Mary Rafferty

Effective Team Meetings: Summary, Key Takeaways, & Next Steps

Leadership Coaching, Team Coaching / By

Previously in this series, we delved into the principles of meeting purpose and process, offering practical suggestions to enhance meeting structure and amplify attendee participation. Today, we are bringing the series to a close by outlining the key takeaways, and exploring the benefits of drafting a charter or mini-contract with your team to ensure effective …

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Transform Your Team Meetings with the ‘Step In/Step Out’ Approach

Leadership Coaching, Team Coaching / By

Effective meetings are one of the cornerstones of a successful team, but it can be a challenge to keep discussions on track, engage all participants, and ensure constructive outcomes. Previously, we’ve looked at some aspects of the ‘how’ or meeting process that you might consider in advance, as well as setting ground rules for interactions …

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Creating a Psychologically Safe Space for Effective Meetings

Communication Skills, Leadership Coaching, Team Coaching / By

In our previous two blog posts, we’ve looked at the importance of having a clear purpose and clear objectives for your meeting, as well as ensuring time and attention are spent on the process as well as the content. Today, we will delve deeper into process management, particularly in relation to how people interact with …

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What-How-Team-Meetings

Top Tips for Structuring an Effective Team Meeting

Communication Skills, Leadership Coaching, Team Coaching / By

From the hum of bustling team huddles to the high-stakes decisions made in boardroom discussions, meetings serve as the lifeblood of any organisation. They provide a collaborative space where progress is assessed, goals are set, and crucial decisions are made. Yet, we’ve all experienced the frustration of sitting through an ineffective meeting—a room filled with …

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Make Team Meetings Effective

Unlocking the Key to Effective Team Meetings

Executive Coaching, Team Coaching / By

As a corporate manager or team leader, you know how critical it is to have effective team meetings that bring greater alignment, creativity, and synergy to your organisation. Every meeting is an opportunity to build relationships and develop trust and collaboration capacity within the team, which in turn can facilitate greater cohesion and alignment outside …

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Does Your Team Have Meetings After (or Before!) the Meeting?

Executive Coaching, People Management, Team Coaching / By

Listening to a podcast recently, I was struck by social scientist Brene Brown’s response when asked about the culture of her organisation: “The culture of our organization is, there’s no meeting after the meeting” To what extent could you say that in the case of the team you lead there are no meetings after (or …

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Problem solving in Conversations Mary Rafferty Consensus Mediation

Problem-Solving Conversations – Drop the Advice and Help People Think for Themselves

Coaching, Executive Coaching, Leadership Coaching, People Management / By

Facilitating people to come up with their own solutions rather than telling them what to do is probably the number one challenge most participants in Mediation training courses identify. The skill or rather combination of micro-skills encompassed in an ‘Ask and Listen’ rather than ‘Tell and Sell’ approach to problem-solving are also essential competencies in …

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Managing a Crisis-Mary Rafferty Consensus Mediation

Managing a Crisis? 3 First Aid Tips for ‘Difficult Conversations’

Difficult Conversations, Win-Win Conversations / By

Even when your organisation is in crisis mode you still need to hold people accountable. Yet raising ‘difficult’ issues -performance, behaviour, or any unmet expectations – is hard to do properly when the stakes are high and everyone is running on adrenalin. So how can you manage those ‘difficult conversations’ in a time-strapped, pressure cooker …

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Framing What You Need To Say In A Difficult Conversation Mary Rafferty Consensus Mediation

Framing What You Need To Say In A ‘Difficult Conversation’ – Free Template

Difficult Conversations, Win-Win Conversations / By

Download Word Doc version of ‘Framing Your Key Messages‘ Download a completed template ‘Framing Your Key Messages in Addressing an Issue‘  in relation to addressing lateness. (This is an example of how you might use the template , it is not a prescription or recommendation. Your context, situation and way of expressing yourself might be completely different.) …

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Difficulties in Working relationships Mary Rafferty Consensus Mediation

Difficulties In Working Relationships: Understand And Reverse The Negative Cycle

Difficult Conversations / By

When we find ourselves becoming increasingly annoyed, upset or fearful around someone’s behaviour and attitude over an extended period of time, here’s what tends to happen for many people: We start to have increasingly negative thoughts about that person/persons which in turn causes us to experience a greater level of unpleasant emotions such as anger, …

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