What's sauerkraut got to do with it?

There I was cutting up red cabbage to put into the jar to make sauerkraut.

I cut up half the cabbage into very small pieces. I stopped because there looked to be more than enough. Then, because to stop it going mouldy rather than fermenting it's important that there's minimal air left in the jar, I started cramming the cabbage into the jar. I was very surprised to find that it only filled half the jar. Meaning the rest of the cabbage was needed to fill the jar.

How is this relevant in life? 

I suspect it can have a few different insights - for me today it's about remembering that we can cram more and more into life, even more than we expect. However, the added pressure, whilst making great sauerkraut, can lead to added stress and a potential explosion.

Final picture from previous red cabbage sauerkraut making a few months ago.

Alison Smith

The Purchasing Coach

Inspiring change inside and out

Let's talk about it

I Let's talk about it - changing attitudes towards our mental health at work

The title of the conference says it all, and was certainly the conclusion that could be drawn from all the speakers - some speaking from personal experience, others academically involved, and others in corporate life. Everyone concluded:

• Let's talk about mental health at work  
• Let's change attitudes about mental health at work

I attended the above conference at the University of Glasgow on Wednesday - it had been co-arranged by the University and Amy McDonald founder of Headtorch, an organisation that enables people to feel good, AND be productive at work.

The fundamental belief we're being asked to accept in the conference title is:

100% ie every one of us - not just some of us - all of us.

100% of the time too - ie there's no taking a holiday from our mental health. We have it at work, rest and play. That is - it's with us where ever we go.

Our mental health is variable too - a continuum that changes day to day, week to week, year to year.

There's things we can all do to support our own mental health, and there's thing we can do that hinder it.

There's also things we can do to support other people's mental health, and certainly things we can do that distress other's mental health.

The challenge is that we don't talk about mental health, and therefore don't find out what supportive behaviours we could be demonstrating. Which means if your actions are negatively impacting my mental health you don't get to find out, and if I could do something to support yours, I don't ask, and therefore never find out what I could do differently!

We're all blindly making assumptions about supportive and acceptable business behaviours, and yet don't fully understand what they are! Allowing fear of recrimination and stigma to stop us having those very important conversations.

That's where talking about it comes in - and it doesn't have to be big:

Here's a few of the ways that were highlighted on the day of how we could be talking about mental health at work

• If you're worried about someone, and even if you don't know what you might be able to do, asking "Are you okay" can have such a profound impact (see See Me Scotland's video "Are you okay" - explicit or clean version). Profound because ignoring the person can significantly and negatively impact the person's mental health further. 

That was the biggest, simplest and yet most often ignored action we can all take to "overcome the fear of doing the wrong thing." Other suggestions included:

• Saying "I'm here to listen" or asking "What would help most?"
• Say "No" more often - ie look after your own mental health, and don't be pressurised into saying "Yes" when you mean "No". Or at least say "Let me think about it" to give yourself more time to determine the appropriate response that supports your mental health.
• Talk as a team, and/or just with your manager, about the behaviours that support yours and other's mental health
• Talk as a team, and /or with your manager, about the less than helpful behaviours, and what behaviours could be substituted instead  
• Find ways of talking about your own mental health with others - regardless of how healthy or unhealthy it is 
• Talk about mental health in supervisor, management and leadership training 

The key being to talk about these NOW - ie it's not about waiting until the lack of a conversation is causing problems! It's also about having it as part of ongoing dialogue - it's not something you do once, tick and box, and move onto the next item on your to-do list!

When will you next talk about mental health - and who will you be having that conversation with?

For more information on how HeadTorch could help your organisation to talk about mental health do get in touch with Amy McDonald +44 (0)141 255 2909 amy@headtorch.org

Alison Smith
Inspiring change inside and out

I was official tweeter, otherwise know as the OT(!), at Let's talk about it - so do please also have a look at #mentalhealthatwork to see what was said, and also follow other # who were talking on the subject on the same day #BellLetsTalk (trending from Canada with over 6m tweets on the day) #itaffectsme,
and on 4th February in the UK #TimeToTalk.

