From:
Patrick Mayfield
near Oxford, UK,
aka “The Shire, Middle Earth”
Thursday, 4:08 pm
Welcome to my site.
I am an author and have published several books around leading change effectively and personal effectiveness.
I coach and mentor business executives and private individuals. My passion is to call out the gold (the great and the admirable qualities we all have) in people.
My experience in government and business over 40 years has covered some major change, and I learned how enabling it through relationships with key people in the process was critical to success. So I wrote…
Practical People Engagement became a core reference for an international qualification in what project managers call ‘stakeholder engagement’ (which means ‘working with humans for more effective change’ for the rest of us.)
This can seem pretty basic stuff, but is amazing how otherwise- intelligent people become obsessed with the tech and forget to have curious conversations with others around them, even with the people they aim to serve!
And so, over the last fifty years over 70% of change efforts have either had disappointing outcomes or failed outright. That’s what my much-needed book addresses.
Engaging the right people in the right way and the right time is the key. I can save so much time, money and other kinds of waste.
On the positive side, it also fascinates me how anyone can catalyse change and sometime break through seemingly impossible barriers. I call them the Positive Outliers.
So I wrote about it in this short ebook:
[convertkit_form form=”8298337″]I have also experimented and written about approaches that make us all more effective. This is what psychologists call agency, what the rest of us might call self-leadership.
My clients move from a victim mindset and discover autonomy and mastery in what they do.
I no longer offer training courses. (Sorry!) Instead, I help my clients by being their coach or mentor. They pull resources, knowledge and my experience from me. One of the best ways for my clients to get value from me, I have learned is what is called the Socratic Method. In a session, clients as me questions of concern to them, from where they are at that moment. This is far more immediately valuable to you.
One of my clients sent me a message only this week, a senior, leader, who said:
Thank you for your efforts, your influence is far beyond much that you realise.
As one of my clients, you will find I have published exclusive ‘short reads’ on all kinds of subjects that you will find helpful. You will not find these on Amazon, or anywhere else; they are designed to serve my clients.
If you would like a flavour of what my passion of “calling out the gold” in people is really about, then sign up for my newsletter below and receive a free copy of The Seven Keys to Exceptional Work.
My newsletters are not abstract nor sterile. I make them personal and authentic.
During the COVID-19 lockdowns, I stopped writing publicly… I felt that media of all kinds were getting too noisy and strident…hysterical, even. Our email inboxes were full enough, thank you. I did not want to add to that noise for my subscribers.
After a while, I realised that I had made a big mistake! My subscribers started telling me that they missed my regular newsletters. Moreover, my tribe needed some way to meet like-minded souls.
So, I jumped back into the flow of writing.
I rediscovered the love of writing, particularly for people who wanted to become the best version of themselves, the positive outliers, those in the minority in how they influenced and impacted the world, making it become a better place. And I have grown in my understanding and learning of these outliers, applying the lessons to my life.
I address personal internal issues that can limit us, as well as matters of spirituality as a Christian. For me, a life without meaning is not a life at all. If such matters are too personal for you, and you would rather deal solely with the external matters of this chaotic world, and if spirituality of any kind offends you, then I am probably not for you. Do not waste any more time reading this. Thank you for reading thus far.
Nor am I one of those internet gurus who present themselves as having it all worked out. That annoys me. We humans are all flawed in some way. The best of us are still learning.
My aim is to be a lifelong learner. I’m still learning and still growing. I’m not ashamed to say I have got it wrong at times–I still do. I’m also ready to admit that my mistakes and failures have been some of my best learnings. Whilst I do not look for failure, I learn when it happens. Clint Eastwood played a cowboy in an old movie called Two Mules for Sister Sarah, and there was a line that has resonated with me down through the years: Everyone has the right to be a sucker once…
So, if you complete the form below, I will share my mistakes, my failures, my growing understanding, as well as all the wisdom and positive insights that I have.
However, I promise you this: I will not share your email with anyone else. I hate spam and any other form of unsolicited email.
Finally, I hope you find as much value in my newsletters as hundreds of others have.
Yours still learning…and still growing,
Patrick Mayfield
