Author Archives: Genevieve Matthews
Kicking Goals Together It Takes an Extraordinary Team
Several months ago, set a huge project. Relaunching www.theartofextraordinary.com (TAoE) and all it has become over the last 12 – 18 months. Quite a challenge. YET, took the advice I give my clients. Create your vision. Lead with purpose. Perform at your peak. It meant really designing out the future, I want for TAoE for…
Are Your Habits & Routines Working For You?
The other night on the way home from a long day at work, I realised (yes a smack over the head/lightbulb moment), that I had created a routine with a particular habit, that whilst it was completely good for me on one hand, on the other hand, it wasn’t and here’s why. For years now,…
How to Make the Systems the Solution to Success
Often get lots of varying answers to one of the first questions I ask people when we start conversing and talking about business leadership and growth. The question is “What is your biggest leadership challenge right now?” It’s always interesting what comes up for people and what they’ll share, ignore or admit too. Honesty is…
The 5 Common Culture Killers that cause Business Breakdowns
She only has a small team. It’s all about quality not quantity. And it wasn’t until someone new recently joined the team, someone with a very different attitude to everyone else, that she realised with surprise, quite how important company culture is. “Is it too late?” She wondered. “Had she hired the wrong person?” She…
Why Blend In when you were Born to Stand Out!
Why Blend In, when you were Born to Stand Out? All through the teenage years, having spent hours sitting, practising and contemplating life in the music room of boarding school, the same question often came up, “Why do I seem so different from everyone else?” It was a feeling. Whether I was or wasn’t doesn’t…
How to Lead with Emotion and Thrive
In our Empowering Women in Leadership Facebook Community, we ask every week, what is your No. 1 current Leadership Challenge you’d love to overcome or solve? People will share what they want and need help with. Recently someone posted that she wanted to be able to “Lead without Emotion”. Ahhh, to lead without emotion and…
Is it more about managing time or priorities?
Time Management is one of life’s great challenges and yet also one of our greatest opportunities. Because in truth, it’s never about time, it is always about priorities. Met this amazing lady called Bree, she’s a pro on the World Fitness Stage. She reminded me one day, that a 1-hour workout is only 4%…
Need to Stop Spinning in Circles?
What happens when everyone on the team starts spinning their wheels? When suddenly it feels like nothing is moving forward? Projects left, right and centre are stalling… incomplete or even at a standstill? The air in the lunch room seems stifled, there is little or no vibe going on. Everyone seems flat, despondent and dejected?…
How to Become the Meaning Maker Rather than Letting What Others Say or Do Bring You Down
Some time ago, I’d visited an Aunt. In a home. Walls bland, she’s the youngest by far and tragic circumstances have changed her life. Wanting to do something to bring some colour and cheer, I painted a canvas. Colourful, unique and my style. A gift for her. Oddly, when I asked my parents, could they…
The Power of Unplugging
A while back, chatting with a friend and shared I’d been offline for a few weeks. She said “What! How can you do that? How can you do that for your business? (insert her face looked really quite shocked…) Then came the “How’d you actually do it?” In a quiet voice, she then admitted “OMG,…
Business Fit
Recently at a workshop, we got talking about being business fit. It was a passionate debate and well contributed to because everyone had an opinion both on the perils of what happens when we’re not fit, along with their thoughts and tips on what to do to stay healthy, fit and focused. This discussion was…
Love and Trust
Love and Trust – It’s within? She stood elegantly, silently, holding the space for the audience to take it in. It was deafeningly quiet. It would be so easy to keep talking, to fill the space and void with more noise or yet another explanation. But she waited. Patiently. For whilst the urge and…
Team Matters : Who’s In Your Bus?
This snapshot popped up on LinkedIn’s Daily Rundown recently: Australian hiring managers are struggling to find staff that fit in, with 78% admitting they’ve hired someone who isn’t good for team culture. The survey of 460 hiring managers showed the top issues with new staff were an inability to work collaboratively and lack of team…
Showing-Up
Recently whilst on-boarding a new client to our Excelerator Program, we were talking through her team dynamics. Who is on the team. What they’re like. What’s working really well and what’s not. Here’s what she realised in the conversation… Some of her team are great. They’re committed, focused, get the work done and they understand…
No I in TEAM
Having recently joined a new soccer team, have really surprised myself with how calm I have felt. Often when we’re in a new ‘team’ environment, we’ll have this overwhelming urge and desire (sometimes conscious / sometimes unconscious) to prove ourselves. And we’ll find ways of ‘proving’ ourselves. It plays out in various ways… on the…
Big Brave Tall Strong
Have you ever experienced “Petrification”? It’s a feeling. The feeling of being so petrified, it’s like a bubbling, overwhelming sensation that comes up, rushing through your body in some way shape or form. Was talking about it with a client today. She brought in the draft of her new book. It looks sensational. And boy…
Stop spinning in Circles
Growing up, I had the voice of my father in the back of my mind. “If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well”. Great motto for getting things done WELL. I’ve ploughed along my whole life getting stuff done. Giving it my all to do it WELL. He was a bit of a perfectionist…
How to Recognise When You & the Team Are Out of Tune?
How to recognise when you & the team are playing out of tune? In the words of George Bernard Shaw “In the right key, one can say anything. In the wrong key, nothing. The only delicate part is the establishment of the key.” This morning a frustrated General Manager shared “I’ve had to send a…
Preparation for that Chat
Are you needing to have a conversation with someone? It could be a business discussion or something personal. It’s on your mind. It’s been niggling, bugging you and you’ve been putting it off? Firstly – ask yourself why have you been putting it off? Is it that you think it’s going to be awkward,…
What Impact Does the Past Have on the Future for your Team?
Last week spent the week on the road, facilitating high-performance team events and ran our bi-annual Empowering Women in Leadership event in QLD. Face to face and discussing the challenges and opportunities across teams, once again reminded me, not to overlook the basics. And funnily enough, this week, wrote a blog for our School’s Coming…
Case Study:
The training was engaging and we had a great group to work with throughout the program. I feel better equipped to manage my stress at work. I am now more focused and better at setting priorities.
Wildlife Coast Cruises
Jess Patman
and Brett Lacco
Case Study:
I learnt a lot about communication and adaptability. Particularly how to find middle ground with people. I learnt a lot about how to deal with challenging behaviours with external stakeholder relationships.