I’m sitting at our dining table on the deck, a coffee near at hand, my dog Ruby at my feet and Classic FM playing in the background.

I’ve been working through my ‘to do’ list ticking things off and following others up either by phone or email.

Then – I look up, I listen – there’s dappled sunlight through the pecan trees, the cicadas are ‘singing’ and I’ve just heard a kookaburra claiming its territory.  A quote about Tao leaders comes to mind reminding me that rich insights come when I remember to stop and listen.

Tao leaders

Here’s the quote from page 182 of a book called the The Tao of Inner Peace:

Tao leaders spend their time watching and listening.

In order to see clearly, we must look beyond ourselves.

In order to listen, we must first be still.

The value of taking regular time out

Regular time for reflective practice with a leadership coach is one way to ensure you take time to be.

Have you taken the time to be still and listen today, and where do you go to find stillness?

“Kate, it’s hard to put into words what happened while I was in that Japanese garden.  Ideas kept popping up as if from nowhere.”  So said a client of mine, I’ll call her Julia, after her recent visit to Japan.

Oh the power of time and space to reflect!

Julia has a husband who’s currently studying and they have two young children.  She also has a demanding, full-time role in the Finance sector.  Late last year she had the opportunity to attend a conference in Japan and with her husband’s blessing, indeed encouragement, she flew up a few days prior to the conference for some time alone – a first since the birth of their second child two years ago.

Beauty and tranquility as an aid to reflection

Julia woke early on her first morning in Japan and, armed with a map and a note book, she took to the streets.  In her wanderings she just happened upon what she later discovered, is a well known Japanese garden.  She immersed herself in the beauty and tranquility of the place, and it was then that her mind started firing.  As ideas came, she jotted them down in her note book, then wandered on.  “Kate, things that, as you know, I’ve been angsting over for ages, just seemed to come clear.  It was amazing.”

The value of regular reflective practice

During her next Leadership Coaching session, Julia and I spent time consolidating her reflections from that Japanese garden.  And somewhere in our conversation she paused and exclaimed, “I now understand what happens in my coaching sessions – they are like regular visits to that Japanese garden because they give me the time and space to reflect.”  I nodded and glowed – another human being understood the value of regular reflective practice.

What and where is your Japanese garden?

In this blog I’m writing about one of my favourite topics yet again – how important a vision is to keep our lives on track through thick and thin.  Here’s a story I wrote in my latest newsletter that is worth repeating here:

One of my longest-term clients meets with me twice a year to review her vision.  When we met for her Vision Coaching session in early October she was in a tough place both personally and professionally and I commented on how calm she seemed, to which she said, “Kate, my vision guides me every day to do what needs to be done and not worry about what can wait”.  Oh the power of vision, we both agreed!

So what is a vision?

I sometimes use the analogy that a vision is the rudder that keeps us on track as we manoevre our way through the whirl pool called life.  It is the essence of how we want our world to be.  We also need a purpose to give us the focus for our vision, and goals to get us there.  And I believe it’s really important to write our vision down.

Have you got a vision that steers you through your life?

As my regular readers already know I’m committed to an and/both way of being and doing – even my business is called AnD Consulting!

Actual and Online Networking

This blog tells the and/both story of how a combination of human and online networking provided 2 new clients for my business.

Earlier this year I was walking along the beach with Jenny Vulcan a friend and colleague who does wonderful leadership development work.  She told me she was talking to a woman called Kate James about a possible collaboration. To which I exclaimed “I know about her – I get her Monday morning message each week!”  On the following Monday when her message for the week landed in my mailbox I emailed Kate Wood and told her about my ‘six degrees of separation’ experience with Jenny Vulcan.  Kate rang me and we had an excellent telephone conversation – she in Melbourne and me inland from Byron Bay – during which we discovered we shared much in common.

Blogging works!

Later that day Kate wrote a blog about our connection and kindly included a link to my website.  A week or so later I got a call from a client of Kate’s who had read her blog.  She was enquiring about my coaching services and I’m now providing regular Leadership Coaching support to she and her  life and business partner in Brisbane.

Oh the wonders of networking in both a high tech and high touch environment: a conversation during a walk on the bench, leading to an email, a telephone conversation, a blog, another telephone conversation and now a new face to face coaching client!

What are your experiences of High Tech and High Touch?

As my regular readers know my business is named AnD Consulting to represent my commitment to an and/both life.  For example, as I coached a recent Leadership Coaching client who was exploring a shift in career direction, I encouraged her to explore both its idealistic and pragmatic aspects by thinking through – was this career move congruent with her vision and did it pay well enough?!!

In the first weekend of August I had my annual treat of three days at the Byron Bay Writers Festival.  On day two I gathered another great example of two choices that, in an either/or world would be contradictory, but that, in an and/both world, are each possible.

Expect the Unexpected

Much to my surprise the highlight of the festival for me was an interview with a bloke called John Keane.  I further surprised myself by purchasing his 958 page book called The Life and Death of Democracy.

On the back cover Keane is describd as one of Britain’s leading political writers, a man whose work on democracy is of world-wide importance and declares that the book confronts its readers with an entirely fresh and irreverent look at the past, present and future of democracy.  Keane is in fact an Australian and is just home after many years offshore to become Professor of Politics at Sydney University – lucky students I say!

And/both in Monitory Democracy

Keane’s and/both message was in relation to the Monitory Democracy we now have that includes regulatory bodies (such as ASIC) and an opportunity for us to have our say through lobby groups such at GetUp! and Amnesty International – to name just two – as well as with our vote on election days.  Keane however did caution that change takes time in a Monitory Democracy and urged us to be both patient and impatient with our politicians.

What are your thoughts about this new form of democracy and/or have you any recent examples of an and/both way?

I had lunch with a friend called Margaret Kelly the other day.  She told me about an art exhibition she recently held in a village in Italy themed on a quote by Max Weber:

Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun.

Ignoring the gender exclusiveness common in Weber’s time, the quote really spoke to me.

However, where Margaret turns to art and paints pictures to express her thoughts and feelings about how we can get tangled up in webs of our own and others’ making, my mind turns to the power of having a personal vision to weave a web of my own choosing.

I wrote my first vision in the mid ’80s and review it annually.  I’ve always seen my vision as a rudder that helps me keep steering in the direction I’ve set rather than getting caught up in the whirlpool called life.   Weber’s quote has given me a new analogy:   having a vision means I weave my own web of meaning and purpose and stops me getting tangled in others’ webs.

Do you have a personal vision that helps you weave your own web?  If not, and Weber’s quote speaks to you too, check out our Vision Coaching service.