All tagged coaching

Clarity is in the distinctions

Clarity is in the distinctions

Rebecca Morley
Leadership

Funny story:

Easter Sunday and my husband set off down our street to hide Easter eggs for our children to hunt.

As he was laying some of them against one of the steps a few doors down the guy came out of his house.

‘What are you doing?’ he said.

‘I’m hiding Easter eggs for the children’ said my husband as he carried on down the street swinging his Easter basket.

‘Thanks very much’ said the guy as he picked them up and went back into his house - much to my husband’s consternation.

It turns out, on speaking to the neighbours that this guy has grandchildren… and, it seems, also now thinks of my husband as a very generous benefactor of Easter treats for the children of our street.

So what went wrong?!

Marvellous Meetings

Marvellous Meetings

Rebecca Morley
Leadership

If there’s one thing that can impact the look and feel of a business more than anything else it’s the meeting culture. When I run diagnostics for companies so many of the examples of what works and what doesn’t come from meetings. It’s why so many leadership and business consultants insist on observing meetings before they will advise on what needs to change.

I was once part of a huge full-scale team transformation process that took 2 years - the official bit - the work is never ‘done’. We looked at every aspect of this overlooked team to understand how to raise it’s profile and bring it front and centre in a business that really needed it to lead. We looked at individuals, at structures and processes, at tools and skills. All of this made an enormous impact on how the team performed but the last piece in the jigsaw, the piece that brought the whole thing together and made things work REALLY WELL, was getting the meeting structure right.

Can you create a high performing team in a high growth environment?

Can you create a high performing team in a high growth environment?

Rebecca Morley
Leadership

I’ve been rewriting my website recently. It’s been fun, spending time thinking about what it really means for my clients to make the shifts they do when working with me. Last week I was chatting to Elizabeth who’s doing a stunning job of helping me drag all of the tangled thoughts out of my head. She was asking me about what it really looks like when a team is functioning brilliantly.


It’s like an orchestra I said. You are the conductor. Your team members know their roles, they know what they’re good at and they know that they need to follow the music and look to you for pace, emphasis, energy. You’re not leaving your conductor’s podium every two minutes to play first violin. Neither are the members of your team playing tug of war over different instruments. You have agreed what pieces you’re playing, in what order and when.

Writing manifesto

Writing manifesto

Rebecca Morley

Sometimes an idea starts to nudge away at your thoughts. At first, it’s a whisper, quiet and polite. But when it’s persistent you begin to realise it might be something important. Soon that whisper starts to get louder. Eventually it becomes a shout. Impossible to ignore.

The only way to do anything about it, is to take action.

Thinking about hiring a coach? Read this first...

Thinking about hiring a coach? Read this first...

Rebecca Morley

If you're thinking about hiring a coach but don't know where to start, then you're not alone. The coaching landscape is incredibly confusing and extremely competitive. I posted on Facebook this week to do a bit of research on how people choose coaches and it garnered nearly 40 comments, many of which had various different descriptions of what coaching even is. It also attracted several other coaches trying to sell their services!

One of the main issues is that coaching seems to be a bit of a buzz word at the moment. The problem with that is, when people realise that they can add credibility to their offering by adding a word like coach, it becomes misappropriated time and time again. When everyone’s a coach, no one is a coach. I imagine it won’t be long before McDonalds rename their servers food selection coaches. 

So if you think you might benefit from the help of a coach, but you don't know where to start, let me help you to cut through some of the crap!

Running a business... it's an emotional rollercoaster!

Running a business... it's an emotional rollercoaster!

Rebecca Morley

"The bit no-one talks about is the emotional side of running your own business" - Steph Douglas, Don't Buy Her Flowers. A quote from a talk I attended at Stylist Live last Friday - three successful female business owners, on stage talking about how to start a business in an industry that ostensibly you know nothing about. 

All three, very impressive women, all three, disarmingly, well, female. Maybe it was the audience (at least 99% women), maybe it was the event (a fashion and lifestyle event), it was probably the brief (make your story accessible) but they were unashamedly and wonderfully open about what it means to be a woman in business.

Morning Metaphor - The Volcano of Self Doubt

Morning Metaphor - The Volcano of Self Doubt

Rebecca Morley

This week, I wanted to write in a bit more detail about an area that I really struggled with in particular on this holiday, and that's self doubt. It’s something I help people with every day but that doesn’t mean I’m immune to it myself and when it gets me, it really does it’s worst. I've questioned whether I should even write this post but I see so many women struggling with this every day that I really wanted to share my thoughts.

Holiday… Celebrate? How to manage holiday stress and actually relax!

Holiday… Celebrate? How to manage holiday stress and actually relax!

Rebecca Morley

Holiday… Celebrate? How to manage holiday stress and actually relax!

I’ve just got back from a 10 day break in Majorca. Big picture, it was bliss. 10 days of late starts, long breakfasts, sunny, breezy boat watching from the balcony and afternoons spent by the pool. What could be better? Well to start off with, my head could have been in a much better place. If you, like me, feel as though holiday stress, and the pressure to have an instahappy time makes it feel far from relaxing at times then at least take comfort in the fact that we are not alone – a quick google search on vacation stress returned 179 million results!

What is the ONE thing that's standing between you and your dreams?

What is the ONE thing that's standing between you and your dreams?

Rebecca Morley

Quite often I get half way through writing a blog post and realise I’m writing it as much to myself as anyone else. This week is no different, and you’re getting this late for precisely that reason! This week I’m writing about fear. It’s the ONE thing that stops you getting what you want. This week it was the one thing that stopped me writing this sooner, I was scared of getting it wrong, scared of not hitting the high standards I set for myself and scared that I wouldn’t be able to tackle this huge subject in few enough words to keep you interested. But here goes...
 
Think about what you most want in life, or for your career? Why don’t you have it yet?
 
These are questions I ask a lot. They kick off the coaching relationship. The responses I get are diverse and varied. Financial constraints, concern over what other people might think, a lack of experience or skills, low confidence, a feeling of trepidation, self doubt... no crystal ball!