The Solutions Focus
+44 (0) 1727 843 820
  • Home
  • Services
    • Training >
      • Getting The Best From Feedback
      • Effective Conversations
      • Solutions-Focused Conversations for the Workplace
      • Bite Sized Sessions
      • Introduction to SF Coaching
      • Team Building
      • Leadership Development
      • Manager as Coach
      • Masterclasses
      • Productive Meetings
      • Leading Change through Powerful Conversations
      • Difficult to Constructive Conversations
      • Building Resilience
      • Increasing Engagement
      • Raising Performance
      • What Works Well
      • Positively Speaking The Course
    • Coaching >
      • Executive and Business Coaching
      • Team Coaching
      • Online Coaching
      • Coaching Conundrums
      • Supervision
    • Consulting >
      • Change Projects
      • Strategy Workshops
      • Appraisal Design
      • 360 Degrees Feedback
      • SF Professional Development Programme
      • Licensing
    • Speaking >
      • The Book
      • Keynotes and Presentations
      • Conferences
  • About Us
    • Our Approach
    • OSKAR Coaching Model
    • Six SIMPLE Principles
    • Solutions TOOLS
    • Our Clients
    • Accessibility
  • Resources
    • Articles
    • Blog
    • Books
    • Coaching Cards
    • The SF Community
    • Inspiring Quotes
  • Shop
  • Contact Us
    • Newsletter
    • Social Media
  • Link Page

What’s it like in your decisive moments? | Paul

15/1/2018

0 Comments

 
Do you find it hard to make decisions? Yes or No?
 
If you find out more about both sides of a decision, it may help.  Or you just be even more stuck between the two options. What to wear for a conference - that should be relatively easy. It is for me, but not for my business partner.
 
And what about the ‘big’ decisions? Especially if you are anxiously stuck. How about some different routes towards reaching those?
Picture

Read More
0 Comments

5 Top tips for building your resilience | Janine

24/4/2017

0 Comments

 
​“A good half of the art of living is resilience.” 
― Alain de Botton

It’s tempting to think that resilience is a fixed personality trait, maybe even something that we are born with. But be reassured, the ability to bounce back from failure and to cope with everyday difficulties is something that can be learned and developed by anyone.

​Here are five top tips that can help you build your resilience.
​
The Solutions Focus Resilience Management Pocketbook

Read More
0 Comments

Taking it personally | Janine

14/11/2016

0 Comments

 

​How often do people tell you not to take things personally? It's one of those annoying generalisations that seems highly significant yet whose meaning is elusive.
 
In a recent coaching call, my client announced that she didn't want to take things so personally. She said her husband had repeatedly asked her not to take work issues so personally, as he felt it generated anxiety and negativity that was destroying their relationship.
Picture

Read More
0 Comments

6 Dos and Don’ts for Resilience post-Brexit | Janine

15/7/2016

0 Comments

 

Some say that the UK Brexit vote on 23rd June was a vote against the establishment, a statement of general dissatisfaction with the way things are, a distrust of our politicians and a desire for more control, more democracy and independence. Others argue that it was ill-informed, driven by xenophobia and those seeking personal gain.

Not only has the vote divided the country, it’s caused ructions at work, families to fragment and a rise in reported racist incidents throughout the UK.
​
Picture
Whatever our views on the outcome of the vote, one thing is for sure: the ability to be resilient in these times of change and uncertainty will put us in good stead for whatever comes next.
​
So what exactly is resilience? Here are some descriptions that you may find helpful.

Read More
0 Comments

Getting more resilient – A useful distinction between everyday stress and high-stakes pressure

20/6/2016

0 Comments

 
There’s a direct connection between resilience and other qualities that we recognise as positive and desirable in people. Courage, for example, is displayed when people feel strong. And that strength is the same as the feeling of resilience to the pressures that surround you.

 The question then is how to deal with pressure. And it’s worth making a distinction between stress - the stuff of everyday life that you must constantly deal with, and pressure - the special, peak moments when you are on the pitch and the crowd is watching as you take the penalty.
 
You feel the stress only at the times when you lack the immediate resources to handle and deal with the contingencies of everyday life. Pressure is when the consequences are ramped up and there is (apparently) more at stake, with more people caring about the outcomes. 
 
You may want to take extra measures to equip yourself for pressure, such as training, coaching, practicing with simulations. The key to dealing with everyday stress is your collection of coping tactics. These may be different from your special strategies for managing pressure.

