Personal Effectiveness

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Micro-learning: Mastering Meetings and Groups
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Micro-learning: Leading with Stories
Critical Thinking
Micro-learning: Critical Thinking
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Micro-learning: Natural Networking
Influencepaperplane
Micro-learning: Influencing Well
If Then New
Design (and share) your If > Then statements, for a purposefully prompt towards action
Catherine Allison
How to influence decisions and boost gravitas with your voice
Video
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Upping your gravitas by silencing your inner critic and amplifying your inner coach
Video
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How to check your writing for clarity
Video
Bennew
Using the 'Rule of Three' to communicate memorable ideas
Video
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How to pause when presenting
Video
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Working with eye contact
Video
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The power of plain language in presentations
Video
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The power of 'You' in writing
Video
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What designers need to know about microcopy
Video
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Skills and mindsets for making mentoring meaningful
Video
RG
Setting mentoring relationships up for success
Video
Liz
The impact of coaching, and it's distinction from mentoring
Video
Sw
Practical pointers for authentic leadership
Video
Hilary
Coaching, and creating coaching cultures
Video
Ingrid1
Vocal confidence warm up exercises
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Ingrid2
Vocal techniques for clearer articulation
Video
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Growth Mindset Mantras
Tool
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How to command an on-screen presence
Video
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How to start writing
Video
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The secret to a successful Tone of Voice
Video
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How to write with authority for brands
Video
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Keep it simple. Quick and effortless copywriting
Video
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Writing in the active voice
Video
NO
Course Pack: The art of saying No (and how to say Yes)
Presenting
Course Pack: Purposeful presenting
Behave
Course Pack: Behavioural Insights
Charm
Course Pack: Charm School
GRO Wicon
eCourse: Go with the GROW model
Listening Pair Icons
eCourse: Are you listening?
Mentoringpairicons
eCourse: Meaningful Mentoring
Leadership Icon 2
eCourse: Leadership Styles, a primer
Charm Icon
eCourse: Charm School
Pairfeedbackicon
eCourse: Owning Feedback
CA thumb
eCourse: Practicing a Coaching Approach
SE Tthumb
eCourse: Get SET with your Goals
eCourse
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eCourse: Time Management and Prioritisation
eCourse
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eCourse: Mastering Delegation
eCourse
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eCourse: Strengths to Influence
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Better Briefing: A bitesize guide from Baxter & Bailey
Tool
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Clear and simple copy
Video
MBT
Get your team talking to each other with a practical take on the Myers-Briggs personality test
Tool
Talking
Knowing me, knowing you
Tool
Tony
Course Pack: Decision Lab
Microicon
Course Pack: Micro-Habits
Mup
Course Pack: Managing Up
Feedback
Course Pack: Owning Feedback
ARC
Course Pack: Effective 1-1s
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What's your team's CAMPS score? Get a snapshot of engagement levels.
Tool
Listenup
Course Pack: Are you Listening?
Tension
And-But-Therefore — Try out a tested storytelling technique
Tool
Groups
Course Pack: Mastering Meetings & Groups
Page tosothat
To.... So That. A snappy structure to define the purpose of any meeting
Tool
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The voice in your head, and how to harness it — with psychologist Ethan Kross.
Audio
TA
Think Again, by Adam Grant
Book
The Art of Gathering, by Priya Parker
Book
RSB
Root, Stem, Branch — An organic approach for telling your own story
Tool
Diff
Never Split the Difference, by Chris Voss — Key ideas and takeaways from the best-selling-book on negotiation skills.
Book
Daniel
Mastering (Virtual) Presence, coach and facilitator Mike Sagun in conversation for the Conversation Factory
Audio
Circlesheila
Decoding Difficult Conversations — Sheila Heen unpacks the layers within those conversations you're probably avoiding.
Audio
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Course Pack: The Business Model Canvas
D Dslide
Course Pack: Delegation. Done
Albert
Course Pack: Defining Problems
Conflict
Course Pack: Constructive Conflict and Difficult Conversations
Inf
Course Pack: Influence IRL
Gravitas
Course Pack: Presence and Gravitas
