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...

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...

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...

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" 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,...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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,...

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! 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...

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...

"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...

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...

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...

I get a little annoyed by the self-help gurus and personal growth experts constantly telling us that we need to do something or be something more. Be more focused, be less anxious, be more time efficient, exercise more, set audacious goals and go after them,...

Spreading positivity – spread that stuff thick! Ok I get it… life’s hard … the kids are sick.. you are working your butt off, your boss is a control freak, your partner is AWOL, your legs need waxing and your inbox has exploded. It’s really hard to stay upbeat and...

Blame, blame, blame, blame. I first really registered the notion of blame after I read Brene Brown's Gifts of Imperfection and I watched a Youtube clip where she blames her husband for spilling her coffee on her new suit despite the fact he was on a business trip...

I am sitting in an open, terraced coffee shop in Canggu, Bali, up steep and rickety stairs. I have just had cross words with our the lazy villa manager — a fat Javanese man who seems to be 50% smiling assassin and 50% Mafioso and I am 100% grumpy. It is humid, my hair...

Menopause sucks! There I have said it. Out loud and in public. To be factual, peri-menopause sucks. I am sure menopause sucks too, I just haven’t made it that far yet. How did I get to 48 before I even heard of peri-menopause? Bodily functions were not discussed in...

Do you ever wake up with a feeling of dread or sit in another pointless meeting and notice the crushing realisation that the life you envisioned for yourself is not the one you are living – or worse still – it IS and you hate it!? How did you get here and how can you...

Let me give you some advice about advice. Unless you are Oprah don’t dish it out. Hard to understand I know …. Even though your girlfriend, colleague or staff member has specifically asked you a question, they don’t actually need your advice. Go figure! So what are...

Anyone who travels for work knows that air travel can be soul destroying. A barrage of mind numbing processes - the taxi ride though traffic, queuing to check in when the line snakes out the door, another queue to get through security where the person in front of you...

How often do you say to yourself… There must be something more? Something different? Something else? So, now what? Scratch the surface of any functioning midlife woman and you will hear her say I love my kids; I enjoy my job, I am grateful for the roof over my head,...