Ken Warren

What do you do if you have a manager who treats you disrespectfully and is regularly critical of your work? It is one thing giving feedback to a co-worker. It is quite another thing to give feedback to your manager who has the power to hire and fire or at least to make your life more miserable ...

My dear mum, Ethel, did not manage well at all after my dad, Bob, died when my brother and I were aged 8 and 5. Although we were all absolutely grief-stricken, mum's grief was especially intense, prolonged and tragic. In the immediate days following, mum was incapable of caring for us and allowed neighbours to do so. Perhaps this is understandable - she may have thought it best to protect us from her grief ...

A little while back I was commiserating with a cycling friend about our respective difficulties in losing weight. We decided there was only one solution for it - a competition to see who could be the Biggest Loser. The spoils of victory would be the utter humiliation of the person who lost the least weight ...

My wife, Christy, recently had to see a new doctor about a few questions she had. When she came home, I asked what the doctor had to say. She said that she couldn’t remember. All she could remember was that she liked him. If you work with people, the likeability factor plays a huge part in how much people want to work with or do business with you. That is, unless you impress them so much they forget what you had to say ...

When I started my career as a therapist in 1986, I actually believed all of my clients would want to work with me, would make the most of that time, and would be appreciative of my efforts. You can stop laughing now. I quickly was brought back to earth by teenagers who were dragged in kicking and screaming by their parents, people who were required by the courts to attend counselling but were just going through the motions, and husbands who had their wife's hand attached to their earlobe ...