Positively Beaming Blog
Shut up and listen!
What if I told you that the answer to life, the universe, and everything wasn't 52? (sorry fans of Douglas Adams - Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) Instead, it was listening. Would you be curious? Excellent! Of course, I would be incredibly over-simplifying and...
Put down what is not yours to carry
At my local park where I walk my dog, they also host junior hockey on the weekends. As I was waiting for Albert to sniff every tree and goal post I watched families arrive for what must have been an under 10 mixed-gender match. It was cold and windy and I am thinking...
Change is not hard. Transitions are hard.
A couple of weeks ago, I was travelling down south for work (and a little pleasure) so I listened to a few podcasts. I have a love for true crime .... I can't listen to high-brow stuff all the time. Randomly, at the end of Australian True Crime, an astrologer came on...
Simple Strategies for Dealing with Feedback
A wise person once told me that feedback is a treasure hunt not a witch hunt. The idea is to look for the gold and if there is not much then to look for the lesson and what can be learned. But most of us would rather have root canal surgery than give or receive...
Pesky Feedback… Don’t swat it away, get curious
Every creature on earth has a purpose – even flies, which are annoying and can ruin a good picnic. Feedback can be like that too. We need feedback to grow and develop but boy-o-boy can it ruin your day! We are getting feedback ALL THE TIME but mostly we don’t notice...
Can I get a round of applause for…
Appreciation in the workplace can sometimes be tricky. Do any of these things go through your head? Praise one of them and ya gotta praise them all. They get paid, don't they? Yeah, but who notices ME?? I am always giving recognition but no one seems to notice. NOW is...
The One Thing I Could Do All Day
The one thing I could do all day, every day, is to listen to people tell their stories. To sit on my coaching couch and talk to clever women about their successes, their fears, their joy and the places at which they get stuck. Most clients will go through the motions...
Musings on Resilience
I have been thinking a lot about resilience again lately. It's something that has fascinated me since I crashed and burned in my first career. Now that the universe has stirred up a tsunami of challenging events, I have been watching carefully again. Our brain is...
Being Authentic
“I love your hair,” drawled Pricilla from Texas. “Sooo great you have embraced your grey.” This was not the first time I have been congratulated for going grey. Embracing our natural ‘sparkles’ is quite the thing at the moment and to grow-out the dye we’ve been using...
The Difference between Leadership and Management
While we still argue the difference between management and leadership, for me, It's relatively simple. Management is understanding the complexity of any job. It's making things go around, making things work, making sure that...
Joy to the World
Many years ago, when I was travelling through the US, I met a woman called Joy. She was the hardest, sourest, least joyful person I had ever met. To be fair, she was in her sixties and waiting tables at the breakfast buffet at the Circus Circus Casino in Las Vegas....
Building Psychological Safety
My younger self knew everything. Absolutely everything. You ask her any question and she had an answer. She was lashings and lashings of FIG JAM*. Even when she didn’t know she was never going to admit it. She was the epitome of a fixed mindset, using all her energy...
Lessons from 2019
2019 was the year of contrast. Some days felt like a long hard slog and others were full of joy and friendship. It was the year I decided to bring Jenny back, to find my feet, my voice and my community. Here are a few of the lessons learnt. None of them is new, in...
Silencing Your Inner Critic
I was curious to hear the other day, and in fact, I heard it twice from two different people, was that one of the challenges that they had when leading their team was that they were the youngest in the group. I found this fascinating because it was obviously a...
What mountain are you climbing?
Anyone who knows me knows that I am not terribly athletic and I really baulk at anything that forces me to go UP in a steep ascent.However, it has become increasingly clear that my role as a coach is to help women climb their second mountain. And I know the way up...
Are you too busy to read this?
The irony of this blog is that the women who need it the most will be too busy to read it. The world seems to be speeding up...So much to do.So little time.And women have it worse for a number of reasons. Firstly, we have more neurons firing at any time than men yet...
Do the Work…
"Do the work" she said. Which made perfect sense. If I wanted my business to be successful I had to "do the work". Work harder, be strategic, hustle, market, follow up, focus! Yet the advice came hot on the heals of - you are tired - physically, mentally,...
5 Ideas for Self-Care September
Recognise that self-care is crucial and plan for itGive yourself permission to say No to requests from othersAim for progress not perfectionUse a strength in a new wayBe nice to yourself Self-care is not indulgent. At the most basic level we need to eat well,...
Every Man Should Do This Course!
It’s not very comfortable being a white middle-class man in society at the moment, and I worried that Lead Like a Woman may just be more of the same. But I went home last night and said to my wife, every single leader, male and female should do this course! It was a...
Ask For What You Need
It is hard not to be rocked by the recent suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain. It is difficult to fathom what could drive a successful, mature adult to such ends. I have no answers for you except to check-in on your strong friends, the ones that appear to have...
I’m not into this sisterhood shit…
We went around the group one by one. Each of the 25 participants of the Women in Leadership Aspirant Program shared what they had gained from the previous three days. It is fairly typical that the women in the group are moved to tears at this part of the program....
Outta the Box
Our brains are amazing super computers and most of us only use a tiny amount of it’s capacity. Unfortunately, our brain is also very limited in it’s ability to process the millions of bits of information coming at it relentlessly. As a result we develop neural...
Women in School Leadership – Who and what needs fixing?
This morning as I waited for an appointment, I flicked through the NESLI 2018 YEAR OF WOMEN IN SCHOOL LEADERSHIP white paper and sighed. Firstly, I think it is high time that this topic got some serious airplay and I am glad that the white paper...
Tips for coping when disaster strikes
Recently, I chose not to sweat the small stuff and practice the art of being grateful - but not in the way you would expect. On the eve of Good Friday, my desktop computer went ppffftt - the power supply died and while I managed to send it by ambulance to Dr Gerry,...
What being overwhelmed taught me about happiness
I am the kind of person that needs to know how things work - once. Show me how to fix my car, explain to me how social media marketing works, send me to a workshop to understand time management. So when I was overwhelmed, I figured I better go do a course....
Goals are the vitamin tablets of the self-help world!
Goals are the vitamin tablets of the self-help world! Apparently, the only benefit people get from vitamin supplements is very expensive wee. Anyone who has set a new year's resolution understands this metaphor. Traditional goals, just like vitamin tablets, rarely...
Doing Ok, Thank you!
Last week I caught up with an old colleague, sparring partner, truth teller and friend. It’s not often you get all of these qualities rolled up into one person but he’s kinda special (just don’t tell him that, he’s already thinks he’s god-like!). I often describe...
Moments of Collective Joy
"You know when you look across at a concert and you realise you're singing the same song at the same time with 2000 other people and that you're happy and the chances are that the 2000 people around you are happy as well?” These are moments of collective joy. In her...
Has Facebook Killed the Annual Chistmas Newsletter?
December 12, 2017 |Jenny Cole Remember receiving these?? “What a busy year it's been in the Blogs household. This year one of my little darlings won the school talent quest, broke an arm and developed a cure for cancer. Her brother tried several new sports being...
I’m NOT a Life Coach – OK?
When I was a teacher, I always hated introducing myself at social events like barbecues. I think there was some sort of shame around you're just a teacher. Then when I became a school principal, I rarely owned up to it because no one wanted to be the school principal...
Shut up and listen!
What if I told you that the answer to life, the universe, and everything wasn't 52? (sorry fans of Douglas Adams - Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) Instead, it was listening. Would you be curious? Excellent! Of course, I would be incredibly over-simplifying and...
Put down what is not yours to carry
At my local park where I walk my dog, they also host junior hockey on the weekends. As I was waiting for Albert to sniff every tree and goal post I watched families arrive for what must have been an under 10 mixed-gender match. It was cold and windy and I am thinking...
Change is not hard. Transitions are hard.
A couple of weeks ago, I was travelling down south for work (and a little pleasure) so I listened to a few podcasts. I have a love for true crime .... I can't listen to high-brow stuff all the time. Randomly, at the end of Australian True Crime, an astrologer came on...
Simple Strategies for Dealing with Feedback
A wise person once told me that feedback is a treasure hunt not a witch hunt. The idea is to look for the gold and if there is not much then to look for the lesson and what can be learned. But most of us would rather have root canal surgery than give or receive...
Pesky Feedback… Don’t swat it away, get curious
Every creature on earth has a purpose – even flies, which are annoying and can ruin a good picnic. Feedback can be like that too. We need feedback to grow and develop but boy-o-boy can it ruin your day! We are getting feedback ALL THE TIME but mostly we don’t notice...
Can I get a round of applause for…
Appreciation in the workplace can sometimes be tricky. Do any of these things go through your head? Praise one of them and ya gotta praise them all. They get paid, don't they? Yeah, but who notices ME?? I am always giving recognition but no one seems to notice. NOW is...
The One Thing I Could Do All Day
The one thing I could do all day, every day, is to listen to people tell their stories. To sit on my coaching couch and talk to clever women about their successes, their fears, their joy and the places at which they get stuck. Most clients will go through the motions...
Musings on Resilience
I have been thinking a lot about resilience again lately. It's something that has fascinated me since I crashed and burned in my first career. Now that the universe has stirred up a tsunami of challenging events, I have been watching carefully again. Our brain is...
Being Authentic
“I love your hair,” drawled Pricilla from Texas. “Sooo great you have embraced your grey.” This was not the first time I have been congratulated for going grey. Embracing our natural ‘sparkles’ is quite the thing at the moment and to grow-out the dye we’ve been using...
The Difference between Leadership and Management
While we still argue the difference between management and leadership, for me, It's relatively simple. Management is understanding the complexity of any job. It's making things go around, making things work, making sure that...
Joy to the World
Many years ago, when I was travelling through the US, I met a woman called Joy. She was the hardest, sourest, least joyful person I had ever met. To be fair, she was in her sixties and waiting tables at the breakfast buffet at the Circus Circus Casino in Las Vegas....
Building Psychological Safety
My younger self knew everything. Absolutely everything. You ask her any question and she had an answer. She was lashings and lashings of FIG JAM*. Even when she didn’t know she was never going to admit it. She was the epitome of a fixed mindset, using all her energy...
Lessons from 2019
2019 was the year of contrast. Some days felt like a long hard slog and others were full of joy and friendship. It was the year I decided to bring Jenny back, to find my feet, my voice and my community. Here are a few of the lessons learnt. None of them is new, in...
Silencing Your Inner Critic
I was curious to hear the other day, and in fact, I heard it twice from two different people, was that one of the challenges that they had when leading their team was that they were the youngest in the group. I found this fascinating because it was obviously a...
What mountain are you climbing?
Anyone who knows me knows that I am not terribly athletic and I really baulk at anything that forces me to go UP in a steep ascent.However, it has become increasingly clear that my role as a coach is to help women climb their second mountain. And I know the way up...
Are you too busy to read this?
The irony of this blog is that the women who need it the most will be too busy to read it. The world seems to be speeding up...So much to do.So little time.And women have it worse for a number of reasons. Firstly, we have more neurons firing at any time than men yet...
Do the Work…
"Do the work" she said. Which made perfect sense. If I wanted my business to be successful I had to "do the work". Work harder, be strategic, hustle, market, follow up, focus! Yet the advice came hot on the heals of - you are tired - physically, mentally,...
5 Ideas for Self-Care September
Recognise that self-care is crucial and plan for itGive yourself permission to say No to requests from othersAim for progress not perfectionUse a strength in a new wayBe nice to yourself Self-care is not indulgent. At the most basic level we need to eat well,...
Every Man Should Do This Course!
It’s not very comfortable being a white middle-class man in society at the moment, and I worried that Lead Like a Woman may just be more of the same. But I went home last night and said to my wife, every single leader, male and female should do this course! It was a...
Ask For What You Need
It is hard not to be rocked by the recent suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain. It is difficult to fathom what could drive a successful, mature adult to such ends. I have no answers for you except to check-in on your strong friends, the ones that appear to have...
I’m not into this sisterhood shit…
We went around the group one by one. Each of the 25 participants of the Women in Leadership Aspirant Program shared what they had gained from the previous three days. It is fairly typical that the women in the group are moved to tears at this part of the program....
Outta the Box
Our brains are amazing super computers and most of us only use a tiny amount of it’s capacity. Unfortunately, our brain is also very limited in it’s ability to process the millions of bits of information coming at it relentlessly. As a result we develop neural...
Women in School Leadership – Who and what needs fixing?
This morning as I waited for an appointment, I flicked through the NESLI 2018 YEAR OF WOMEN IN SCHOOL LEADERSHIP white paper and sighed. Firstly, I think it is high time that this topic got some serious airplay and I am glad that the white paper...
Tips for coping when disaster strikes
Recently, I chose not to sweat the small stuff and practice the art of being grateful - but not in the way you would expect. On the eve of Good Friday, my desktop computer went ppffftt - the power supply died and while I managed to send it by ambulance to Dr Gerry,...
What being overwhelmed taught me about happiness
I am the kind of person that needs to know how things work - once. Show me how to fix my car, explain to me how social media marketing works, send me to a workshop to understand time management. So when I was overwhelmed, I figured I better go do a course....
Goals are the vitamin tablets of the self-help world!
Goals are the vitamin tablets of the self-help world! Apparently, the only benefit people get from vitamin supplements is very expensive wee. Anyone who has set a new year's resolution understands this metaphor. Traditional goals, just like vitamin tablets, rarely...
Doing Ok, Thank you!
Last week I caught up with an old colleague, sparring partner, truth teller and friend. It’s not often you get all of these qualities rolled up into one person but he’s kinda special (just don’t tell him that, he’s already thinks he’s god-like!). I often describe...
Moments of Collective Joy
"You know when you look across at a concert and you realise you're singing the same song at the same time with 2000 other people and that you're happy and the chances are that the 2000 people around you are happy as well?” These are moments of collective joy. In her...
Has Facebook Killed the Annual Chistmas Newsletter?
December 12, 2017 |Jenny Cole Remember receiving these?? “What a busy year it's been in the Blogs household. This year one of my little darlings won the school talent quest, broke an arm and developed a cure for cancer. Her brother tried several new sports being...
I’m NOT a Life Coach – OK?
When I was a teacher, I always hated introducing myself at social events like barbecues. I think there was some sort of shame around you're just a teacher. Then when I became a school principal, I rarely owned up to it because no one wanted to be the school principal...