If you're familiar with minimalism, you'll have heard of the idea that every object in your home consumes your energy and focus. That's why I mostly can't do ornaments or knick knacks - I'm not a fan of dusting. As a keen advocate of maintaining both energy and focus - understanding that losing focus drains my energy, I'm currently on a mission to apply minimalist concepts to my home whilst retaining cosiness. It's an ongoing endeavour but I'm enjoying the feeling of binning all the stuff I...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Self-doubt is popping up all over the place in the coaching room these days. So many of my coachees talk about their frustration at how they second-guess themselves more and more when believe they should feel more competent as they progress in their career. And I get it because I'm finding exactly the same thing myself right now. I've been deep in my own professional development lately, preparing for the next stage of my coaching accreditation, PCC (Professional Certified Coach) with the...
2 months ago • 2 min read
I spent a day this week teaching senior leaders from across the world about gravitas. The most common reaction from delegates at the start was, "I'm not sure this can be taught." But by the end of the day, most of them had changed their minds. Let me try to define it briefly, without going down a rabbit hole. The Cambridge Dictionary offers something that comes close-ish to the message we were trying to convey: seriousness and importance of manner, causing feelings of respect and trust in...
3 months ago • 2 min read
A client recently shared with me that she deliberately puts herself in energy-saving mode in January. We do it for our phones when we want to make sure they're running effectively and to save their battery for the important stuff. So doing it for our human selves makes perfect sense. Her deliberate approach gave me a bit of a tickle because my January was the opposite: relentless busyness forced me into low-power mode, focusing only on what was both urgent and important - coaching, workshops...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Networking is such a loaded word for so many people. When I mention it in the coaching room I so often see the subtle signs that someone is very uncomfortable with the idea of reaching out to people for a conversation. The grimace, the slight sideways shift of the eyes, or even an actual 'yuk' escapes the lips. I get it. From our side of the fence, reaching out to someone can feel a bit desperate or needy or it might feel like we’re inconveniencing someone or putting them in a position where...
5 months ago • 2 min read
I'm feeling like a little squirrel as I write this, gathering my nuts, trying to capture all my snippets of information like podcasts, tools and articles in some kind of mega receptacle so I can keep track of everything. Organisation is not my strong suit, so right now many of my nuts are shoved into my little cheeks. I'm determined to find some good spots to hide them and become more organised once and for all this year. But this edition isn't about my organisational challenges. It's about...
7 months ago • 2 min read
I've always loved the idea of skinning a cat many different ways — not because I'm some kind of psycho but because I can only really think of one way to do it, so it amuses me that the phrase means that there are several ways to do something. I looked up the origins of this delightful idiom, and found some even more horrifying ways of saying that very same thing and suffice it to say, it has its roots in the 1600s when language (and possibly even practice) was often more barbaric than we...
8 months ago • 2 min read
Helping employees with wellbeing is a hot topic in the workplace these days. Some organisations do it excellently, some less so and some not really much at all. So let's look at 27 ways to improve wellbeing in the workplace. I should state, at this point, that I am not a medical doctor so please feel free to ignore my advice (not medical advice, of course!). The first one is for you, and this list is for life outside the workplace too. Sleep hygiene Optimal nutrition Movement Correct hormone...
8 months ago • 3 min read
53406 words. The sum total of many hours tippy typing away on my ugly old keyboard (now replaced with a thocky, wonderfully tactile model). Book and beautiful keyboard - not sure which one I love more.... I feel like I should feel something specific. The 'I-wrote-a-book' feeling that I'm not sure I feel yet. I think that will come at some point later, once the dust and energy has settled in my body and mind. Once I realise that I don't have to think about diagrams, and restructures and...
9 months ago • 3 min read
We often think of LinkedIn as a tool for telling people who we are and what we're up to and, because so many people dislike doing both of those things, the true power of LinkedIn gets overlooked. Instead of scrolling through posts, throwing out a like or comment here and there, you could be putting this super research tool to much better use. This is particularly true for those who score low on the Knowledge of Options dial. It's sometimes difficult to see what's possible when you've become...
9 months ago • 2 min read