participation is open to absolutely anyone regardless of their expertise or knowledge. Just bring your curiosity!

If you'd like to discuss on Twitter rather than here then why not. It would help though if you could use the #FridayWondering hashtag. Thanks!

Why don't we say hello?
We probably spend most days passing strangers in the street without acknowledging them let alone saying a "hello" or a "good morning/afternoon".  Yet on Twitter we'll quite happily approach or engage with people we've never spoken to before.

Have you ever passed someone in the street and just said "good morning"?  Isn't it wonderful when that look of shock (a stranger actually spoke to me!) turns into a smile and the silence is broken with a "good morning" back.

So why don't we say hello?

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Mapping the Mind

Back in January I ran a competition to celebrate the 1st anniversary of this blog.
Nominated by Ian Pettigrew (@KingfisherCoach) the lucky winner Bev Holden (@stickythinker) won a ticket to the EMCC UK 1 day Symposium "Mapping the Mind".  Bev has written a superb guest blog post about her experience - I hope you enjoy it!



Mapping the Mind 

Clutching my metaphorical "golden ticket", I joined EMCC UK members for the Manchester Symposium on Thursday 15th March, thanks to a thoughtful nomination by Ian Pettigrew (Kingfisher Coaching), suggesting that I would be the deserving recipient of David’s “spare” ticket, and apparently I was! 

So, for those of you that couldn't make it to the event, and even for those of you who did, I’ve captured some of my reflections about the day. I haven’t attempted to share the expert content in any detail; the EMCC will make it accessible to those who are interested in knowing more. These are my “afters,” the thoughts and questions I have been left with so far, as I suspect the non-conscious part of my brain will be cogitating for a while longer and firing unexpected questions into my consciousness over the coming days and weeks. Fitting it all into a blog-sized nutshell has been taxing to say the least, so I’ve left quite a lot of things out – they do say “less is more.” 

This was my first exposure to Psychodynamics and Catherine Sandler painted a picture that had great resonance for me, describing a reality where a person knows they need to change, truly wants to change but finds it difficult to break through entrenched patterns of thinking and behaviour. I imagine most coaches have come across someone who fits this description. 

Chris Samsa brought us positive psychology, interesting evidence from the world of neuroscience, and some hugs (I should probably explain that the hugging was all about raising oxytocin levels to help us be more effective at solving problems creatively.) There was lots of content that helped me recall some of what I know and use from the field of NLP too. 

With Danielle Grant we explored the meaning of life, IQ, EQ and SQ, authenticity and even neuro plasticity within the context of leadership, and she gave us the delightful term "authentic chameleon" to describe the leader who deftly adjusts their style to meet the needs of their people. 

The Mapping the Mind Symposium gave me some new information, asked me some challenging questions, and has left me with some really practical approaches I can build into my professional coaching practice. I have been able to "inter-twingle" my thinking on Psychodynamics, Neuroscience and Positive Psychology and Ego and here's where I've got to in my cogitations - if that's a word. 


Why business needs us to be good parents 

If we agree with the theory that our early life experiences shape the way we are as adults, and that we learn to deploy psychological defence mechanisms such as denial, repression, displacement, projection and idealisation to keep us psychologically safe and sound, then business really needs us to be good parents. 

It's these defence mechanisms that become our "hidden drivers" sitting below the surface, beneath the observable behaviour that we present to the world, that cause us to think, feel and behave in particular ways, sometimes creating great outcomes and other times sabotaging our success. It's these hidden drivers that coaching with the psychodynamic approach can bring to the surface, building self-awareness in the client and being the catalyst for personal change. 

If we provide our children with a happy, stable and enriching childhood, what are the "hidden drivers" that we are shaping for the future? And I've made a leap in my thinking that leads me to suggest that if parenting is done well, maybe we won't need coaches to help people in organisations to perform well as adults? I suspect I'm taking a far too simplistic stance on this one...... 


Why we might need to rethink how we use trusted coaching models 

Chris Samsa's insight into neuroscience and positive psychology left me feeling inclined to revisit some of the coaching models I have relied on so far, and find ways to incorporate his very elegant SCARF model into what I do. 

We risk reinforcing negative and less helpful thoughts, feelings and behaviours by encouraging our clients to describe their current reality in vivid terms, as a source of information upon which to begin searching for a future ideal. This places too much emphasis on Away thinking rather than Towards thinking. 

In my experience clients find it very easy to describe what's happening now and what they don't want, (i.e. what they want to get away from) but are less able to create a vivid picture of what they want instead (i.e. towards) but it’s exactly this kind of thinking that shifts them from an unresourceful state to one where they can be more creative and innovative. 

I'm inclined to think that Away from thinking is less effective because it lacks direction, you can run away from something in any direction you like, and perhaps end up in a worse situation. I liken Towards thinking to the tractor beam on the Star Wars Death Star, it's both irresistible and compelling! 

What does make some people so reluctant to dream about the future and its infinite possibilities? What do we need to do differently as coaches to move our clients into a more positive state and would it speed the coaching process, and the pace of transformation, up if we did? 


