Personal Effectiveness

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Micro-learning: Mastering Meetings and Groups
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Micro-learning: Leading with Stories
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Micro-learning: Critical Thinking
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Micro-learning: Natural Networking
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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
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Upping your gravitas by silencing your inner critic and amplifying your inner coach
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How to check your writing for clarity
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Using the 'Rule of Three' to communicate memorable ideas
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How to pause when presenting
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Working with eye contact
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The power of plain language in presentations
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The power of 'You' in writing
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What designers need to know about microcopy
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Skills and mindsets for making mentoring meaningful
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Setting mentoring relationships up for success
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The impact of coaching, and it's distinction from mentoring
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Practical pointers for authentic leadership
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Coaching, and creating coaching cultures
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Vocal confidence warm up exercises
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Vocal techniques for clearer articulation
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Growth Mindset Mantras
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How to command an on-screen presence
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How to start writing
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The secret to a successful Tone of Voice
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How to write with authority for brands
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Keep it simple. Quick and effortless copywriting
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Writing in the active voice
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Course Pack: The art of saying No (and how to say Yes)
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Course Pack: Purposeful presenting
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Course Pack: Behavioural Insights
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Course Pack: Charm School
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eCourse: Go with the GROW model
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eCourse: Are you listening?
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eCourse: Meaningful Mentoring
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eCourse: Leadership Styles, a primer
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eCourse: Charm School
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eCourse: Owning Feedback
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eCourse: Practicing a Coaching Approach
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eCourse: Get SET with your Goals
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eCourse: Time Management and Prioritisation
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eCourse: Mastering Delegation
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eCourse: Strengths to Influence
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Better Briefing: A bitesize guide from Baxter & Bailey
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Clear and simple copy
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Get your team talking to each other with a practical take on the Myers-Briggs personality test
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Knowing me, knowing you
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Tony
Course Pack: Decision Lab
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Course Pack: Micro-Habits
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Course Pack: Managing Up
Feedback
Course Pack: Owning Feedback
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Course Pack: Effective 1-1s
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What's your team's CAMPS score? Get a snapshot of engagement levels.
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Course Pack: Are you Listening?
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And-But-Therefore — Try out a tested storytelling technique
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Groups
Course Pack: Mastering Meetings & Groups
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To.... So That. A snappy structure to define the purpose of any meeting
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The voice in your head, and how to harness it — with psychologist Ethan Kross.
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Think Again, by Adam Grant
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The Art of Gathering, by Priya Parker
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Root, Stem, Branch — An organic approach for telling your own story
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Never Split the Difference, by Chris Voss — Key ideas and takeaways from the best-selling-book on negotiation skills.
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Mastering (Virtual) Presence, coach and facilitator Mike Sagun in conversation for the Conversation Factory
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Decoding Difficult Conversations — Sheila Heen unpacks the layers within those conversations you're probably avoiding.
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Course Pack: The Business Model Canvas
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Course Pack: Delegation. Done
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Course Pack: Defining Problems
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Course Pack: Constructive Conflict and Difficult Conversations
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Course Pack: Influence IRL
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Course Pack: Presence and Gravitas
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Chatter: Practical tools to apply, and harness the voice in your head
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eCourse: A Brand called You
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Course Pack: A Brand called You
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Mitchell on Meetings — What we learned and where it led
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Course Pack: Building Confidence
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Experiment with a 'Scaling Question' to better connect, learn and influence
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Course Pack: Writing Well
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Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shares powerful, actionable insights on the impact of our body language
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Watch Sheila Heen explain why we need to be regularly asking for feedback, and what stops us from doing so.
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Listen to former hostage Chris Voss share practical insights on better negotiation.
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Experiment with Timeboxing for more focus and productivity
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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
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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
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Course Pack: Navigating Negotiation
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Course Pack: Making Time
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Practice the principles of persuasion from 'Godfather of Influence,' Robert Cialdini.
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How to be a meaningful mentor, insights from a purposeful podcast
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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'
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Add some friction to your most common distractions
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Channel that fly on the wall. Try some purposeful self talk to mitigate moments of doubt
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Micro-learning: Keeping a coaching mindset
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Micro-learning: Setting Better Boundaries
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Micro-learning: Building Confidence
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Micro-learning: Feedback fundamentals
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Micro-learning: Purposeful Presenting
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Micro-learning: Finding Focus and Flow
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Micro-learning: Writing Well
Coaching Criticism
Find the Coaching in Criticism. Things to try when feedback doesn't quite land
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Course Pack: Natural Networking
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Course Pack: Storytelling
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Experiment with a Springboard Story to communicate your change idea, and take people with you towards it.
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Evolve your 'inner mentor' — a short reflective exercise to focus your development, and the ways you can better support others
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Practical storytelling principles from Bobette Buster's book — Do: Story
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Homework for Life: A ten-second daily ritual for noticing, capturing and practicing stories
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Try this deep listening exercise for deeper connection and better conversations
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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
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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
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Try out the CAR technique, and upgrade your understanding when interviewing someone.
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Five powerful questions for adding impact and insight to your next interview.
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Five tactics for influencing those more senior
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Micro-learning: Getting into a Growth Mindset
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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
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Share genuinely useful feedback with the BID model
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Seven things to avoid when writing at work
Meetings
Finding fortitude, and follow on experiments
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eCourse: Confidence Mastery
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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
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Matteo's coaching reflections
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eCourse: Difficult Conversations
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Worksheet: Owning Feedback
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Worksheet: Time Blocking
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Raul Aparici on mitigating impostor syndrome
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Book Club: New Methods for Women — With Sharmadean Reid MBE
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Smart ways to frame questions in your next mentoring session

When it comes to questions, you get out what you put in. Considered, well-framed questions lead to insightful and propelling answers, making the art of questioning key to the success of any mentoring relationship. But what makes a good question? And what kinds of questions tease out actionable next steps? In this handy resource we’ll work through some examples, demonstrate some helpful reframing and leave you clearer on how to get curious with purpose.
Good Qs

Getting curious with your questions

As a mentee, maintaining a ‘growth mindset’ throughout your relationship is key. Your motivation, curiosity and general yearning for learning will be the driving force towards its success.

