Charity Coach, Trainer & Consultant - Rob Legge Consulting

3 essential steps to survive redundancy

19/11/2020

"Your job is at risk!"

Is a phrase that is becoming familiar to too many people in our sector. The emotional turmoil it brings is enormous. Most of us in charity work have made an active choice to be part of our organisations. It is rarely just a job.

The threat of the redundancy is of course a challenge to the economics of an individual or family. The lack of a salary undermines the basic security of home, and how to pay the rent or feed the kids become basic questions that can dominate our thinking. This is stressful enough. However, the added challenge that feels like a personal attack on your core purpose can be as devastating and as debilitating as a divorce.

We have been on both sides of the phrase “Your job is at risk”. Senior managers also struggle as they try to do their best to ensure the organisation survives and the individuals under threat are thrown into a period of extreme anxiety.

Elisabeth Kubler Ross in her pioneering work with terminally ill patients developed a model of reaction to extreme personal change. She found that the change process was different for every individual and that the emotions expressed were not linear. In other words, we don’t go cleanly from one emotion to another and progress neatly to the end. In our “messy” reality we bounce from one to another and sometimes trigger regression or massive progression.

Despite the messy reality Kubler -Ross’s model is useful for us to begin to understand what is happening to our colleagues or to ourselves. This knowledge can help us begin to facilitate support and advice that helps us to get to a constructive place of change.

The model looks something like this:

Image credit – cleverism.com/understanding-kubler-ross-change-curve/

To take it a step further, as objectively as possible look at how you might increase these skills.

This might mean training, reading, volunteering or something else. When you are looking for your next role that fits your purpose and uses your strengths organisations respond well to candidates who are actively looking to continuously develop. You know change is the only constant, your experience of redundancy might be the change you needed.

essential steps to help you through redundancy

1. Have a good support network
This might be family, friends, colleagues. It is good to be able to express your emotions in a safe place. Keeping them controlled and bottled up only leads to damage and it leaking out of you at inappropriate times.

Rob interviewed people who have been made redundant who are still suffering emotionally and it has impacted on their performance in trying to get a new job. A safe place to vent, cry, scream or whatever you need to do is essential.

And because life is not logical you won’t do it just once. A saving grace for one of us when they were on the wrong end of a redundancy conversation was long walks with Steve, the Staffordshire bull terrier who took the rants stoically.

2. Take time to work out your purpose
This sounds a bit academic but it has practical application. After fourteen years with Oxfam Rob was made redundant and felt bereft. He felt he had lost family, and Oxfam was a bit like a religion to him and its values, mission were his.

It took a lot of self-examination and support from a skilled coach for Rob to work out that he was separate from the organisation. Over time he was able to see that his drivers of equality, fairness, hard work and teamwork had been shaped by Oxfam, but also by his parents, the Labour party, and other influencers during my life. It also began to free him up to see how he could use those values in other organisations.

Rob said, “This was a turning point for me.” Instead of the mindset of leaving Oxfam he began to look at moving towards another organisation. Another charity that could benefit from his skills and experience as well as looking for a new place to develop. The disaster of redundancy with Oxfam turned into a happy ten years as CEO of Focus Birmingham.

3. Examine your strengths
From your experiences at work and within life what are your strengths? If you can’t articulate them now ask the people who you trust to give their view of your skills.

It is a start.

Then, coldly examine how you have used those strengths and start to list examples. Your organisational skills might have been most tested being a wedding planner for a best friend as well as project organising at work. When we coach clients, they can be dismissive of their own strengths because it comes easy to them. This is precisely why you need to catch them and start to evidence them in preparation for the next job interview.

To take it a step further look at how you might increase these skills. This might mean training, reading, volunteering or something else.

When you are looking for your next role that fits your purpose and uses your strengths organisations respond well to candidates who are actively looking to continuously develop. You know change is the only constant, your experience of redundancy might be the change you needed.

building your cv and interview technique

We train individuals to identify their strengths and “show case” them with real examples which in turn will improve both their CV’s and interview performance. At interview we often recommend using the STAR technique to answer some question.

Situation
Task
Action
Result

For example, if an interview panel ask, “what are you most proud of achieving in a work context” the danger is that you waffle and confuse the panel. By using STAR, you can succinctly describe the key aspects of your answer.

Situation. For example: I was leading a team of volunteers to ......

Task we had to recruit another 10 volunteers in the next 30 days.

Action I led the team to do a. b. and c.

Result and we recruited 12 new volunteers that helped us succeed in the task.

And for a bonus point tell them what you learnt from that situation so that you would do it even better the next time!

Last words
Redundancy feels awful. The impact on the individual can be devastating. Most of us find a way to survive. We can look back at redundancy and see it as an opportunity to re-evaluate our lives, our careers and move to a better path.

Eight years ago, Rob was made redundant from a senior role at Sense. The worries of paying the mortgage, the loss of status and bruises to his ego were enormous. But this led him to take up the risky option of becoming a self-employed coach and trainer. Now looking back redundancy was a blessing he felt he needed to help fulfil one of his ambitions.

We hope the same for you.