Chatter Bottom
Chatter: Practical tools to apply, and harness the voice in your head
Icon Leadership Brand
eCourse: A Brand called You
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Course Pack: A Brand called You
Course Pack
MOM
Mitchell on Meetings — What we learned and where it led
Conf
Course Pack: Building Confidence
Scaling
Experiment with a 'Scaling Question' to better connect, learn and influence
WW
Course Pack: Writing Well
Cuddy Dog
Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shares powerful, actionable insights on the impact of our body language
TFF
Watch Sheila Heen explain why we need to be regularly asking for feedback, and what stops us from doing so.
Diff
Listen to former hostage Chris Voss share practical insights on better negotiation.
Time Tool
Experiment with Timeboxing for more focus and productivity
Time Tool
Build your time awareness, and reveal ways to boost productivity, with an Activity Log
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Time in tomatoes: build productivity and focus with the Pomodoro technique
PB
Six practical tools for building confidence and self-belief, shared by brain expert Ian Robertson
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Great questions to ask in coaching conversations, 1-1's and other curious contexts
Neg Slidetemplate
Course Pack: Navigating Negotiation
MT
Course Pack: Making Time
Orange
Practice the principles of persuasion from 'Godfather of Influence,' Robert Cialdini.
Circlestwo
How to be a meaningful mentor, insights from a purposeful podcast
Breathman
Mindful breathing — the foundation of focus and flow
Setback
Smarten your approach to setbacks, by trying out a Setback Story
To Think
Don't forget to diarise thinking time — experiment with a 'To Think' list
Silent Meeting
Make your next meeting a Silent Meeting
Can If Go
Immediately build your confidence, with a 'Can-If' statement
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Build belief by recognising small wins — Try a 'Done List'
Friction
Add some friction to your most common distractions
Fly
Channel that fly on the wall. Try some purposeful self talk to mitigate moments of doubt
Newcoachthumb
Micro-learning: Keeping a coaching mindset
Rest
Micro-learning: Setting Better Boundaries
Breathman
Micro-learning: Building Confidence
Premortemicon
Micro-learning: Feedback fundamentals
Presenting Head
Micro-learning: Purposeful Presenting
Time Team
Micro-learning: Finding Focus and Flow
Newpencils
Micro-learning: Writing Well
Coaching Criticism
Find the Coaching in Criticism. Things to try when feedback doesn't quite land
N Ngrab
Course Pack: Natural Networking
LWS
Course Pack: Storytelling
Spring
Experiment with a Springboard Story to communicate your change idea, and take people with you towards it.
Mentorsqarer
Evolve your 'inner mentor' — a short reflective exercise to focus your development, and the ways you can better support others
Do Story
Practical storytelling principles from Bobette Buster's book — Do: Story
Homework
Homework for Life: A ten-second daily ritual for noticing, capturing and practicing stories
Hear
Try this deep listening exercise for deeper connection and better conversations
5
Discover the impact a five minute favour can have on your relationships, and network building
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Experiment with the BRAIN model for confident decision making and problem solving
VCR
Course Pack: Voice Gym. Building your vocal confidence
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A three minute mindset exercise, to support a coaching approach
Good Qs
Smart ways to frame questions in your next mentoring session
Car Words
Try out the CAR technique, and upgrade your understanding when interviewing someone.
J Zicon
Five powerful questions for adding impact and insight to your next interview.
Mup Icon
Five tactics for influencing those more senior
Carol Thumb
Micro-learning: Getting into a Growth Mindset
Premortemicon
Solve problems before they happen with pre-mortems
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A checklist for checklists — five things to tick off when developing a checklist
BID pic
Share genuinely useful feedback with the BID model
Pencilsoff
Seven things to avoid when writing at work
Meetings
Finding fortitude, and follow on experiments
Confidence Ecourse
eCourse: Confidence Mastery
eCourse
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Time Blocking, and bringing some colour into your calendar
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Kas's reflections on listening and questioning well
Video
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Matteo's coaching reflections
Video
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eCourse: Difficult Conversations
eCourse
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Worksheet: Owning Feedback
Worksheet
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Worksheet: Time Blocking
Worksheet
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Raul Aparici on mitigating impostor syndrome
Video
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Book Club: New Methods for Women — With Sharmadean Reid MBE
Audio

