Nicci, Author at Aware Leadership

Facilitation

I specialise in transformational self awareness, sustainable behaviour change and emotional intelligence.

I deliver courses and workshops that facilitate change within individuals and how people collaborate as a team.

I am the facilitator for you and your team if:
– You want to develop self awareness, emotional intelligence and self insight to improve performance and sense of team spirit.
– You want to transform, propel or step up your team’s ability to take responsibility for themselves and the part they play.
– You want to transform team members confidence and willingness to use their initiative.
– You want to be more collaborative as a team and develop the team’s ability to innovatively co-create solutions.
– You want to empower your team’s willingness to go beyond their comfort zone.
– You want to sustainably increase your team’s ability to be self solving and self supportive.

To find out more please email me: hello@awareleadership.co.uk.

By Nicci

The Art of Letting Go…

MY or NO way? How often do we not get what we want…the results we wants, the response we want.

I’ve been pondering this on a much deeper level after experiencing an intense Buddhist retreat a few weeks ago. This notion of REALLY letting go of everything – even if it’s in this moment. I mean everything, every desire, pleasure, want, attachment, aversion, resistance…all of it.

This was a most intriguing experience, this ability to truly be at peace with everything – just as it is. And of course the crux of all this was being at peace with myself, just as I am. At any given moment that may be happy, sad, excited, anxious, disappointed, joyful, tense, serene, angry…any number of different states or feelings…

I’ve been having a very challenging time personally and professionally this year – on and off – after deliberately disrupting and changing various elements of my life. This has been, and continues to be, a combination of letting go of things that aren’t serving me, taking a stand and honouring myself more. Being more real and authentic. Who knew there were so many layers to this?!

I realise now that my hope was this was nearing completion – however life has had different ideas. This has meant – especially in the last few months – being in very big ‘don’t know’ space with myself, my purposes and in some of my most precious relationships. At times I’ve found this utterly uncomfortable, disorientating and frightening. And on the flip side this is proving to be liberating, expansive, revealing, exciting – and the thing I’m most enjoying is a growing sense of my self expression and more of ME emerging. As a leader and as a woman.

As part of this I have been consciously practising the art of trusting. And the art of welcoming loss actually. Trusting that things will work out even if I let things I care about go…trusting that all will be well…trusting that the universe ‘has my back’ and the powerful vision I am holding for myself is being created. Even if I cant see it yet. Que sera sera eh? I made myself really smile yesterday by writing a mantra about what I’m aiming for “trusting deeply that I can master trusting deeply”…

This may seem like a hands off leadership strategy but I tell you what my friends, in a letting go space there is a natural alignment with things as they are. An alignment with the ability to go with the flow of life, event by event, adapting and course correcting. Not being attached to a particular path or how we get there opens up a world of possibilities. This isn’t about being passive but actually actively managing our energy to be allowing, accepting, conscious and responsive. Seeing what emerges. Focusing on the here and now, responding to what’s actually happening rather than being tied to a fixed idea of how it ‘should be’.

I share this partly because it seems to be so ingrained in our culture this push to ‘get’. Get ahead, get something or get somewhere. As if the goal of our lives was to get more and more – and as fast as possible. What’s the purpose of that? How about slowing down and enjoying the ride, being more fully present to the ride. We need a bigger purpose, a bigger vision to see us through – especially when the going gets tough.

One of the things I LOVE about purpose is that there always is one, whether we are conscious of it or not. One of the most revealing exercises I’ve ever done is to make a list of my actual behaviour with different things and then ask myself ‘what’s my purpose?’. Our real purpose is always revealed in our actual behaviour.

So if your driving, demanding, insisting on having things your way – in a fixed mindset about anything – maybe what’s required, essential even, is some letting go. In that space peace and freedom can be found. The space of awakening to life as it is – not as we demand it to be.

I’ve worked with many leaders who struggle to delegate, let alone empower their teams. So this is where the challenge eh – letting go and trusting.

And of course this all starts at home. Can you let go and be with yourself just as you are, right now?

You can access your free copy of my ‘Five Leadership Powerhouses’ right here, right now…!

By Nicci

Coaching for Culture Programme

Would you like to transform your organisation into an empowering, higher performing, innovative place to work?

