Miriam

April 1, 2017 By Miriam 2 Comments

writing, every day…

Before I started writing (almost) daily myself, I gave my clients practices that included, as always in Integral Coaching Programs, journaling. I told them to reflect in writing about some questions to deepen their insights and learnings form the practices I had given them. I could see how for some, this was liberating and they starting jotting down notes on many aspects of their days while for others it was a necessary evil that they did halfheartedly if at all and felt guilty about that.

For myself, I could just not imagine how journaling should contribute in any way to my insights that seemed to come so naturally through simply thinking. In a way, writing felt like a waste of time in a very busy day. So, I would admire my writing clients and sympathize with the non-writers amongst my clients rather than checking with them what belief kept them from writing.

Being curious by nature, I started to try it myself so that I can tell my clients first-hand how writing contributes to accelerating their development. While it took some time for me to get used to reserving a few minutes for writing every day, I started feeling the benefits quite early. Writing slows down my thought, I tend to finish my thoughts rather than jumping from one to the next. This deepens my reflection and makes it richer as I seem to review aspects of my day in super-slow motion. The effect journaling has for me is like the fixing bath in old-style photography. By writing, the image gets perpetuated in my experience.

As a practice to start writing, dedicate a little notebook (or file in your mobile) to your new habit. In the evening, before you go to bed, look back into your day and write down five things that you are grateful for in this past day. Don’t edit, just write down the first five things that come to mind.

And the little extra of this practice: notice how after a week the way you look at your days shifts towards a more positive perception in general.

PS: There are still days and topics I resist journaling. And I continue to inquire what gets in the way …

March 31, 2017 By Miriam Leave a Comment

leading from within

In my intense corporate days, I always strived for being a “better leader”. Always on the outlook for the next technique, the next ultimate paradigm.

This video with Itay Talgam was my first ever TED video (maybe because it was the first on the list in iTunesU on my mobile) and it stuck with me. On the one hand, because it shows the leader as the one “doing nothing” in terms of sound generation, while most people wouldn’t deny that without a conductor, the outcome wouldn’t be quite the same. He’s the one to change noise into music. On the other hand, I loved how he describes the interplay between the conductors and the musicians and how it can vary depending on the situation and the intention.

At a later stage of watching this video, I started feeling that things a Karajan does would totally not work for a Muti. So leadership then, maybe is all about being in sync with what I am and what I want to express. But how do I know what that is when all I have learned is to copy a technique that is “en vogue” in management (or parenting, or …) at the moment.

As an everyday practice, chose one person you will observe for a few moments when they interact with others. What seems to work well with their environment, what feels natural, what feels really weird for you? What could you see yourself doing and what attitude does this require?

For me, authenticity is the magic word to bring leadership from applying a technique to creating art. Yet, finding out what my own authentic expression is took quite some trial and error over the years.

March 31, 2017 By Miriam 1 Comment

reading? books?

Since I went to school, I always had a crush on books and from very early on, I also piled them up without necessarily reading them immediately.

In my busy corporate days and being a mother to little children, my reading was basically limited to e-mails and short articles, while the pile of books that I wanted to read because I had fallen in love with their cover and excerpt grew to gigantic size along with me feeling guilty about not reading.

As I had embarked on my journey of becoming a coach, reading books felt like a necessity and I started realizing that I had totally lost the habit of sitting still and immersing myself in written words. I also realized how not reading had dried up some aspects of my creative mind, of my imagination. And yet, there is always so much to do that putting down my book to get some work done doesn’t seem like a bad idea – at first.

My way back into reading was audio-books. Learning about brain science while doing the laundry was a bit of a challenge at first, while the “power of engagement” accompanied me well on my bike rides through the forest. By now, I do both, reading myself and listing to others reading to me. Listening while doing something else works fairly well for me, it’s a way to do a quick read. And then, I usually have the paper copy of the book to go deeper into what intrigued me.

As a practice to be reading for real again, I started planning 10 minutes reading as “my time for me”. After those 10 minutes, I took a PostIt paper and before I closed the book made a note of what I got from my reading – insights or simply the feeling I had after this break.

In this section of my blog, you will find regularly recommendations for books. And in order to see if it’s worth a read for you, right now, I’ll share some of my insights and highlights. In a way each and every one of them triggered thoughts and ideas, found a way into my coaching work, my life and my very own development.