Harmonics

My Mam passed away inside the past fortnight, she was a great age, and with the world in such a strange place, I have been reflecting on her life journey and wondering what three words any of us would use to describe our life journey to date?

In Mam’s case, it would be Faith, Hope and Charity.

Faith – She had great faith in God and prayed the Rosary fervently every day. I would call to the house in the evenings, and she would have Sally answering back the rosary. “What else have you left if you don’t have your faith?” she used to say to me. “Trust in God” was one her renowned sayings. It was a way that generation dealt with hardship. When they had little else, they had the faith to just keep on going. It’s on reflection when I considered these words. While My Mam’s generation had their faith, what have we? We might use words like ‘purpose’ and ‘resilience’ today but how much faith do we have in ourselves to overcome life’s challenges? My Mam grew up the second youngest of 8 sisters wearing hand me downs so lots of faith was needed?

Hope – She was a beacon of hope for me in my life and always had a smile on her face. I made the wrong career decision when I left secondary school to stay at home on the farm and she could see the tensions rising each day across the dinner table between Dad and I. She also could see history repeating itself in that Dad himself never wanted to be a farmer but was the only son in the family and here I was now going to do the same thing! She got me into my first job and off I went from there. Throughout my working life, she’s been my cheerleader and since starting Harmonics, was always asking me in hope if we had won any new contracts. Two comments stand out from sympathisers at the funeral, one said, “You always felt better about yourself after leaving Chris”, while another said – “she had an infectious enthusiasm for life”. What a great legacy to leave and I wonder what words people use to describe any of us when we leave them?

Charity -Our family home was at a cross-roads and an open-door meeting place for locals to debate sports, politics, or parish news. The kettle was always-on, and the smell of fresh tarts or scones still waft from memory each time I enter the house. My great memory of Mam is the energy she put into local community and fundraising for the parish. This generation of Mam’s had little of their own money but gave so selflessly to others. Photos were rare and for special occasions. Mam’s life was about putting the focus on those who in need instead of holding the smile to take the ‘just right Selfie’. One of my last drives with Mam was to bring her to see Dad when he was in last few weeks of life two years ago. I asked Mam would she like a 99 and her eyes lit up. My Selfie of us together was just right, the ice cream on her chin was a bonus and she laughed loudly as I snapped?

To everyone with a Mam – Never forget to capture the Magic Moments, they won’t last forever!

1- How to manage through uncertainty, frequent transitions and prepare for the unknown. The brain seeks safety and certainty, it builds neural highways to shows us patterns from the past on how we managed similar situations. The world is less certain and is causing stress for many people seeking this certainty.

We need confidence to make decisions without all the data.

2- How to stay connected and foster relationships when many of us have worked in isolation for well over a year now. In a longitudinal Harvard study into lifetime happiness and satisfaction, the standout finding was that deep and long friendships have the most positive and profound impact on life outcomes.

We need to be more intentional about relationships in every part of of our lives

3- How to adapt to the rapid rise of technology as part of every work task we seek to accomplish. The rate of technology change is happening faster than our ability to cope with it. Our smart phones are picking up more data about us than we know about ourselves.

We need to develop greater self awareness our own superhuman power

Here signing books as part of Future Readiness Workshops for Leaders.

Mind your mind!

#mentalhealth #leadership #coaching

I met this group studying neuroscience in London 8 years ago. At the end of the first day, Clive asked did anyone want a pint. This motley crew said yes and we have become best friends since.

This group has an incredible bond of friendship built by human connection and co-coaching each other through our highs and lows.

Our group hail from Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. We have met up over a dozen times since in our host countries each year, today was a virtual meeting.

I am incredibly privileged to know these people. Our colleague Clive has just written his third and best book yet. ‘The Quantam Way’ helps us understand the science behind happiness and workplace engagement.

It’s a brilliant read and this excerpt speaks to me and the isolation felt by Covid which isn’t natural or human.

“When one tree is sick, the other trees will reduce their intake of nutrients from the soil to allow the ailing tree the chance to recover.

How do they sense this?

If you place a plant in a vacuum it will die

If you place a mammal in a vacuum, it will suffer the same fate.

Yet if you place them in the same vacuum they will both survive”

We are all hoping tomorrow for an exit plan from lockdown restrictions over the coming weeks and months. The uncertainty of the past year has impacted our wellbeing at work.

This will lead to us starting to think about the future of work post pandemic and returning to the office in some form of hybrid working model.

If March 2020 was a shock to the system, so will a return to the workplace!

One thing we know about change is we all react differently to it, because our reaction isn’t completely rational, it’s led by emotion. we feel change before we think about change.

If you know who on your team is struggling with change, you can help them manage their fears, and come up with a plan to tackle any potential problems which may arise.

Our Wellbeing Survey https://lnkd.in/exm_ai8 is specifically designed to help keep an eye on the emotional well-being of your team.

The methodology is built on neuroscience.

This enables us to link happiness and engagement (our instinctive and emotional reaction) with purpose and direction (our reflective and rational reaction) for people to thrive.