~ bend the river

This Autumn sees Victoria Smith-Murphy and I launch the 2iC Leadership development experience into fast growing entrepreneurial businesses. We're really curious to see what response it gets; and how it will hopefully build and develop over the coming year. As it's a bit nerve-wracking doing something new, I've been reflecting on my top reasons for why I love coaching the #2 position & what's behind the development of the offer (good coaching tip - when self-doubt creeps in...

At one very low point of my own personal journey of leadership development, I remember sobbing over and over again... "I just want to be me". But it wasn't that simple and here's why... At the same time as crying those words out, I also knew deep down that I was becoming more than I had been. I'd just never expected that letting go of my identity of 'who I was' in order to allow the more expansive and refreshed version of me would be so challenging! And it's also why I get a

Back in 2017/2018 I noticed where entrepreneurs were spending their time and money and observed that Co-Founders of start-ups and their investors seemed to be missing out on protecting and developing a core business asset.... the Co-Founder partnership. The quality and dynamic of this relationship holds a critical key to building a sustainable venture and investing in it early could help minimise the likelihood of a third of start-ups failing from people related issues (1). I

This is the twelfth and final in this series of posts about ‘relational learning’; how we learn about ourselves through our relationships with others and what's going on in our lives. Something has literally fallen into place in my mind in the last 24 hours: it's AND not OR. It’s my birthday this week and as a little celebration I headed over to New York last weekend to catch up with a friend who is dear to my heart. I was last there in 2011 so it was my first opportunity to

This is the eleventh and penultimate in the series of twelve posts about ‘relational learning’; how we learn about ourselves through our relationships with others and what's going on in our lives. It's not only been a significant and historic week for the US and the world, but it's also been a week of re-orientation of relationships. I realise that as I write the title for this week’s post, that it is also relevant to this series of posts about relational learning. As this is

This is the tenth in the series of posts (aiming for twelve!) about ‘relational learning’; how we learn about ourselves through our relationships with others and what's going on in our lives. This week follows on from the theme of the last two weeks, with attention turned towards the quality of our relationships & our position within them. I recently got given some great advice about networking: you’ve got to make sure that you’re in the right room. In other words, make sure

This is the ninth in the series of posts about ‘relational learning’; how we learn about ourselves through our relationships with others and what's going on in our lives. This week, I'm offering up an activity to turn the attention towards your relationships. Click here to read Part 1. Last week I looked at how time and task can affect our relationships. I’m going to continue with the same theme this week, as I’ve been hearing these sort of question/statements from people tha

This is the eighth in the series of posts about ‘relational learning’; how we learn about ourselves through our relationships with others and what's going on in our lives. This week, I'm exploring how time and task can affect our relationships. The spaciousness of time seems to be elusive for many people I meet at the moment and I wonder what this does to our relationships? It’s raised the question, what is getting our ATTENTION? The relationship, time or task? Prompted by co

This is the seventh in the series of posts about ‘relational learning’; how we learn about ourselves through our relationships with others and what's going on in our lives. This week, I'm picking up the theme of 'belonging' which comes from depth in our relationships. I’m in a room full of people looking purposeful, moving about looking like they know what they are doing. I want to join them, I believe I can add value. The only problem is, a solid, sound proof glass wall seem

This is the sixth in the series of posts about ‘relational learning’; how we learn about ourselves through our relationships with others and what's going on in our lives. This week, I'm reflecting on how I'm learning and experimenting with writing these posts. WOW! I’ve got to week 6 of writing these posts and I’m amazed that it’s taken this long for me to get bored! One of the reasons for writing a regular weekly post was to experiment with my boredom. I love doing the ‘new’