Category: coaching

Reflect, reframe, regroup. Inspiration for when life is messy.
I struggled to find a title for this post, because describing what it is about will lead to expectations it is not likely to meet. This post is about how to stick with things, be they new habits or intentions, plans or commitments.

In my work as a coach I often read and share books about habits and how to stick to them, and there is a huge wealth of information out there about how to be more productive from the ever popular Atomic Habits by James Clear to Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks and so on. I go through phases of finding one of these titles or authors that really chime with me at a particular time in my life, and I love their approach for a while, find the inspiration I am looking for and… move on.

Alongside the books there is an army of podcasts about the same subject, and I am guilty of adding to the genre with my own weekly episode of Leading Virtual Teams. Through my coach training I have discovered a lot of amazing coaches many of whom share their expertise on habits and productivity on their shows, and my favourite of these is Katie Linder’s podcast for Higher Education professionals, You’ve Got This. Katie led the coach training I completed and I find her particular mix of reading, writing, being creative and productive really appealing. Definitely a recommended listen!

But…

And yet, of course, there is a but… . Because life is messy. Life keeps changing, and evolving and however much the data we collect through the devices and platforms we use would like us to believe otherwise, moving forward is not always a straight, upwards curving line. And not every season of life can be productive. I recently read a wonderful book, Ebb & Flow by Easkey Britton, which beautifully explored the concept of periods of ebb in life as necessary and valuable.

That’s where for me conflicting desires arise: one the one hand I understand and appreciate that not every week, month or year can be super productive. Sometimes life just gets in the way. On the other hand, I am very used to pushing ahead with things or sometimes have a sense of being behind already, feeling frustrated and keen to make a change. At times like that, I use a couple of approaches to help find a path through the messy reality:

Reflect: Need vs. want

First, I find some headspace to reflect on what I need versus what I want. I think best when I actually write things down or talk to someone about it. Here are some prompts to think through this:
- What do you want more of?
- What do you want less of?
- What would make things lighter?
- What do you need to prioritise?
- What do you need to finish?
- What do you need to pause/stop?
- What do you need to start?
Reframe: Essential vs. desirable

Next, I try to reframe the situation, to look at things in a different light. My own high expectations or sense of accomplishment is often the biggest barrier to feeling contentment, so my aim here is to be very clear with myself what is absolutely essential to accomplish and what is desirable. I often find that things drop off my plate once I can clearly articulate to myself what I really need to do, rather than all possible things I could be doing. Here are some criteria I use to sort things into the two buckets:
- Essentials often are: time sensitive, external (i.e. someone else is waiting for this), income generating, high impact
- Desirables often are: open ended, internal (i.e. only I wait for this to happen), unknown/low impact
Once I have sorted my long list of things to do into these two categories, I take a look at what I identified in the first step, needs vs. wants and check that everything makes sense. For example, if I have a writing project I absolutely love doing and it helps to get me out of bed in the morning, then it might move from desirable to essential. Likewise, if I find I have overcommitted myself and I need to say no to more things, I go over my list of essentials again to identify things I can finish quickly or stop all together.

Regroup: Grind vs. joy

Then, I look at the practicalities and set out to tweak things to prioritise joy. What that looks like may be different for you, but these starting points should give you a sense of what to consider:

Determine how many weeks stand between you and your next break. How long before you can take time off, go on retreat, travel or something else that offers a break from routine for you. A break, whether a change or a rest is essential to my mind. If you find there’s no let up in sight, take a moment and think hard about whether you can change that. What would it take to get a few days off?

Once you found out how long you have to go, add a countdown to your calendar or other app.

Then take a look at each week ahead of you. In my case I found certain days of the week in which I had much fewer commitments, so I moved things around to block out time for what I wanted more of (in my case creativity and time to get outside). I also took a look at what would be the hardest/busiest of times and started to schedule some time and activities around those days that would offer me some balance.

Time to rest, read, walk the dogs and so on.

I saw a post recently my a fellow coach, Mrs T, who coaches Headteachers, and in it she described how when days got very busy, her initial tendency was to fit in even more in any moments of calm. Fit in more tasks during breaks and taking work home in the evenings or at weekends. She then shared how nowadays her instinct is to step back and take a breath instead. I could really relate to that. When things get hectic, I used to try to be more productive, more busy still. The steps I have outlined above, to reflect, reframe and then regroup offer an alternative to being ever more busy. In that direction burnout looms.

I hope you find more pockets of joy. Even when life gets messy. Let me know how you get on.

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18/11/2024
Autumn ramble: Pocket edition

I love this time of year and I love walking whilst talking. On a personal level that is one reason why having dogs is a good fit for me, as it prompts me outside daily for long, rambling walks through the colourful woods and along the river.

However until recently I hadn’t found a way to translate my love for a good autumn ramble into my work… . That all changes in recent weeks as I embarked on creating the first of what I call ‘coaching walks’: It’s an autumn ramble, pocket edition.

What is it?

