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 I often hear leaders today talk about the fact that they are coaching their staff. However, when I ask them more about their conversations, they are not in fact coaching, but often telling, teaching or mentoring their staff.

 Coaching is a very specific relationship, marked by a specific type of communication. According to an August 14, 2018 Harvard Business Review article by Julia Milner: “managers tend to think they’re coaching when they’re actually just telling their employees what to do.”

According to Sir John Whitmore, a leading figure in executive coaching, the definition of coaching is “unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.” When done right, coaching can also help with employee engagement; it is often more motivating to bring your expertise to a situation than to be told what to do.

An ongoing study on the topic that analysed more than 900 recorded evaluations of “coaching conversations,” showed that when many managers were asked to “coach,” they instead demonstrated a form of consulting. They provided the other person with advice or a solution. Regularly heard were comments like, “First you do this” or “Why don’t you try this?”

The author’s research looked specifically at how you can train people to be better coaches. The good news is that managers can improve their coaching skills in a short amount of time, but they do have to invest in learning how to coach in the first place.

The research looked specifically at how you can train people to be better coaches by focusing on analysing the following nine leadership coaching skills, based on the existing literature and practical experiences of leadership coaching:

· listening

· questioning

 giving feedback

· assisting with goal setting

· showing empathy

· letting the coachee arrive at their own solution

· recognizing and pointing out strengths

· providing structure

· encouraging a solution-focused approach

After a short training program aimed at teaching managers to improve coaching competencies, the result was a 40.2% increase in overall coaching ability ratings across all nine categories, on average.

Consider the key takeaways from this research:

1.   Be clear on what coaching is and what it isn’t.

2.   Let leaders practice coaching in a safe environment before working with their own teams.

3.   Invest in some form of training that includes time for participants to reflect on their coaching skills. Ask “what’s working” and “what can we do better?”

4.   Feedback from coaching experts in order to improve is helpful; how well are the coaching skills being applied.

5.   Consider regular peer coaching, in the presence of a coaching expert to provide a safe environment, and to facilitate discussions about how to overcome coaching challenges.

So, leaders take note. Coaching may not be what you thought. But real coaching leads to increased accountability and increased outcomes and problem solving. Coaching can be a significant opportunity for leaders and staff to embrace and coaching can be learned.

In designing an approach, consider the importance of learning effective coaching to ensure that leaders are not reinforcing poor coaching practices among themselves.

Wanting to create a coaching culture in your organisation? Send me an email at [email protected] to discuss coach training for leadership.

Do me a favour. I want you to close your eyes and tell yourself out loud “Don’t imagine a pink elephant.”

Great.  Now, I’ll bet one of two things just happened.

One, an image of a pink elephant popped into your mind.

Two, you saw the image of a pink elephant and you quickly made it disappear.

What do pink elephants have to do with your thoughts and improving your life? Stick with me here because I want to share something so profoundly important, that it can change your life.

While your subconscious mind will always do what you want – without question – it can’t process the word DON’T. In fact, it ignores the word DON’T. All of the time.

When you say to yourself, “Don’t imagine a pink elephant,” your subconscious mind will delete the word ‘DON’T”, and hear your request  as “Imagine a pink elephant.” The result is that you’ll always see the image of a pink elephant first.

The word DON’T will cause you to do and feel what you don’t want.

If you say to yourself “I don’t want to be nervous during my presentation,” your mind translates that as “want to be nervous during my presentation.”  That image of being nervous is the first thing your subconscious mind sees. Guess what happens next? You end up being nervous during your presentation. The EXACT OPPOSITE of what you really want.

 When you say, “I DON’T want to be afraid to start my own business,” your inner mind hears “Want to be afraid to start my business.”

When you say, “I DON’T want to worry today,” your subconscious mind hears “Want to worry today.”  Then you’ll keep on worrying.

When a dieter says, “I DON’T want to eat chocolate,” their subconscious mind hears “Want to eat chocolate.” What will that dieter think about all day? Chocolate.

When you say, “I DON’T want to be anxious about money,” your inner mind hears “Want to be anxious about money,”   causing you to continue to feel anxious about money.

When a golfer says “I DON’T want to hit it into the hazard,” his subconscious mind hears“Want to hit it into the hazard.”  Guess where that ball ends up? Right into the hazard.

When mum says “DON’T forget to put those toys away, her child hears “Forget to put those toys away,” and those toys don’t get put away.

For the next few days notice when you say the word “DON’T. As soon as you do, then change your thought to the opposite. You might want to start your sentence with “What if…”   or   “I would like to…”

For example, if you say “I don’t want to worry today.” Change it to: “I would like to feel calm today.”

“I don’t want to be anxious about money.” “I want to feel relaxed about money.”

You get the idea. JUST DON’T SAY “DON’T”.              

What’s one thought that you have often that will benefit from eliminating the word DON’T?

Want to know more about managing your internal monologue and increasing your mental toughness? Send me an email at [email protected] to enquire about training and coaching..

We all have the odd sleepless night, especially when something is worrying us, or we are under more stress than usual. But sometimes that odd sleepless night can turn into many sleepless nights and this almost creates worry for us about going to bed. But this is in fact the very place where we should feel the safest and the most relaxed.

So, if you feel yourself tossing and turning in the dark, don’t give up — small changes in mindset and routine can help you to let go of wakeful tension and worry and get back on track for a restful night. Consider some practices to explore and no, they do not involve counting sheep.

1) Create some space in your mind. Consider settling yourself and your mind after a busy day. Before you go to bed:

Say goodnight to your devices: The first thing we need to pay attention to is getting our screens out of the room. If you have your phone or a tablet lighting up your bedside table, it’s going to disturb your sleeping patterns. It’s best if it’s not in your room at all. It’s creating activity in your mind that you have to pay attention to.

Don’t force it: We have to stop trying to fall asleep. Our brains are too smart for that. The moment we’re trying to do something, we’re creating stress on top of it. So we don’t want to try and fall asleep. See if you can let go of the notion of trying to fall asleep at all.

Try a body scan meditation: Bring mindfulness into the sleep experience. You can do a gentle body scan practice where you’re being curious about just noticing sensations in your body and your breathing. When your attention wanders or becomes frustrated, see if you can just take note of that and gently come back to being with what’s here. When we allow ourselves to be with what’s here, the body naturally goes to rest, which is what it wants to do.

2) Undo the tension in your body.  Just 10 minutes of gentle stretching and breathing, can bring calm to your whole body — paving the way for sleep to happen more naturally. If you want some ideas, try this link - guided practice. 3) Observe your sleep struggles. Do you identify as “someone who struggles to sleep” — and then you struggle more? You can release this self-fulfilling mental pattern by cultivating 7 non-judgmental attitudes toward your sleep troubles suggested by Jason Ong, a sleep Psychologist from Rush University Medical Centre.

·        Beginner’s mind

·        Remember: Each night is a new night. Be open and try something different! What you have been doing to this point is probably not working well.

·        Non-striving Sleep is a process that cannot be forced but instead, should be allowed to unfold. Putting more effort into sleeping longer or better is counterproductive.

·        Letting go

·        Attachment to sleep or your ideal sleep needs usually leads to worry about the consequences of sleeplessness. This is counterproductive and inconsistent with the natural process of letting go of the day to allow sleep to come.

·        Non-judging It is easy to automatically judge the state of being awake as negative and aversive, especially if you do not sleep well for several nights. However, this negative energy can interfere with the process of sleep. One’s relationship to sleep can be a fruitful subject of meditation.

·        Acceptance Recognizing and accepting your current state is an important first step in choosing how to respond. If you can accept that you are not in a state of sleepiness and sleep is not likely to come soon, why not get out of bed? Many people who have trouble sleeping avoid getting out of bed. Unfortunately, spending long periods of time awake in bed might condition you to being awake in bed.

·        Trust Trust your sleep system and let it work for you! Trust that your mind and body can self regulate and self correct for sleep loss. Knowing that short consolidated sleep often feels more satisfying than longer fragmented sleep can help you develop trust in your sleep system. Also, sleep debt can promote good sleep as long as it is not associated with increased effort to sleep.

·        Patience Be patient! It’s unlikely that both the quality and quantity of your sleep will be optimal right away.

Want to know more about setting up a great wellbeing routine for yourself, email me at [email protected]

After a fairly hectic week with some late work day training sessions, and a busy weekend to boot, I was looking for a way to wind down on my Sunday night to give myself a bit of R&R. One of my favourite past times is to watch a great movie. None of my regulars were grabbing me, so I decided to scroll through and pick out a new movie to watch that I hadn’t seen before. My Pick – Eddie The Eagle. I thought it looked inspirational and was also relevant given the current Winter Olympics.

I had not been a particular fan of winter sports (not being a fan of the cold – Brrrr) and had not in fact heard of Eddie The Eagle. However I found the movie really inspirational.

The movie is loosely based on Eddie (Michael) Edwards, who overcomes adversity to be a ski jumper at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. The movie tells the story of a young boy (the son of a plasterer) who desperately wants to compete in the Olympics – and he does not care initially in what event. As a boy, he wore callipers on his legs and when they are removed, he tries every sport imaginable (from holding his breathe underwater, to high jumping, to hurdles) but without any success. He finally turns his attention to winter sports and skiing and after a lot of hard work and dedication only narrowly misses out on making the Olympic team. So he turns his attention to Ski Jumping and being Britain’s first Olympic Ski Jumper.

Everybody told him he couldn’t do it, even his father. But he wanted this so badly. He overcame adversity including a significant crash after a very bad landing, working different jobs and sleeping in broom closets, and ridicule from peers. But he didn’t care – he just wanted to be an Olympian.

When Eddie finally qualified, he was so overjoyed. He had already fulfilled his dream, even before he competed, and when he arrived, he won the crowd over with his joyful enthusiasm at just competing.

When he did compete, Eddie the Eagle finished last in all three of his jumps at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, but what he did do was manage to beat his own personal record. His responses to achieving his personal best jumps, were overt displays of joy and exuberance, flapping his wings in front of an adoring crowd. He didn’t care about coming last, he cared about competing and achieving his best.

"You have captured our hearts. And some of you have soared like eagles," remarked Frank King, the games' chief executive, during a speech at the closing ceremonies. 

In my opinion, Eddie showed the true nature of a growth mindset:

“He didn’t want to be THE best. He wanted to do HIS best”

 I think we could all learn a lot about ourselves from this great little flick. Think about these opportunities to fly like an eagle and embrace a growth mindset.

1)   Run your own race

Stop comparing yourself to others and their success. Define what you want your personal success to look like. Start to run your own race and derive joy from being better than you were yesterday.

2)   Embrace a challenge

Step outside your comfort zone and get comfortable being uncomfortable. Recognise that you will come out stronger on the other side and learn a lot about yourself and how to tap into your strengths.

3)   Persist in the face of setbacks

Don’t let obstacles or setbacks discourage you from your path. Recognise your self-image is not tied to your success and how you look to other people. A setback or perceived failure is just another opportunity to learn. So whatever happens, you still win.

4)   Put in the Effort

We may have natural talent or none at all. But the only way to mastery is effort and lots of it. Effort is necessary to grow and build skill and capability, so sweat and tears are a must.

5)   Criticism is just another source of information

We often smart when receiving criticism or negative feedback and shy away from it. But if we embrace a growth mindset and see criticism as information that we can use to grow and improve, then we can start to recognise that negative feedback does not have to be directed about us as a person, but about our current level of skill and ability – and this we can always improve with effort.

So, when we have a growth mindset, we can create positive feedback loops that encourage us to keep learning and improving and run our own race.

If you are interested in developing your growth mindset, contact me at [email protected]

If an organisation is going to adopt a growth mindset, its leaders need to also cultivate this same growth mindset and believe that strengths can be developed. I recently wrote an article for the Australian Business Executive on Developing A Growth Mindset In Your Organisation. However no organisation can adopt this mindset if those at the top are not leading the way.

Research shows that managers see far more leadership potential in their employees when their companies adopt a growth mindset — the belief that talent should be developed in everyone, not viewed as a fixed, innate gift that some have and others don’t.

Developing a growth mindset from both a leadership and organisational perspective takes hard work and dedication. Some perceive that developing a growth mindset is all about constantly rewarding and praising effort. However effort alone is not always desirable if the outcome is unproductive.

So what does a leader with a growth mindset look like?

They see setbacks as a learning opportunity

Leaders who embrace a growth mindset know that both learning and progress are just as important as effort. So leaders with a growth mindset don’t get bogged down by their shortcomings or those of their staff, instead they encourage themselves and others to learn from their experiences. They have the opportunity to apply their collective knowledge and use it to avoid making the same mistakes in the future. It’s often easy to experience insecurity when a challenge seems daunting. However an individual with a growth mindset has an opportunity to acknowledge these internal self-doubts and then reframe and counteract with self-statements to allow them to get back on track.

