Inspirational

Join us for 7 days in ‘hidden’ France in fabulous rural surroundings and take time to learn about yourself, your preferences, your talents and your impact in the world.
By using the concept of ‘double loop learning’, you will learn and use transformational coaching skills to work with peers to assist them on their development journey, and they in turn will be enabling you to take a life ‘health check’. In addition you will receive a personal coaching session from an experienced and professionally qualified coach. By the end of this retreat, you will have acquired the Accredited Coach Training Hours required for self regulation of coaches in Europe and you will have completed a certificated coach training programme. In addition you will be able to feedback the Extended DISC psychometric questionnaire.

Coaching is not just about a conversation! It is creative and gets reflection ‘into the muscle’. A whole body experience. There will be time available for coaching and walking in the fabulous landscape of the Madeleine Mountains. Our coaching exercises are creative and interactive and whilst we will be using them in this rural environment and in the open air where possible, they are fully transportable back into the corporate environment and everyday life. Be prepared to be challenged, to be open to learning and to give yourself time to reflect on what you truly want from the rest of your life.
In order to ensure that you will receive maximum benefit from this programme, numbers are restricted and admission requires a telephone interview. In order to ensure accommodation at Bécajat you will need to book as soon as you are able.

The nearest airport is Lyon and delegates can be collected from Roanne station, or may wish to hire a car so they can truly experience the delights of this little known region of France, famed for its gastronomy and vineyards. (We will structure our days so that you can enjoy the regional offerings).
The fee of £3495 per person includes all facilitation, materials, your private coaching session, lunch and refreshments during the course. Accommodation and flights are not included. Horse riding, rope walking in the forest and vineyard visits can be arranged. The centre is in the national park where there are hundreds of miles of footpaths available to you.

For a map of the area click here and for further information please contact us.

Carina Furlong, a student on our MA Coaching programme is modelling successful female leaders. Having sent her the following article we thought we would share it with you;

Women are often appointed leaders of some of the most successful companies in their most critical moments. Some well known examples are: the appointments of the prime minister of Sweden when the country suffered as a result of the global recession and the CEO of the oil company Sunoco, appointed when the share price dropped by 50%. But why does this phenomenon (known as the glass cliff), occur?
In 2005, a year-long study conducted by Caliper2, a Princeton, New Jersey-based management consulting firm, and Aurora, a London-based organization that advances women, identified a number of characteristics that distinguish women leaders from men when it comes to qualities of leadership:

1. Women leaders are more persuasive than their male counterparts.
2. When feeling the sting of rejection, women leaders learn from adversity and carry on with an “I’ll show you” attitude.
3. Women leaders demonstrate an inclusive, team-building leadership style of problem solving and decision making.
4. Women leaders are more likely to ignore rules and take risks.

Despite research showing that women have specific leadership qualities, Susanna Bruckmüller and Nyla Branscombe (2010) noted, in their research, that women often only became leaders in times of trouble because men lack the attributes to do so.

As part of their research, they carried out two tests on different sets of people. The first posed a group with a fictitious story of a company in trouble. Respondents would pick a female to take over if the previous bosses had been men but would pick either a man or a woman if they had been women. Why did it not work both ways?

In the second test, they provided the respondents with details of a fake supermarket chain and described to them two managerial candidates, one male and one female. The respondents were asked who they would pick if the business was thriving or if it was in crisis. They discovered that the man was often appointed leader in times of prosperity but the woman, thanks to her stereotypical attributes (e.g. more Emotional Intelligence etc), would be picked if the company was in trouble.

The work of Bruckmüller and Branscombe appears to have highlighted a real-life male leadership bias. They conclude that women only get their true opportunity to lead when it is believed that men can no longer do so, and not because of their merits.

The research highlights some interesting points. Do we perceive women’s leadership qualities only useful in a crisis? Being Emotionally Intelligent would seem to be not enough to ensure that women have the opportunity to excel at leadership. There are obviously some great women leaders (Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsi), however, it would appear to still be the norm to only choose a female leader in times of crisis, regardless of how many leadership attributes they may have.

Bruckmüller, S. & Branscombe, N. (2010). The glass cliff: When and why women are selected as leaders in crisis contexts. British Journal of Social Psychology, 49 (3), 433-451

There are only 4 weeks to the opening of the 14th Global WINConference where I have the priviledge of being invited to be one of four resident coaches.
There are outstanding individuals attending this year from company CEOs, Presidents, Managing Directors, Professors, Entrepreneurs, Artists and Consultants.
Kristin Engvig, W.I.N. Founder and Director says that “ I am struck with admiration and humility in the face of all the care I witness people contributing to the WINConference, whether as speakers preparing their speeches, workshop leaders testing their approaches, musicians rehearsing, sponsors looking to make the right choices, team members working so hard and participants busy organizing their time to step outside their lives and spending hours creating their new profiles for the conference book….. “
What extraordinary achievements! I feel both extremely enthusiastic (and touched) about how this entire journey is moving forward, for all the women joining, for W.I.N. as an organization, for everyone following it and even for myself. Despite all the problems in the world, I really feel there is a transformation afoot and all of us are part of this change. A change which is happening to each and everyone of us as individuals and on a collective level.

There will be close to 1000 extraordinary women and men attending and thousands with us in spirit. We have knowledge, skills and experience. It would be impossible not to create something amazing together. It is so clear, with the times in which we live, that we need exactly this vision, collaboration, sensitivity and team work to create new solutions. We may not even know what is we are looking for but we trust and we are open and willing to receive and be inspired.

I am looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible in Rome on 5.6.7 October and there is still time to register at www.winconference.net.

With warmest wishes

Sally Vanson

COACHING THE GLOBAL VILLAGE from Nic Askew on Vimeo.

How could I resist posting this brilliant short film by Nic Askew. The idea of coaching as empowerment is so poignant and often gets overlooked as coaches get brought in as a remedial alternative to disciplinary action! Dr Patrick Williams’ concept of coaching globally, not just reserving it for top execs, is such a breath of fresh air compared to the usual representation of business coaches. It just goes to show what a huge impact the coaching community can make if we think outside the box, after all, isn’t that what we ask of our clients?

This week I wrote a guest Blog for Jeff Weigh’s Rise and Shine Blog. Just a few thoughts to get you thinking over your morning coffee.

This morning I’m thinking about Hope.

That old thing left in Pandora’s box.

But instead of being the last out, I’m thinking about hope as the first.

This was brought to my attention by the football this weekend. Don’t worry if you’re decidedly ignoring the World Cup, this isn’t football focussed! I just realised that all these people Hoping their team would win were acting on that basis. They are supporting their teams because they Hope for a win.

When you start with “what you want to have happen” in a coaching session, aren’t you really starting with hope? Reach as far as you can, imagine the best possible outcome – what are your Hopes and dreams?

Without hope there can be no defined action.

We have to hope in order to act.

So hope is no longer something controlled by the fates, a last resort. Hope is our starting point, we can control what we hope for and that hope will spur us into action.

So why not start out by asking yourself; “What do you hope for?” – the answer might just be different to what you expected.

While you may be used to chatting to me on the phone or seeing me in the office, us TPS folk are sometimes to be found in very different places! Last week I climbed my first official mountain! This had been a big goal for me for some time and standing on a rocky ridge with aching legs and blistered feet it suddenly occurred to me that I was using the greatest tools in coaching to get myself up there. It’s all about the goal you set yourself. So here’s how I reached my goal, I hope it’ll inspire:

First of all I set myself a SMART goal. My goal was specific (summit Moel Siabod, North Wales, and descend), measurable (the mountain is 872 metres high and I must ascend all those metres!), achievable (don’t bother telling me I can’t do it), relevant (I’ve been training for this) and timebound (if I don’t get down again my nightfall I’m going to be out on a Welsh mountain in the dark overnight with nothing by my 1 remaining cereal bar and half a litre of water!).

