A Yorkshire GP surgery’s practice management team experienced misunderstandings over roles and responsibilities after a reorganisation. A one-on-one coaching day for the team with Mandala Leaders, requested by the practice’s managing partner, has resolved these issues by helping the team better understand each other’s priorities, ways of working, and how they could better collaborate in a stressful workplace.

With a clearer view of their objectives and how to reach them, the practice management team is driving the surgery’s new business plan. Mandala Leaders’ coaching session was surprising for the two team members because it guided them to their own realisation of what needed to change - rather than simply telling them what was good for them.    

Confusion over management roles hold back busy GP practice

As GP surgeries across Britain are pushed to their limits meeting care demands from an ageing population, PracticeOne in Bridlington...

A retail franchise’s chief financial officer has successfully refocused her communication with board members and shop floor colleagues through a 100-day leadership coaching programme with Mandala Leaders.

She has come out of her shell and assumed board-level decisions for the franchise. More than that, she intervenes more effectively in staff disagreements and motivates colleagues with greater insight and conviction. This career breakthrough came through one-one-one coaching sessions with Mandala Leaders that placed the emphasis firmly on her to take responsibility - for both the way she was perceived and stepping up to board-level operations.

Can a fixer be a strategic thinker?

An executive assuming a leadership role coming from a purely accounting background can face some surprising and delicate hurdles. After helping build profitable operations at a London retail franchise, a female chief financial officer wanted to take on board responsibilities. Despite her lasting...

After a period of frustration and anxiety with his role, a senior management consultant at a ‘Big Four’ company’s international development division, refocused on his career priorities with support from Mandala Leaders. Through intensive coaching sessions, the executive has reappraised his job and his ambitions.

Instead of pushing him towards a plan, Mandala Leaders helped him to make his own top-to-bottom appraisal of his role and communications with colleagues while evaluating the wider impacts for government clients and citizens of his career developing national health care programmes.

The challenge

Effective leadership coaching must gain a clear picture of the current state of play before seeking to make changes. A senior director of international development at a Big Four management consultancy has refocused on his career priorities with support from Mandala Leaders, a consultancy dedicated to transforming the life of an individual and the communities they...

One of the steps to becoming a truly authentic leader is “communicating with clarity”. This is especially difficult in a conflict situation and needs a cool head and a clear communication strategy to tackle it. 

We asked our tribe to answer the following questions around handling the tricky situation of - Conflict with your boss.

Should you or should you not address a problem with your boss?

Yes - absolutely - any conflict or problem should be tackled and resolved as without doing so a growing resentment may occur on both sides (employee/boss) and this will be not only detrimental to your career, but the boss and the wider team.

Nipping this in the bud is always the best option but it’s often only once the anger or frustration has started to show that people seek to find a resolution. Without resolution work productivity will suffer, team morale will dip and results will be impacted.

What 3 tips would you give on talking out a problem with your boss?

Tip...

As Summer approaches, it’s as good a time as any to pause and reflect on our achievements, our hits, our misses and the lessons learned.

Whether your leadership impacts on a global organisation, a local sports team, a business, a family or all of the above, consider this – what is the single most important lesson learned from how you played your cards across the year so far?
For myself, this year, the single most important principle that has most benefited my leadership at work, in my community and at home, has been “keep calm and carry on”.

Surprisingly enough, it was the combination of managing my emotions better despite the challenges together with staying the course, that I’m the most proud of and grateful for. For this to happen, I needed to both put in effort on remaining ‘the observer’ of my thoughts and feelings (especially under pressure), whilst remaining guided by my long-term vision.

Leadership as I’ve experienced it for...

Most leaders talk about their values and those of the organisation.

However all too often the values of the leader and the organisation are different, they are not communicated through the organisation, they are not clear for customers and suppliers and they very quickly get lost, forgotten or over-ridden by new pressing challenges.

So I believe that only a handful of clear and concise values are needed which align the people, organisation and stakeholders and which can be lived day in and day out by the leadership which is much more likely to help them stick.

I have learnt that there are four core values and I firmly believe that these are the only values you will ever need. It may be that you choose a couple more to represent yourself or your organisation but these core values cover the bases.

1. Personal Responsibility
   
   This is taking ownership for your thoughts, feelings, action and reactions. It is also accepting the consequences that follow from how you speak and act with others...

We recently asked leaders to gift their wisdom to support a growing community of purpose led leaders. The five key findings show a growing need for investment in time, removal of personal blockages, greater clarity and developing authenticity.

Leaders also told us that sharing their new wisdom is becoming increasing important to help inspire others to follow a similar path.

1. The amount of time leaders spend on their personal development was surprising.

More than half of the leaders tell us that they plan to spend more than a week each year on their own personal development. However only one quarter of the leaders make commitments for certain development opportunities with the majority responding to ad-hoc opportunities.

A useful definition of personal development is spending time reflecting on oneself and learning more about what core beliefs you have and from where these have developed. Then it’s about understanding better how they show up in your life. Personal development...

This is always going to be a challenge for businesses small and large as the traditional recruitment process is simply broken. There is a hybrid model available at the moment split between recruiters and the DIY model and neither has a great track record of delivering consistently great leaders for the average sized business in the UK.

Even the PLC recruiters get it wrong sometimes – then it’s a scandal but its always the board who made the final decision who carry the can and the recruitment firm avoid the spotlight. The current model gives you two options:

1. Go to a recruitment consultant and pay £50K for the privilege for them to do the job.
2. Try and Do It Yourself (DIY) where you have a smaller population to reach but have to do all the hard work yourself.

I have a lot of friends who are estate agents. Any they aren’t everyone’s best friend. But what? Isn’t this about recruitment? That’s true but I know full well when I talk to an estate...

It's important to know how you are performing. There is only one way to improve and that is to know where you are today, have a goal and work towards it. I rate my performance out of 10 and ask my clients to rate me at the end of each meeting, project or workshop. I aim to deliver at a 9/10 or higher. I set my bar high.

What’s your score?   1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10

Did you score 1–4? There are serious issues at play. However, let me invite you to think about it this way: what was your performance last time?  Have you improved or gone backwards? What's really going on. Are you feeling passionate about what you are doing? Maybe it's wort revisiting this with your client and asking for more detailed feedback. Sometimes you may have delivered well but left them feeling bad so that is...

Only a decade ago British Cycling was one of the poorest performers in the world and not a sport for which us Brits were famous, innovative, world beaters or looked up to by any other country. If you aren’t a sports fan then think of British Cycling being as successful as we are in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Then things started to change. Sir Chris Hoy won 6 Olympic Gold medals (that’s more than you can count on one hand) and 11 World Championships (yes that’s more than you can count with both hands). There have since been a whole long list of British champions, men, women and Paralympians, who have taken the sport to the dizzy heights of being the best on the planet.

So why do I want to be Chris Hoy?

Is it the fame, the gold medals, the super expensive bike or his chunky thighs?? No it’s the change. So what changed? Sir Dave Brailsford was appointed to head the team and he quickly realised that he couldn’t fix one big thing by 100%. So he changed the...