Why managers need to let go of what they know 

Historically managers and leaders have acquired knowledge and held onto it as a way to keep them at the top of the organisational pyramid. With the pace of change accelerating and knowledge becoming accessible to the masses, it’s much harder to hold onto knowledge and for it to be relevant for very long! 

Organisations thrive when they are agile and responsive, when they are equipped to react appropriately to the pace of change and where everyone in the organisation is enabled to make it happen. How can an organisation behave that way if all the knowledge (and the power and control) is held by an elite group of individuals? 

One of our challenges as coaches is to help some clients let go of what they know by letting go of their ego, by thinking beyond their ego, which for me means they realise the success of the organisation is a combined effort, bringing together and leveraging the skills, experiences and abilities of a broad range of people under a visionary leader. 

There is also a place for the coach in helping team members to step up to the challenge of being empowered, so that the people who lead them have more confidence in their ability, making it much easier to let go......at least in Utopia if nowhere else! 

So, I hope this gives you a flavour for the event and I look forward to your comments. I'm very grateful to David and Ian for the opportunity to attend and now it’s time for me to time to turn thinking into action. 



Bev Holden is the co-founder and Director of The Clear Thinking Partnership. She and her business partner Kate Hargreaves work with clients to help them think more clearly, boosting individual and team performance and business success.

Friday 16 March 2012

Friday Wondering - Does HR need courage?


Each Friday I'm posting a "Friday Wondering". These posts are meant to explore & discuss observations or issues which I think would benefit from discussion. Participation is open to absolutely anyone regardless of their expertise or knowledge. Just bring your curiosity!

If you'd like to discuss on Twitter rather than here then why not. It would help though if you could use the #FridayWondering hashtag. Thanks!

Does HR need courage?
I've noticed that many of my conversations with people in that broad house called HR have touched upon the need to act in their roles to break the norm.  To stand up to management.  To change the status quo.  To lead by example.  It often takes courage to be a leader of change.

However, the situations recounted often reflect the fact that senior management don't have the courage to change themselves.

So what do you think?  Does HR need to have courage to perform it's role fully?
Would acting with courage lead the way or would it give permission to other executives to follow rather than lead?

Thursday 15 March 2012

The sound of someone not looking in the mirror

Did you hear about the Goldman Sachs ex-employee Greg Smith?  If you didn't then you obviously weren't on Twitter or the newsfeeds yesterday...

It's funny how a sensationalist story of bad behaviours in part of a global banking institution can overwhelm the newsfeeds.  To the extent that in all this hulabaloo many probably missed that there had been a 6.8 earthquake in Japan... 

What makes the soundbites of an ex-employee of a bank more important than potential further catastrophe in Japan?  I'm sure that along with many journalists we could all think of some good reason... but when I look at my kids it's not bankers ethics that I need to be worrying about is it?

I have a theory.  Gossip and warmongering aside, could the reason be that much of the world wants to pick at the ethics of bankers as a way of not looking at their own?

I'm not taking a moral high ground here, but wasn't the noise on Twitter yesterday just the sound of thousands not looking in the mirror at themselves?

Just a theory....

Friday 9 March 2012

Friday Wondering - Do Social Media Snobs exist?


Each Friday I'm posting a "Friday Wondering". These posts are meant to explore & discuss observations or issues which I think would benefit from discussion. Participation is open to absolutely anyone regardless of their expertise or knowledge. Just bring your curiosity!

If you'd like to discuss on Twitter rather than here then why not. It would help though if you could use the #FridayWondering hashtag. Thanks!


Do Social Media Snobs exist?
I have to thank @Projectlibero for sharing this posting from copyblogger on the "21 Warning Signs You're Becoming A Social Media Snob".  Please do take a minute to read the article - it resonated with me and I think there's some learning in there for all of us.

However, taking the "test", I'm thankful that I'm only guilty of knowing my Klout score - it never changes!  Yet I'm not sure that I know anyone who would score highly.....

So for all the bad behaviours the article describes, I wondered if there really are Social Media Snobs?  Have you ever encountered any?  How would you describe their snobbish behaviour?


Friday 2 March 2012

FridayWondering - The Art of Business


Each Friday I'm posting a "Friday Wondering". These posts are meant to explore & discuss observations or issues which I think would benefit from discussion. Participation is open to absolutely anyone regardless of their expertise or knowledge. Just bring your curiosity!

If you'd like to discuss on Twitter rather than here then why not. It would help though if you could use the #FridayWondering hashtag. Thanks!

The Art of Business
Earlier this week I was lucky enough to join the Leap Day fun hosted in London by @dougshaw1. As well as being a great way to spend the day together, it was an opportunity to explore, discuss and practice how we might bring work and art closer together, for mutual benefit.

I came a little late to the party but experienced a wonderful hands-on tutorial on painting in watercolours from @VandyMassey . You can see more of her talent here www.vandymassey.com .

Now I've not painted anything more than a few walls and kids' Airfix models over the last 25 years. Yet, I really enjoyed trying out watercolours and even managed to paint something recognisable!

It left me wondering why, for all my years in corporate life, has art not been a part of either my own development or a medium to develop teams or capabilities. Yet there's clearly enormous potential...

So that is my #FridayWondering for this week....

Why for all the learning & development opportunities pursued in the workplace, is art not more commonplace?