Cuff Coaching

This year has been unique for everyone with COVID 19 and many people have had to adapt themselves. Whether it be their working situation, their home situation or just life in general. Certainly as a leader I am constantly reflecting on and observing those around me - often when there is a problem that needs to be solved I have to go back to the "What do I believe, how could I be wrong?" questions that will then help me look more closely at the situation and whether the person I am working with has the mindset to change.  Many people that I have worked with have the question "Is change easy or hard?" Think about that one. Personally I think it depends on the mindset of the person. Change should be easy - with the right mindset and asking the right questions we should be able to look at the situation differently. But change can also be hard. When people have a fixed mindset it is often something that has served as a good purpose in the past - it's worked for them....

Last week I wrote about Motivation and the pitfalls of only relying on Motivation to achieve what we wanted. As we know Motivation is fickle and changes minute by minute. We need to have context around what we want to and a real purpose, otherwise how do we create the passion and energy that we need to be successful. I love the work of Simon Sinek - Start with the Why. I've used this with numerous people that I have worked with (including the husband) in order to gain clarity about what the person is actually trying to achieve - personally or professionally.  It doesn't matter what you do but why you do it. Recently I've just upped my training with my gym coach. There were numerous reasons I did this - but ultimately I went back to my Why . This had taken me a while - it wasn't just a "lets do more training" for the sake of it. I had sat down and thought about what I was trying to achieve by going to the gym. For those that already know me - it's...

I'm often told that I am a highly motivated person, or  that motivation drives me. I've never particularly liked that term as I strongly believe that motivation is just one aspect of why I do things and how I achieve what I set out to do.  For me the key is to have a number of things in place in order to achieve what you want to.  1) Aspirations or goals - we all need something to aspire to or to reach for.  2) Ability - how easy is it for us to reach? How difficult?  3) Action - what behaviours will we put in place?  According to Wikipedi:   Motivation  is the experience of desire or aversion (you want something, or want to avoid or escape something). As such,  motivation  has both an objective aspect (a goal or thing you aspire to) and an internal or subjective aspect (it is you that wants the thing or wants it to go away). The reason that we shouldn't rely on motivation soley to get us to achieve things is I believe for a number of re...

As I have trained in different forms of coaching over the last four years and become more confident within my leadership skills one thing that has had a huge influence on me is really understanding my own personality type. Coaching helps us understand ourselves more thoroughly and assists us to grow and improve in our approach to our life generally. I am a huge believer that we all need a coach within our life  and as I reflect on my passion for coaching the coaches I have had in my own life have had a huge impact. I've always had a coach when I think back - when I was playing top level table tennis, when I was cycling, running half marathons, within my workplace and my gym coach. Each coach has a different approach and I have taken a little part of everyone to make me the coach I am today. When I look back at the times that I have "lost" it's when I haven't had a coach.  Knowing our personality type can have huge benefits to our growth. It helps us see our streng...

Yesterday I had a conversation around the idea of Adult Development, the power of the word Yet, and the idea that as humans we are continually evolving, adapting and changing. It's what we do. This idea of transcending to another level through the different developmental stages is one that fascinates me. One of the concepts that came up in the conversation was "Who are you becoming" instead of accepting that as a person what we are now currently is all we will be.  This idea of thinking about ones self as "Who are we becoming" means that we start to look at things differently and approach our mindset differently. Most people live, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make use of the a very small portion of the possible consciousness. They continue to walk down the same street, in the same habit, and falling into the same holes.  Jennifer Garvey Berger discusses in depth some of the mindtraps that stop us from moving forward.  Have a read of...