Change and the associated risks to productivity, reputation and key relationships can have a significant impact on business. Managing communication throughout the transition is critical to success.

Later this month (27-28 April) I'll be running a two-day Effective Change Communication training course in Wellington

People seek out coaching for any number of reasons – from “my boss is a tyrant” to “I want to work for myself but I’m scared to make the move”.

But the single biggest reason that I find people come to me for coaching is that they (ostensibly) don’t know what they want to do for a living.

If you’ve made New Years resolutions about your career or business that you haven’t managed to keep, or maybe you’re at a fork in the road and ready to make a bold move in your life or career – then I may be able to help you.

Change is hard. Good. And necessary. But also hard.

It makes us feel vulnerable. Even when the change is of our own making – even if it’s a positive change ­­– it can evoke feelings of dread, sadness and anxiety because we can’t fully predict the outcome.

If any part of your role at work requires you to be a trusted advisor, then developing business acumen has probably never been as crucial as it is now.

In the communications profession, for instance, the foundational and more tactical aspects of the professional communicator’s role, such as copywriting and proofreading, are increasingly being outsourced ­– or even replaced with apps (see Hemingway, Grammarly etc).

What if you’ve been given the job of creating an internal communications strategy for an organisation, but the organisation hasn’t actually articulated what it wants to achieve?

There’s no business strategy, no business plan, no articulation of its strategic direction at all.

So much of what we achieve at work every day we achieve through other people, so building good relationships is pretty fundamental to our success.

The way we communicate with colleagues and key stakeholders can make or break those relationships so it pays to know a thing or two about workplace communications.

I have a lot of respect for good people managers.

It’s a massive responsibility – managing another person. If you get it right, you significantly and positively affect another person’s life and career prospects, and if you get it wrong, obviously the opposite is true. 

Psychologists say a certain amount of stress is necessary, and even good for you.

Trouble is, so many take that concept to a whole new level – adding more and more stress to their lives until they reach the edge and, in some cases, fall right over it.

Interesting what our minds do once we slow down and take time out to reflect. I often hear stories about the life-changing decisions people make whilst on holiday – how they finally made the call to resign from an unsatisfying job, start the business they’ve always wanted, or sell the house and travel overseas.