Read about the Top 20 themes from Cindy’s coaching sessions here.
Top ten: getting your ideas straight and influencing people
As you can see in the table and graph below, the top issues in Cindy’s coaching sessions are about having someone to talk through ideas with, setting goals and getting the plans straight in your head. Next is dealing with difficult people – staff, bosses and colleagues. Then it’s about confidence, and dealing with hating your job. Balancing life and work, and career planning come in at 8 and 10.
| Issue solved | Number of sessions | % of sessions where this issue raised |
| 1. Sounding Board | 81 | 24% |
| 2. Set goals | 79 | 24% |
| 3. Get plans straight in head | 79 | 24% |
| 4. Difficult staff | 64 | 19% |
| 5. Difficult boss | 56 | 17% |
| 6. Confidence | 45 | 13% |
| 7. Depressed / Alone / Hate job | 41 | 12% |
| 8. Life style balance | 36 | 11% |
| 9. Difficult colleague | 34 | 10% |
| 10. Career plan | 31 | 9% |
These numbers add to more than 100%.
This is because several issues can come up in a single session (e.g. a difficult boss and colleague may come up together, or the need to be better prepared for presentations with a sounding board). .
Themes 11 – 20: Presentation Confidence and structure
The 11th to 20th issues tell a slightly different story to the top 10.
Having confidence and being in control when presenting and its twin – structuring presentations feature in 8% of sessions. Understanding politics features too. Self-management skills like prioritising, managing time and delegating are important. These work well with techniques for improving productivity which comes in at 17.
| Issue solved | Number of sessions | % of sessions where this issue raised |
| 11. Keep cool when presenting | 26 | 8% |
| 12. Politics | 24 | 7% |
| 13. Prioritising | 22 | 7% |
| 14. Difficult client | 19 | 6% |
| 15. Job interview / Assessment prep | 17 | 5% |
| 16. Training / How to | 17 | 5% |
| 17. Productivity improve | 15 | 4% |
| 18. Time management | 15 | 4% |
| 19. Structuring presentations | 14 | 4% |
| 20. Delegating | 14 | 4% |
Maybe you’ve found a mirror of yourself here. Perhaps you’re interested in solving some of these problems yourself. You could even just want that sounding board to share the ideas you don’t want to burden your partner and friends with. You can’t always tell your boss or share your weaknesses with your colleagues.
For more information, referees and ideas, just