They look for new opportunities

Leaders who embrace a growth mindset demonstrate flexibility. When you take time to develop your growth mindset, you start to see opportunities around you and as a result you can start to seize these opportunities. When you see a staff member demonstrate a strength in the workplace, you can immediately recognise this potential and work to adopt a strategy to maximise their potential. When you attend a conference and gain new insights, you are motivated to maximise your learning and implement the new strategies back into your workplace. Your goal is also not only to maximise the strengths of your staff and your organisation, but also to maximise your own potential. You have the opportunity to develop the character strength of love of learning, and soak up opportunities that reading, internet search and webinars provide.

They minimise procrastination and avoid distractions

Leaders who adopt a growth mindset recognise the substantial gains they can make through hard work and dedication. They are committed to goal setting and they typically have stickability to those goals. As a leader it is often easy to become distracted. Putting out fires is often a full-time occupation and a leader can feel that they are bogged down by urgent, but not important tasks. But leaders with a growth mindset recognise their specific purpose and dedicate themselves to productive effort to ensure both they and their team work towards the collective vision.

If a team is experiencing disruption and perhaps is weighed down by conflict or gossip then a leader with a growth mindset will develop a plan for tackling the issue and stick to these chosen methods to allow an outcome to occur. Their goal will be to nip issues in the bud and keep their staff “above the line” allowing all to focus on goals and output and avoid the drama drama drama.

They celebrate success

Individuals with a fixed mindset are often threatened by other people’s success. However a leader with a growth mindset is eager to celebrate the successes of his/her staff and recognises that cutting down tall poppies is completely unproductive. They wish to encourage, support and celebrate the productive effort that has resulted in a successful outcome and to build confidence that hard work and dedication can produce such outcomes. A growth mindset leader does not feel threatened by successful staff members and can reflect on the fact that a staff member’s success is also their success and the organisation’s success.

They gain inspiration and are inspirational

A growth mindset leader, can look at the success of others and gain inspiration to better understand how to fire up their own personal motivation and initiatives. They value the efforts and ideas of others and can incorporate these into their own personal goals and organisational goals. This brings with it an appreciation for collaboration which in turn inspires others. Staff can also recognise that their leader is dedicated to their individual needs, recognises their value and genuinely wants to assist them to succeed. As a result they also inspire others to do the same.

They build stronger relationships

A growth mindset leader recognises that failure is not a reason to punish a staff member. FAIL - merely stands for -First Attempt In Learning. When a leader has the opportunity to refrain struggles as learning experiences, they become more patient and understanding and as a result tighter bonds tend to be formed with staff and a greater level of trust and respect is formed.

They value progress over perfection

Leaders often stress, attempting to ensure that everything is perfect. As a result they often waste a lot of time and effort perfecting things that don’t need to be perfected. However leaders with a growth mindset recognise that it is better for both them and their staff to achieve progress towards their shared goals rather than stopping every five seconds to ensure that every step of the way is perfect in its outcome. They recognise that progress is better to celebrate than perfection.

If you are interested in developing your growth mindset as a leader, Bakjac Consulting is running a five week online webinar series to develop a growth mindset and mental toughness.

This 5 week online Webinar Series will commence in late January 2018 and will begin with you completing the MTQ48 to gain an understanding of your current Mental Toughness. Then you will participate in a 5 week mental toughness development programme to develop your growth mindset and flex your mental toughness muscles. Want to know more? Contact Michelle on 0412047590 or via email, michelle@bakjacconsulting, or check out here on Bakjac Consulting’s website for more information.

Have you ever been in a situation where you’re in the middle of a meeting, discussing something that is very important to you and which you feel passionate about, only to have somebody ask you a question for which you don’t have the answer. Have you fumbled with your response, get all self-conscious, feel like a bit of a stunned mullet and just can’t get a coherent sentence together. Then later when you leave the meeting, do you think of all the fantastic things you could have said to respond to this question. “If only I have said……” “What if I had……” This was me recently in a meeting with a new client I was hoping to impress. As I came out of the meeting, I then thought of all the brilliant things I could have said as I was walking back to my car.

