Lead With Confidence

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“To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom” so Socrates was famously thought to have said.

So, who do I have the pleasure of meeting on this page?

How would you describe yourself?

Introduce yourself to me….

Thank you! I can hear some great responses, some very articulate, confident responses.  I can also hear some hesitancy, some responses lacking confidence and some very humble responses.

Over the years, I have had the privilege of working with hundreds of senior managers and leaders.  Some leaders I support do have a strong self-knowledge and understanding and yet others, and sometimes surprisingly, struggle to articulate who they are and what they bring to their role.  This in itself brings the self-doubt and lack of confidence whose corrosive pattern needs to be broken.

The Role Of A Coach – Support AND Challenge

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Adventure and daring – evocative words, aren’t they? These are the words which stayed with me following a recent talk on “International Coaching” as part of International Coaching Week. The workshop was led by the highly experienced coach and facilitator, Marie O’Hara, who works in Lausanne, Switzerland. One of the discussions which arose was around how far we, as coaches, support managers in terms of being “supportive but daring”.  Should not the coaching journey enable the coachee to “welcome exploration and adventure”?

This reminded me to consider again some of the key responsibilities of a coach.

Making Goals Work For You – “We Are Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On”

When meeting recently a good Norwegian friend of mine, she shared her work and life goals for the year with me and blew me away with her commitment and ambition. A real inspiration to write about this very theme….

How important is it to have a goal? Whether in your personal life, working life, what you want out of life, have you set goals for yourself? And is there a difference between a goal and a dream?

The tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy of life lies in having no goal to reach.  Benjamin Mays

A goal provides an individual with direction and purpose. It’s a target, something to work towards, an opportunity for personal growth. Setting goals provides long-term vision and short-term motivation. Without goals, we may feel lost, adrift, and uncertain of the future. Setting goals helps prioritise time and helps individuals navigate through the vagaries of distractions.  Goals provide life with meaning and value.

You may also have dreams, dreams of being, being a certain you and living a certain life. Dreams can provide a place for our busy minds to retreat to, a place to dwell, to smile and feel good, to become revitalised again. This is your happy place, a secret place in your mind which only you have the key to.

It’s OK for dreams to stay as dreams. Sometimes we need that special place to go to.

But are we clear with our wish list? What dreams do we wish to stay as dreams and which do we wish to shift up a gear? What choices will you make? Will you allow your dream to become your goal?

How can we shift from dreaming into achieving?

Developing Trust – Lessons From A Robin

I held a robin this week.  In the palm of my hand! It’s true!  Unbelievable, I know, but it happened.  Feel free to spend time with me over a “strategic latte” and I’ll fill you in on the story!

What was so amazing though, was this special little creature trusted me. And it felt great!

Which led me to consider the huge topic of trust….

Interestingly, the origins of the word trust, come from the Nordic word traust which means confidence.

So what is the level of trust like where you work, in your team, your organisation?  Could it be better?

From my experiences over the last 20 years of working with teams and leaders, the presence of trust as one of the key factors to their success, is mentioned time and time again.  High performance rarely happens if the team doesn’t trust its members.

But what if trust isn’t strong, how can it be developed?

Here’s a few thoughts: