Your Training Inhouse Ltd.

25/12/2025

12/11/2025

🩺 Why Advice Isn’t Coaching and Coaching Isn’t Therapy.

In healthcare, we spend a lot of time giving advice.
It’s well-intentioned, we want to help, to fix, to make things better.
But coaching isn’t advice, and coaching isn’t therapy either.

When we coach someone, we’re not telling them what to do — we’re helping them think differently about what they could do. We’re creating space for reflection, not reaction.

In the same way, therapy often helps people understand and heal from the past so they can function in the present. Coaching helps people focus on the future, moving from functioning to flourishing.

The real power of coaching lies in the psychology behind it. When someone finds their own solution, their brain creates and reinforces new neural connections, a process known as self-directed neuroplasticity. We literally wire in the insights we work out for ourselves.

That’s why the best leaders in healthcare don’t just give answers — they ask better questions. So next time you’re tempted to offer advice to a colleague, trainee or team member, try pausing first. Ask a question that invites them to think.

Because in that space, growth happens.

I help NHS leaders, educators and clinicians develop the coaching skills that build insight, confidence and better conversations. If you’d like to bring coaching psychology into your team or training programme, get in touch.

10/10/2025

When Training Meets Therapy: Tackling the #1 phobia!

For many NHS professionals, standing up to present doesn’t just bring nerves, it triggers a full fight or flight response. Sweaty palms. Racing heart. Tunnel vision.

Public speaking is still the world’s number one phobia. And in healthcare, that fear has real impact, in MDTs, board meetings, interviews, and teaching sessions. Brilliant people stay quiet, not because of a lack of knowledge, but because of fear.

This week, I delivered a two day Presentation Skills workshop on behalf of Excel Communications (HRD) Ltd, and it struck me, this is where my three professional worlds truly meet.
Trainer, Coach, Clinical Hypnotherapist.

As a Trainer, I give people structure and tools, frameworks like 4MAT, storytelling arcs, audience analysis, to make presentations clear and engaging.

As a Coach, I help people surface the stories behind the fear,
“I’m not a natural speaker.”
“I’ll freeze.”
“They’ll see right through me.”
We challenge these assumptions and build self belief.

As a Clinical Hypnotherapist, I work with the subconscious. Public speaking anxiety isn’t just mental, it’s physiological. Hypnosis helps reframe triggers, calm the nervous system, and install new confidence patterns.

When these three approaches intersect, something powerful happens,
People stop dreading the spotlight and start owning it.

Presentations stop being stress events and become strategic opportunities.
For NHS teams, this means stronger leadership voices, more confident educators, and clearer communication with colleagues and patients.

It’s not about talent. It’s about belief, and belief can be built.
How does your organisation currently support staff to build confidence in high stakes communication settings?
Where would a blend of training, coaching, and therapeutic techniques make a difference?

02/10/2025

Who played the best Bond? Is Strictly Better than BGT?
Are you planning your work-based conflict? You should be.

Conflict isn’t just big arguments, it’s any time two people have a difference of opinion. Which means it happens every single day:
With peers, senior and juniors colleagues. With clients, customers, or suppliers. Even in quick conversations that don’t seem like “conflict” at all.

Every one of these moments has two paths:
❌ frustration, misunderstanding, wasted time.
✅ clarity, collaboration, better outcomes.

That’s why planning for conflict is such an important leadership skill. It’s not about avoiding disagreement. It’s about recognising that conflict is inevitable and choosing the best way to handle it.

One of the most effective tools for this is the Thomas-Kilmann Instrument (TKI), which identifies five conflict-handling styles:
Competing 💪
Collaborating 🤝
Compromising ⚖️
Avoiding 🚶
Accommodating 🙋

Each style has its strengths. The skill is knowing when to use which approach.
Yesterday I worked with 20 SAS doctors from across the northwest to strengthen their conflict management skills. And you may (or may not) be surprised to hear there’s plenty of conflict in the NHS. What matters is how it’s managed.

We started the day with a couple of important questions. Who played the best Bond? Connery, Moore, Lazenby, Dalton, Brosnan or Craig?
And which is better, Strictly or Britains Got Talent?

Each of these questions caused conflict. Some participants were adamant that Connery and Strictly are best. For some it was Craig and BGT. Some just didn't care either way. These are all classic conflict responses. From "my opinion or point of view is right" through to "I don't have an opinion and don't care."

👉 If you’d like to explore your own conflict style, I have a free version of the TKI available. Just drop me a message and I’ll send it over.

Who played the best Bond and which is better, Strictly or BGT?

22/09/2025

Do you spend as much time planning your career as you do planning your holidays?

Most of us will spend hours researching flights, hotels, and activities before we head off on holiday. We compare options, check reviews, and build an itinerary to make sure we get the best out of our time away. Yet when it comes to our careers, something that lasts decades, not weeks, many of us drift, react, and hope things will work out.