About the authors
Rob Legge is an ex-senior manager at a range of National and Regional Charities. He is now a qualified coach and trainer and a leadership trainer for BVSC.

Dan O’Driscoll is an Executive Coach and Third Sector consultant at Engagement Consultancy. Dan has previously worked in senior leadership roles at Oxfam, University of Birmingham and The Royal Bank of Scotland.

Could career coaching help you through redundancy?

1/10/2020

This is a blog we hoped we wouldn’t have to write. Unfortunately the reality of restructures and redundancies across the third sector warrants focused advice and support for charities. We want to give some practical help and support to individuals who are affected by a change process.

The impact of Covid-19 has been devastating and it’s been especially felt by charities. Fundraising income has been severely affected which has bought expenditure into sharp focus. Support has been provided by Government, with £750 million in funding for frontline charities, but that hasn’t gone far enough to prevent really difficult restructuring and redundancy decisions.

a change process can be hard

In normal times change processes can be difficult. But the added pressure of not being able to interact with colleagues face to face, being on furlough, or having to write a counter proposal remotely, can make that process feel even harder. Understanding that you’ll go through a change cycle can be really helpful in managing your emotions and getting focused on what you can do and taking control of the situation.

Image credit – cleverism.com/understanding-kubler-ross-change-curve/Image credit – cleverism.com/understanding-kubler-ross-change-curve/

what can i do that's practical?

1. Understand your financial situation
Use expertise that is available. Money Saving Expert has some excellent resources to support you in good financial planning. They have created new materials and advice for people who are going through a change process during Covid-19. It is no good ignoring the possibility that you might lose your job. If you already have a plan review it and strengthen it.

2. Revise your CV
Update your CV and get someone from outside your organisation to cast a critical eye over it. Often, we use our current organisation’s technical terms that makes little sense to another charity and certainly not to other sectors. Make sure yours is jargon free and that your skills and experience show how they can be transferred to other roles. There are also new websites to help support you in finding a new job, such as Job Help.

3. Prepare for internal interviews
Engage in your organisation’s redundancy process. You should be given an opportunity to apply for newly created jobs. Internal interviews are challenging, and you need to treat it as the formal process just as you would if you were being recruited by a new organisation. Assume the interviewing panel have no knowledge of your skills and experience apart from the application form or resume you provide.

We suggest an effective way to respond to interview questions is the STAR process. This allows you to give responses without waffling.
S – what is the situation?
T – is the task that you completed.
A – what action did you take?
R - demonstrates the results you achieved.

4. Advice and help for the staff affected
Charites can also supply quality support to the staff concerned so that they can better understand the impact of the change upon them and develop coping strategies. They can also prepare them for any internal applications and deliver interview and career coaching.

use specialists to support those threatened with redundancy

Sometimes this service can be delivered more effectively by a team independent of the charity’s management or HR function. Bringing in specialist experts who can create rapport with the staff as well as deliver timely support is critical. Career coaching can be an affective way to support staff affected by redundancy through this process.

Experienced third sector coaches like myself and Dan O’Driscoll deliver this targeted training and advice to affected staff of national and local charities. If you would like a discussion about our services, please contact either of us for more information.

how to work from home.... successfully

7/9/2020

My last guest blog for the BVSC tackled the tricky subject of working from home successfully. Unsurprisingly this is a hot topic at the moment and the number of charity staff working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic is extremely high. Prior to lockdown only a handful of charity staff would work remotely.

Below is a summary of my top strategies for successful homeworking. You can read the full article on the BVSC website here.

You may find this article published by MindGenius about Homeschooling and Homeworking another useful source of insight.

Homeworking & Homeschooling in COVID-19 by Brad Egeland

6 success secrets for a great start to your working day

3/7/2020

Image by Štěpán Vraný from Pixabay

As I speak to more and more people who are furloughed or working from home, it is evident that to thrive in this new world we need a good morning routine. Successful people have the similar routines and I am going to share the six secrets that I have learnt and give you a practical example of my routine to consider.

keep regular start times

Get up!

It is so easy to let this slip and lie in. After all, you have the easiest of commutes from bedroom to workspace via the kitchen.

However most productive people are maintaining an outline of their usual work-life pattern. They are off to bed at normal times and don’t binge watch a Netflix series or YouTube. They get up at their usual times.

Don't start the day with social media

Part of the morning routine can be imposed on you. If you have a toddler you are responsible for, they must be fed and changed (otherwise social services will be on your case).

But if you have some control over your morning, a surprising amount of people do something that is extraordinarily effective. For the first sixty minutes after waking up they don’t look at social media or news feeds.

do something selfish

Successful people do something to set themselves up for the day. Some will exercise, some will listen to music or podcasts, others will read. This commences the day in a positive way that has a knock-on effect for the rest of the day.

They don’t start work immediately.

Image by photochur from Pixabay

plan and prioritise your work

Work starts for productive people in a purposeful way. They don’t switch on their laptops and dive into emails. Most decide what they want to achieve and prioritise their to- do lists, schedule important tasks as well as review any appointments they have.