The idea for this format comes from my own experience of having wonderful reflective conversations with my then mentor Margaret as we walked our way through parks discussing strategy and solving the knotty problems I encountered as a CEO.

We didn’t get to meet very often, but when we did and had time and space to head outside instead of limiting our sessions to a phone call or even an in person meeting, it was transformative.

I think better when I walk, and I love following my train of thought and my feet, with an open mind about where they might take me.

As a coach I now offer a walking format, both in person and remotely via a phone call, but the logistics of aligning diaries as and when important moments arise can make it challenging to actually make it happen.

What I wanted to offer instead as a walk on demand, an option to take time away and find some headspace as and when my clients really need it. And so the idea for the coaching walk mini course was born.

How does it work?

The format is quite straight forward: it’s a mini online course in six parts, which covers setting out on the walk, the actual walk itself and coming back again. The screenshot of the course overview gives you an idea of the structure: each section has a narrative and activity as well as an audio recording to listen to (which you can download to listen to out and about):

I have designed the activities so that you can choose to simply listen and walk and come back to the written version of the reflective prompts I share along the way later. Each element of the course includes pictures I have taken myself as I go on the walk.

As you will be able to hear, I actually recorded a lot of the audio as I was walking myself, and I found that the most enjoyable part of creating the course.

Where can I try it?

You can preview and try out the full course for yourself for free. Simply head to the course homepage to get started. I think my coaching clients are very much going to enjoy trying this new format and I look forward to hearing what you think.

Hopefully I’ll get a chance to create more seasonal resources like this, so let me know what you’d find helpful for the next edition. I’m already thinking about a coastal path coaching adventure… .

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06/11/2024
Congrats Cohort! Coaching course completion

Today is an exciting day as my coaching course Healthy Hybrid Habits for Leaders and Managers wraps up after four weeks. It’s been a wonderful experience to work with a cohort of 20 individuals this month, and if you haven’t yet discovered this project, you can find out all about the course on the dedicated course page.

Time to celebrate…!

As this is the final week of the course, it’s time to celebrate. It’s been a joy to work with everyone participating in the course over the past few weeks and initial feedback has been really positive. For my part, I hope that the course has been both inspiring and helpful.

Healthy habits take time to get right and can be hard to make stick… . All the tools, readings and resources included in the course are there to support participants on their journey. For now, it’s time to celebrate your achievement – and there’s a course certificate and digital badge to collect.

Some favourite moments 🙂

There was a lot to enjoy over the past month, and I found the weekly live group coaching sessions especially energising and inspiring. I loved hearing the group reflections and questions… and I was very happy to see folk playing along with the activities, too, from office origami to writing postcards with Positive Feedback by Post.

I decided early on to include a course letter in the design, and this element was one of my favourite parts of the course delivery.

Another element that has been great for the course is welcoming participants from different sectors and timezones. Although a group of 20 isn’t that large in itself, the group coaching format I had designed into the course doesn’t work as well with groups larger than 10, so that was the maximum number of participants for each live session.

As the course was designed to be taken largely asynchronously, and audio based, which received a lot of positive feedback, the live session weren’t essential to attend, but proved very popular.

Audio first wins!

Given that the aim of the course is to establish healthy habits for hybrid working, it was my intention from the start to create audio instead of video content. Although video is very prevalent in this kind of course usually, providing audio recordings ready to download accompanied by transcripts and (mostly) openly licenced resources proved to be a very effective approach.

Participants loved being able to download the recordings (usually around 30 min per topic) and listen whilst walking, or simply away from their desk. I am really delighted that this approach landed well… and I am definitely planning to use a similar format for future developments. Which brings us to…

What’s next?

First up, registration for the next run of the Healthy Hybrid Habits for Leaders and Managers is already open, and a few early birds have already signed up. Both free and paid places are available, and as before I’ll be accepting group registration (at a discounted rate), too! The next cohort gets underway on 20 January 2025… so if you are looking for a bit of a ray of light in the dark days of January, this might be the course for you.

Also, I am VERY excited to have a new offering to unveil… Ta Da! Come and join me for a Coaching Walk: Autumn Ramble. If you are looking for some space to reflect and take a step back, then join me for a walk.

Try a free, self-paced coaching walk I have designed as a seasonal guide to accompany you on an autumn ramble. This is the first of my seasonal offerings designed to give you some creative and fun ways to find time to reflect and focus. Enjoy!

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30/10/2024
Healthy Hybrid Habits for Managers and Leaders
For many of us, hybrid working is here to stay. In my work with education professionals and entrepreneurs I support managers and leaders looking for new strategies for virtual and hybrid teams. This includes running effective hybrid team meetings, keeping oversight of progress, helping their teams be at their best and everything in-between.

If it’s part of your role to translate the newfound flexibility of the hybrid workplace into effective working practices then my course, Healthy Hybrid Habits for Leaders and Managers, might be for you. It will look at collaboration between colleagues, establishing communication channels that engage a hybrid team with diverse capabilities and preferences all whilst balancing work with other commitments.

