Shaun Bowler & Associates

Shaun Bowler & Associates Organisational Psychologists I’m a registered psychologist, international yoga teacher and fitness professional qualified in Exercise as Medicine.

Shaun Bowler MSc(Hons), DipSocSci, RegPsych, Chartered Member of the Institute of Organisational Psychology of the New Zealand Psychological Society, RYT200, REPS Registered Exercise Professional. I bring 38 years of rich, varied experience in business and government settings, including facilitation, training design and delivery. A former union workplace delegate and EAP referral advisor, I’ve con

sulted in organisational development to large employers – so I easily relate to a wide range of employee and employer perspectives. I gained facilitation skills with world-renowned facilitation leaders Zenergy Global

Stress: It's complicated. It's a little like oxygen. Too little or too much is dangerous. Why do some people thrive in a...
28/07/2026

Stress: It's complicated. It's a little like oxygen. Too little or too much is dangerous. Why do some people thrive in a particular challenge or situation, and others panic and become overwhelmed? Remember the Wild Boars, Thai schoolboys who in 2018 became trapped in a cave in Thailand? For some of the people who rescued them, for example Dr Richard Harris, extreme cave diving is a hobby - something done for fun, pure challenge. For the boys, being moved out through rock squeezes under water in pitch blackness with no hope of rescue if something went wrong, was a prospect so utterly overwhelming that they needed to be anaesthetised unconscious in order to survive it. Blind panic would have killed them and their rescuers.
The cave was the same for everyone. Same rock, same water. In theory, the same stressor. So what was the difference between the boys and their rescuers? In a word, perception.
Perception of our ability to cope mediates whether we will view a stressor as an existential crisis, or as something to relish mastering. Training helps. It helped that Harris had been cave diving for a very long time. It was even more fortuitous for the boys that he was an anaesthetist. There were other factors, too many to mention, that went well in that situation.
Workplace stress is my thing. When the boss calls you in for a discussion, do you feel like a cave diver or a schoolboy? (BTW, that's me in the pic, trying to be a little bit zen....)

During the pandemic lockdowns of 2020, I took to cycling alone through Auckland's deserted streets. One dewy autumn morn...
03/07/2026

During the pandemic lockdowns of 2020, I took to cycling alone through Auckland's deserted streets. One dewy autumn morning, on one such ride, I photographed these toys abandoned in the long grass of a neglected lawn. The tableau seemed to sum up my sense of dislocation. Yet there was something beautiful in the way the light fell at that moment

A fan of positive psychology, I've been reflecting on Barbara Fredrickson's 'Broaden & Build' theory of positive emotions - and their role in a better life. Barbara says finding positive meaning in life's challenges helps to build positivity. I see that daily in my coaching and counselling work. I thought of the client who told me how their hospital admission had resulted in their estranged family visiting them after a long period of painful distance. I was reminded of the sensitive client, unceremoniously dumped after opening their heart to someone, who said the painful experience had made them clearer about the sort of love they really wanted and how they might get it. The young professional who reflected positively, as tears welled up in his eyes, on the last bittersweet days of closeness with a parent who had passed recently. To accept our brokenness and yet still be unbroken - that's resilience. Yogi and teacher taught me that most experiences are neither completely bitter or totally sweet. Like the weft and warp of a fabric, these things cannot be separated. Like toys in the grass, we strive to be found and whole again.

Remote work explains a third of the increase in mental distress from 2011 to 2024 in US workers working from home.Some r...
28/06/2026

Remote work explains a third of the increase in mental distress from 2011 to 2024 in US workers working from home.Some remote workers have lost daily social contact entirely, for example not even chatting with a barista on the office coffee run. This isolation results in more prescriptions for antidepressants and reported distress. We need to prioritise face-to-face time with colleagues. By face-to-face, I mean in real life (IRL), not just getting on a Teams or Zoom meet. Communicating online is qualitatively different and less protective of health than face-to-face communication.

(To read an article, see https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aec7671 )

Performance review time feel like the Hunger Games? Let's be honest: In a market economy, individual performance has lit...
23/06/2026

Performance review time feel like the Hunger Games? Let's be honest: In a market economy, individual performance has little or no influence on pay and rewards - instead it is the market itself (i.e. your competitors) that determines pay and rewards.

Like the deeply traditional Portuguese music of 'fado', performance management is a social/relational process of 'HEART'...
16/06/2026

Like the deeply traditional Portuguese music of 'fado', performance management is a social/relational process of 'HEART'.

If an individual senses their manager isn’t committed to the relationship, they won’t buy into the system. Without good relationships between managers and individuals, your system is worthless at best.

To make Strategic Performance Management work, put people at the centre:
- Involve employees in designing the system.
- Make it the employee's role to lead their own process and self-reflect.
- Make it the manager's role to coach and help employees to set and reach their own goals, as far as possible.

When you lead with commitment and 'heart,' you develop people, which improves organisational performance.

Question: How visibly committed are your leaders to leading with heart?

The most powerful conversations in performance management are future-focused—like putting your "lights on high beam to s...
11/06/2026

The most powerful conversations in performance management are future-focused—like putting your "lights on high beam to see what’s on the road ahead."

This is Feedforward. It’s the essential alternative to focusing on past mistakes (feedback/roadkill).

Strategic Performance Management replaces the rigid yearly review with continuous conversations:
In-the-flow discussions.
Coaching for goal achievement.
Regular one-on-ones for guidance and problem-solving.
When conversations happen continuously, the year-end review becomes a "no surprises" milestone.

When was the last time you focused your performance discussion entirely on the next action? Start driving forward.

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