Category: Business Coaching

Battleship vs Lighthouse

Posted LisaPosted in Awakening, Business Coaching, Coaching, Resilience

One of the things that fuels a happy life is knowing what our values are. There is a story that often does the rounds on the internet, of the battleship out at sea.  The lookout reports to the Captain that there is a light in their sea-lane and it won’t move.  The Captain gets agitated and tries to exert his authority by stating his rank and commanding the other party to change course to avoid a collision.  The reply comes back – This is the Lighthouse.  Your move. We use this story a lot in coaching for various reasons, and one of them is as a metaphor for your values.  When you know what your true values are, they are your lighthouse. They don’t move. They are anchored fast to the ground.  Storms and even ships that are bigger in size can crash into the lighthouse or crash around it […]

How to control public speaking anxiety

Posted LisaPosted in Awakening, Business Coaching, Coaching, Event, Resilience

If you have ever been nervous or anxious about public speaking, join the club – there are about 7.5 billion of us! Public speaking is often listed among the top causes of anxiety, but you can totally manage those nerves using your own physiology.  You don’t need medication, liquid courage or your favourite lucky charm in your pocket.  You already have what you need. Most of the anxiety during public speaking is caused or exacerbated by forgetting to breathe.  Our brain then goes into panic mode about that, which we interpret as panic about speaking. The average adult has a lung volume of about 6 litres of air. During normal breathing, when we are not thinking about it, we exchange about 500mls of air during each breath. However, when we focus and take a long slow deep breath, we exchange at least 3 litres of air. As we breathe in, our […]

Confidence follows courage

Posted LisaPosted in Awakening, Business Coaching, Coaching, Resilience

I was privileged to be a guest speaker this week at the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust’s Annual Leadership Conference in Belfast this week, on the topic of how to be a resilient leader and build resilient teams. Two fellow speakers at the event were truly outstanding and their messages need to be shared as widely as possible. Amanda Oates from Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust spoke about our tendency to jump to blame the ‘who’ of a mistake or error, rather than look at the whole picture – how and why it happened.  She has worked hard to implement a different approach, (click link to watch YouTube video that explains the concept of a ‘Just Culture’), where through structured processes and a compassionate approach, the person, their team and the organisation set out on a journey of learning together, so that the individual is supported and the […]

The Right to Disconnect – how to set boundaries today

Posted LisaPosted in Business Coaching, Coaching, Resilience

This week there was a call by the FSU in Ireland for the ‘Right to Disconnect’ to be introduced as legislation.  The Right to Disconnect would mean that workers are not obliged to answer calls, reply to emails or engage in work-related activities outside of paid working hours. It followed a survey of 2,000 workers which found that a quarter of them reported that their employer expected them to answer calls or emails outside of work hours. It made the news on Mental Health Day, but was also flagged in August when Ireland’s Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys announced that an interdepartmental group had been set up to explore the issue and make recommendations before the end of the year. You don’t have to wait for the end of the year, or for Ireland to follow France and introduce legislation, to put some boundaries in place if this […]

Flying trapeze – for brain health!

Posted LisaPosted in Awakening, Business Coaching, Coaching, Online Training, Resilience

If you regularly feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained and unable to meet constant demands, you might be burned out. Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It has become so prevalent that the World Health Organization (WHO) added burnout to its International Classification of Diseases, IDC-11,  describing it as a syndrome “resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed…” There are many ways to avoid or manage burnout, one proven tactic is to have a hobby that’s purely for leisure.  Nowadays we let hobbies fall out of our lives because we are too busy, but when you’re really engaged in a hobby you love, you lose a sense of time and enter what’s called a flow state. When your brain is in a flow state, neurotransmitters in your brain — endorphins, norepinephrine and dopamine – are activated and these regulate your mood […]

Actively listening to enrich your life

Posted LisaPosted in Awakening, Business Coaching, Clinical Leadership, Coaching, exams, Online Training, Resilience

I often speak about the difference between ‘hearing’ and ‘listening’, usually in relation to conversations in a leadership context, but this week I am focusing on how to listen, really listen, (and what to listen to!) as a simple form of mindfulness to help relieve stress. Listening is sometimes called an art and a science.  (In fact, I counted once – coaches are trained to listen in 11 different ways!). It is really important for our mental health to actively listen sometimes because it encourages our brain to work the way it’s supposed to.  Listening tunes our brain to the patterns of our environment faster than any other sense, and paying special attention to sounds, the non-visual parts of our world, feeds everything from our intellectual performance to our motor skills and coordination. Listening to the sounds around us, particularly sounds of nature, soothes an overactive mind and can alleviate […]

Close the Gate

Posted LisaPosted in Awakening, Business Coaching, Coaching, exams, Online Training, Resilience

If you live in or visit a rural area, you will be aware of the need to always close a gate. It’s to keep livestock safe and to keep humans safe from the livestock that like to escape and explore the world! ‘Closing the barn door after the horse has bolted’ is a common expression to describe the futility of closing the gate too late. Did you know that there is a way to ‘close the gate’ of your mind – to be more focused, less distracted, better able to concentrate, and happier, every day? The latest video I’ve uploaded to The Resilience Hub explains in detail how to do it with a demo and the neuroscience behind it so that you will have a better understanding of how it works. If you haven’t yet signed up to The Resilience Hub you can do so for FREE here. Until next […]

How to prime a conversation

Posted LisaPosted in Business Coaching, Coaching, Online Training, Resilience

For a long time now psychologists have noted the importance of warm physical contact between children and their caregivers. Researchers at Yale discovered something really interesting about the importance of temperatures in adults – and specifically how holding a hot or cold drink can affect behaviour and attitude. This is backed up by neuroscience and brain imagery, so it’s based on solid evidence. There is a new video this week in the ‘You Have What You Need‘ section of The Resilience Hub that explains this and how you can use this to your advantage to prepare for a difficult conversation at home or at work. If you haven’t yet signed up for the Hub you can do so via the links in this post.  Why not?  It’s FREE! Until next week, take care, Lisa.       Image credit:  Alexandru Stavrica via Unsplash

Your brain’s super-highway

Posted LisaPosted in Awakening, Business Coaching, Coaching, Online Training, Resilience

In this post I am going to introduce you to your Corpus Callosum. This is the bridge network that connects the two hemispheres of your brain – the right creative side – and the left analytical side.  It integrates the motor, sensory and cognitive functions of your brain. Corpus Callosum is Latin for ‘Tough Body’ and that’s appropriate because it’s the largest connective pathway of our brain.  It’s even shaped like a letter ‘C’ – C for Corpus Callosum. It starts forming in the brain about 12 weeks after conception, although its development can be disrupted as early as 6 weeks into the pregnancy by things like rubella, if the mother consumes a lot of alcohol or a gene that sometimes causes malformation. It is mostly developed by the time we are 12 years old.  It was only discovered by scientists as recently as the 1950s. It plays an important […]

Succeed without burning out.

Posted LisaPosted in Awakening, Business Coaching, Coaching, Resilience

Do you find yourself having great ideas for your business when you are at traffic lights or in the shower, but then get caught up in the busyness of business and life? Days, weeks and months go by and the idea remains just a wishful thought.  For various reasons you haven’t been able to take it any further. If you are serious about wanting to make changes to progress and to move up a level you need to hire a coach. Your coach is an invisible partner in your business, a sounding board that’s safe and confidential, helping you to see things with fresh eyes, helping you overcome any blocks or self-limiting beliefs you have (we all have!) that hold you back, and holding you accountable so that you actually take the necessary steps and move forward. Maybe you have thought of hiring a coach but you’re worried that your […]