As a result of attending the conference I wrote a number of accompanying blogs (expressing my personal views and exploration of the topics raised) this cover Buyers' responsibility towards suppliers' mental health, Toxic leadership, Watch your language (about the self fulfilling prophecies we manifest by the language we use.) and Is your head in the sand about our own contribution to the behaviours we judge in others.

In 2013 I also attended Amy's conference Work's Mental, and wrote a blog entitled "it's not about the toast" based on the topic of a learning and development session. It used, and continues to do so, interactive theatre to get people talking about this subject.

Picture at the top of the page shows Mindapple's tree that we were encouraged to tie our own mindapples on (day to day activities that are good for our minds) - here's my mind apples - written some time ago.

Expectations and achievement

Over the years I've obtained many insights from my personal training sessions. Such sessions that have me rushing to my laptop have usually ended with my laughter and "that would make a great blog."

Here's what generated today's laughter and insight.

Earlier in the week I ended my PT session with 3 sets of plank of increasing duration - 30s, 45s and 60s. On the last set I was screeching and near to tears as my body shook with strain at holding such a strong position for so long.

... Fast forward to this morning ...

"Please don't get me to do 60s again" I pleaded. Which resulted in the following.

• I held plank for 30s - being told of my progress in 10s increments.
• I held plank for 45s - being told of my progress in 10s increments
• I held plank for 60s - being told of mu progress in 10s increments

My personal trainer then showed me his stop watch ....

Apparently my timings were actually 30s, 50s, 71s, with increments in approx 12s (when telling me they were 10s).

Had he told me before I started I was going to do it for that long I'd have failed to do it! I know myself well enough to know that, certainly as far as fitness is concerned, if I don't think I can do something then I won't. Today's white lie proved to me I have to be careful about my expectations of my ability to do things - both fitness and I'm sure at work too.  

Alison Smith

Inspiring change - inside and out in mind, body, heart, soul and purchasing!

Other insights shared more broadly here around well being broadly have covered:

• Don't stretch yourself too much
• Not this but this - a great reminder for any new skill
• Build on success - which certainly resonates for me for my fitness
• Comfort zones - and how much we can really achieve if we get out of them
• Dream believe achieve - based on watching others learn how to street dance with Ashley Banjo!
• Aim for what you want  - unlike the England football team at the time!
• Stop, look, listen - remembering to take time out
• Don't spend time with miserable mackerels 
• How do you start your day - aligned with your goals, or out of synch with them
• Changing priorities - what do chips, alcohol, chocolate & pomegranates have in common?
• Get outside
• Are you settling for suboptimal performance  - using excuses about age, time of life, injury etc
• Sleep  - allowing more room for more information 
• Can you have too much fun?
• We love the challenge but is it good for us - adrenaline fuelled activity
• The conspiracies that support our well being (a bit of a rant)
• The tortoise and the hare - a short story
• My prescription for positivity - a popular blog post

Insightful walk in nature

Yesterday I shared my realisation that more time outside in nature was needed to support my well being and creativity. I set out to rectify that when the day started with such a beautiful blue sky and aimed for the top of the hill behind my house (shown above).

What I hadn't expected was that the landscaping your life process I use in coaching session with clients would hijack the walk. The process uses nature as our teacher and many of the insights have been shared on YouTube.

One technique is to identify a situation you'd like more clarity on and then go for a walk and notice what you notice. In this instance I hadn't identified a situation but after 9 months as an interim category manager I was reflecting on 'what next'. Here's what I noticed...

• You will see glimpses of light before you get where you're going (this was very welcome after 20 minutes of climbing and repeatedly thinking I was near the top when I wasn't!).

• Flies flock together around sh!t (not sure there's much to say about this but it was a very clear insight at the time).

• Seagulls will wait close at hand, and in anticipation, for the Farmer to continue ploughing the field.

