February - 2022

Feb 1, 2022
3 min

Leading when you don’t feel like a leader [Wise Wednesday]

I occasionally get asked: “Amina, I don’t feel like a leader (or high achiever), do the ideas you talk about still apply to me and can I use them?” The context of the question tells me the person is usually underestimating themselves. Henry Ford summed up a response like this: “whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re probably right.” Or two thousand years earlier in the bible: “as a (hu)man thinketh, so (s)he is”. Essentially, every wisdom tradition and mod

Feb 1, 2022
3 min

If you had one wish...[Wise Wednesdays]

If someone offered you the opportunity to turn any wish into reality what would you choose? A wish without action is just an idea. Your wish has a much better chance of turning into reality if you make it your priority. Being clear on your priorities (and why they’re your priorities) is the most effective way to manage your time. It’s so easy to put too much on your plate and then not know where to start and get stuck in a procrastination! But you’re only ever an instant away

Feb 1, 2022
3 min

3 responses to criticism that you’re too aggressive (or not aggressive enough!) [Wise Wednesdays]

Have you ever been told you’re too aggressive? Or worried that you were? Or perhaps you’ve been told you’re not aggressive enough! You’re too “timid” or “shy” in meetings.. The subject came up in PPP (Presence Power Possibility: Advance Your Leadership) - the 3 month group coaching programme we started in June. Toxic environments can be highly critical and leave you feeling like there’s something wrong with you. It can leave you feeling like you don’t belong or don’t have som

Feb 1, 2022
3 min

What to do when you don’t know what to do [Wise Wednesdays]

How do you know what to do when you don’t know what to do (especially around big decisions like changing career or life)? If you’re feeling that way, you’re not alone. It’s a key theme in transformational coaching and the topic of a few past Wise Wednesdays like this one. About 70% of coaching conversations start with “I don’t know what to do” especially early on in the coaching process. Reference points are moving Milestones have lost their meaning Confusion may have settled

Feb 1, 2022
4 min

Finding strength and peace in troubled times [Wise Wednesdays]

Tolstoy had imposter syndrome. At the height of his fame as one of the most celebrated authors of his time, he felt like a failure according to his diary. I found myself musing over this at the weekend, having been tagged in an article on 6 worrying signs of a toxic workplace community in which I’m referred to as a “renowned coach and consultant in careers and leadership”. Does reading that kind of thing mean that I’ve made it? I don’t think so. But I don’t feel that I haven’

Feb 1, 2022
3 min

Taming microaggressions [Wise Wednesdays ]

TAMING MICROAGGRESSIONS PART 2 [WISE WEDNESDAYS] I shared in a post on Facebook recently that I never know how to answer the “ethnicity and diversity” parts of application forms and other documents. I don’t see myself as “white” or “asian” or “black”, so I tend to tick “other” and add “north african”. I can’t say I’ve ever felt the brunt of racism against me, although I’ve probably subconsciously ignored a few things to avoid feeling depressed or powerless. I’d say my experie

Feb 1, 2022
3 min

Breaking the cycles that trap us [Wise Wednesdays ]

My mother heard the first gunshot. And then the second. She’d been told to come straight back from school, and hurried on. As she looked over her shoulder she noticed a man cycling. After a few meters he toppled over bleeding and the police began to circle in. One morning, my great grandmother grabs her by the hand and heads for the police station. My mother was only a child. But they’d been summoned by the occupying forces: “Where is your son?” the officer asked my great gra

Feb 1, 2022
2 min

I didn’t realise how stressed I was these past 10 years [Wise Wednesdays ]

Sometimes it takes a brutal wakeup call to slow down and realign your life, and sometimes it doesn’t. A few people just decide one day that enough is enough one and exit the building. Legend in the making: I was on a coaching call with my client, Julia, last week. In the space of a few months she’s radically redesigned her life and work. When we started working together her priority was to slow down and take a break from her successful but fast-paced career. She had already a

Feb 1, 2022
2 min

From frozen inside to heart on fire in life[Workshop]

It was a grey afternoon in 2009. The therapist stared silently across from me as I wriggled awkwardly in the chair. I felt so vulnerable and abnormal for being there. This situation wasn’t part of the plan. How did it come to this? A mentor recommended I go for a consultation after noticing that I hadn’t taken time off for 18 months. She gently convinced me it wasn’t quite right to feel I didn’t deserve a break and couldn’t relax... After a very stilted beginning to

Feb 1, 2022
2 min

How to rediscover the sweet spot in life [Workshop]

When your heart is on fire... The historic times we live in have amplified a sense of purpose and inspiration in me and many of my clients. I’m doing work I love, that makes a difference, and on terms that work for me. The Japanese call it Ikigai – the sweet spot between your passion, your strengths, what the world needs, and what the world will support and pay you for. But there have been ups and downs. Back in 2001, I was discovering the sweet spot of my career. I woke up o

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