Starts 7 October

Over four weeks we will take a deep dive into what it takes to manage happy hybrid teams, lead in ways that reflect your strengths and your values, and create healthy habits to balance the demands of a busy leadership role even when work/life boundaries become blurry.
- Learn at your own pace with weekly course modules with podcasts and resources;
- Stay on track and put your intentions into actions with a personal roadmap and regular check-ins;
- Join live group sessions led by me and take a deeper dive into each topic as you reflect with peers;
- Get creative as you receive inspiration delivered by post;
- Receive your digital course pack with everything you need in one place.
Registration is open

If you’d like to take part in this group coaching course, simply complete the registration form. Spaces are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

10% of places are available on a pro bono basis, absolutely free. If you’d like to take up one of the free places, complete the form below and I’ll email you to confirm.
20/08/2024
Coaching moments from career transition and crisis support to supporting long term change.
I often get asked about my own experience of having a coach by my coaching clients, especially as in the UK coaching is still a (largely unregulated and) relatively new profession. A lot of my coach training and credentialing process was designed to enhance the professionalism of coaching as a practice with lots of different applications, and I love hearing about what the contexts in which other coaches work: from health, fitness and nutrition coaching to student and career coaching to family and divorce coaching and so on. If you want to get from where you are to reach a new place, be that in your personal health, relationships, career or life generally, chances are that there is a coach out there to support you along the way.

The question most of my new clients ask to begin with, is whether coaching is right for them. Coaching can bring many benefits, and it’s a really powerful tool for self discovery, productivity, professional development and much more, but it isn’t the right fit for everyone or every situation. Over the past 15 years I have found coaching an invaluable support in a number of situations and I wanted to share some examples which may be useful if you are considering getting a coach yourself. In general, I would say that coaching might be a good fit if you are:
- Looking for a safe or creative space to focus on an important decision or period of change;
- Feeling stuck and struggle with productivity or specific tasks;
- Ready to plan for the next stage in your career or further ahead to the next 5 years;
- Looking for someone to think (or draw) with to find solutions to problems.
Coaching through a new leadership role

I first came to coaching and mentoring when I started my first leadership role, and from the outset, the support of an external professional became helpful to me. Managing a team of people and being responsible to many stakeholders made it hard to share a lot of what was on my mind openly, and I found coaching conversations really helped me clarify my thinking.

Having someone mirror back to me what I was articulating provided a reality check when I needed it most, and helped me recognise my own needs alongside other priorities.

Coaching on tap for crisis moments

Once I had built a good relationship with my coach, we fell into a rhythm of meeting less frequently. However, I was able to schedule sessions and get in touch as and when I needed to and that gave me confidence and reassuring as a young leader. It was invaluable to be able to have support on tap for when I really needed it, in moments of crisis, and not having to confide in someone new.

Over a period of years I appreciated how much my coach was able to help to reflect and chart my own progress by referring back to previous conversations, which helped to hold me accountable to the goals I had set myself no matter how long it took to achieve them.

Coaching to mastermind a big career change

Planning a big change can be a lonely task, especially if you don’t have many people to talk about your plans with. I found it difficult to draw on my usual support network when I set out to plan a big career change, partly because I didn’t want to unsettle colleagues and partly because making a change always has a element of figuring out why the current situation no longer suits. What I really needed at that time was someone I could trust completely, who was not connected to my current institution or role.

I wanted someone to think alongside with, someone to share my hopes and fears with and someone who would not judge or advise, but hold space. The space that my coach created was crucial for me to develop a new vision for the next chapter.

If you are thinking of embarking on a coaching relationship, remember to double check the coach’s credentials and experience, and look out for someone who is a really good fit for you.

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15/07/2024
Fully fledged coach, ACC

This week I passed my final exam and earned my ACC credential from the International Coaching Federation! It’s taken me two and a half years to achieve this milestone, so there’s much to celebrate.

Coach Training complete, for now

I’ve reflected previously on my coach training journey and I remain very impressed with the overall process (even though the final proctored exam made my edtech heart bleed). Initially I was focused on using coaching approaches within an executive role, and at the moment I use coaching in most of the work I do in different ways. It’s a valuable skills to have in all sorts of contexts, and it makes me better at being in a leadership role.

Coaching is very much an evolving practice and so I am looking forward to being active member of the professional community, to continue learning with and from my peers and to explore new ways of coaching.

What’s next

As I start this new chapter in my coaching practice, what I do and how I support my client is evolving, too. Alongside coaching individual clients I have started to coach more groups and teams, particularly leadership teams of hybrid organisations and groups keen to increase wellbeing at work. There’s an exciting new project in the works that I am hoping to share more on soon.

For individual clients the start of the summer season will see walk’n’coach sessions as part of my formal offering, starting with my established clients (with whom I already have built a rapport and a sense of trust). Usually, this would be coaching via a phone call, or, geography permitting, we might also meet in person.

That is alongside my existing video coaching and email check-ins, and I am also adding coaching moments by post, offering occasional letters and printed resources to help connect more deeply.

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30/05/2024