Picture
The connection between them is that you should maintain yourself in good condition against the everyday stresses, so that you have plenty in reserve for those heightened, high-stake moments of pressure. ​
0 Comments

5 productive responses when we make a mistake | Paul

9/5/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
​1. Keep things in proportion, appropriate to the stakes. If the mistakes don’t much matter, then don’t give them excessive psychological weight. It’s a good idea to reduce needless perfectionism.

2. In a learning environment, treat mistakes lightly as a signal to have another go at succeeding or progressing. It's why we invest in simulators.

3. If you make mistakes in your organisation, it's worth saying sorry, as that builds trust and reduces excessive fear of making mistakes. It's most unfortunate, for example, that politicians cannot admit to making mistakes.

4. Value feedback - your own and other's useful stories. That sets you up to make use of feedback for fast adaptation. It’s a great improvisational and learning skill to notice how we are doing in relation to what we are aiming to do. Correct your course by spotting and quickly dealing with errors.

5. Learn from other people's mistakes - generally a list of tempting moves to avoid saves time and pain, and gets you more quickly to the ‘Success Stack’, so you can learn from what your mentor ultimately got right.
0 Comments

What can we learn from a crisis?

8/2/2016

0 Comments

 
There is a common misconception that in Chinese, the sign for crisis is the same as for opportunity. 

​If not through these symbols, how can we create opportunities from our crises?

Well, we can learn more about our resources and resilience. And we can learn more from those than we can learn from our mistakes and failures.

Picture
Mistakes are events you would rather have not happened (at least at the time), because the intention was to do something different, and the immediate consequence is most often unfavourable.

I like this story of a crisis handled by Hans Zeinhofer, who I met at a conference where delegates were discussing the application of solutions-focused ideas in organisations.

Read More
0 Comments

Save time, boost engagement and build resilience by focusing on solutions rather than problems  |  Janine

30/10/2012

0 Comments

 
Talking Point: Isn't it time HR focused on solutions rather than problems?  Published in Hrzone.co.uk  

HR professionals often find themselves carrying our adminstrative and operational tasks that are the resonsiblity of line managers.  They also end up being dragged into other people’s problems, which is both time-wasting and exhausting.
 
How many times have you found yourself doing something that was somebody else’s responsibility, getting bogged down in negativity and feeling tired and overburdened by other people’s issues?  But if you continue down this route, it’s highly likely that over time you will be sucked dry, become marginalised and even find yourself discarded
.

Read More
0 Comments

While you are waiting  |  Paul  

20/7/2012

0 Comments

 

We heard a neat question from Emma Osei-Mensah, a speech and language therapist, at a recent meeting of our London SF group.  She asked one of her patients suffering from a stammer: ‘While waiting for a cure to happen, how will you know you are living well?’

We like the way that opens up territory of coping and resilience when there may be no immediate prospect of getting rid of the unwanted circumstances.  It’s the sort of question you can usefully ask even when clients state clearly and understandably that they would like to be rid of some of their circumstances. 

And we can adopt that for our work in gloom-ridden organisations during a recession.  How about: ‘While waiting for the economy to recover, how will you ensure your days are productive?’

What SF questions have delighted you recently?


0 Comments

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Book
    Care
    Change
    Coaching
    Comedy
    Complexity
    Conference
    Constructivism
    Consulting
    Conversation
    Decision Making
    Education
    Engagement
    Facilitation
    Feedback
    Future
    Goals
    HR
    Improvisation
    Interview
    Journalism
    Leadership
    Learning
    Management
    Marketing
    Meetings
    Mistakes
    Monday
    Neuroscience
    Organisation
    Organisational Development
    OSKAR
    Performance
    Philosophy
    Police
    Politics
    Problems
    Project Management
    Psychology
    Questions
    Resilience
    Scale
    SFBT
    SIMPLE
    Sport
    Stress
    Supervision
    TOOLS
    Top Tips
    Training
    Video

    Archives

    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    February 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    September 2010
    August 2010

Home
Services
Training
Coaching
Consultancy
Speaking


About Us
Our Approach
OSKAR
​SF Tools
Our Clients
Resources
Blog
Books 
Conferences
SF Community
Shop
Contact Us
The Solutions Focus
Tel +44 (0)1727 843 820
      
Email: contact@thesolutionsfocus.co.uk

     The Solutions Focus © 2014   All Rights Reserved
  Terms of Use   Privacy