Consistency - Stefan’s Week-notes 12/10/2024
Inspired by the weeknotes of friends and coachees including John Fitzgerald, Steve Messer and Nour Sidawi - I thought I'd give it a go.
Inspired by the weeknotes of friends and coachees including John Fitzgerald, Steve Messer and Nour Sidawi - I thought I'd give it a go.
Here's a dive in to the happenings of the past week. I start with what I’ve been up to, to frame the week and then the successes.
Why? Because it's easy to look into the dark rather than the light; isn't it?
Hope you enjoy it; comments, observations and thoughts welcome.
What have I been up to?
(Question inspired by @James_ Arthur_Cattell week notes). It's been a busy week.
This has been quite a week; recovering from my bike induced back injury and a really heartwarming trip to St Mary’s hospital earlier in the week; you can read more about their ‘positively lovely’ behaviour - here - to coin a phrase from my mate @ben_whitaker; the post got quote a response as it quite rightly highlighted how fabulous our NHS is.
Coaching sessions included:
A Head of sales; focusing upon Stakeholder engagement, boundaries and influence.
A Charity CEO; preparing for a Joint Board and Senior Leadership Team; strategy day.
A Partner in public affairs; working on a 3 years leadership strategy and personal brand plan.
I also held a meeting with an MD in the Finance sector to scope away days with the senior leadership team. A 3 year strategy; it should be an great opportunity to challenge support the whole leadership function.
I also agreed to deliver some workshops on Leadership, Coaching and Business Development in the new year for an island based provider. Now that’s exciting.
I opened my The Little Boat - Art Gallery and sold 3 pieces of Art; a pair of sea bird prints for a brothers 70th birthday and a Morris Minor print for a husband who has a birthday too. See more of my work here at www.thelittleboatiow.co.uk and make me an offer.
My mate Jason came over for an ‘In my flat’ cook up; pasta - my culinary skills; great chat about mitochondria and carbohydrate fuelling as well as mind-setting for endurance racing.
And Dominique and I made a trip to the mainland including a visit to Woods Cyclery in Lyndhurst - which has refined its range of awesome bike packing worthy bikes.
What's been good about this week?
I’m delighted to say that the pain in my back has started to subside and yesterday I completed my first ride in two weeks, an indoor ride - my legs felt great - as well my breathing and I’m hopeful I can ride outdoors towards the back end of next week. My cycling coach Joe Stanton was impressed.
Over and above being able to ride again - I really felt very purposeful and proud of the outcomes of my coaching sessions this week.
The charity CEO sent me a message after our session to say “I just wanted to say thank you so much for this session, it helped me no end as I hope you could tell”.
The session with another of my clients, involved real breakthroughs - centring around procrastination; was time to lean into the work that needs to be done to deliver the changes they seen and to be seen as they wish to be seen.
In the session I really challenged them using one of my favourites questions; what do you want to be know for? and got them to hold a mirror up to themselves about other they were doing this in their next phase towards their goal we’d defined. You can read more about it here:
To say that the session was challenging, whilst full of support is an understatement, and they left the session saying “thats the best session we’ve had so far”.
We’re on our second programme of coaching and they have already achieved a lot. The session filled me with pride and validation that pushing them so hard was the right thing to do.
On top of all of this, a digital director I have worked with for the past year has signed up to a further programme of coaching. They have grown so much since we started working together and are not only directing their leadership team now; they are beginning to influence their peers to lean into change.
What am I grateful for?
This week I am grateful to the fabulous Adam Bedford who put me in contact with 93percentclub who define themselves as “representing the 93% of people who went to state schools in the UK”.
It doesn’t shock me to know that “Despite… (their) …number, those with a state education, occupy a much smaller percentage of top roles: 34% of FTSE 350 CEOs, 35% of senior judges, 43% of the House of Lords, 56% of journalists” than their public school educated peers”.
As a state educated leader myself, I am excited to have been accepted as a mentor for them and have already been contacted by my first state schooled mentee, a leader in the diversity and exclusion arena - another ‘good person wishing to lead great things’.
