Yes I know chimps are primates, not monkeys – read on. In the past a common view was that chimpanzees are lovely and friendly little creatures that enjoy having tea parties and drinking a particular brand of tea!  It was certainly assumed they were passive vegetarian creatures.  However, over the past fifty years much has been learnt about chimps and we now know them to be intelligent, complicated, ingenious and powerful individuals.  It was Swiss [...]

I met someone recently who’d done everything right in terms or setting a goal, making it a big goal to challenge himself and checking all the classic points of it being specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely; however he kept failing in his attempts to achieve the goal. The problem was not to do with the goal itself; it was how he was attempting to achieve it.  Setting big goals is good because it stretches [...]

In this blog I want you to think about how you interact with other people; in particular how you interact with significant others at home or at work. I first want to look at the effect of negative comments and criticism.  You may have noticed you can say something negative to one person and they take it in the way it was intended, whilst saying the same thing to somebody else results in a negative [...]

Listening skills are a key ability in any type of relationship. Do you always listen to other people, really listen, giving your full attention to what is being said, how it is being said and perhaps what is not being said? Think back to a recent conversation you had with someone.  As the person was speaking where you listening to what they said?  All of what they said?  Or, where you thinking of what to [...]

This is the first in a series of blogs where I will look at an individual presupposition from Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and present my view on it. NLP Presuppositions form the fundamental principles behind NLP.   They are not claimed to be true or universal; however if you presuppose them to be true and act as if they are, you can gain valuable insights into relationships and situations which you may otherwise have overlooked. So [...]

You got the promotion – it’s day 1 in your new role – the race has begun! Many will seek to find some quick wins to be seen to be doing something, to gain credibility and as a show of strength.  Quick wins are good; however take those early steps with care. Research by the Corporate Executive Board (2009) showed that although quick wins were a good indicator of a successful new-to-role leader, there were [...]