Colin Gautrey

Executive Mindset: Seven Obstacles

June 18, 2019 by Colin Gautrey

As you strive to develop your executive mindset, keep aware of the obstacles.

Then you will have more opportunity to mitigate them, and critically, you will be able to take action now to avoid them troubling you.

This will prime you for success, reduce your risks and in all probability, help you to develop faster.

It will also help to reduce the stresses and strains that usually accompany a rising level of responsibility. Read More

How to Maximise Your Promotion Prospects

June 10, 2019 by Colin Gautrey

If you’re interested in being promoted, especially to the most senior levels, there are a great many things you need to do. Since I don’t know the specifics of your situation, I cannot predict exactly what you need to do. What I can tell you though, is you probably need to be able to answer most of the following 21 questions with confidence: Read More

Developing Your Executive Career

June 9, 2019 by Colin Gautrey

As an executive, or a talented individual heading for the executive level, your first priority is always to deliver results and meet expectations, in your current role.

I’m sure you’ll agree that this is no easy task in today’s climate.

Yet you’ll also agree that finding the time to focus on your career development, preparing yourself for the next step, exposing yourself to the potential call from a headhunter, is also a top priority.

The Executive Mindset

June 4, 2019 by Colin Gautrey

If you aspire to become an executive, want to be selected as one, and want to succeed at the highest levels, you need to develop and cultivate the right mindset and begin to think like an executive.

Exactly what this means depends on the environment, your personality and the author. For me, the three most distinct characteristics of an executive mindset are: Read More

Simple Rules for Influence: Part 3

May 30, 2019 by Colin Gautrey

Finally in this series, I want to focus on three rules that will help guide your behaviour as you're out there doing your influencing. As you're going out there, talking to the people that you need to influence, starting to move forward on your objective, these three rules will help to simplify what it is you're doing. And make it you more effective. Read More

Working With a Micro-Manager

May 29, 2019 by Colin Gautrey

Working with (or under) a boss who micro-manages is tough. The lack of trust they are displaying, or rather, you are feeling, can be completely demoralising - at best! And this is far more common than you may realise. Most people in these situations seem to think they are being picked on, singled out for this "special" treatment, but that is rarely the case. Indeed, for most micro-managers, it a personality trait, they cannot help themselves, they are working on auto-pilot. That doesn't excuse it, and it definitely doesn't mean you have to put up with it. In the video below (one of my most popular on YouTube), I will help you understand your boss a little better, begin to get to grips with the actual problem, and then start to point you in the direction of practical things you can to do alleviate the problem - so you can get on and do your job! Read More

Five Reasons Why You May Lack Visibility

May 28, 2019 by Colin Gautrey

If you are struggling for visibility, find yourself overlooked when it comes to promotions or new opportunities, or otherwise failing to attract the right sort of attention from senior people, you have a big problem on your hands. I’m not going to sugar coat it because you need to wake up to the potential that it’s not them, it’s you. In all probability it is something you are doing, or not doing, that is creating the problem. So come on, take a deep breath and see which of the following key invisibility causes may be blighting your progress. Don’t take it personally. If the cap fits, wear it, wake up, and do something about it – here is a wonderful opportunity to start turning things around. Read More

Working With an Insecure Boss

May 15, 2019 by Colin Gautrey

Bosses come in many shapes and forms, not all of them are conducive to living a fulfilling and satisfying working life. One accusation I have heard from many disenfranchised subordinates is that their boss is really insecure, "I think he my feel threatened by me." This seems to be quite a common complaint, and it featured as an extra video to my online course How to Win Over Your Boss. In fact, this video is now one of my most popular on YouTube. See what you make of it: Read More

When should you be autocratic as a leader?

May 14, 2019 by Colin Gautrey

Contrary to what many people would like to believe, there is a place for being autocratic in the workplace as I pointed out in my article Command and Control: Alive and Kicking. The challenge though, is knowing when to be autocratic, and how to do it without upsetting the world around you. As you probably know, there are lots of different styles you can adopt as a leader, and the more versatile you are, the more capable you will be. Too often I have Read More

In Here, They All Ask What You Do

May 7, 2019 by Colin Gautrey

It must be part of their approach, but just about everyone here seems curious to know what I do for a living. Which is a welcome distraction. And an opportunity to use this experience to reflect more on how people influence. The nurse on the left of my bed begs this question. Then he explains he learned all about leadership in the services. As he busies himself doing something down on my arm, “So come on then Colin, what’s your top tip for leadership?” I wasn’t really conscious of what he is doing, I just started to answer, enjoying the challenge of being put on the spot. Within seconds I’m distracted as a violent argument breaks out across the room. Two theatre staff are taking lumps out of each other, arguing over whose role it is to communicate with the patient. Read More

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