Newsletter Three- April to September 2016

The third newsletter!

This third half-year has been different, and deeply satisfying. I spent nearly three months in the USA, seeing grizzly bears & cycling through eye-boggling scenery & spending quality time in excellent company.

I love the freedom of being able to do so much of my work from anywhere in the world. But it's been refreshing to change the balance too, and invest in self-care and fitness and wellbeing, as well as in work and self-development.

Highlights

Coaching - those sessions where all the white
noise and separations dissolve away, and we explore the heart of things. And it’s heart-lifting seeing people I have coached go stellar; new jobs, new continents, completely new directions, new resilience and courage, being not different so much as more powerfully themselves.

Vienna - the second module of the Ignatian Leadership Programme fully lived up to the first. It is so rare to create an environment together that is part training course, part deep connection with valued peers, and part a continuously evolving organism. I keep failing to describe it, but the experience is so remarkable that I keep trying! The descriptions can sound naff or jargonistic- “co-creation, emerging future, authentic leadership”- but the reality is vibrant and thrilling.

My network - some are ex-colleagues, several are coaches I trained with, some I encountered in unexpected places. At the moment I am surrounded by the kind of collaboration, and the kind of peers, that make you marvel at your luck. Soon I am going to be gathering this around me in a more structured way.

Milestones

  • Co-delivering leadership training in a corporate setting
  • My first tax return- dull but curiously satisfying!
  • Joining RedR- their Essentials of Humanitarian Practice course was challenging and superb.
  • Getting repeat business- when you are new, you’re creating everything from scratch. I’m now starting to roll out and modify existing programmes. And it’s encouraging to be invited back, and recommended on too.
  • No work for Save the Children! - actually I enjoy working for them, and will be doing so again from next month, but as my previous employer it’s good not to feel dependent (I worked a lot for them in my first year of freelancing).

What I'm learning

  1. A lot about leadership, both theoretically and from watching the leaders I train and coach. It’s becoming so clear why the heart of leadership is authenticity, not excellence. Brilliance is of no value if you can’t bring people with you. In a roomful of leaders, the exceptional ones stand out to me not for their brilliance but for their curiosity, and the way they are always learning. They are ambitious for something bigger than themselves. It’s alive to them, and they bring it alive for others.
  2. I’m getting intrigued by mindfulness as a tool for uprooting toxic hang-ups and outgrown habits. Neuroplasticity and the brain’s agility- fascinating.
  3. There’s nothing like being a coach for challenging, coercing or shaming you into practising what you preach! Your client’s journey often holds a mirror up to you. It invites you to attend to yourself as well as them- whether it’s self-care, or noticing your saboteurs, or growing your courage. Everything happens (except boredom).
  4. I’ve been assuming that I will spend most of my time with the 3rd sector. Why? That is only logical for training, where it’s my area of most knowledge and direct experience. For process facilitation, coaching and retreats my approach and skills are equally suitable to anyone. I’ve been thinking too small. That’s changing now.

What's growing?

Focus areas - some I’m choosing, others are emerging organically. I am still not prescriptive about the work I will do, but my focus is beginning to sharpen. Leadership, coaching, team building and discernment fascinate me (and I am consistently being invited to offer them). Consultancy and public speaking requests still come in, but I feel less and less drawn that way. My key gifts are all connected to developing people.

My own ongoing learning really matters – it keeps my morale up and my brain fresh. I’ve started ULab, Otto Scharmer’s baby at MIT about building a global network of change-makers who think from the future instead of replicating the past. 

That might sound a bit mad, but it’s a lovely blend of systems theory and good human sense. And it’s done in engagement with others. I set out to find others using the ULab website, and suddenly I’m surrounded by a virtual network of like-minded, vibrant people who are determined to be part of growing a better future collectively.

What's next?

ILP module 3 is running in Rome in early December; another intense week of preparation, hard work, deep learning, and a lot of joy.

We’ve begun designing our 4-country post-ILP leadership package, with a team from Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and England. SO much fun.

ULab will influence my leadership training profoundly I think. I’ve started designing my own training packages, aiming to launch in spring 2017.

I’m on track to get my international accreditation as a coach by the end of 2016. My client dance-card is currently full, which feels good, but the natural flow of coaching means you are constantly welcoming new people. So I’m looking forward to the unknowns of the coming 6 months too.