Finally, an interesting thing of the nice variety has happened concerning the Royal Family; Prince Harry a.k.a. the Duke of Sussex has become a Coach. When I heard the news on BBC Radio, I jumped onto the web to see if they had reported this correctly, and was impressed to see that they had. 

Now, some readers might expect me to go down the well-trodden path of cynically decrying people of privilege, but I am not going there. It’s been done so many times and there’s nothing I can add that would be of any value.

What is of value, however, is that the Prince has stuck to his word and joined a platform called BetterUp whose mission is to help people by focussing on their Mental Health. Keeping one’s word is always difficult in a high-pressure environment and the idea of making unrealistic promises is risky. The Prince, however, has, as far as my research has shown, given himself a really good chance of delivering on his promise. He has joined what looks like an effective organisation that successfully blends human skills such as empathy with modern technology. He deserves praise for this.

We’re in the Army now.

One of the questions that BetterUp asks their potential coaches is if they have been in the military. I do not know why they are asking this, but I shall assume that military experience is something they relate to and see as positive. 

When I was growing up, I had a dim view of military types and as a pseudo-Hippy, I suspected they were just people who had no imagination or spirit and liked being told what to do. However, as I became involved in teaching and subsequently, coaching, I stumbled on the ideas and books of John Adair. He is a leading authority on Leadership and Motivation and developed much of his ideology when he was in the army. He is a brilliant man and I have often begun my Communications Skills presentations by citing him as he is imaginative, clear and effective. My ideas about Army-types were narrow-minded and naive and I ditched them as soon as I knew better.

Prince Harry has been through personal trauma and has probably witnessed terrible things through his military endeavours. Of course, his privileged background will always be held against him but he appears sincere in wanting to help other people and ought to be applauded for promoting and supporting better Mental Health. 

Photo credit: https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/19d3cb8edb9cda394195d5e21cf5d5523a3add16/0_162_4878_2929/master/4878.jpg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=2eadb7f94f727d6efcd4e972a83954d8