Many of my clients have deep aspirations to empower their teams. In my experience the most high impact, transformative and sustainable way to do this is through developing a coaching culture. This is now widely recognised by many such as the Human Capital Institute and CIPD, some examples are here:

Building a Coaching Culture.HCI & ICFDownload

Hands-on or Hands-off Effective LeadershipDownload

I am passionate about suporting and empowering organiations to create a coaching culture – so they can transform their leadership and organisations. And my purpose for this is also that this has the propensity to change individual lives, communities and our world as a whole.

My ‘Coaching for Culture’ 4 tier programme has been providing powerful coaching training in various public, private and non profit sectors in the last 3 years. This programme can cover up to 6 days and also can be delivered in line with relevant consultancy and/or 1:1 coaching.

The programme is bespoke and can tailored to be delivered in whole or in parts, depending on requirements. The purpose is to develop a leadership coaching culture which ultimately cascades down to transforming results and quality of service, engagement and innovation.

The programme is usually comprised of training for executives, leaders and managers at various levels within the organisation (including for those with some, little or no experience of coaching). The programme can include:
• Introduction to Coaching Skills
• Developing Coaching Style
• Building an Organisational Coaching Culture
• Advanced Coaching Mastery
• Reflective Practise

This programme can also be tailored to training or provide develop/reflective practise for existing internal coaches.

To find out more about this programme please email me: nicci@awareleadership.co.uk or call me on 07817 246930. You can also apply for a FREE group taster session HERE.

By Nicci

Public Sector Leaders

So you have come to the right place if you’re a director, head of service or aspiring manager in a public sector organisation.

These days being politically astute and being able to get the job done is great but the world is changing, budgets are tighter and tighter and greater commercial acumen is needed to adapt to a more innovative environment – AND empower teams in a radically different way. Being a public leader requires significantly more than just being able to play policitcal games. More of you is required!

You may want to transform your leadership behaviour, be better at working across organisational boundaries or be able to make a real difference to delivering whole community benefit – under pressure and whilst creating a better work/life balance.

You get the job done well in your social enterprise or charitable sphere, you have all the relevant expertise and to date this has carried you through. You’ve made your way up, your team appreciate you and yet you know you can have much more impact if you reduce that self doubt or are able to engage staff and partners in a more powerful way.

In this arena of austerity, how can you bring teams and others on board into a sometimes ever changing agenda? You can do the usual, but this usually ends up with you working silly hours and still you don’t seem to be making the impact you know you are capable of. You don’t know where to start to reduce working hours or stop the inner critic that is swirling around in your head. You’re feeling de-motivated, frustrated, put upon, stressed, confused and certainly pressured.

My powerful individual and group coaching leadership programmes will help you develop vital purpose and personal skills that will give life to your leadership and team. You will find the passion, motivation, release to be the leader and person you are – not fitting a mould or political persona but developing how to build a powerful purpose and emotionally compelling communication techniques that will transform your professional impact.

To find out more about my Public Sector Leadership Programme click HERE or contact me about behaviour change coaching programmes email me: nicci@awareleadership.co.uk or call me on 07817 246930. OR you can pop a question or comment into my live online chat box!

By Nicci

Public Sector Leadership Programme

Welcome to this transformational 18 month behaviour change programme…

This is an intensive, bespoke experiential programme for executive and senior public sector leaders who want to revive or transform their leadership behaviour and develop the ability to adapt to their ever changing organisational context.

This programme is centred on both individual leadership and group learning for 10-12 people.

Purpose: To explore where leaders are in their leadership, their defining style and how current challenges can propel leadership growth. To define a series of proactive choices about their leadership and vision for the future, developing emotional resilience and inner strength to bring this to the fore. Building leadership behaviour changes that will support them as a team to continue to adapt to their wider organisational purpose and context.