Last week, we had the privilege of running a Portfolio Pathway workshop with a group of SAS doctors. We explored how structured planning can transform their career progression, just as it does with travel.

Here are three reflections that struck me:

1. You need a destination
When you book a holiday, you start with the question: Where do I want to go?
Careers are no different. Without a clear sense of your direction, whether it’s leadership, research, education, or clinical excellence, you risk ending up anywhere. The Portfolio Pathway provides clarity on those destinations and the routes to get there.

2. Map the journey
A great trip isn’t just about arriving at the airport, it’s about planning the steps in-between. Flights, transfers, sights to see along the way.
For SAS doctors, this means identifying the skills, experiences, and evidence needed for each domain of the pathway. Breaking the big goal into achievable stages prevents overwhelm and keeps momentum.

3. Be intentional with your resources
When we plan holidays, we budget time and money carefully.
In careers, the resources are your energy, opportunities, and focus. Choosing where to invest them makes the difference between drifting and deliberate progress.

Just like with holidays, the effort you put into planning pays off in the quality of the experience. Career planning is about taking control, making conscious choices, and designing a professional journey that excites you.

So, here’s the question for you this chilly Monday morning.
👉 Do you spend as much time planning your career as you do planning your holidays?

If not, maybe it’s time to start. Have a great week.

11/09/2025

Tiny Protein, Big Hope: A Breakthrough in Alzheimer’s Research.

Scientists have now confirmed that a tiny protein can dismantle the toxic clumps in the brain, known as amyloid plaques, that are strongly linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

For decades, these plaques have been seen as one of the key drivers of memory loss and cognitive decline. The idea that something so small could break them apart feels almost unbelievable. But it’s real. And it brings hope.

When you’re caring for or supporting someone with Alzheimer’s, the world can feel very heavy. The progress of the illness feels relentless.
Any news that points towards a breakthrough matters.

This discovery isn’t a cure, and it won’t change things overnight. But it’s another step forward. And when you’re dealing with something as tough as Alzheimer’s, every step forward counts.

I don’t know where this research will lead. None of us do. But it suggests a brighter future for sufferers and their families and we could with more of that in general right now.

Link to the original article in the comments.

28/08/2025

AI in Healthcare Leadership: Partnering with Algorithms for Better Decisions.

AI is no longer just a background player, it is becoming a trusted consultant in healthcare leadership.

According to TechRadar’s latest insights, nearly three quarters of executives trust AI’s input over that of their peers, and almost half would let AI override their own decisions. Within healthcare leadership, that trust translates into:
• Data driven patient outcomes
• Operational forecasting such as staffing and resource management
• Risk detection in clinical workflows

Still, AI is not a standalone leader. In an environment where clinical judgment, ethical considerations, and compassion are paramount, human oversight remains vital.

For NHS leaders embracing AI:
• Anchor AI decisions in clinical governance: uphold evidence based standards, adding AI without eroding accountability.
• Ensure transparency and trust: staff and patients must understand how and why AI is used, especially in decisions affecting care.
• Invest in data readiness: the NHS must resolve data silos and infrastructure gaps to ensure AI recommendations are reliable.
• Cultivate co‑creative leadership: blend algorithmic insight with clinical wisdom to enhance strategic and operational decisions.

In essence: AI can support better outcomes, but only if human leadership remains firmly in the driving seat, steering with ethics, empathy, and accountability.

How are you using AI in healthcare?

If you'd like to help your leaders embrace the power of AI, let's chat about our "Healthcare leadership in the age of AI" programme.

15/08/2025

🕒 A quick NHS thought experiment:
If your Trust gave you £86,400 a day for your department, and whatever you didn’t spend vanished at midnight, you’d make sure every penny counted, right?

That’s how many seconds you and I get every single day.
And yet many of us treat them like there’s a secret stockpile hidden in the staff room.

We’ll give away precious minutes to:
Meetings with no clear purpose.
Hunting for that one piece of kit that’s always “just been moved”.
Filling in forms twice because systems don’t talk to each other.

Here’s the thing: time in healthcare is the one thing we can’t reclaim.
No refunds, no extensions, and no “make-up clinics” for the hours we’ve lost.

We guard budgets fiercely. We protect patient data.
But do we protect our own time with the same vigilance?

You can get more funding.
You can replace broken equipment.
But you can’t un-waste a day.

So, as we head into the weekend, maybe we can choose to spend a little more time on:
✅ Colleagues who lift us up.
✅ Conversations that make us smile after a tough shift.
✅ Moments that will matter five years from now.

And a little less on:
❌ Tasks we only say yes to out of guilt.
❌ Inbox spirals that don’t move patient care forward.
❌ Energy-draining debates that go nowhere.

One final thought:
Use your time as if it were a gift from someone you respect. Because that’s exactly what it is.

How will you spend your most precious commodity this weekend?

Tom

09/08/2025

Have a great day!