93 mentoring’s vision is to “…transform what it means to be state-educated in the UK. By connecting state-educated professionals, this initiative encourages members to develop their skills and build their networks to prepare them for the next step in their career” and thats a purpose I can get behind.
Dominique
I am also grateful to my partner Dominique who has been awesome in working with and around, what has been a very busy week for me, As a result we have been able to have the opportunity to speak at depth, grab food together and watch the latest episodes of the cleaner (which I love), introduce me to Breaking Bad (which previously passed me by) as well as find time to laugh and have plenty of hugs.
Social media gratitude…
On the social media gratitude list this week i’d like to highlight the following, for their likes, comments and shares; thank you:
@Estherpatrick, @JonBaldwin, @Andrewsmith , @Staceycrump @alexbailey, @kerrioneill, @Jamesrose @amandacookson @danielcarley @elfried_samba
and thank you to the following people for your linkedin follows and connection requests:
@gemmastclaire @Fionafinchett @VictoriaPenfold @SarahDrummond, @SamVillis, @WillCallaghan @EileenLogie @Fionafinches @DebbieTannMBE @sueMcgrath @fayemcdonough @Jfriday @PaulMoran and @NoahSaks all awesome I wouldn’t have said yes if you weren't.
If you haven’t already, email me at stefan@stefanpowell with your answers too this question:
What is the great thing you are or wish to lead and hows it going?
Thank you in advance.
Likes, comments shares and signs ups make these 3 main differences:
They help me get seen on linked and on instagram by ‘leaning into’ their algorithms.
They mean that others, outside of my immediate network, get to see my work, know I exist and contact me to find out more about my work, chat about the great thing they are leading, or wish to lead, and just maybe ask me to coach them.
They makes me feel valued and motivates me to do more.
Thank you all for helping me to do more of what I love.
What could have gone better?
I have to say that I think the only thing that could have gone better this week is that I’d got to ride out in the fresh air.
There are so many reasons to ride a bike and to ride outdoors and these two paragraphs from the Cycling Weekly are enough for me:
“We know from multiple studies that exercise is good for our mental health (like all things, in moderation). It helps boost our mood with the release of endorphins and it also reduces anxiety. But being outdoors also brings its own heap of benefits as well”
and
“Even in the winter months, there is still the exposure to the sun. It’s true we don’t get as much during the winter, as we are wrapped up, and that there’s fewer hours of daylight - but we still need vitamin D and being exposed to sunlight can also help against Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)”.
Put simply; riding outdoors is awesome - and don’t worry I wont be riding in the rain in the short term if I can help it and i’m going for my wide gravel tyres; which will help with grip and stability - they might slow me down a bit too.
What am I reading?
This week, I stumbled across what I think is a brilliant article or set of articles by Patricia Ridell which highlights the implication for coaching of our understanding of neuroscience on coaching practice.
I’ve worked in a way congruent with Neuroscience for years, but as our understanding of how the real works grows, its a delight to have a vocabulary which underpins and validates coaching practices I was trained in and have developed over the past 20 years.
A key element of my change work involves helping my clients to effect two key parts of the brain and it’s development; “neurostability… the stability of networks so that information is retained” and “neuroplasticity… the ability to change networks to replace learning that is no longer required in the adult brain”.
What I particularly like about the article is how it reinforces the ability of coaching, through questioning to challenge key elements of change including:
A fixed growth mindset
Rattle neurostabilityb and plasticity - you cant create change without provoking and disturbing thought
The application of neuroscience to each stage of my favourite coaching model T-Grow and decision making.
You can read more here:
Working for A Narcissistic Boss
I’ve also enjoyed reading two articles on working with and influencing a narcissistic boss.
Whilst I’ve coached on this topic a number of times; I haven’t yet written a piece on it and whilst it is quite ‘bolshy’ in its language and approach I think this article by Katia Beden combined with this one from Loly Daskall does a good job of highlighting the key factors at play.