What I hadn’t considered was that I’d slept poorly in a tent the night before and I was recovering from a cold. I wasn’t in the fittest form to climb mountains and even if I had been, a hundred metres of upward climb and my body was saying “NO” to going any further. So I drew on another great coaching technique, setting smaller goals along the way. I started out with “count 200 steps then stop for a rest”. After the first 3 times I started to extend my goals. Walk to that big rock then stop, then walk to the next bend then stop…

After a couple of hours we reached the ridge and it was a scramble from then on. Despite already being pretty tired I knew what my overall goal was and I wanted to get there so I had to pull myself up with my arms and push with my legs. Still, no matter how much you want something, it’s sometimes hard to keep yourself motivated. So here’s what I did: I looked round and realised that the road that I had started on was now a thin track in the far distance. This brought home to me the importance of stopping to take stock. It’s hard to keep driving towards a goal if you can’t look back and see how far you’ve come. As a coach this is a really valuable tool, to think about how different things are now than they were when you started. Realising how far I’d already come was a big boost and I was able to carry on.

A few more hundred metres up and we dragged ourselves onto the summit. I can only tell you how proud I was to climb up onto the trig point at the top and look at the 360 panorama around me. Reaching your goal is well worth the climb!

We’re extremely proud that our old colleague Ceri Heathcote has been featured in HSBC’s Women in Business interviews. Here is their blog:

This week’s Showcase features Ceri Heathcote who has successfully run Heathcote Communications and Online Fashion Marketing for two years.

Over to you Ceri…

How did you get started in online fashion marketing?
I had always wanted to be a fashion designer but for one reason or another, I ended up studying Environmental Life Science at university before working in a variety of different roles including sales, customer services and management.

I started my own fashion website when I got a bit bored on maternity leave, I then started a blog to promote the website. A price comparison website contacted me to see if I would like to write their fashion blog for them and it all went from there. I set up my own website and blog offering writing and marketing services and I started getting enquiries. I now work on a combination of my own websites including some fashion blogs and a clothes swap website plus writing, marketing and PR work for clients. I basically taught myself how to do it all by setting up and promoting my own websites.

Describe your proudest business achievement and your most challenging time?
Winning my first contract with a high street retailer was one of the highlights. There hasn’t been one specific challenging time, it has been a constant challenge, as a working mum, in terms of managing my time and prioritising. I haven’t had many holidays, weekends or days off since I started the business (on the other hand, I am always able to pick my children up from school and I really love what I do).

What is the best piece of business advice you’ve ever received?
Many years ago when I worked in a call centre my supervisor told me to ‘Just do it’. You can spend ages analysing whether something will work but you never really know until you try. I used analyse a lot. Now I just try it and see without investing too much time or money. If something looks like it is working, I can then invest more time and resources in it.

What two business people (past or present) inspire you and why?
Saffia Minney, founder of People Tree. Saffia has created a profitable ethical fashion business but her background was in marketing and publishing. She worked on a magazine for four years where she discovered that she loved promoting social and environmental awareness and action through advertising and communications before starting her company which has become an industry leader and innovator in ethical and eco fashion. I try to promote ethical and eco fashion through my business in as many ways as I can.

Sally Vanson, Managing Director of The Performance Solution Training Consultancy and Executive coach, I worked for Sally for three years at the Performance Solution. It was Sally and the Neuro Linguistic Programming training that I completed with her that helped me to understand that I could achieve anything that I wanted to. Unfortunately this led to me leaving my role at The Performance Solution to start to my own company but without the experience and self confidence that I gained, I would never have achieved what I have today. Sally also taught me how it is possible to run a business while being completely ethical and sticking to your values.

What are your three favourite blogs or websites besides HSBC Women In Business?
www.ethicalfashionforum.com – I think this is just such an amazing resource for ethical fashion companies and those who would like to start an ethical fashion company.
www.stylebubble.co.uk – Susie Lau’s fashion blog has a huge following worldwide. It was Style Bubble that first inspired me to start blogging and I still read it regularly as Susie knows just about everything that is going on in fashion, she also has a great writing style and puts together some great outfits.
Posted by HSBC Women In Business 30-Apr-2010 4:02 PM BST

intangibly inarticulatable from Nic Askew on Vimeo.

[LOWER THE LIGHTS - SWITCH OFF THE WORLD - PLAY FULL SCREEN]

Following Julio Olalla’s talk about leading a good life at the AC conference, I was recommended this film entitled “More” by Nic Askew. It makes an interesting parallel with Julio’s talk, particularly the speaker’s end comments about being both content and striving for more. Thank you to Nic for allowing us to use this in our blog, hope you enjoy it.