• Even if looks far away it's nearer than you think with social media (I tweeted this picture of the forth bridges (in the distance) to @forthroadbridge and they replied).

• You can really see more of a situation when you step back and review it from a different perspective (this was the view of Burntisland, the Forth river and Edinburgh in the distance).

• The best route isn't always the most well trodden - the left hand path was very much the safest option (on the way up I'd experienced a path that at times was lost to the encroaching cliff edge and at very acute angle - the left hand path led to a field)  

I don't yet completely understand how these all relate to "what next?" - something about seeing the bigger picture, connecting with those further afield, not following the pack and being patient! Would love your take on these observations, and do let me know the outcome of your #landscapingyourlife walk(s).

Alison Smith
Inspiring change inside and out

See also my blog from a #landscapingyourlife walk with a coaching client about 'burning bridges'.

Get outside

Whilst on holiday at the Obsidian Retreat in Spain the day started with a 5km walk. The reasons for this I'd assumed at the time to include:

• Getting lungs and body working early to continue to do so throughout the day
• Improved Fitness (the 4 hills certainly felt easier on day 7 versus day 1)
• Reminder of our commitment to exercise

What I think many of us took for granted, and therefore didn't even get into our conscious awareness, was the benefit of being outside.

I've been home for 2 weeks and, as I've been working from home, I've not been outside as much as usual and realise it was having a detrimental effect on my health. Open windows to let in the fresh sea air every morning just isn't an effective substitute.

I've blogged many times about the benefits of connecting to nature and the Landscaping Your Life process I use in business and with coaching clients uses nature as our teacher. It's just easy to forget the basics that can sustain our well being.

When will you next take some time in nature?

Alison Smith
Inspiring change inside and out

How I coach

There's so many different reasons for having coaching and so many different people able to provide it that it can be difficult to determine who's the best person for you. It's one of the reasons I pulled a Pinterest board together trying to show the breadth of coaching available including the whys, the whats, the whos and the hows.

The condensed version is - if you have an area of your life where you're not progressing as you'd like, or need to do, then coaching may help. That is - it will help you move from where you are towards where you want to be.

Who's best able to help you do that depends on many things touched on in the Pinterest board and will include:

• the area you need coaching in - life, work, relationships, finance, business and so on.
• what specifically is stopping you achieving what you want
• your level of motivation
• the timescales involved
• the resources available
• whether you have confidence in the coach and think you'd work well with them

I'd suggest my specialism isn't holding your hand for weeks or months as you progress along your journey. It's also not about me trying to persuade you that you need to change.  There are many wonderful other coaches who can do these things.

What I love, and am good at, is helping you when you've got a few of the following going on:

• stuck in a rut
• up a creek without a paddle
• aimless
• unactualised (if there is such a word?)
• dissatisfied
• unmotivated
• finding relationships with others difficult or strained
• not reaching your potential
• burnt out
• paying too high a price for what you are doing
• unsure what to do next
• and yet motivated to want to do something about it

Often the means of getting things moving requires:

1. understanding of how you're feeling
2. insight into what's happening
3. identifying what's holding you back
4. releasing the setbacks or barriers to future success
5. clarity of where you're headed
6. a short sharp push or pull, or a metaphorical kick... sorry I mean - more motivation
7. agreement of an action plan to facilitate progress
8. action to be taken in line with the plan
9. monitoring of progress to check you're on track

Time sometimes means this process takes place over a number of sessions over a number of weeks. However if possible I'd prefer to work with a client for a day (or occasionally two) and complete steps 1-7.

If you'd be interested in finding out more please do get in touch.

Alison Smith
Inspiring change inside and out

alison@thepurchasingcoach.co.uk +44 (0)7770 538159

Tools I use to support my coaching in a business setting might include NLP, Frameworks for change coaching process, creative whack pack, oblique strategies, landscaping your life, and in a personal setting the Transformation Game and collage cards. They're used because they're really effective at getting at what's holding people back.

 

You may also want to read my blog "But I don't do fluffy soft skills" - especially if you're doubting that coaching would help.