Here’s a blog I wrote for www.careeringintomotherhood.com’s July 2022 campaign about resilience - what is it, can you improve it (yes) and some simple ways to boost resilience.

Here’s a blog I wrote for https://www.careeringintomotherhood.com’s May 2022 ‘career changes and pivots’ campaign, with 4 lessons I’ve learnt from a number of career changes: Are you interpreting what you need for the next step literally rather than flexibly?; Are you waiting for the ‘right opportunity’ rather than ‘an opportunity to learn from?’; Are you paying enough attention to your interests, aspirations, needs?; Are you prepared that a career move might take a while?

Here’s a blog I wrote for https://www.careeringintomotherhood.com’s March 2022 ‘confidence’ campaign, with some practical tips about using your physical presence, writing, visual cues, and music when you need a confidence boost.

In February 2021 I joined three other coach friends on a 6-week ‘Positive Intelligence for Coaches’ programme, generously run for free by Shirzad Charmine, who lectures on the topic of Positive Intelligence (PQ) at Stanford University. His definition of PQ is that of mental fitness, “our capacity to respond to life’s challenges with a positive rather than negative mindset”. I then studied the topic for a few more months. Here’s my reflections and summary of key concepts.

I often get asked if I can recommend good books, videos, or podcasts on a particular development topic or ‘leadership’ more generally. I also have a big heap of these kind of books to read, which always seems to go bottom of the list of things to do. So I’m going to start writing and sharing brief reviews, that hopefully you’ll find helpful, and will encourage me to prioritise my reading / watching / listening. They’re my personal opinion only.

A great range of speakers at the CIPD’s Festival of Work June 2021 covering themes such as - hybrid working is the way forward; are organisations genuinely committed to ESG priorities; reskilling in the 4th industrial revolution; face to face work is still important; line manager skills are key; recognition of health and wellbeing as a strategic priority.

In January 2021 I was a guest blogger on https://www.careeringintomotherhood.com. Here are the hints and tips I shared, which apply to anyone wondering about a career change, particularly if you have caring responsibilities, or have had time out of the workplace.

In conversations with leaders in September 2020 I noticed many felt we were entering 'the next phase' of working in a different way in a covid world. Here are some reflections on some key people challenges and what leaders and managers can to do address them.

In June 2020 I 'went' to the CIPD's virtual #festivalofwork. I was struck by how many people thought work will never be the same again after the pandemic, and that they wanted to make sure this was a positive shift, building on learning from lockdown. Here are some of the themes that resonated with me.

In calls with leaders the last couple of weeks (May 2020) I've noticed concern about how to 'check in' but not 'check up', anxiety about check-ins getting emotional, and difficulty in knowing how much support a leader (who is not a counsellor) can give. My latest blog gives a framework and some hints and tips that might help.

Some reflections on how difficult it can be to change our habits, in life and work, even when we know we need to. And some practical tips about how to improve our chances of changing our work and leadership habits, inspired by a bad back!

Some reflections on making the most of feedback we are given, prompted by some conversations with aspiring senior leaders about the positives and sometimes negatives of shifts away from annual appraisals to frequent feedback conversations.

When introducing myself in a call today I spoke about working with leaders from public, private, and not for profit sectors. Which of course led to a brief conversation about similarities and differences. And then some reflection.

With the so-called growing “stress epidemic” many employers are offering their employees psychological wellbeing or resilience training, with the aim of helping employees develop sustainable habits that will help them cope with the daily stresses and strains of work. But does it work?