‘When you change your behaviour, you have the ability to transform your experience – including how people respond to you’

Programme Highlights
• 18×1:1 online behaviour change coaching sessions
• 8x ½ day face to face group training sessions*
• Online platform to collect and share notes
• Online forum to connect and share learning

Programme Outline
• 1:1 Behaviour Change Coaching – exploring personal challenges in leadership and empowering leaders as individual’s to bring forward their best. Propelling and dovetailing growth as individual’s learn from group sessions
• Current Leadership Capacity* – exploring where leaders are currently in their leadership individually and as a team, including challenges and perceived capabilities. Benchmarking areas for growth or behaviour change
• Flexing Leadership Style* – exploring leadership style and how this impacts the day to day environment and results. Learning how to adapt and flex style according to the context
• Team Engagement* – exploring how the leadership team is engaged and motivated, and, in turn how their teams are motivated. Exploring how achievements are celebrated and building mechanisms to create a open feedback culture
• Purposeful Leadership* – exploring where our inner critic may hold us back as individuals and as a team. Developing mindful techniques to facilitate behaviour change. Learning transforming tools to highlight and build emotional resilience
• Personal Integrity* – exploring what it takes to be a public sector leader in the current climate, including how to honour personal integrity in difficult times. Exploring personal and collective values that can be sustained over time
• Continuous Improvement* – exploring what it takes to create a culture of continuous improvement, including giving and receiving open and honest feedback. Building a culture which embraces learning and change
• Leadership Team Vision* – exploring your individual vision for your leadership and identifying key barriers. Identifying key qualities that you can develop to build capacity and sustainable growth.
• An Inspired Vision for the Future* – exploring the organisational vision for the future and how leaders can make this emotionally compelling and engaging. Identifying how to inspire hope and commitment from teams and other stakeholders.

Benefits
• Increased personal mastery for individuals significantly increasing leadership engagement and capacity
• Increased confidence and purpose in going forward and creating a powerful leadership vision for the future
• Increased ability to adapt to different leadership styles and uphold the context of the organisation’s purpose
• Increased ability for individuals to embrace the leader that they are and build emotional resilience within the current (and developing) culture
• Ability to consciously create a deliberate organisational culture and context which is continuously improving

Quality
The following elements are a core part of the programme to ensure quality of delivery:
• Outline objectives agreed at the start of the programme and reviewed quarterly
• Individuals 1:1 coaching objectives are set at the start and reviewed quarterly
• Evaluations/reviews provided as part of each group session with analysis of participant feedback
• Quantative and qualitative objectives measured and anecdotal feedback sought in all reviews
• Completion review, including measurement against objectives and partner feedback

Commitment/Timings
Commitment and timings are as follows:
• 1:1 coaching sessions – online once a month for 18 months
• 8×3.5hr group training sessions designed to both dig deeper and provide tools to build leadership capacity. Sessions would be spaced over the programme period
• Quarterly review meetings (1hr) – to review progress, outcomes and any adjustments
• Completion review meeting (1.5hrs) – to review programme outcomes and next steps

To find out more about this programme please email me: nicci@awareleadership.co.uk or call me on 07817 246930. You can also apply for a FREE group taster session HERE.

By Nicci

The Leadership ‘I AM’ Meditation

Time to – stop – checkin and give yourself 1 hour of ‘ME’ leadership time. Listen to this 30 minute guided meditation designed to relax you and tap into your intrinsic leadership qualities

To find out more about this course please click on the above link. If you have any questions at all or would like to explore what you would get from taking the courses please email me: nicci@awareleadership.co.uk or call me on 07817 246930. OR you can pop a question or comment into my live online chat box!

By Nicci

The Leader Within

This is a 2 module course designed to raise your awareness of the unique leader within you. This course shares some golden pieces of information and encourages you to identify your key growth area – creating an active purpose and enabling you to create a clear focus on your leadership development.

By Nicci

Conscious Leadership

This is a 3 module course designed to awaken you to the power of your mind. This course shares some precious information about how your mind works – enabling you to becoming powerfully aware – and take radical responsibility for your thoughts/feelings. This will empower you to pro-actively choose your response rather that ‘react’ as you have in the past. This will increase your ability to consciously lead, no longer being at the whim of automatic behaviour patterns that are not serving you…

To find out more about this course please click on the above link. If you have any questions at all or would like to explore what you would get from taking the course please email me: nicci@awareleadership.co.uk or call me on 07817 246930. OR you can pop a question or comment into my live online chat box!

By Nicci

Reveal Your Leader Within

Discover the real leader within…

By Nicci

My Purpose and Background

My Purpose

Is to transform the face of leadership to one where leaders and their teams are FOR each other, open to learning and willing to show their humanity. I want leaders to role model empowerment and inspire their teams.

