Tag Archives: support

Confidence Builders, Finding your purpose, Positive Motivation

Get crystal clear on your life purpose by doing this one thing

>>> Make the decision to choose your life purpose<<<

Key Learning Points

  1. A central life purpose creates a bedrock of meaning around everything you do
  2. It can help you feel more connected to those around you
  3. A life purpose can change and shift
  4. It doesn’t have to be perfect
  5. More purpose, more meaning equals much more joy!

My story

I always wanted a ‘purpose’ but I never really knew what that would mean for me.  After divorce number two I decided I wanted to live a much more purposeful life. I felt like I had drifted into things and ended up doing things that didn’t really work for me. Sometimes it was saying No to a great job, or saying YES to stay in a relationship that just wasn’t working.

There was no bigger picture of what I wanted overall to achieve in my life.

I felt not having this really meant I wasn’t picking the right or best things for me in terms of who I had in my life and what I was doing with it.  I really wanted to feel like I had a frame for my decisions. So I started the work to create a life purpose. It took a while and I even took two weeks off work to just work on myself.  I would never have done that earlier in my life.

It sounds so fluffy and yet  it was probably the best two weeks investment I have ever spent on myself and all it cost me was my own time (and annual leave).

In this post I really want to provide some prompts to help you begin this process.   And WHY do I want to do this?  Because having this purpose has led to the happiest, most creative and fulfilling 3 years of my life and counting. And, I WANT THAT FOR YOU TOO!

Activity

Make the decision to choose your life purpose

And then,

  1. Right down all the reasons you want a life purpose (and stick this list up where you will see it first thing in the morning)
  2. Describe what having a life purpose would mean and feel like to you
  3. Find 2 people who embody having a life purpose in the way that you would like too.  What do you admire about these people? What makes them stand out to you?
  4. Now, book in a time each month to work on your life purpose.
  5. And, go for it!!

Want some inspirational resources to keep you going for it?

For Reading…

  • Grit – The Power of Passion and Perseverance  by Angela Duckworth, Page 62.  The way Angela lays out how goals can link together, is how I have structured my purpose and goals.  With my BIG LIFE purpose being : Help Women Progress and then all my other goals big and small linking back to this big goal in some way.
  • Rising Strong by Brene Brown – Chaper 2 – Civilisation Stops At The Water Line
  • Start with WHY by Simon Sinek – Chapter 13 – The Origins of Why. I recommend reading the whole book but this chapter gives some context for how WHY can influence us so strongly.
  • Think Grow Rich  – Chapter 2 – Desire.  This book is focussed on MONEY but really it can apply to EVERYTHING in life.  In fact, the super inspirational Marie Forleo video below is Chapter 2 lived (Read and watch to expand your mindset and also to see how this actually works.)
  • Eat Pray Love – because its awesome!

For inspiration watch this: Have an impossible dream?  This Women Proves You Can Achieve It 

Want a group program to be involved in?

Looking for a program to support re-programming your negative thoughts into positive ones, this program and book is amazing (Melissa’s podcast is a great listen as well):  Mastering Your Mean Girl Program

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I'm Ready Now Book, Positive Motivation

How to stay positive when your boss is crazy AF

Ok, I know that ‘crazy’ is the most misused word against women but sometimes we do just have a CRAZY boss to deal with.  One of the biggest challenges in my career has been dealing with bosses that are unpredictable, irrational, angry and explosive.  This has crossed genders.  Almost all people who have come to me for coaching have been experiencing a ‘crazy’ boss. The impact is loss of confidence, feeling confused, dissatisfaction in job role and industry – leading to questioning everything career wise. Questions that came up for me at this point are:

–          Am I any good at my job anymore? I used to be but now I’m not so sure.
–          Do I want to stay in IT?
–          Is this company the right place for me?
–          How long can I put up with this stress for?

Other feelings are:  not wanting to go to work, closing down and becoming perpetually exhausted.  Negative thinking often took over as well further brining me down. I have seen this with friends, colleagues and coaching clients.   Having a boss that regularly puts you down is a confidence crusher.

So I thought I’d put together my top strategies that I use for managing my mindset during such a stressful period and keeping my energy levels up.  This has made it easier for me to move on, find a new role and get out of there.

  1. Tell someone about it
  2. Get Support
  3. Exercise
  4. Work out an exit plan
  5. Focus on what’s next

These tips could easily fall under an umbrella of stay positive but really having been through this, this is not always possible.  Taking positive action will create space to take a breath and maintain your perspective.  At least aim to buffer the negativity at work, so you can boost your energy enough to move on.

1. Tell Someone about it (who will believe you)

  • Reaching out and validating that you’re not the crazy one is important. Find a friend, partner, family member or mentor to talk through what you are experiencing.  Just being heard will make you feel better

2. Get Support

  • One of my big lessons is that no woman is an island and sometimes I am not my best guru (sadly).  Find a counsellor or some level of professional support to help you through it.  From my experience doing this, is that the recovery period afterwards is always quicker if I’ve had this support during the traumatic event.  Don’t downplay your experience.  Dreading getting out of bed every day is not normal.  There’s a reason you don’t want to go to work, don’t let it impact you years down the track.  Dealing with it as much as possible in the now will mean less of a stress hangover  once you’re in your new role.

3. Exercise

  • Now is the time to maintain or create rituals that keep you balanced. Cardio and resistance exercise is the best.   Commit to doing 30 minutes everyday (yoga, weights, gym, cycling, running, ballet.)
  • Add in or up your meditation practice if you can or something that helps your mental discipline (one of my friends loves running to clear her head). Work out an exit plan

4. Create an exit plan

  • Write down a plan of how you are going to get yourself out of this situation.  Create 2 or 3 options and start pursuing them.  Get out quickly.  Look for internal and external roles, network more, keep engaged in industry events.
  • In the exit plan, write down what you want to be happening in your career  and life in 12 months time. Frame your next step by this vision.
  • Accept that you may need to move laterally and find  a life raft out.  This can be hard if like me, you’re super ambition. Focus on safety first and then get back to climbing that career ladder.

5. Focus on what’s next

  • Focus on that 12 month goal.  If you’re looking at study, start investigating options.  If you want to travel, start subscribing to ticket price alerts and turn your desktop screen saver into a shrine for your dream destination.  Start listening to podcasts, music, tedtalks that will keep you focussed on NEXT.
  • Make NEXT your NOW.

Most of all remember, you don’t deserve crazy. It is not normal to be yelled at every day, to have your boss call you 15 times in 2 minutes at 11pm, to have your boss turn up at your front door on the weekend, to rate you down because they’re jealous of your looks, to publicly humiliate you in front of your team or threaten you in any way.  It is NOT NORMAL.  You deserve normal, to be liked, to look forward to work, to enjoy friendship at work, to be praised, to be rewarded and to feel appreciated.

You are WORTH it.
 
You are enough. 
 
Good luck!

 

Extra resources and  links
Previous Blog Posts
Getting support
Information on Employee Entitlements
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bullying, I'm Ready Now Book

How to help someone who has been bullied

This post is about how to help someone who has been bullied when you are their line manager.

8 ways to help someone who has been bullied who reports to you

  1. Believe them
  2. Support them
  3. Give them a break from the team
  4. Move them away from the bullies
  5. Create opportunities for praise, confidence building and feeling great about their skills again
  6. Make them safe
  7. Be understanding
  8. Be physically present and accessible

Read more below or watch my latest video.

The first thing you need to do if someone comes to you about bullying or maybe someone else comes to you on their behalf and then you go to speak to them is to believe them.

You may have doubts. That’s okay. But believe them in that moment and explore what has happened with them.

What you need to do then is verify the events that have happened and potentially give that person a new environment or project or assignment so you can separate them in some way from the bullies, making sure that those changes don’t negatively impact their career.

It might be that you move bullies away from them.

It might be that you just give them a break from the current work environment for a short period of time so that you can assess the situation and what to do.

Ask yourself, are you confident the person is and feels safe?

Are they really comfortable coming to work?

Make sure that all the support that can be made available to them is.

Have at least weekly check-ins with the person who’s been bullied to reinforce your support and that you expect change to be happening in the team.

Really address the side effects of bullying such as lower confidence, self esteem, and ability for that person to perform their work. Create opportunities for praise, confidence boosting work and reinforcement of their skill set.

Be understanding. 

What you might need to do is just make extra time available for leave, time off to attend counselling sessions. They’re likely to experience high levels of sick leave and make sure that they’re being supported both from a physical and emotional perspective.

The other aspect would be to ensure that you listen and have time for them so that when they come to you and they need to speak to you about what’s happening, particularly if the bullying doesn’t actually stop, that you have that time available for them.

As a line manager, you may need to reschedule your meetings. Make sure you’re more present with your team so you’re aware of what is happening and that you’re confident that the team culture has changed, keeping in mind that of course everyone’s behaviour in the team changes when the manager is around that team.

Questions to ask the person who are being bullied when they first come to you and for those first few initial sessions are:

Do you feel safe?

What is the impact this is having on you?

How can I support you?

What do you most want to happen now?

How can we make you feel safe and what would you like to change, stop or continue?

I would just like to reiterate that the most important thing that you do is you do believe them. Even if later on you actually find that they aren’t being bullied and there’s some other motivation, the only way to really find that out is to believe it in the first place and work out what is happening.

So I really hope that helps you as a line manager. I really wish you a lot of luck. It is a very difficult thing to lead a team or individual through.

Good Luck!

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