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Browse published articles attributed to Jennifer Broadley, with full-archive search.
I've been gripped with Olympic fever for the past 10 days. What an honour to watch the world's elite athletes pitting their decades-honed talents against each other. And the physiques on show?... oh my! For me too, as far as getting athletes' victory-against-all-odds stories to parallel into my leadership development coaching... there's been gift after gift!
<center><img src="http://www.healthychat.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/2.-Salt-300x230.jpg" alt="salt"></center> When you’re seeking out a psychotherapist in Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow or London, how will you know a good one from a mediocre one? It’s not like a hairdresser where every friend you have has been to one so you can ask for a recommendation from your mate with a hairstyle or colour you love.
‘What does it take to be successful in top leadership?’, I’m asked by a client about to step up to an MD-on-the-board role. And I found my usual coach approach of ‘empower the client to discover’ went right out the window. ‘If you really want to lead with style’, I said, ‘then genuinely be yourself’. My experience has often been that by the time you, as a senior executive, are invited to be part of the elite leadership team that make up the board of a large corporate, it’s your character, experience and intuitive creativity that are really being called on.
6. Law of Connection: nothing happens by chance. Every action has a consequence or a reaction. Everything is energy – light, sound, heat, emotions, thought, even those things that appear static or solid, like rocks, sea, cars, jewels and planets. We are connected through this field of energy to all other beings, to the things we desire and to Source itself. All that we do has a greater consequence in contributing to the ‘everythingness’ of the universe. Like a pebble thrown into a pond, the ripples are ever expansive. We reap what we sow.
Here are the first 6 of the 12 universal principles which form the basis of all success generated on the planet. Being ‘universal’ means that they apply to you whether or not you’re aware of them, much like gravity. However, knowing the principles is the first step to increasing your choices and raising your game in health, wealth, love and happiness, so … read on, you’re in the right place.
Over the last fortnight, in the process of building an ‘extension’ onto my present business activities, I’ve met an extraordinary range of diverse leaders – some corporate, some entrepreneurial, most a bit of both. Here’s what’s been interesting to me – they have each been successful in their own way, achieving well (from my limited exposure to their work & home lives) and motivated – but not a single one of them had considered engaging an executive coach, a mentor, or an independent leadership partner to speed up the process of living their vision?
What's the Return On Investment of working with an Executive Coach? This is such a juicy question. Ten years and over 1000 clients ago, as I tentatively opened my doors to my first inca ation of being an executive coach. I had very little understanding of the value I was bringing to my market. I charged accordingly at £50 to 100 an hour - where I could get that fee and I worked with some middle managers, some junior executives and many small business owners most of whom hired me out of their own salaries.
It`s a questio I have been pondering for the past few years – is business leadership getting easier? I read articles and work in businesses that say change is occurring faster and markets are ever more complex, my experience however just doesn`t bear that out (and I appreciate it may be because I`m privileged to work with the most focussed and motivated leaders).
As Healthy Chat evolves and begins to morph and manifest into the visio I’ve been holding for nearly 5 years, the process has encouraged me to look at how I’ve been resourced personally to get to this point.
As an executive coach, I’m sometimes called on when a leader, manager or company has too much going no – people, projects, development, deadlines, decisions – and they’ve passed the tipping point of working to full effectiveness. It’s not a weakness to have said ‘yes’ to so many things (or, more likely, for additional responsibilities to have been given to you because there was no one else to take them on) but too much complexity never delivers effective business results. A call for your executive coach is a call to streamline and to simplify.
I read books on metaphysics (the philosophy of 'being') on a regular basis. There's a huge raising up of global consciousness around the fact that our limitations rarely come from our government, our society, our family or our friends. Our limitations come from our mindset. We can positively influence our mindset by choosing the environments we spend time in, the books we read, TV we watch, music we listen to, the language we select and even the food we eat. One thing is certain, YOU are 100% responsible for the results you achieve in your life from today onwards.
This is a massive topic. It's one I've been reading around now for about 5 years. And I'll tell you what - when you see it working it's like magic just appeared in your life. So let's start with basic 3 questions: 1. What is an intention? An intention is a desire to be, to do or to have something. It's an aspiration for progress. It's an expectation that your life is going to be different, more enhanced, in some way in the future.
When I took my first job in the corporate publishing industry over twenty years ago the culture was very different to what I know from the various corporates I deliver executive leadership coaching to now. In the 90s there was still a sense of having to do your time. You most likely had to have a university degree before you worked your way up from assistant to manager and from there to director and onward (if you hadn't keeled over) to the board of the company. Normal was for that process to take decades! Super-dullsville!!
