Fast Track To Fearless

I was asked to give three keynotes on leadership for the Royal Institute of British Architects:

1) Learning to lead

2) Leading a team

3) Leading an organisation.

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All different topics but it made me reflect that the absolute foundation to all three is Self-Leadership: the skill and practice of leading yourself. This is a big subject, but I think there are 4 main elements to consider.

Listen to this week's episode to find out what they are.

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Recently, I was with the CEO of a big organisation. She was asked what leadership skill she used most in her very, very big job. She said, ‘Listening, I spend a lot of my time listening.’ That was the number one thing she practised.

There’s a key distinction in listening:

You can either listen to respond OR you can listen to understand.

So my invitation this week is to remember: two ears, one mouth and try listening twice as much as you talk.

Have a listen to t...

‘Catfishing’ meaning ‘the practice of pretending on social media to be someone different, in order to trick or attract another person.’

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What am I going on about?

Simply this: does your profile pic on LinkedIn or your website or whatever professional digital media you use still look like you?

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Why am I asking? Well, I work with lots of clients on their personal brand (we are all brands now, folks, whether we like it or not!) Have a listen to this week's episode for some tips on this.

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I gave a talk to The Telly Mums Network. They have a Facebook sub-group called TV Switch Up.

I am a TV mum who has switched careers, so they invited me to give a talk and give some advice on how to do so.

Have a listen to this week's episode to find out the 3 Ps I think it’s useful to think about when looking to pivot careers.

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Words matter, the language we use has impact on ourselves and others: to inspire or deflate, to open or close our mindset, to get us going or stop us in our tracks.

So, the power of reframing comes in incredibly handy.

Listen to this week's episode with examples of how to do this.

Sign up for my weekly career and well-being tips straight to your inbox and find more ways I can help on the Free Resources page on my website.

⁠https://fasttracktofearless.com/free-resources ⁠

Get the se...

Public Speaking tends to be one of those things that terrifies most people - mentally AND physically.

So, how do you overcome that fear? Of course, there are lots of tools and techniques that help, but at the end of the day, you have to get up and speak, with all eyes on you!

Have a listen to this week's episode with my take on this topic.

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You don’t need me to tell you the world around us is going through huge change: technological advancements, digital disruption, climate change, social norms and values of yesteryear no longer being the norm, expectations about working and quality of life.

The pace of that change will only get faster, I think, what with advancements in AI. Rapid change can be bewildering and it’s tempting to cling on to what we know and hope that it all goes back to normal. It’s unlikely it will. It will be a new normal.

Change is going to...

You know the saying ‘one door shuts, another opens but standing in the corridor is THE WORST’ 

So this week, I wanted to talk about what to do if you suddenly find yourself in that corridor - through job loss or any other change in circumstance.

Standing in the corridor can be a wretched, scary and lonely experience. Have a listen to the episode to find out what I recommend.

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This is something I wish I’d known earlier. Taking the balcony view.

What does it mean? Well, it’s having an awareness and understanding of what your problem looks like from a layer up or two layers up and from that perspective, you can evaluate what’s really important.

Have a listen to to find out more.

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https...

At the time of speaking to you, here in the UK we’ve just had Storm Isha and are about to have Storm Jocelyn.

Many people around the country with trees blown over, roof tiles flying off and disruption to travel caused by the windy, rainy weather.

Frankly, the stormy weather is a great metaphor for life in the 2020s! We are living in turbulent times, often feeling buffeted and blown by one thing happening after the other.

Thoughts are whirling about the present, anxiety about what’s to come, and di...

How much does empathy play a role in your leadership style? Are you ‘old school’ and think anything like that is a bit too soft to merit serious consideration? Were you brought up with leaders who were definitely more ‘tell don’t ask’ rather than ‘ask don’t tell? For you, is any discussion of feelings awkward?

Well, you might be interested in the business book of the year is called ‘Leader as Healer’ and I’ve been lucky enough to study with the author Nicholas Janni via Coaches Rising.

If you are going to develop one l...

It might be useful to know that there’s a new acronym for the state of the world and its BANI.

BANI stands for Brittle, Anxious, Non-Linear and Incomprehensible.

Listen to the episode to find out how to get ready for this BANI World.

Sign up for my weekly career and well-being tips straight to your inbox and find more ways I can help on the Free Resources page on my website.

https://fasttracktofearless.com/free-resources

Get the self...

When my husband and I went to pick up our daughter from university, the weather was awful, and the motorway was busy. My husband is a confident driver, but I am not a good passenger. 

If I’m not driving, I often feel car sick for starters. I don’t like going too fast or too near. Plus I’m hyper-alert for any dangers. Which means I’m very vocal with the shrieks and the imaginary slamming of the brakes.

When we got back from the round trip, I was feeling a bit sick and frazzled, a...

Do you have a strong sense of who you are, how you operate best, what you stand for and what really makes you thrive? If not, I really recommend taking the time to develop it.

​ I think having a strong sense of self is really the foundation of true confidence and internal validation. If you rely on external validation and approval of others for your sense of worth, it can be a precarious way to exist. The stronger the sense of self, the less you rely on external validation.

