The Word Collector

The reason I geek out about patterns in language is because our language is such a wonderful route to solving a problem, and I love solving problems so we can make progress rather than be in that frustrating no man's land of confusion and indecision.

I particularly love helping Procurement professionals find the solutions that are eluding them, to get back on the track they want to be on, rather than up a creek, in a rut, out on a limb, in deep water or going round in circles.

Caroline Myss talks about words having power, and for me that power comes in many guises:

• Power to impact our mindset (and therefore outcomes)
• Power to impact our behaviours (ditto)
• Power to hide the solution within the very words we’re using 

Which is why when coaching, training or consulting procurement teams I can often be heard saying “I notice you said the word xxx” and then we’re off to see how exploring their language may help them turn round and head for their intended destination and away from that dead end.

Next time you’re not getting the outcome you expect, look to the words you’re using - they may just be the difference that makes the difference.

What your team needs from you

When you’re being pulled in lots of different directions and everyone wants you to solve their problems, it can certainly be frustrating.

Especially when you’d like to be focussing on procurement’s relationship with senior leaders within your business and your team isn’t stepping up to support you as much as you’d like, even though you know they’re perfectly capable at doing this.

It’s particularly draining when you’re still racking your brains about how to get your team to take more responsibility and come to you with solutions not just problems.

It can certainly feel as if they or the world are out to get you.

The good news is your team isn’t out to get you, and you’re right about their capability at doing the job you need, they just need a little more self awareness.

More self awareness about:

🔎 The specific behaviours you’re seeing that are getting in the way of them achieving their objectives
🔎 How their mindset is impacting the outcomes they’re getting, and
🔎 How to develop their behavioural and mindset skills to bridge the gap between where they are now, and where you know they could be.

What can you do today to help to help your team increase their self awareness, or would you like me to help you do that?

My ideal client

Just to say, my ideal client is a procurement team I can get to know and spend a few days every month training, mentoring, and coaching individuals or small groups on ‘how’ they do what they do.
This will most likely include developing the team’s stakeholder engagement, communication, influencing, and creative thinking skills.
Other topics covered might also include mindset, confidence, values and beliefs, and other topics that increase individuals’ self awareness, which are the building blocks to having an affective and adaptable approach to ‘how’ things get done.
I’ve been a passionate procurement professional for over 30 years, and for 20 of those years I’ve been a NLP and soft skills coach and trainer, and geek on new and innovative tools for personal development and transformation.
If you’re interested in me supporting your procurement team to fully embrace their potential, do get in touch.
With capacity to only provide this to a small number of organisations it’s not something everyone will be able to get access to.