What does it take for anyone to be the best at anything? And does being labelled the best success coach in the UK take different traits to being the best runner in the Olympics, the best artist of the Turner Prize, the best actress at the Oscars or the best leader in your organisation?
What happens when the thing you loved doing the most – the reason you stepped up for your chosen career – is no longer present in your job? I’ve spoken to directors who were designers, managers who were mechanics, and leaders who were lifeguards – all of whom have progressed far enough in their careers that the activity that made them stand out in the first place has been downsized to almost zero and replaced with leadership responsibilities primarily comprising of strategy and motivating others.
This afte oo I chose to leave work a little early and go down to the pool for some exercise and some mind clearing. After 30 minutes and with 64 lengths done and dusted (that’s a mile exactly if you’re wondering about the random number) I headed to the showering area.
Leaders define success in any number of ways – increasing turnover, launching innovative products, hiring world-class teams, going global, changing lives. Some CEOs are credentialed and experienced to the hilt; others are risk takers and their own best PR machine. Some step in to lead a share-held company; others start from the ground up turning millions into billions in a single decade. Whatever their style and character, every CEO holds the intention that they leave a company and its people – employees and clients – healthier, happier and richer for them having been involved.
How much do you think you compromise on a day-to-day basis? Do you do it in work, in your relationships, in the stories you tell yourself about the choices you do and don’t have? Where did you learn those notions, those stories you tell yourself are ‘the one right way’? And is it easier to justify the justifying because you’re surrounded by people who are doing the exact same thing?
The thing about single parents and work is that we've got to be way more innovative in our thinking, our planning and our dedication to delivering value in our workplaces. When there are two parents contributing to finances and to homemaking there's often more support and more choices to fall back on. If that's not your reality - and it's not mine - then here are some strategies for making more money successfully tested by me over the past 7 years of working and parenting full-time. 1. Know The Value Of What You're Trading
When conducting seminars and workshops for leaders of medium and large companies, occasionally I’ll meet a “revealer.” These are the people who will speak out about their success process without being nervous of disclosing techniques. It’s a positive trait and one where I can take the opportunity to further explore a leader’s strategies: “How did you do it?”, “What were your biggest challenges”, “what kept you motivated”.
As a corporate coach, and particularly as an executive coach in London and other commercial-centric cities, I’m beginning to ask myself whether business change isn’t occurring faster that ever before in history. What makes a leadership team, and by extension an entire company, equipped to manage such significant changes as: • outsourcing production to global hubs • launching new brands when the traditional ones are clearly in decline • embracing new business models without damaging present essential revenue streams
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard it asked by corporate leaders from directors, to board members to CEOs ”but why would I need coaching … I’m doing everything right”. To which I reply “you wouldn’t be at your level of success if you weren’t doing everything right. And I work with achievers not because there are issues, but because there’s always unreleased potential”. A founding father of the US, Benjamin Franklin said, “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”
I’ve often heard when working with a corporate leadership client – ‘well I haven’t told anyone I’m working with you – I don’t want them to know there’s a problem’. And I have to ask myself ‘where has this message come from’ because I certainly don’t work with clients because there’s a problem (nor do any of my associate executive coaches) – I work with clients who are whole, capable, already successful AND have unreleased potential.
What happens when you’re totally, totally stuck?! Staying is slowly killing your will to live but you don’t know how to leave. You feel like you want change – but fear of the unknown is paralysing. You’re living a life of conformity and ‘success’ from the outside – but inside the authentic you is screaming to be expressed. The worst story you can tell yourselves is that ‘I have no choices, I don’t know the answer, I’m stuck here … AND … everyone else is happy, thriving, succeeding, progressing’. So, here’s the thing … it’s your story … if you don’t like it, change it!
I can talk about leadership development and companies can hire me as an executive coach to encourage more advanced and successful leadership but I may as well be a lorry driver (a secret fantasy of mine since the Yorkie advert era) and they may as well torch their people-investment spend if we can’t talk about the truth. The WHOLE truth. Here’s some of what I’ve been processing with various executives this week: • We’re definitely committed to your part in the company’s succession planning – but we are making a round of redundancies and it’s unconfirmed as to who’s in that mix
How often have to heard successful business leaders say that their prosperity was attracted to them as opposed to having to work hard for it? Hardly ever right? Whilst space along the extra mile is still pretty plentiful, things are changing and business leaders are becoming more conscious in developing themselves to the full. Shared wisdom is valuable when it comes from leaders who have put their theories to the test and prospered. Let’s look at some:
If I were to knock on your office door tomorrow and say this: ’Knowing that you’re guaranteed to succeed, what is your plan – personal & professional – for 2012?’ …