Tag Archives: personal development
Sea of Overwhelm
Firstly overwhelm is normal, you’re human and pretty much everyone experiences it in some way, shape or form. The thing is everyone has different skills, capabilities, perceptions and language they use for describing their ‘experience’ of it. Regardless of the perception, it’s the impact that is the problem, because it’s can be debilitating, slowing down…
Overcoming Presenting Nerves and Doubt
Did you know a crazy large percentage of people would love to be in their own coffin rather than giving a eulogy at a funeral? Morbid I know, but so many people HATE public speaking with a passion. Are you one of those, or are you kind of like neither here nor there, have you…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Presence?
Yesterday was talking with a business owner who was talking about how good his 2IC was. So had to ask – What are her best qualities? Why is she so good? Here’s what was said. Apart from the fact that she really knows her stuff. She’s very capable at her job. She has this presence.…
Breakdowns and Breakthroughs
Recently during a workshop one our participants burst into tears and as they flowed, running down her cheeks, she said “I’m so sorry, I don’t know why I’m crying about this”. Often clients excuse their meltdown (whether mildly upset and frazzled or having the full blown cry and snot sessions). Sometimes it’s in the…
The No. 1 Key to Success for High Performing Teams
There are so many life and business lessons to learn from watching sports teams perform. What works well, what doesn’t. Why they lose and why they win. It’s fascinating and it’s in front of us all day long with a diverse range of sports being played around the world 24/7. I reckon one of…
Staying on the Pathway
It came as somewhat of a surprise when first starting out in business. Now, 9 years in to running my own show, each and every day can still be as wobbly and as challenging as in the early days. The view though is different! There is a real art to being able to staying on…