From vision to reality!

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Planning for the long term versus the short term, and working towards it may not be rocket science but it can be pretty hard to do sometimes, particularly when we have pressing urgent ‘NOW’ issues to deal with.

As business professionals and leaders, it is the longer term stuff that helps us make a greater difference, whether organizationally, or personally:

  • By aiming for something aspirational that can change our future
  • By enabling a better way of doing things that makes us more efficient and effective
  • By investing in future opportunities, without a guarantee of return

6 months ago I had a really bad hockey injury – a hamstring tendon avulsion. I’ve had lots of sporting injuries over the years from a hairline fracture of the tibia, to 15 stitches in my lip and a tooth implant but none have had the impact that this one has.

And this happened just 2 months before my wedding so there were lots of activities that could have taken up my time and squeezed out space for rehab.

And yet this week, finally, I stepped back on the hockey pitch and I was able to train for 1.5 hours. Top of this blog are my ‘before and after’ photos .. with a 6 month journey in between. There is still a way to go to get back to the standard that I was before the injury but it felt good and it was the final milestone met of this first stage of my vision.

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I can change – and so can you…

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Do you ever catch yourself saying ‘that’s just the way I am…’ as a way to justify your behaviour and because you genuinely believe this?

Why am I asking?

Because sometimes thinking in this way can mean that we miss out .. on new opportunities, on new experiences, on a spell of good weather, on a chance to grow.

I found myself reflecting on this this morning (bank holiday Monday in the UK as I write this). In part, I think it has come into my head because I am in the middle of designing a half day team exploratory session based on the The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).
The MBTI is defined as a psychological assessment tool that categorizes individuals into one of 16 personality types based on their preferences across four dichotomous characteristics, used to enhance self-understanding and interpersonal awareness.

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How labels can hold us back

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‘Helen will never get anywhere in life while she carries on being a perfectionist’.

This is a sentence I remember from my school report when I was about 10 years old a year or two before starting secondary school.

This is one of many labels I carried as a child; labels given to me by other people. Another was ‘worrier’ as in ‘Helen is such a worrier’.

This is me in the photo with my Mum on a holiday in Cornwall about that time. I look like I’m feeling pretty relaxed there (and I love how I must have thought it was cool to tie my trainer to my shoulder strap!)

I remember that I yearned for the holidays because I found school often gave me anxious feelings.

Notice the language of the labels I was given …

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The power of vulnerability

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Do you ever feel like it would be useful to share something about yourself with someone else in the workplace but worry about how it will land? While we always have a choice about what to share with others, sometimes, even when it could help us we don’t feel we can.

This can be because we fear being vulnerable and may be influenced by how safe we feel with the person we are talking to.   Even when we do feel safe with the person, we can still shy away from sharing but it can help if we understand ourselves and see sharing as a way to be authentic.

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From Miss to Mrs

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Every month I consider what I should blog about wanting my writing to be succinct, the content to have practical tips for managers and leaders, and to share a sense of who I am as a person in the process.

Well, this month is a bit different -I’m writing from a more personal perspective .. because it is the month that I get married (future tense as I write, past tense as you read).

I’ve chosen to write from the heart, and to let my thoughts free-flow (let’s see if the reformed perfectionist can resist editing later!)

As a woman in her 50s who has not been married before, getting married is a big deal for me; to have someone choose to make that commitment to me and for me to return that commitment is filled with emotion .. gratitude, optimism, a balance of calmness on the one hand and excitement on the other, a sense of possibility, and a warm, fuzzy feeling that’s hard to put into words.

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Authentic Leadership

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Our working lives sometimes don’t run smoothly .. no matter how much effort we put in or how we plan and problem solve. At times like these, how do we cope, keep going, and still feel good about ourselves?  I believe that’s where knowing ourselves and living and leading in a way that we can look back on and know we were authentic and had good intentions can really help.

Sometimes we don’t recognise at the time that living and leading authentically is helping us – but we may get a reminder of that later.

I found myself reflecting on this topic as a result of winning an award at the end of season hockey dinner on Saturday …what’s that got to do with authentic leadership you might ask? Well, I’ll explain, firstly sharing what it means to lead authentically .. and then after the hockey story, sharing the factors or behaviours that help us to lead authentically.

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Handling strong emotions to move through disappointment at work

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Have you ever had to deal with a disappointment at work and struggled to put your best foot forward? Perhaps you thought you were a ‘shoe-in’ for a role that you really wanted but you didn’t get it?
Or you thought a project you’d carefully planned and worked hard for would be a great success .. but then it wasn’t?

When these sorts of things happen, we get an emotional reaction. And it can be hard to manage those emotions, especially when our thinking runs away with us too.

I had something happen to me recently that reminded me that, even when we know what we should do, it can be hard to regulate our emotions. While not in the work environment, the learning and the way to come through the other side effectively are the same.

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Investing in team climate – why and how

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Photo by RDNE Stock project

Are you a manager of a team?

Do you invest in your team climate or culture?

Is that important anyway???

I reflect on all of the above this month, providing some key tips on what you can do to invest in your team climate and why it is worth your time to do so.

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Choose to dare .. and dare to choose!

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As I reflect on 2024 I’ve decided that my motto for the year in retrospect must have been Choose to Dare .. and then get the chance to Dare to Choose!

It’s been quite a year and I make no apologies for taking this December blog to reflect and share a bit more personally; there will still be some tips from me that I think can be helpful for any of us as we navigate life and work!

It’s actually the culmination of 3 years that leads me to where I am now.

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