Coach Development

On storytelling, and the fire we forget to keep.  There is a difference between having information and having meaning. We are drowning in the first, and starving for the second. Long before we could write, we could tell. Around fires, in caves, beneath skies thick with stars we no longer bother to see, we gathered, and we spoke. Not to inform, but to make sense. Story was our first technology, older than the wheel, older than the written word. It is how we became human. It is how we have stayed human ever since. We are, as Jonathan Gottschall names ...

On the Scarcity that matters most… I was standing in a bookshop recently, surrounded by a great many books on how to live a better life. How to be more productive, more mindful, more resilient, more successful. Shelf after shelf of theories, lists, models and answers. And yet the woman beside me, scanning the spines with a kind of quiet desperation, turned and said: "There's so much here... and I still don't know what to do with my life." She was not short of information. None of us are. We live in what economists would call a condition of extreme ...

On intention, attention, and the quiet partnership between them We can slow down and still not be present. We can create space in our diaries, step back from the noise, reduce the pace... and yet find that our minds continue to race, pulled in directions we did not consciously choose. Slowing down is necessary. But it is not sufficient. Something else is needed. Something quieter, more deliberate. A question that sits beneath the pace: “Where am I placing my attention, and why?” This is where intention and attention meet. Two forces so closely entwined that we rarely think to separate ...

On pace, presence, and what we lose when life moves too fast There is a difference between moving quickly and making progress. You open your laptop to begin something that matters. Within minutes, you’ve checked messages, skimmed emails, responded to a notification, and glanced at something you don’t remember choosing. You’ve been busy. But you haven’t begun. Somewhere along the way, pace stopped being a byproduct of work and became a measure of worth. Fast is good. Busy is admirable. Full calendars signal importance. There is even a quiet pride in it. “I’ve been flat out.” “It’s been non-stop.” “I’m ...

On Attachment, Change, and the Practice of Presence There is a moment many of us know. You are standing inside something good: a conversation that feels uplifting, a period of work that finally fits, the quiet weight of a child leaning into you, a stretch of peace you did not have to fight for. And almost immediately, alongside the gratitude, another impulse appears: I wish this could last. That thought feels innocent. Tender, even. But it reveals something profound about the human condition. There are so many ways we leave the present. Nostalgia pulls us backward into softened memories. Regret ...

We seem to love the idea of new beginnings. Each year invites reflection, resolution, and resolve. We set goals with the best of intentions: get fitter, learn a new skill, launch a venture, change a habit. We name the outcome and then list the actions required to reach it. The logic is tidy. The follow-through, less so. Looking back, many of my own goals have followed this same structure: do more, do better, do differently. And while some have been achieved, I’ve come to notice something quieter beneath them all… a deeper hunger, not for new accomplishments, but for a ...

As one year folds into the next, we find ourselves standing in a tender space: the threshold between what has been and what is yet to come. This season invites us to reflect on endings, not as losses to be feared, but as part of life’s continuous rhythm of transformation. In the hush of winter, when the earth seems to sleep, something unseen is already awakening beneath the surface. What if nothing truly ends at all? What if every ending is simply a moment of becoming? There is a hush that comes at the end of something, the soft silence ...

When listening for metaphors within our clients’ language, we might catch their more obvious metaphoric phrases. Hilary Oliver's article, A Picture Paints a Thousand Words provided some examples, such as “The sun is setting on my work”, as someone expresses what it’s like for them to head into retirement. However, there’s a good chance that we’re failing to notice the more subtle metaphors that are sprinkled throughout their dialogue. Read that last sentence again. Did you notice the metaphor? I said, “metaphors are sprinkled throughout their dialogue”. What gets conjured up for you when you think of sprinkling? For me, ...

In every coaching conversation, something more than words is at play. Beyond the client’s agenda and our chosen approach, subtle shifts of energy, emotion and unspoken meaning unfold between coach and client. These live dynamics, sometimes fleeting, sometimes intense, can unlock powerful insights when a coach is ready to notice and work with them. Coaching in Real Time is a two-part CPD series designed for coaches who want to deepen their ability to work with what is emerging in the moment. By focusing on presence, emotion and the coach’s own self-awareness, the series explores how to respond to what is ...

Part of the ICF Core Competencies state that coaches should undergo regular reflective practice to enhance their proficiency, however, I know that many people are not natural reflective practitioners. Reflection is a skill, like many others, that needs to be honed through practice and understanding. It also requires some time and space which, in the modern world of work, is often lacking. To think about why it is so important and to raise awareness of why we should make time for it, I have been ruminating on what we actually know about the benefits of reflecting. “Reflective practice significantly enhances ...