My Journey – Career

I started out in accountancy many years ago, working initially in public sector and then KPMG. Working for KPMG was a big grounding for my career – I learnt a great deal of professionalism and skills which (to this day) serve me well. I then went into retail and moved into leadership (still in finance), followed by another move into the music industry where I changed my path to project management. I got made redundant in 2005 and this is when my entrepreneurial journey started!

I started a social enterprise focusing on team building activities, particularly working with corporate companies and contributing to their corporate social responsibility initiatives. I then started training and then coaching – delivering many courses over many years including leadership style, time management, equality & diversity, communication, self esteem and purpose .

My Personal Journey

Around the same time that I got made redundant I felt very dis-satisfied in myself. Somewhat uncomfortable in my own skin as it were. At the time I was a Trustee with a counselling charity and I embarked on a recommended self esteem course run by a More to Life mentor. This course radically transformed my awareness of myself and how I perceived others and life.

This was quite an awakening! It was a big shock for me that, at times, I did not think very highly of myself. To this day I am truly grateful for this wake up call – I learnt how to transform my perception of myself, others and life. I learnt how to build my esteem and intrinsic qualities based on who I am rather than who I thought I should be or what I did or didn’t achieve. This was life changing! I still use the tools from this course to this day.

Following this I completed the More to Life weekend and a number of further courses and coaching. I learnt how to support myself on a daily basis to get back on track with myself when my leadership or life was challenging. This has transformed my willingness, emotional resilience, ability to be 100% in, responsiveness, self care, self mastery…the list is endless. Then the much bigger piece (or game as my coach used to say) was to go for being a Spiritual Warrior. This was a massive shift in self mastery and connection with myself. You can read/hear more about this in My Journey.

I am feeling grateful and in awe of what is possible as I type this. It is now my passion to share myself, my knowledge and my learning to grow myself and others. And enjoy life! Especially a radically different quality of life…

This ongoing journey has and continues to transform my facilitation and coaching skills, equipping me with the knowledge to understand, teach and empower others through becoming aware of – and then changing their behaviour. I have LIVED a number of the challenges my clients have and I am continually proud of the leadership growth I have seen.

I have and continue to design many leadership courses and individual/group coaching programmes primarily focusing on powerful self leadership, self mastery, emotional resilience, transforming confidence and behaviour change.

What I Stand For

I stand for being FOR myself and others, being open-hearted, compassionate, bold, honouring and empathetic. I am committed to doing my own work to ensure I am clear, present and real with my clients. It does not support them or me to be anything less.

I LIVE what I teach and trust on a daily basis that everything is exactly how it is meant to be – because that’s how it is (or was!).

Which is why my style and approach is based on the principles of real life, real professional challenges – which simply means leadership transformation on your terms.

So if this is the way you would like to develop your leadership then you’ve come to the perfect place.

My Experience

I am a highly incisive executive coach and trainer, having brought together many years of corporate, public and third sector experience with my expertise as a skilled facilitator.

I am passionate! Particularly about transforming individuals and their business culture through role modelling authentic leadership and sharp, powerful self awareness.

I work with a range of executives and business owners – specialising in the legal, finance and property sectors. I generally work with executives, partners and emerging leaders who want to achieve one or more of the following:

• Develop their engagement and relationship building skills with clients, staff, peers
• Grow and/or change their leadership behaviour to improve performance
• Develop their confidence and/or transition from a technically led role to a leadership role
• High achievers who want to significantly reduce stress and improve peace of mind
• Step-up their leadership skills to be more at ease with overcome challenging clients, staff, peers

I truly believe there is no better way to create an empowered environment (and reduce barriers) than to role model this through leadership practise and behaviour. This is where individuals and organisations can become high performing, innovative and responsive.

In addition to my work here, I volunteer on a regular basis as a Community Youth Panellist in both Essex and Hertfordshire and I am trained in restorative justice practice and techniques.

I live in Ware, Hertfordshire and spend much loved time with my family, practising yoga and dancing at any given opportunity!
You can view my LinkedIn profile to see my experience and background in more detail, including client recommendations.