Blog

Blog

Communication and the Reluctant Leader

In this podcast in the Reluctant Leader series, I talk with Mark Terrell about how you can communicate better as a leader and how to get better results from difficult conversations. Click here then scroll down to the podcast entitled “Communication” on 28 December 2018.

Daydreaming

Try and make time each day to let your mind just get on and do its own thing. No headphones. No phone, even on ‘vibrate’. No tablet. No PC. No TV. Just sit quietly and let your mind go. Do not focus. Do not think. Just enjoy the show. If it helps to close your […]

Mental time travel

Several times during the course of the day, take a few seconds to check in with your ‘mental TARDIS’. Are you in the here and now, observing? Or are you some time in the past, remembering? Or off in some possible future, imagining? Maybe you are somewhere that has no sense of time about it […]

The embodiment of conflict … and connection

We are all familiar with the “fight or flight” reaction, but research shows that the reality is much more complicated than that.  Contrary to popular mythology, it turns out that our default mode is actually to socialise, or tend and befriend, though it is true that we can be mobilised, or even immobilised, pretty easily. […]

Sensory awareness

Several times during the course of the day, try to make time – 30 seconds perhaps, no more than a minute – to check in with your senses. Without turning your head, what can you see? What can you hear? Smell? Taste? Feel? What sensations do you experience in your muscles? Your joints? Your bones? […]

Exploring emotions

This reflection can be used to explore any emotion. Find somewhere quiet, where you will not be disturbed. Leave your tech out of sight, sound and reach. Make yourself comfortable. Take a few deep breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth. Now, bring to mind a time when you were [insert emotion […]

Here and now

Find somewhere quiet, where you will not be disturbed. Leave your tech out of sight, sound and reach. Make yourself comfortable. Bring to mind five things you can see in the space around you. If it helps, silently name them. Now five things you can hear. Now five things you can feel, or that are […]

Hot buttons

Find somewhere quiet where you will not be disturbed. Leave your tech out of sight, sound and reach. Make yourself comfortable. Reflect on what you tend to find most threatening or challenging when you are dealing with other people.  Threats to your status, or what you think is your position in the group?  Perhaps you […]

What can Brexit and a transvestite potter teach us about tough conversations?

In the months following the EU Referendum, the artist Grayson Perry set out to discover what people really felt about Brexit.  I revisited his film of that experience, Divided Britain[1], recently in search of a way of illustrating a short talk about my book, If it is so good to talk, why is it so hard?[2] […]

If it is so good to talk …

 I chat with Ramia El Agamy of Tharawat Magazine about curiosity, mindfulness, mind monkeys and all things Good2talk.

The power of conversation

Delighted to return to the Family Business Podcast for a second time (episode 34) following my previous discussion with Russ Haworth in episode 5 about the importance of communication. We build on that in this episode and discuss the some of the topics I cover in If it is so good to talk, why is […]

The dark side of the screen

In this article Ian Marsh explores how the way we relate to our gadgets is affecting the way we relate to one another – and not necessarily in a good way. Where is your phone as you read this? Can you see it? Can you reach it? Will you hear its alerts as you read? […]