I was rereading Amy Cuddy’s book Presence again over the weekend and she explains that 18th century French philosopher and writer, Denis Diderot called this the “spirit of the stairs”. Diderot was at a dinner party, engaged in conversation over a topic he knew very well. But for whatever reason he wasn’t himself that night, perhaps a bit self-conscious, distracted or worried about appearing foolish. When he was challenged on a particular point, Diderot found himself at a loss for words, incapable of putting together a clever response. Soon after, he left the party. On his way down the staircase, Diderot replayed that humiliating moment over and over in his mind and as he did so he searched for the perfect retort. Just as he reached the bottom of the stairs, voila, he found it. At that moment he contemplated turning around, walking back up the stairs and returning to the party to deliver his witty come back, but alas, it was too late at that point, the opportunity had passed. He was flooded with regret. If only he’d had the presence of mind to find the right words he needed at the time. Reflecting on this experience in 1773, Diderot wrote “A sensitive man, such as myself, overwhelmed by the argument levelled against him, becomes confused and can only think clearly again when he reaches the bottom of the stairs.”      

We all want that do-over. We have all had our own personal experiences. Perhaps it’s been in a job interview, going on a date, having a conversation at a dinner party, answering a question after a presentation. Going into the situation, were we constantly worried about what others might think of us? Did we feel powerless? Were we worried about looking foolish? It would seem that this anticipatory anxiety often winds us into knots of self defeat. Before we even show up to the meeting we are full of anxiety and dread, borrowing trouble from a future that hasn’t yet unfolded. Cuddy explains that we have basically condemned ourselves to leave the situation feeling bad when we walk into a high-pressure situation with this frame of mind.

At this point we are consumed by “If Onlys” and “What ifs”. If only I had remembered to say this….. If only I’d done it that way…… If only I’d shown them who I really am.

But can we be really engaged in a successful interaction when we are so busy second-guessing ourselves and attending to the internal monologue that we have running around in our heads. We have constant self-doubt and we constantly anticipate the future outcome in a negative way. When you really need to be present in the room, this is the time when we are actually least likely to be.

Consider an opportunity where you don’t give power to these self-fulfilling prophecies. An opportunity to actually be in the moment, feel energised and at ease with what we’re saying and what we’re doing, imagine feeling liberated from your fears about how others may be judging you. Imagine leaving the situation you’re in without regret and satisfied that you did your best. Imagine the opportunities when you have Presence!

Cuddy defines Presence as… The state of being attuned to and able to comfortably express our thoughts, feelings, values and potential.

Cuddy indicates that “presence emerges when we feel personally powerful, which allows us to be acutely attuned to our most sincere selves. In this psychological state, we are able to maintain presence even in very stressful situations that typically make us feel distracted and powerless. When we feel present, our speech, facial expressions, postures and movements align. They synchronise and focus. This internal convergence, this harmony, is palpable and resonant because it is real. We are no longer fighting ourselves, we are being ourselves.”

Cuddy explains that we should focus on moments, achieving a state of psychological presence that lasts just long enough to get us through our most challenging situations. Through self nudges, small tweaks in our body language and mindsets, we can achieve presence.

One of my favourite quotes from Amy….. “Sometimes you have to get out of the way of yourself so you can be yourself.”

Want to know more about building your presence? Contact me to discuss coaching to build your self-confidence, presence and mental toughness.

Michelle Bakjac is an experienced Psychologist, Organisational Consultant, Coach, Speaker and Facilitator. As Director of Bakjac Consulting, she is a credentialed Coach with the International Coach Federation (ICF) and a member of Mental Toughness Partners and an MTQ48 accredited Mental Toughness practitioner. Michelle assists individuals and organisations to develop their Mental Toughness to improve performance, leadership, behaviour and wellbeing. 

Thanks to The Australian Business Executive (ABE) for publishing my article “Developing A Growth Mindset and Mental Toughness In Your Organisation. See the full article below, or download the magazine here and check it out on page 50.

Worldwide, only 13% of employees are engaged at work. That’s a pretty shocking statistic. In Australia, we are slightly better. 24% of Australians are engaged in their work (we are 2nd world wide behind the USA), but 60% of staff are actively disengaged. That’s a big drain on productivity in the average workplace.

Research conducted by Great Place To Work shows that only 12% of CEOs globally believe they are driving the right culture in their organisation. So really, is it any surprise that only 13% of employees are engaged in the workplace?

Consider too that mental health costs Australian businesses 10 billion dollars per year in lost productivity. (4.7 billion in absenteeism and 6.1 billion in presenteeism).

