All Posts By

Lusine Magakian

Jul 08
0

Creating Inclusive Organisations

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For the past few decades, companies have put substantial effort and major investment into creating diverse cultures.  But why then do we still have so much inequality in senior leadership positions? Why do we still have slogans such as ‘me too’ or ‘black lives matter’? It should be common sense by now for everyone to support fairness, whilst respecting individual differences. The problem lies in that, whilst we believe and support equality, deep down we still hold those unconscious biases that make us stereotype people into groups. Negatively stereotyping people is not a harmless joke though, it can lead to serious consequences. In this blog, I want to address some of those negative effects caused by stereotype threat and the solutions that organisations should be working towards.

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Apr 20
3

Building resilience to overcome hardship

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As a third of the world has gone into lock-down mode, I can’t help but wonder how our ancestors survived and bounced back from so many other pandemics, wars, famines, crises, you name it. The reality is that humans have a huge capacity for survival, which leads to revival. This applies to both individuals as well as organisations. At times of crisis, it’s not the most intelligent nor the most ambitious who survive, but the most resilient. In other words, those with the capacity to be strong under a stressful and changing environment. That’s true in a war, in the coronavirus world and in the boardroom.

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Mar 19
0

Using COVID-19 to your benefit

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Who would have expected us to be avoiding mass gatherings, restaurants, be working from home and be quarantined all together just a few months ago? Who would have guessed that financial markets would plunge so dramatically and toilet rolls would become our most precious assets? Since the outbreak of COVID-19, our lives are really turning upside down, and there’s not much that we can do about it but follow the guidelines that the authorities and experts are suggesting or, in some cases, imposing on us.

However, it’s not all bad news, it shouldn’t be. If you look at things from a more positive lens, instead of being glued to the news reading about this outbreak 24/7, there are plenty of things that you could “catch-up” with, whilst waiting for this situation to be normalised.

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May 07
1

Building trust at work

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Why is trust such an essential ingredient at work? We’ve all been in conflicting situations where we’ve wished we could master the art of being seen as trustworthy. Whether it’s gaining trust over a colleague, willing to gain the trust of our subordinates or imposing a company culture that allows employees to speak up, trust is the basis of effective communication and productive conflicts. The reason trust is so important is because it underpins everything else we’re trying to accomplish in an effective team. But how can we build trust in the workplace? The strategy used will vary depending on the situation. Below I’ve written three different scenarios where trust can be built in different ways.

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Apr 10
0

What not to expect from a career coach

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It’s no secret that with all the economical and political uncertainty out there, the job market is becoming tougher and tougher, both for those who are out of job at the moment and for those who do have a job but not their dream job. This is not necessarily bad news, for us coaches, as it keeps the demand for some career support rather high. However, I feel that many coaches forget to set expectations at the beginning of the coaching relationship with their clients, which leads to confusion, frustration and a huge disappointment at the end of the sessions for both. Therefore, I thought I’d point out some common misinterpretations people have about coaching, which leads to unrealistic expectations from coaches:

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Mar 04
0

Designing SMART Goals

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Oh dear, March is here. Not long ago it was Christmas and we were all excited about our New Year’s resolutions and intentions. According to the U.S. News & World Report, however, 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail by mid-February because the rush of excitement and sense of determination we have at the beginning of the year fades rather quickly and we tend to fall back into our old habits. As an example, we can think of how crowded a gym becomes in January every year, just to go back to its normal volume of attendance by March, as people start forgetting and abandoning their resolutions.

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Dec 12
2

How to Think Away Your Work Stress

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Years ago, when I was working in a bank, our managing director organised an off-sight for the entire team. The idea was for all of us to gather in Birmingham and for each team to talk about the projects they were working on. But the main objective was for people to get to know each other better and build that team spirit. Being very much of a team person, I found this a very exciting initiative. The train ride to Birmingham from London was full of jokes and joy, and as soon as our team arrived in Birmingham we went straight for dinner, as we were all starving. Once we ordered, my colleague sat next to me went to the lady’s room. The food arrived but she hadn’t come back yet. We almost finished Read More

Nov 16
0

What is Career Coaching?

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There are some words nowadays that have become extremely fashionable and everyone seems to be making a conscious effort to squeeze them into their jargon every now and then: blockchain, GDPR, mindfulness, coaching, agile talent… and the list goes on. But how much knowledge do we actually have about these terms and is our knowledge accurate?

Roughly two years ago, I embarked upon a career in the coaching world. The skills and knowledge I gained during this time have been invaluable and I wanted to share some of them with you. When I started my journey, I had a Read More