Category

Coaching

Stuart Harris
In Coaching

Yeah yeah yeah, but…”

In the early Noughties, when I lived near Amsterdam, I used to take part in a coaching group. I didn’t much like the guy who ran it, and I wasn’t crazy about the other people either. But I had a sense it was worth the trouble, so I regularly made the half-hour drive. One day it was my turn in the hot seat and somebody gave me some feedback. I started answering back immediately. Before I could say more than a few words, the leader held up his hand, palm towards me, and said simply “technische afhandeling” (technical processing). In…

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Stuart Harris
In Clarity, Coaching, Confidence, Embodiment, General, Speaking

Commit to Clarity

Transparency and being a bit vulnerable are the thing now. So how about trying the following approach the next time you make a presentation or speak at a meeting? It should sound familiar … “Hello. Right, where shall I start? Let’s see, obviously, um, you know, there are so many points and stuff I basically, er, want to sort of make, that, well, actually I couldn’t really decide exactly, er, what I wanted to say. Haha. So I’m just going to um think out loud for a bit and, you know, sort of say a lot of stuff while you…

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Stuart Harris
In Coaching, Embodiment, General, Priming

The benefits of (not) being Patrick Stewart

Walking into an upscale restaurant in rural France on a Bank Holiday break, I was on my way towards our table and nodded politely to the couple at the next table. After a brief hesitation, the lady of the couple reacted. She looked at me intently for a moment, her eyes widened, she broke into a big smile of recognition and mouthed “hello” as I walked past and sat down. What’s with the hello? I definitely didn’t know her. But her reaction was very familiar. Over the past few years, often when I meet people for the first time, they…

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