Listen to the episo...

Do you often feel like you are a bit of a wallflower in meetings?

What I mean is, rarely saying anything, being scared to ask a question or raise a point in case you are wrong?

Are you held back by a fear of looking stupid? 

Do you then feel stupid for not saying anything?

Well, fear not, you are most definitely not alone! This topic comes up so much in coaching.

Why does it matter? Well, if you, like most people, want to create a positive i...

I work mainly with people in the creative industries and from what I can see this is the toughest year yet in the 30 years that I worked.

Fluctuations in the market, disruption, strikes, you name it, it’s been incredibly tough. The knock-on effect of that is a lack of jobs or fear of losing roles or too many qualified people for the amount of vacancies out there.

So how do you keep your self-belief in an industry with lots of knock-backs? Where following your passion and purpose sometimes feels like a mission...

I know it’s not just me who occasionally wakes up around 4 a.m. with worries on my mind. One minute, you are sleeping soundly; the next minute, you are wide awake, counting the catastrophes and impending doom.

How do I know it’s not just me? Because when I googled 4a.m. worrying things like ‘nocturnal anxiety’ ‘4 a.m. thoughts’ and a whole load of questions and possible answers come up.

Listen to this week’s episodes for tips and advice if it happens to you.

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It’s such a distressing time in the news at the moment and it’s unfortunately going to be distressing for quite a while. At times, I’ve felt doubt about having the right words or knowing exactly what to say or do. Asking myself, is it my place, will I say the wrong thing, will I offend etc listen to this week’s episodes for some examples of things you can say, when you don’t know what to say.

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Do you want a highly effective method for achieving?

Try VOHSAC, a method or framework for achieving that I discovered most highly effective leaders do without particularly realising it.

​ Have a listen to this podcast episode to find out what VOHSAC means.

Sign up for my weekly career and well-being tips straight to your inbox and find more ways I can help on the Free Resources page on my website.

https://fasttracktofearless.com/free-resources

Get the self-belief and clarity to create a confident career strategy and j...

This is for people who find January hard.  Post-holiday season let down, tiredness because of said holiday season, or the loneliness for many during holiday seasons, dark days, rain, need I go on?  

We say ‘Happy New Year” automatically but it’s not always so happy for everyone!    

Listen to this week’s episodes for some examples of things I find useful to tack the January Gloom

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2024 is upon us and it is that time of year when people start thinking about what they want to be different.  

One tool I think is absolutely brilliant at this time of year is the Wheel of Life.  It can help you work out how to go from mediocre to memorable (in a good way) in terms of your year ahead.

You can click here to get the version I use with clients from the Co-Active Training Institute with instructions from me. Basically, it’s a template like this....  Your life is divi...

Last year, I think I told you how much I turn into a Bah Humbug Scrooge at Christmas, what with the extra expense, consumerism, buying, wrapping, clearing up, cooking, buying, cleaning etc. I won’t go on.

Of course, there is so much I love about the holidays, namely, being with the family and having quality time. But no-one can tell me it’s a relaxing time of year - unless maybe you are one of those people who flies away to the Caribbean!

Anyway, if you are like me and f...

I don't know about you but when I think about 2023 I’d say it’s been like being in a tumble drier. It makes me think of the three witches in Macbeth saying;
​When shall we three meet again? And the answer being,
​When the hurly burly’s done

When the battle’s lost and won

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​2023 has felt like hurly-burly, noisy disorder and commotion, just lots and lots of turmoil. ​I want to encourage you to really hit the pause button, unplug and take a dip in Lake You!
We need time to rest, recharg...

You know how they say there are some people who walk into a room and the atmosphere changes? In a good way?

There are people who make their presence felt, who you can’t help but notice. Well, I think there’s a way to create that effect intentionally.

So, if you’ve ever felt like a wallflower or awkward in a meeting or room of people and are open to trying some new ideas, have a listen to this week’s episodes for my tips and advice.

S...

Most people are scared of change, frightened by the unknown and the feeling of not being in control of what’s going to happen. But I think there’s a way to find it positively scary.

So change often is scary but standing still, in the long run, can be even scarier in terms of what you don’t end up doing, what you miss out on and experience.

So it’s worth it to feel the fear and do it anyway. It’s worth it to know that you’ll be uncomfortable for a bit in an unknown...

“If at first you don’t succeed…try, try again!” goes the saying.

But I think that misses a crucial bit between the ‘not succeeding’ and the ‘trying again’. If we just hurl ourselves back into the trying again one, it can feel relentless and exhausting, AND we might miss out on some crucial learnings.

​ So this is what I think: if at first you don’t succeed, follow this 5 R process before trying again.

Listen to this week’s episode to find out about my 5 R process.

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Most of the people I work with are perfectionists. Driven, determined, focused on getting things right and doing the absolute best they can.

​ And there are a lot of benefits from being a perfectionist - it often goes hand-in-hand with high-achieving, extremely talented deliverers. There’s no way a perfectionist would intentionally drop the ball, be sloppy or allow themselves to go with the flow. So often, they are sought-after and much in demand.

​ ​The downside to being a perfectionist is that often, nothing you do feels good enough or good enough for very long. You might wo...