Asking good questions is a great way to demonstrate this mindset to your mentor, to open up their own imaginations and to get great answers that you can act on. And so it pays to pause and think about the ways we can frame, and put forward, our questions for maximum impact.

As you'll see, specificity is key

It pays to be focussed when it comes to finding things out.

For example, rather than ‘How can I improve my public speaking?’ consider how you could re-frame the question to pinpoint some specific areas of personal progression. So you might reword the question as ‘In my last presentation my nerves got the better of me. What do you do to avoid nervousness when speaking in public or speaking to a crowd?'

Compare the two. Which do you think would lead to more personally actionable advice? Considering our questions in this way helps us reflect on the actual areas we're keen to get some input on; a really useful 'self-coaching' technique.

4 S

There's more to explore

Below you'll find further examples and guidance on asking more purposeful and propelling questions. They're broken into four categories to help you structure your thinking — Situational, Storytelling, Self-awareness and Skills building.

We’ve added more examples of good 'question framing' throughout, helpful we hope as a jumping off point to inspire your own.

Let’s dive in!

Situational Questions

If you’re looking for advice on a particular problem, or need some guidance through a tough time, well-framed Situational questions can be helpful.

👉 Rather than ‘How can I get more important jobs?’ ask ‘How can I let my boss know that I’d like to be involved in this upcoming project?

👉 Rather than ‘How can I broaden my skill set?’ ask ‘What skills do you believe will be important for me going forward?’

👉 Rather than ‘How should I deal with the feedback I’ve been given?’ ask ‘My boss has told me I need to be a more strategic thinker. In your opinion, what does that mean, and what should I be doing to meet their expectations?’

👉 Rather than ‘What do I do?’ ask ‘My lack of career progression is making me feel stuck. What are some things I can do to remedy this issue?’

Storytelling Questions

Asking your mentor to walk you through their journey can shed some light on your own, and create a connection that makes the obstacles you face seem less daunting. The way you frame your questions will be key, as these further examples show.

👉 Rather than ‘I feel so silly for making that mistake. What do I do?’ ask ‘Have you ever made a mistake in the past? What steps did you take to bounce back?’

👉 Rather than ‘My boss is driving me crazy, what can I do?’ ask ‘Have you ever had a difficult boss? How did you deal with it?’

👉 Rather than ‘How can I boost my networking skills?’ ask ‘How did you develop the skills to network with such ease?’

👉 Rather than ‘What can I do about imposter syndrome?’ ask ‘Do you ever get imposter syndrome? How did you learn to get over it?'

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Self-awareness Questions

Self-awareness is a crucial skill in work, and in your mentoring relationship. An understanding of your skills and strengths can lead to powerful shifts in your confidence. These kinds of questions shared here can sharpen your insights around interpersonal skills.

👉 Rather than ‘Are my strengths being noticed?’ ask ‘In your opinion, where do you believe my strengths lie?'

👉 Rather than ‘How can I up my gravitas?’ ask ‘Could you give me one area of advice to experiment with in terms of improving my sense of gravitas?'

👉 Rather than ‘Why did nobody understand my idea in the pitch meeting?’ ask ‘What is something I can do to communicate my ideas more clearly in the next pitch meeting?’

👉 Rather than ‘What are my weaknesses?’ ask ‘What do you believe one of my blindspots is. What can I do to improve it?'

Skills-building Questions

Skill-building questions help identify specific areas of improvement in the skills you may, or may not, already have. And, as with all the examples we've seen so far, the way you frame your questions will make all the difference.

👉 Rather than ‘How can I ask for a raise?’ ask ‘What skills should I demonstrate before asking for a raise? How could I practice the negotiation, and with whom?’

👉 Rather than ‘How can I get better at giving feedback?’ ask ‘Could you recommend some specific ways I that could improve my feedback skills, or some resources that have helped you in the same area?’

👉 Rather than ‘How can I move up in the company?’ ask ‘What skills are necessary to move up in the company? What is the first step towards building them?’

Considering our Questions

Taking time to think about the ways we ask questions can yield big shifts in the quality of the answers we get back. Framing our questions well, and getting specific on the areas that we think someone can help us most, will be key to your coming mentoring conversations; keeping them smartly focussed on actionable learning. Why not scan back over the examples shared above, and make a note of 2 or 3 questions that you could ask in a coming conversation? And what new questions have they inspired you to ask?

YCY2
You Coach You, by Sarah Ellis and Helen Tupper

Keen for more?

You Coach You
If you're keen to continually improve your mindset, for making the most of mentoring relationships, then You Coach You is a really relevant read. Co-authored in 2022 by Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis, it's packed with practical techniques for everyday self-development. And you'll find an interview with Sarah, sharing some smart insights from its pages, here.

Mentoring eCourse
This 15 minute, self-directed eCourse
will arm you with some really actionable insights into the power of mentoring, from both a mentor and mentee point of view.

Listen well!
Good questions deserve good listening skills! Try this deep listening exercise for deeper connection and better conversations in your next mentoring meet-up.