I'm 9 years freelance now.
Very full years: some adventures, many delights, plenty of mistakes, bucketloads of learning.
To do work that orients entirely around helping people grow or flourish, and to do it with incredible peers, has to be one of the great privileges life offers. It's not hard to be grateful! And there's always so much more to learn...
There were three particularly potent experiences in this half-year. The first was my own retreat.
In November, I spent 8 days of silence in Sagres, the south-westernmost point of continental Europe. It gave me a quality of time to ponder, to allow the last couple of years to settle, to pay attention to the longer-term impact of health problems, and of how the world I work in and for is changing. It was definitely restorative. I think it had impact too.
The second was another edition of the Ignatian Leadership Programme in Portugal. The same team gathered from last year, so we were better able to make the most of our diversity, and complement each other wisely.
Unsurprisingly, the leaders who came as participants were once again spectacular – open, committed and joyous.
The third was Rome. Our Discerning Leadership Accompaniment Network of coaches, facilitators and spiritual accompaniers met face to face for only the second time.
This is the most remarkable group of peers I have ever belonged to. The depth of relationships is a testament to what’s possible online (especially when you’ve met in person at least once).
And in between these were many 1-2-1 hours, several new and fascinating coachees, guiding on a retreat in Mirfield, and some chunky facilitations online (leadership teams etc).
Facilitating with freedom. There has been a big shift for me in how unselfconscious I feel as a facilitator. I began to notice it last Spring, and it has kept growing. Performance anxiety and the oppressive need to impress or shine – they seem to have faded away. I’m there in service of a process and an aim: that genuinely feels like enough.
Growing my range. The Reimagine Leadership course I mentioned in my last newsletter is good, but it’s making me aware of my need for more active, engaged experiential training: the tough and exposing stuff like recording yourself, observation, and feedback from peers. That’s next year’s challenge.
Global teams. I’m working with more global teams, and more leaders with global remits.
Their challenges are distinctive, and there are at least some common threads.
There’s a kind of ‘solidarity-joy’ of supporting people who are used to isolation, flying solo and doing everything by instinct and without training, reinventing every wheel because they haven’t had much access to the relevant parts of leadership theory and experience that would offer relevant insights, tools and experiences.
Again I’m trying to keep my carbon footprint down by clustering the face-to-face events I’m working on. The April cluster is London / Dublin / Belfast, the June cluster Wales/ Paris, and the July cluster Rome/ Germany.
There’s lots of variety in there: leadership training, facilitation, retreat guiding, collaborative design work and some lovely reunions with friends and family along the way.
I’m hoping then to spend a few months working mainly online from home, catching up with coaching, and planning for the big winter events with excellent colleagues. It’s certainly no hardship to be home …
(Peniche, 15 minutes away)
(Olho Marinho, our village)
Thank you for reading!