Don’t forget the good stuff. Stop and notice it. I think it’s good for the soul,never mind the body and the mind.

This week, my family and I were thrilled to attend one of our kids’ prize-giving ceremonies at school. It was wonderful to see all these children being awarded prizes for everything from academic prowess, to sport to art, drama and music.

When you are grown up, you don’t have schools noticing your work and rewarding you so much and we don’t have academic years where we take stock.

So you...

You know that saying, ‘What am I - chopped liver?’ Well, that’s what I remember thinking when I was made redundant a few years ago. ‘How come you don’t want me?!’
That, and I that wanted the outside world to think that it was MY choice to leave the company rather than have people think I was pushed. So in my leaving email, it was ‘Tracy has decided to leave’ rather than ‘Tracy was made redundant’.

And from what I can tell that’s normally the way it goes when people are made redundant. There...

Often in coaching, you are working with a client who is in transition - from stepping up into a more senior role or company or making a career change. They are one place and they want to move to another, find something new, or change how they are now into how they truly want to be.

Sometimes, they have a very clear vision of where they want to be and how they want to live. Sometimes, they don’t and helping them find both clarity of vision and direction is key.

When I was about 16 I went to school in Yorkshire and we went to London on a history trip. And the great excitement about that trip was not the history lectures we were going to but the fact that a small group of us were going to cut loose (sorry, school) and go to the Hard Rock Cafe in Piccadilly.

What really sticks in my mind was a badge or pin that she was wearing with the Hard Rock logo. It said: LOVE ALL, SERVE ALL

Now I am o...

Did you watch the HBO show “Succession”? Don’t worry, no spoilers here if you haven’t yet watched the grand finale but suffice to say, I thought it was fantastic!

For those who haven’t watched it, it’s a series about a big media mogul, Logan Roy, and his grown-up kids and it charts their battle to succeed him as CEO of the company Waystar RoyCo.

The series shows kids who have grown up to believe and follow their father’s purpose - build a company and make money - rathe...

I saw this quote the other day as I was scrolling and loved it:

“A diamond won’t shine at the bottom of a cave.”

Along with it was a story about an old car that was valued differently by other different sets of people. If the car was to be pawned, it was practically worthless because it was old and rusted, but if the car were taken to a vintage car rally, it would be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars because they could see and appreciate its true value.

<...

Are you a ‘people pleaser’? And if so, what’s wrong with pleasing others?

I often hear people say, ‘I’ve got to stop being such a people pleaser’ like it’s a problem.

And I think it can be.

There’s a difference between helping others and making them happy as a result and being a people pleaser, running around doing everyone’s bidding all the time and furiously nodding along to whatever they say (I exaggerate for effect!)

Listen to this week’s episode to find out what to do...

It was International Coaching Week back in May, which was a weeklong

global celebration of the power and impact of professional coaching.

So in honour of that week, I answered the 5 main questions people have about coaching...

1)    What is coaching?

2)    Who’s it for?

3)    How does coaching work?

4)    How to choose a coach?

5)    How much does coaching cost

Listen to this week’s episode for the answers
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In this episode I explore ‘Purpose’ - Purpose is the reason for which something (or someone) exists or the reason you do things.

For my dog Purdey nothing makes her happier than retrieving a ball and for Fiver, he loves scampering about the undergrowth or woods searching for stuff. You never see either of those dogs wagging their tails as furiously as when they are doing those two activities.

So what about you -

What makes your metaphorical tail wag furiously?

What do you most love doing? And is it in your...

In this episode I explore the quote “Confidence is not the absence of fear, it’s the knowledge that you’ll be okay despite your fear."

When it comes to confidence in our careers, fear can hold us back:

·      Fear of going for a bigger role because you don’t think you’re 100% qualified;

·      Fear of speaking up in meetings because you think you might get something wrong;

·      Fear of disagreeing with the crowd and being ostracised;

If any of these are you listen to this week’s episode for some things fo...

In this episode I explore Spring Cleaning and what that would look like for your career.

With any declutter you have to get everything out, sort through it, chuck

out stuff that no longer serves you, keep the rest and create space for

new things to come along.

So for a career, this would mean pausing, taking stock, thinking about if what you have now suits you and what you are wanting then evaluating all your career stuff and giving it a good once over and getting rid of what...

I’ve been humming Sinatra’s song ‘My Way’ especially that line...

‘Regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention.’

And it got me thinking about regrets. Regrets are something we all have.

Let’s face it, it’s hard to go through life always making the right decisions, never putting a foot wrong, always doing the right thing and making the right choices.

·       Regrets can be wistful about what could have happened.

·       Regrets can be painful about what should have happened.

·       Regrets can be a thorn in your side if th...

How good are you at taking a compliment? Terrible?

Do you bat it off, push it away, deny the truth of whatever is being said or go to great lengths to explain exactly why you are actually undeserving?

I think people equate accepting a compliment as being self-congratulatory and not many people want to be perceived as a show-off or big-headed.

But there is a difference between being a show-off and being proud and acknowledging your achievements.

It’s something that comes up a lot in coaching - people want and need to...