A new year, a new decade, a new brand

It feels good to kick off 2024 with a new brand identity (officially launching the new look right now) and working on a new website which will fully reflect the breadth and depth of the work that I, with Clearbird have evolved to.

Last year was a full year on many fronts. Clearbird turned 10 and I turned 50! I honoured both in style!

While working in the business with valued individuals and organisations, I also invested time in working on the business - where I want to focus over the next 10 years.

As my tenth year in business comes to a close, I wanted to share the top 10 themes and insights that have informed the direction of Clearbird for the next number of years...

Helping future-fit leaders to show up in a complex world.

Helping established and emerging leaders address the issues below, feels like the important work of our time. I hope that by supporting and developing future fit leaders that can show up authentically and wholeheartedly in this complex world that we live in, I continue to contribute to creating a ripple effect of conscious leaders.

1. Leadership Burnout

Especially Female Leadership Burnout. The pace is fast, the demands are many - at work and at home. With a real fear of losing talent, many leaders are taking on more work than they should, so as not to over-burden their team. A generational difference in the approach to work is taking it's toll on many leaders.

I increasingly see experienced and talented leaders in corporate environments reaching burnout, or at least calling 'enough' from early 50s. Increasingly I am working with this cohort as they look to craft a 'portfolio career' for the later portion of their career. The question is how do we build sustainable leadership into the culture of organisations?

Organisations are correctly paying attention to mental health concerns for employees. An increased focus on sustainable leadership models and the mental health of leaders is also required.

2. Lack of Time to Think

This is a favorite of mine. I have lost count of the number of times that I have heard clients (both 1:1 or in group coaching programmes) say, "it is so good to have time to think" and "I never have time to stop and think".

Continuing my qualifications in the Thinking Environment with Ruth McCarthy affirms that the quality of our thinking is a function of the quality for attention that is paid to our thinking.

Unfortunately for many teams, organisations and society, leaders are often not making enough time to slow down and think. By creating space to press pause, comes clarity, creative thinking, strategic thinking, deeper and systemic thinking.

I like to call the coaching in this space ‘slow coaching’. Not all coaching is about more, better, faster.

I strongly believe that slow coaching – providing a slow and regular 90 minutes in the diary for any leaders is critical for future-fit leaders. And if not with a coach, at least scheduling time to think is a good intention for 2024.

Personally, I find that my best thinking isn't at my desk but out walking in nature. Sometimes it doesn't feel like work, but it is. The clarity that follows an intentional, thinking walk continues to surprise me. Thank you Fi Macmillan for introducing me to that concept and Philip Cowell for your insights on street walking.

3. The Lost Art of Saying No

I have certainly seen an increase in this phenomenon since Covid, when we moved into a phase of hyper-productivity and increased expectations.

The answer is not necessarily 'saying no' but bringing increased consciousness to prioritisation, to questioning what we are saying yes to, to managing expectations and managing timelines - which often means enhanced upward management.

And for emerging leaders, cultivating the art of delegation, when it feels easier to just do it yourself, is a crucial part of allowing yourself to step up and focus on what is important.

speaking of which...

4. Clarity on Stepping Up-ness

I know that this isn't a word but it is such an important part of work I do with clients, I am coining this term!

Helping clients to have those a-ha moments, when they realise that being a busy fool is not going to get them to the next place in their career is core to much of my Presence and Impact Programmes.

I am no longer surprised when clients tell me 'but no one tells you this stuff'. Leaning into stakeholder engagement, influencing for outcomes, focusing on presence and impact, shifting to beyond being diligent and reliable - is a really core element of unlocking future and future-fit leaders.

5. Showing up

I often refer to my 'bucket of bloody brilliant women who don't know quite how brilliant they are'. Helping clients (not just female, but often female) to step up with presence and impact and step into their full and best selves by managing down the imposter syndrome and inner critic is an important contribution to developing and supporting future fit leaders.

6. Finding comfort with discomfort

This is a theme that I have been exploring both for myself and with clients. How we resource ourselves so that we can stay grounded, centred and in flow when too busy with competing demands and the day to day challenges.

Cultivating resilience, leveraging strengths, actively putting the supports in place for ourselves are all crucial to sustaining future fit leaders.

7. Conscious Leadership

I am happy to say that I am increasingly seeing leaders who are prioritising time for themselves, who care deeply about their people as well as delivering outcomes, who invest time in self-reflection, who want to be challenged in their thinking and their perspective, who have high levels of self-awareness and emotional intelligence. These leaders can find it hard to hold this line in the face of the demands and challenges.

My 'slow coaching' offer is ideal for these established and experienced leaders who value the art of creating space and who value having a thinking partner to challenge perspective and help them to zoom out to zoom back in again.

8. Mental Health and Wellbeing is increasingly showing up in coaching and therefore the workplace.

I have been privileged to have been working with a cohort of highly experienced coaches and coach supervisors within the Association for Coaching (AC) on this topic.

I was attracted to the emerging conversations both as a coach and coach supervisor. Recent years have certainly seen an increase in work-related stress, and anxiety showing up in coaching and with coaches that I supervise. Most coaches are not therapeutically trained and we observe a global Code of Ethics which means that we know where not to go in coaching and when to refer. But the complex times that we live in mean that there is an increase in mental health and wellbeing concerns showing up in coaching. Perhaps it is that safe space to air concerns.

The Association for Coaching (AC) has developed guidelines on this areas and you can expect to see podcasts, webinars and research as we open the dialogue and explore this further throughout 2024.

9. Personal Ownership for Career Navigation

Again through 1:1 coaching, group coaching and webinars on this subject, I notice that too often, talented employees give away too much power for their own career development and progression. There is often a high expectation of the Manager to deliver on this. But it is not just up to the Manager.

As an employee are you enabling your manager to sponsor and advocate for you? Are you providing them the information and clarity that they need if you want them to speak for you? Are you investing your time and effort in actively cultivating mentoring relationships beyond your direct Line Manager.

I think it's a pretty risky strategy to put all of your eggs in one basket i.e. your manager's basket. They may move in within the company or externally. They likely have many other eggs in their basket.

Empowering clients to take that ownership and have a clear plan of action, accompanied by a fresh mindset on leaning in to owning their career is always rewarding.

And finally...

10. Connection with depth

This has been a theme that I have noticed throughout 2022 and 2023, as we emerged into the new model or flexibility and working from home. Both organisations and individuals are still grappling with what the right model looks like. Working from home often results in increased productivity, coupled with better work-like balance. 'How did people do this before?' is a common refrain in my new parents programmes.

I have noticed this hunger for 'connection with depth' mostly in the many group coaching programmes that I run. 'It's so re-assuring to know that I am not alone' and 'It's so good to listen to shared, common and human experiences' are pieces of feedback that I often here. There seems to be an internal conflict between missing the connectedness in an office while appreciating the flexibility of working from home.

This year particularly we have seen a full return to networking and events. I find it hard to believe that this time last year we were still not quite there. And there is still a hesitancy for many in re-engaging in this style of connectedness. I understand. I'm an extrovert and I noticed just how much energy it took to re-engage with large groups. I appreciate the impact of the same for introverts who just find it easier to not re-engage.

What I see is an increased sense of purpose when connecting. What is the quality of the conversation, what will I gain from going to x event? We seem to need to re-learn the skill and value of networking or as I prefer to call it, connectedness.

I'll be continuing to check in one these and share continued insights, as an observer of behavioural trends and challenges.

Here's to 2024 and all that it brings!