Posts from the ‘Business & Transitions Coaching’ Category
Heather’s inspirations, which are continually evolving, are currently being influenced by the work that is ongoing within behavioural science, creativity, mindfulness and compassion based interventions, Positive Psychology and in particular strengths based development; integrity, ethics and authenticity in Leadership Development and dealing with emotional challenges through Cognitive Behavioural Coaching. She is passionate about helping others to be the best they can be while at the same time not doing damage to others and the wider environment. Heather also has a particular interest in bringing research based psychology tools and creativity techniques to mindtrip’s work. You can find out more about some of the latest thinking that is catching her attention through subscribing to mindtrip’s blog.
Having a first degree in Economics and working within the field of occupational psychology, Heather has a particular interest in the work that spans both disciplines- behavioural sciences- and in particular the work of Paul Dolan, Richard Layard, and the team at action for happiness and NEF.
Wellbeing at a personal, organisational and societal level is also key to her work and she has kept up to date with the work of the Government commissioned foresight project around developing mental capital and wellbeing as well as a raft of releases from the BPS and Government and others around wellbeing.
Heather is particularly interested in working with those that help others to prevent burnout. She is particularly influenced and inspired by the work being undertaken into love, empathy and compassion by Paul Gilbert, Tania Singer, Barbara Fredrickson, Matthieu Ricard, Kristin Neff and Sharon Salzberg.
We worked with London TravelWatch at a time of large change helping both the staff and managers process and deal with the impact of a large downsize. We worked with them to deliver two all staff workshops around understanding and dealing with change and ensuring consistency of approach in the new organisation going forward. This latter piece of work focusing on developing the organisations values and understanding how they are lived day to day.
Thanks for delivering such a light touch but powerful workshop yesterday. It did just what I hoped
Chief Executive London TravelWatch
Change management
Over a 12-18 month month period I designed and assembled a team of 5 consultants, to deliver a large cross departmental change programme “Good to Excellent’ across support services with the focus on building a sense of community and customer service for internal and external clients. The design had 4 phases including workshops and skills boosters.
To read more about the programme and its design please click : Herbert Smith Good to excellent Programme This was written by the OD department at Herbert Smith for an award submission.
Top Team Development
Prior to Herbert Smith’s merger, I worked over a period of seven years with the Information and Systems department. During that time I worked with them to build a sense of team within the Leadership team, each sub team within the department, across the overall department and also inter relationships between the department and other departments they worked closely with. Work included
- Consulting, designing and facilitating tailored nine yearly top team leadership offsites and 1:1 coaching
- Designing and facilitating intra departmental team events
- Designing and facilitating a series of tailored department wide team leader management development
- Designing and facilitating an all department conference
We needed a facilitator to help us in the critical task of coalescing the senior management team. Heather did exactly that and lived up to out high expectations.
Group Chief Information Officer, Herbert Smith LLP (now retired)
Learning & Development design and facilitation
As part of the wider change programme I ran for Herbert Smith I designed five 90-120 minute skills booster sessions focused around increasing key soft skills that the support population were particularly requesting
Supervision
Having undertaken my coach training in 2004, and coached for many years and trained others to coach, I have been reflecting on pushing my skills further and to offer others the benefit of my experience, and the support and challenge needed to enhance your practice as either an internal or external coach, a L&D or OD consultant or anyone working in a helping profession. This can involve supervision related to your client work; where you are in your own development journey or reflecting on the impact of your work on the wider system you are working within.
I bring a unique combination of skills to my work as a Coach and Supervisor, melding the analytical thought of business skills thinking through my early career, with creative approaches and thinking combined with a solid foundations in reflection and mindfulness supported by an active interest and practice in the latest offerings in strengths based positive psychology and compassion based approaches. This is underpinned with my Supervision training focused around the seven eyed model with Robert Shohet and Joan Wilmot at CSTD.
“Heather is a great supervisor. She is calm, empathetic and practical. I feel like she understands the issues and challenges my thinking in a non-judgemental way. Heather’s contribution has helped me build on my coaching offering”
Maria
I offer different rates depending on the nature of my clients.
For Organisations my rate will be my organisational coaching rate with a 10% discount if you book 3 sessions. Please contact me to explore. As a cost effective and in some ways richer alternative I also can offer group supervision for groups of up to 6 coaches.