In their piece, Katia highlights 7 signs that indicate you have a narcissistic boss and outlines a further 11 potential elements to be aware of when coping with an ‘N’ boss. She conclude her article with these words. “Remember, you always have three choices in life:
1. Accept the situation
2. Change the situation
3. Leave the situation”
Articles like these, written from a different perspective and using different language and examples, can be useful to send to a client to help them process our work together and assimilate beliefs and approaches to take forward post session.
If you’d like to chat …
…about your own experience of working with a Narcissistic Boss or lean into your relationship with them, get in touch here
Finally on the reading front…
Thanks to @kerrioneill, I continue to read David Attenborough’s “A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future”.
A call to action with actionable change; all leaders and teams within my network should read this and actively agree on how they can impact as a team on the climate change we are facing.
I’m nearly at the end of it; it’s such a great call to arms, which I will continue to recommend everyone reads. And I mean everyone.
What am I wishing for?
This week I am wishing for organisations to do more on the Mental ILL health front; the monks I think we would be better to use when speaking about people who are ‘suffering’ from its ill effect and mental health when we are talking about what we want to support and provide for.
It was world mental health week this week and I wrote this post on Linkedin, the day, after including 11 ways to lean into mental Ill health and these paragraphs.
“There were some phenomenal posts of outpouring and we need to continue making it (more than) ok to be open. Mental ILL health is equivalent to having a broken leg, a broken wrist or fingers, eyes that don't work but - like those it doesn't have to stop you doing great work - but it can certainly make it harder and take longer.
Doing work through mental ill health has made me better.
And that's why I think we need to lean into it as employers by accepting our part in it; if you like, our thank you for all the graft and value you added to our bottom line”
I’d love to hear your thoughts too.
A Last Word - Consistency
This week, I’d like to leave you with the word consistency; the catalyst for which, a great post by the wonderful Alex Bailey here in which she highlighted the need to think about Human Sustainability as well as Sustainability elsewhere.
Here is part of my response:
“For me, consistency includes consistent cadence and pacing changes as well as consistently reviewing the amount of power or effort required in any interaction and across the seasons. I'm ever more mindful of the fact that when we work as if every season of the year is harvest time we reduce our ability to harvest and the harvest itself reduces”
I’d add that in endurance cycling we need to be mindful of besting consistent across the spread of activities we need to do; which also means consistently balanced. Fir example, that might mean an 80/10/10 spilt between ‘easy zone 1 and 2’ efforts, zone 3 and 4 and zone 5-7 rides, as well as being consistent in refuelling, hydrating, rest, sleep, stretching and strength training. Spike your effort in any facet of these elements and you risk being unable to do the others.
Leadership like cycling needs a balance between working at ‘full gas’ and working ‘steady and relaxed’ and it needs consistency in refuelling, hydrating, rest, sleep, stretching and strength training (we’ll call this coaching) too.
Far too many leaders initiate change strongly and then their efforts ‘fall way’.
Keep an eye out in the coming weeks for an elaboration on what I call my consistent critical leadership factors.
Thank you for reading my week notes.
For now, let me leave you with 5 questions:
What do you want to be known for?
What will it mean for you to be able to say that about yourself?
What will it mean if you can’t day that about yourself?
What do you need to do in the areas of WORK, REST, PLAY and LOVE and SUSTENANCE to be able to say that?
What is it costing you to not be leaning into this as much as you could?
Have a great weekend and Love to you all
Enjoyed reading this? Consider doing one of these:
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I’ll continue this in 4 to 5 Thursdays time when I continue the topic of ‘Rest” in my Thursday Journal.
Book an inquisitive session with me to find out more about what I do and how I do it or run a challenge or thought you have passed me.
For now; thank you
I am…
An executive coach who specialises in helping good people lead great things.
Good people care about others, our planet and beauty. Great things are changes for the betterment of society and all that lives within an around it.
It sounds big and fun - it is.
I'm also an endurance racing cyclist and a go. getter.
You can read more about me and what I do; how I work here