We are voracious about expanding our knowledge. It inspires us and opens us to new possibilities. It propels us to think different and bigger and bolder. We are a little bit obsessed by it… Here’s what is currently inspiring us. This page changes regularly. Please come back and visit often.
The Working Parent Advent Calendar
Advent Day Twenty-Four: Closed for Human Maintenance.
If there has been one common theme of our advent calendar this year it is that we all need downtime, refresh time, reboot time. This serves our mental and physical health and also makes us smarter...
Advent Day Twenty-Three: The smallest of actions can lead to the biggest outcomes.
If we want to change something about our life we are much more likely to have success if we start small rather than pledge to make a drastic and unrealistic change. Micro habits are minuscule...
Advent Day Twenty-Two: Busy is not a badge of honour.
How are you? Person 1: Really busy. Work is crazy, we are redecorating the living room, the kids are full on and I’m learning Chinese in my spare time Person 2: Really good. I have been working...
Thoughts in a 2-Minute Read
297 days and counting for working parents.
It is 297 days since the first lockdown on 23 March 2020 297 days of working and caring for those that need our care. 297 days of juggling working from home and childcare 297 unprecedented days of...
Connecting whilst remote.
For many of our clients, it is connecting with team members that they are missing most as a result of the multiple lockdowns. This should not be a surprise. Strong social connections make people...
The self control required to work from home is exhausting us.
In a meeting with a client today we were discussing the programme of talks for their Working Parent Network next year and the conversation kept on circling back to boundaries, or rather lack of...
Reading
The Time Paradox by John Boyd and Philip Zimbardo
If there is one thing that working parents don't have enough of it is time. Forever chasing the unforgiving minute, needed in more than one place at the same time, multitasking, juggling and so on....
Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader by Herminia Ibarra
We love this book. It dispels the popular leadership notion that there is one authentic self, it speaks to the VUCA world leaders have to navigate now and it champions the idea of ACTION over...
49 Ways to Write Yourself Well by Jackee Holder
The compelling science of journalling is now well known. It is the most effective tool at raising the self awareness critical for leadership and working parenthood. But where do you start? 49 Ways...
Watching
The University of Oxford Mindfulness Centre: Changing Modes After Work.
We are recommending this 4-minute ditty from The University of Oxford Mindfulness Centre called Changing Modes After Work. We often remind our coaching clients that the single most effective...
Optimising the Performance of the Human Mind: Steve Peters at TEDxYouth
You may be familiar with the best selling Chimp Paradox by - get a top up in 13 minutes by watching Dr Steve Peters explain the theory of the Chimp paradox that some of us know as the Inner critic....
Brené Brown
What's not to love. Brown at her best, vulnerable, funny, straight-talking and oozing in evidence for all her theories. Just watch! Available at Netflix
Listening
Brené Brown: Unlocking Us
Brené Brown has an approachability and wisdom that draws you in and makes the listener feels seen and heard and valued. Her humour helps as does her huge intellect and he attention to language and...
Breaking the Burnout cycle
"Burnout undermines success, it doesn't make it more likely. You can't be productive if you are running on empty" says Arianna Huffington on the Breaking the Burnout Cycle podcast produced by the...
Anne Helen Petersen: Errand Paralysis
“Errand paralysis” is a symptom of our culture’s general obsession with efficiency, optimization, and ultimately being a “good worker.” Which is all leading to ever-increasing rates of burnout...
