Mentoring, Career Conversations and Entrepreneurial Leadership – Our Most Popular Posts of 2019

It feels like we are already deep into 2020, but we always enjoy looking back and reviewing the popular blogs of previous years.

Like 2018, last year was again focused on mentoring and career conversations, with just over half of the posts sitting in the top 10 year in, year out. We’re also delighted to see that a selection of our brand-new blogs focusing on entrepreneurial leadership, leadership styles and career development cultures, made it to the popular posts list!

So, here is a roundup of our most popular blog posts and resources of 2019. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2020.

Top 19 Blog Posts of 2019

1. 25 positive quotes about mentoring 
Who doesn’t love a good quote? Thought-provoking quotes that resonate with you can inspire you to apply a certain idea into your life. A good quote is like a good coach – which is a key part of a mentor’s role. Here are some of my favourite mentoring quotes in this ever-popular post.
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2. 25 inspirational quotes about career development
Yes, you really do love a good quote! And those powerful quotes that help give you a different perspective will help you engage and inspire others and convey your experience, wisdom and insights into career conversations. Here are some of the best inspirational quotes about career development I’ve found and that I think you will enjoy.
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3. 13 characteristics of highly effective career conversations
Are you having the right career conversations to help your employees take ownership of their career development? This popular post, which has been sitting in my top 4 most popular resources for the past few years, shares with you how to draw out the characteristics that make an effective career conversation.
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4. Six steps to help your employees take ownership and responsibility
As a leader you can face many challenges when you’re under a huge amount of pressure, so how can you help your employees take ownership and responsibility for themselves and their actions? In this perennial favourite post, I’ve outlined the six important steps that will help your employees become more self-reliant.
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5. Good career development questions to ask
Career development conversations are designed to help plan, build and progress your employees career growth. As well as being a positive and insightful conversation, they can come with challenges too. So, I’ve outlined some good career development questions you should be asking.
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6. What key mentoring tools and techniques are available
As a mentor, you play an extremely important role to your employees, so what practical conversation tools do you need? In this post I’ve looked at the three key yet simple core areas for starting a mentoring conversation – often the simplest techniques are the most powerful.
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7. 8 proven career conversations tips
How do you start a career conversation? It’s normal for leaders to feel unsure on how to begin a career conversation for fear of making a mistake. In my own experience, career conversations should happen naturally. This blog post will guide you through eight proven career conversation tips you can put into practice.
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8. Practical career development questions to ask employees
I’m not surprised to see this blog in my top 10 most popular posts as it’s the most frequently asked question in my ‘Confident Career Conversations Workshop’. This blog talks more about my Career Conversation Toolkit and how you can access 50 powerful career development questions and conversation tools.
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9. 5 Powerful questions to ask someone about their career
What does success mean to your employee? And how can you get them to think about their future goals? This is where career conversations provide an opportunity to enable your employee to creatively think about their future success. And by asking these five powerful questions listed in this blog post, it will help open up a number of possibilities.
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10. What happens in a career development discussion
I thought I’d share with you an example of a career development discussion which took place between one of my client’s and her employee. This particular manager attended my Confident Career Conversations Workshop and was able to put into place the new skills she had learnt. Her employee was a very ambitious (and quite demanding) millennial who was looking for a promotion. Find out the outcome in this blog post!
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11. Entrepreneurial leadership part 1. why is it important?
We live in a fast-paced and fast-changing world – in order to keep up, you need to be forward thinking, adapt to change and have creative and innovative ideas. This brand-new series of blog posts to 2019 looks at the four contexts which need different types of entrepreneurial leadership.
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12. Entrepreneurial leadership part 2 – 11 Characteristics of Entrepreneurial Leaders
In part two of my entrepreneurial leadership series, I look at the capabilities and characteristics that will help entrepreneurial leaders succeed – from leading self, leading others and leading the business, to integrity, self-awareness and confidence.
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13. The 3 biggest leadership challenges of Fast-Growth Companies
Are you facing leadership challenges in a fast-paced environment? Then let me introduce you to the ‘Three Cs’ – Capacity, Capability and Culture. For your business to sustainably grow and thrive you need to have all three Cs – if you don’t, it could leave you vulnerable.
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14. The role of mentoring in career development
“Learning through sharing” – this is my view of a mentor and within an organisation, it’s one of the main strategies of career development. To help your employees grow, its vital to support them with any career changes. In 2013 at the Career Counselling Services Alumni, I ran an interactive session focusing on the role of a mentor – I’ve shared with you my presentation in this new popular blog post for 2019.
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15. How to develop a coaching leadership style
How many leadership styles do you think there are? And do you think one style works better than another? One of the biggest challenge’s leaders can face is learning how to be versatile and adjust their leadership style to different situations. In this post I look at how you can change a directive leadership style into more of a coaching style.
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16. How to create a career development culture
Does your organisation support growth and career development? Employee engagement and organisation culture go hand in hand – if you want to engage your employees, the culture must support their professional growth. I show you how to create that culture in this blog post.
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17. What’s the alternative to 360 degree feedback
Most of us have heard of a 360 degree feedback – but do you find it has worked for you? It’s an interesting question and this blog post delves in to one alternative to the traditional feedback questionnaire – The Hogan Leadership Forecast Series (Hogan LEAD). It’s a psychometric tool that can measure your reputation! Maybe this tool could give your organisation extra value.
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18. 10 Reasons every leader should get a mentor
I believe every leader should get a mentor, and while attending a seminar recently, every leader I spoke to talked about the important role a mentor had played in their career growth. So, in this popular blog post, I’ve listed my top 10 reasons why leaders need a mentor. I hope you find it useful!
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19. 3 roles coaching and mentoring can play in talent management
In my experience there are three essential areas where I think coaching and mentoring can add the most value within organisations – I call it the ADT model; Aspirations, Development and Transition. If you’re a leader who would benefit from learning more about the ADT model, then this blog post is a must-read.
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What did you think of our most popular blogs for 2019? I hope you found them interesting and inspiring and can put some of the actions into practice.

You may also be interested in the other free resources we have available.  You can find a range of eBooks, toolkits, podcasts and videos at https://antoinetteoglethorpe.com/resources/

We are looking forward to sharing more in 2020.  If there are any questions you would like me to share insights around, please get in touch by commenting below or emailing info@antoinetteoglethorpe.com.

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