For those that work independently my rate is tiered, determined by your billing rates and income, and my rate is detailed below with a further 10% discount if you book 3 sessions
For those working mainly as
Life coaches £40 per hour
Private Coaches/ small business coaches £50 per hour
Organisational and Executive Coaches £85
I can offer sessions by Skype or face to face. If you are looking for face to face sessions then travel charges will also apply depending on where you are based.
Got some questions? Then please do get in touch to explore on 07801 246113 or via email heather@mindtrip.co.uk
Know someone that this may interest?… Then please do forward this mail with the links below…
Interested in mindfulness in the workplace?
After a stimulating and enjoyable teachers training retreat with the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice (University of Bangor) I am now actively incorporating mindfulness thinking into a number of areas of my work: Read more
How often do you go through a day carried in a stream of busyness and doing? Constantly running from meeting to meeting, call to call or rushing to get things done. In doing this, how often do you get chance to take stock of where you are at your deepest level-listening to that small voice or feelings that get trampled on in the rush or pushed aside-until we have more time to think things through?
Mindfulness is a way of being in the present moment so that we become more aware and fully present, noticing what is unfolding moment by moment and allowing a sense of spaciousness and non judgement. Mindfulness encourages us to wake up to our deeper selves, it shapes us and deepens our self and other compassion along with our wisdom and wellbeing. However in practicing mindfulness, we are not as such trying to get anywhere other than to be fully present and getting out of our own way.
Why might this be important in the world of work? It is about the quality of attention you are giving while you are at work and for that matter out of work. Can you trust the quality of decisions that you are making? Are you listening to your deeper intuitions? Have you brought your whole self to bear? In life decisions are you connected with what is deep and best within your self rather than what is at the top of your ‘mind’ or what you are reacting against?
The following video filmed by Action for happiness at their evening with Jon Kabat Zinn which I attended in March, talks more about mindfulness and gives you an experience of what it is all about:
In my workshops and coaching a common question I get asked is how to motivate people that are either a) not motivated b) coming up to retirement c) not in the top 10-20% or considered to be the backbone of the organisation with few vertical career opportunities.
In essence, I feel that one way to tackle this challenge is through the types of conversations that managers are having with their employees on a daily basis and at key review points. While competency systems are helpful in creating focus on what a role needs, I think managers could benefit with coaching and training on how to have a really good career conversation with their employees. Why? Because the answers to the questions they ask will lead to a greater awareness of what inspires people, what makes them want to get out of the bed in the morning and hence give both the employee and the manager more of an idea about what really motivates them. This motivation drives personal development, performance and productivity.
Through exploring the types of questions to ask, really good listening, taking a focus on strengths and an exploration of what makes work meaningful for people both the manager and the employee can build up a picture of what an employees’ ‘ideal’ looks like. The conversations are then looking at the alignment of people’s skills with an organisation’s needs, while at the same time addressing an individual’s intrinsic motivation rather than relying on typical extrinsic motivations of pay and promotion. While status, promotion and money are important most psychological research points to people being more fulfilled and flourishing by considering what drives them so that work moves from being just a ‘job’ through to a career or even for some a vocation.
..and what about those coasting towards retirement? Boredom can cause huge problems for those that that are understimulated or underchallenged-they rust out rather than burn out. Key here is exploring new challenges for the employee focused on serving others in the organisation, creating legacy and helping them start to manage the transition on to different things. We all liked to feel needed and appreciated..
If you would like to find out more about making the most out of career conversations workshops and skills boosters for managers and employees please do give me a ring or drop me a mail.
In my coaching with individuals and supporting Leaders and Managers within Organisations the topic of resilience, positivity and ‘can-do’ attitude generally comes up. The following are books that talk about concepts, tools and perspectives that are at the heart of my coaching with both individuals and organisations. Each book interlinks with the others and focuses on the relationship between how we see the world and our emotional and behavioural reaction to it.
To help us in developing our resilience, through coaching, it is useful to explore the links between our thoughts, actions and emotions when people are resilient and when they are not.
Great Books that focus on some of the techniques that inform my coaching.
Click on any of the links to be taken to my public google bookshelf which will tell you a bit more about the book, any reviews and where to buy or find electronically:
Great Books that I have read around helping clients with career moves and choices. Some of the books focus on understanding your strengths and talents, others about mindset and others around process. Let me know what you think.
Click on any of the links to be taken to my public google bookshelf which will tell you a bit more about the book, any reviews and where to buy or find electronically: