Here in the UK it's Wimbledon fortnight. I don't follow lots of sport, but there's something about tennis at this time of year that I really love. Maybe happy memories of having finished exams and watching TV during the day? Very partial to the traditional strawberries too 🍓

Every champion at Wimbledon has to progress through the knock-out rounds by focussing on the next point. Serve, return, rally.

Sometimes people think workplace coaching is a bit like having a tennis coach: someone to observe, analyse and then tell you what to do. Fixing problems. Direction and instruction, training and physical conditioning. Practising over and over - like a rally that looks like a simple exchange but which changes with every shot.

But work-based coaching isn't about directing and instructing. For me it's about a safe, supportive and challenging space in which someone can explore their own personal development. I believe that YOU are the expert in your life, and that you are resourceful and capable of far more than you imagine.

So my aim in coaching is to elicit powerful conversations with you. These inspire new thinking - so you create directional clarity, achieve personal and professional goals, and enhance the quality of your life. I help you understand and eliminate barriers to more effective performance - only offering advice or suggesting possible solutions if invited.

Sometimes coaching is a rally. And sometimes it's simply holding a space, waiting for you to serve. Much of the time we watch the ball in flight together, waiting to see where it might land.

"Rally" has several other meanings beyond the racket sports one. Including to summon up (one's strength, spirits, etc) or to revive or recover. To come together for a cause or person.

Work-based coaching is often a rallying place too. A place to fall back to, or gather your strength, before moving forward.

1 question

What are you rallying your strength for?

2 ideas

Listen to Dr. Laurie Santos exploring the joy of fandom with Benedict Cumberbatch obsessive Tabitha Carvan, YA author Jennifer Lynn Barnes and Star Trek actor (and geek-vangelist) Wil Wheaton. Nerd Out! The Happiness of Being a Fan.)

Really love a TV show; a boyband; a sci fi movie; or a celebrity? We’re often too embarrassed to admit adoring some things for fear that we’ll be seen as frivolous or childish – but we may be missing out on the happiness benefits that geeking out can bring.

Bitter rivals. Beloved friends. Survivors. Even if you've never seen Chris Evert or Martina Navratilova play, even if you have no interest in sport at all, I recommend this piece by Sally Jenkins about

two women, who so unbound their sport and gave the gift of professional aspiration to so many. Yet who exemplify, perhaps more than any champions in the annals of their sport, the deep internal mutual grace called sportsmanship.

1 quote

“For me, leadership has always been much more about rallying people around a project or cause than about being held up as the Boss.”
― Alyssa Mastromonaco, Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?: And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When You Work in the White House (2017)

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