As a business leader, we need to invest in recognising the benefits of developing mental toughness and a growth mindset in our organization, teams and the individuals who are responsible for the success of any business.

If individuals have a fixed mindset, they believe their basic qualities – their intelligence, their talents, their abilities- are just fixed traits. In other words, they are considered a part of you that cannot be changed. However, an individual with a growth mindset believes that even basic talents and abilities can be developed over time through experience and dedicated effort.   People with a growth mindset “go for it”. They are not plagued by anxiety about how smart they are or how they’ll look if they make a mistake. They challenge themselves to grow. Those with a growth mindset are also those who tend to have higher mental toughness. They focus on making things happen, they embrace challenges, they persist in the face of setbacks, they learn from criticism and welcome feedback and find lessons and inspiration from the success of others.

Are you currently able to look around at your team and recognise those who have higher levels of mental toughness and those who are more mentally sensitive? Do you have team members who always volunteer for new projects, manage their emotions and commit to dedicated action? Or do you have a team who struggle with change, let their emotions get the better of them and lose focus easily?

Mental Toughness is basically a mindset that a person adopts in everything they do and determines how they perform under stress and pressure irrespective of the prevailing circumstances. Mental Toughness is more than resilience alone. If Resilience is our ability to “survive”, then Mental Toughness is our ability to “thrive”.

Our current working environments are more challenging than ever. VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) is a leadership concept well known to many organisations and has almost become the “new normal” given the constant change that often surrounds many businesses.

So what are you looking for to identify if your team has high levels of mental toughness and a growth mindset?

Individuals within a team need to demonstrate Emotional Control. They need to feel they can shape what happens to them, be able to manage their own emotions as well as understand and recognise other people’s emotions and how to manage these. They are not difficult to provoke or annoy and do not get anxious or angry easily. They stay calm in a crisis and are able to keep a much broader perspective on things.

An individual with high levels of Mental Toughness also has Life Control. They believe they can make a difference, are comfortable to do several different things at once, are good at planning, prioritising and time management and are prepared to work hard to clear blockages from their path. They believe they can define what needs to be done and see the solution rather than the problem.

Mentally Tough individuals have Commitment. They like setting clearly defined goals and use goals to define what their success will look like. They are able to maintain focus and have a sense of purpose.

They see Challenges as opportunities rather than threats and are likely to provoke change and continuous improvement. They are happy to commit to projects, enjoy healthy competition, work hard and are not afraid of extra effort to achieve success.

Mentally Tough individuals have Confidence in Their Ability. They have little need for external validation, but rather an internal locus of control. They are happy to ask questions and seek advice and provide full and clear responses. They see feedback as a positive opportunity and see competence and excellence in others as a form of motivation. They also have Interpersonal Confidence. They will engage in discussion and can be more risk oriented. They are happy to ask for support and are not shy in coming forward. They enjoy working in a group of like-minded individuals and engage easily.

As business leaders, there is a significant opportunity to enhance work place engagement and build a workforce that are accountable, solution focused, growth focused and see challenges and change as opportunities. Implementing potential for the development of a growth mindset and mental toughness can lead to significant increases in productivity, staff retainment and engagement.  

Last week I facilitated a full day session on Mental Toughness for leadership with over 50 senior leaders in a large organisation.

The Managers all completed an MTQ48 (psychometric assessment to measure Mental Toughness) to gain a complete picture of their overall Mental Toughness as well as their ratings on each of the 4Cs of Control, Commitment, Challenge and Confidence.

It really was a great session, but I must admit my favourite exercise of the day was asking the team to separate into groups of 4 and 5 and consider the Confidence C. Their task was to first think of all they could do to build their own confidence and second of all, what they could do to build the confidence of members of their team. What we ended up with was a fantastic list of opportunities.

When they had finished with their lists, I asked them how many of these really great opportunities they actually carried out on a day to day basis. They admitted it was not as many as they would have liked.

Have a look down the list they came up with. How many do you engage in as an individual or as a leader on a daily basis? For example, do you undertake the simple exercise of reflection? Do you sit in a quiet spot at the end of the day and reflect on what went well, what you are proud of and what your team achieved? If not, why not?

Want to know more about improving your Mental Toughness and your Confidence C? Send me an email at [email protected] to enquire about training and coaching to build strategies to enhance Mental Toughness.