Finding fortitude, and follow on experiments

We thoroughly enjoyed our conversation with author and workplace culture enthusiast Bruce Daisley; hearing more on the core ideas at the heart of his new book Fortitude — and Bruce's belief that building resilience is best considered a team sport: "It's the strength that we draw from each other."
Meetings
Illustration by Francesco Ciccolella

"From me-ness, to we-ness"

We thoroughly enjoyed our conversation with author and workplace culture enthusiast Bruce Daisley; hearing more on the core ideas at the heart of his new book Fortitudeand Bruce's belief that building resilience is best considered a team sport: "It's the strength that we draw from each other."

🚀 Bruce used his reframing of Richard Ryan and Edward Deci's definitive social psychological theory of 'self-determination' (why we do the things we do) — to argues for three key drivers of the ways we feel: Control, Identity and Community. Bruce sees the latter as the most overlooked when it comes to the proactive building of resilience reserves.

👇 Below we've shared some recommended resources, lateral bits and related experiments — helpful we hope for sharing, discussing and trying new things together in your teams.

Fortitude awaits!

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Illustration by Leilo
"Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything."
John Kenneth Galbraith

Bruce advocated for a more intentionally inclusive leadership style, agreeing that facilitating meetings with purpose is becoming a core skill for work today. Meetings and gatherings clearly fulfil the need to create a sense of community, and when facilitated well they enable individual identities to reveal themselves too. Bruce also shared a lovely story from his research of the book about a team member who launched 'crisps Thursday' to do just that.

👉 Priya Parker's book The Art of Gathering builds on this brilliantly, much of which is boiled down in this timely Ted Talk.

👉 You can also hear her discuss ideas and advice is this episode of podcast series Hurry Slowly

👉 Experiment with some Liberating Structures, and Gamestorming.

👉 One of the questions put to Bruce was how togetherness can best be created among teams working in very distributed and asynchronous ways. As well as advocating for the deliberate diarising of 'softer time together', and collaborative tools like Miro and Mural — the potential for mentoring programmes came up (as a drive not just of community but to enable discovery around individual identity). Some good reading on that at HBR, here and here.

👉 These micro-learning doses will give you a daily experiment towards better meetings and group.

👉 Bruce's managed a comparison of positive psychology pioneer Martin Seligman to a Meet the Fockers era Robert De Niro, and fellow humorist David Mitchell delved excellent into the art and science of meeting well in his BBC podcast series.

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Illustration by Leilo

Don't ditch the 'me-ness' entirely

In Fortitude Bruce parks his tanks on the lawn of what he calls the 'Resilience Orthodoxy' — challenging an over-reliance on the work of Martin Seligman (positive psychology), Carol Dweck (growth mindset) and Angela Duckworth (Grit). Might this lead to an unhelpful view that it's all on us to manage our resilience?

Bruce acknowledged the room for nuance in it all, and how his vision of a more consciously collegiate approach to resilience still relied on autonomy and a recognition of what's within our unique individual control. Echoing the excellent recent insights of Ian Robertson on confidence, Bruce points out more than once in Fortitude that mindfulness and attention to our breath is often the required foundational step to feeling any kind of control.

👉 Try these experiments to experience just that.

🚀 And when it comes to recognising individual progress (core to the Ryan and Deci work he's drawn his model from) one of Bruce's key recommendations to the teams he talks to is to make a ritual of recognition, and to find moment to collectively share what's working well.

👉 This is an excellent primer, or refresher, on how to purposeful provide feedback in your team.

🧠 Missed the session? You'll likely enjoy this excellent exchange on Fortitude between Bruce and behavioural science maestro Rory Sutherland.

🤔 And if you've not yet come across it, Bruce's longstanding Eat Sleep Work Repeat podcast is superb.