Most feel it is important to dress for work to help get into work mode even when no one will see them.

start with focus

They concentrate, finding a way to shut the door on the rest of the family or any electronic distractions.

This allows for focus on the most important piece of work of the day. It is so easy to be caught up by emails that take you away from your priorities.

Successful people seem to be able to keep attention on the essential tasks and make significant progress on the important few tasks rather than get overwhelmed with a list of jobs that might not make a difference.

....then engage with the rest of the world

They then look at the rest of the world and pick up on emails, zoom calls, social media etc for a limited time before returning to progress the important stuff.

This sounds very disciplined, but I don’t think it is. Successful people tell me it is a series of habits that sets them up for a good day. They just know it works for them and so do it, routinely.

For those of you curious, here's an example of my morning routine;

7:00 Alarm goes off
7:15 Get up
7:20 Read something uplifting (a couple of poems, my current choice is RS Thomas or sometimes it can be a couple of pages from the humourist David Sedaris, it depends on what takes my fancy.)
7:30 Do some stretches
7:40 Jog (In my case slowly)
8:15 Shower
8:30 Dressed, at my desk and reviewing the priorities for the day
8:45 First session of work (writing a blog post, planning a training session, or arranging to talk to a client) I am a big fan of the Pomodoro technique - if you are not aware of it read my blog post
9:30 Healthy breakfast (I eat porridge). I seem to  start work better on an empty stomach.  Like many people, I’ve found working so close to my fridge a constant temptation to snack, so having breakfast later in the morning helps me avoid overindulging
9:45 E-Mails and Social Media
I stop for lunch around 1pm.  I usually stop work around 4:30pm to walk our dog. The big unknown in my work-from-home schedule is my two-year-old grandson, Joshua. With his mom and dad, he is currently living with us.  Joshua might want a walk or a play time with Grandad. Apart from zoom meetings with clients, he tends to push his way to the top of my to-do list.

Final reflections
As we work from home or are furloughed, our self-discipline needs to increase.  However, we should plan to use this opportunity to benefit the quality of our life. Successful people have a relaxed habitual routine that works for them.

A common theme seems to be starting the day off with, in the nicest possible way, some self-centred activity. This might be meditation, exercise, reading for pleasure or something else before entering a focused work time. A number of people talk about being in the zone, where work flows, time slows down and they do some of their most creative work. And only after that comes engagement with work colleagues, friends and family.

These ideas are not provided so you beat yourself up if you don’t have a morning routine.  However, if you are dissatisfied with the way your days are going, focus on improving the first ninety minutes and then notice how the rest of the day feels.

five things all charity leaders needs to think about now

25/6/2020

Image by William Iven from Pixabay

A lot has been written about how nearly everyone is getting used to home working and the impact this will have on how we organise our work. Increasingly people will expect a greater flexibility about how and where they work rather than being based at an office.

This means charity leaders will need to rethink office requirements. This might mean that less space is required, or it could suggest that we need to change our office layout so that colleagues can use the space for things other than desk work. The office might have to be reengineered to provide for informal networking, information sharing, gossip and the social interaction that keeps organisational culture strong. More meeting will have remote participants so do we need meeting rooms and, if so, what needs to be in them?

I have discussed with clients that a more radical approach might be to have no office and that organisations hire café spaces by the day for informal get togethers, coaching sessions etc.

How will we attract the best staff?

To attract the best in our industry organisations will have to consider an even more flexible approach to where and when we do our work. Before lockdown many of my clients said that if they needed to have a productive day they would work away from the office. For some roles this had, up until the pandemic, appeared impossible. Now that we have had our limiting beliefs challenged and our creativity expanded new ways of delivering old roles should be the norm.

For charity leaders this means we need think flexibly about job descriptions and ensure we are not falling into unconscious discrimination by tying some roles to an office.

We have an opportunity to consider recruitment and any geographical restrictions of positions based on location. Thinking particularly of senior charity or specialist jobs it should be feasible for a Birmingham based charity to recruit someone in, for example, Edinburgh and make it work.

Image by Jackson David from Pixabay

It has been heart-warming to see how furloughed staff and others have volunteered to help in the fight against COVID-19. It is also interesting to see the creative methods people have used to volunteer remotely.

Leaders need to plan how they can harness this new phenomenon. As charities come out of the pandemic, we can bring in the skills of everyone whose tasks are no longer restricted to be on site for specific times. Social media volunteers immediately come to mind. And with creativity, the volunteering standard should be that, unless the role has to be based in a particular place at a particular time, let’s offer it on-line.

How will leadership styles evolve?

Management are used to seeing their staff on a regular basis. Bosses in some cases equated people turning up to the office with being productivity. Leaders could also often see when things were not going right and appropriately intervene.

With remote working becoming more mainstream, we need to reassess how best to lead staff without being able to see them in the office. This requires a subtle blend of hands-off management focused on results and hands-on wellbeing support to ensure resilience and motivation remain high.

What are the opportunities for a new generation of volunteers?

The future is collaboration

We have seen some wonderful examples of private, public and third sector organisations coming together during COVID-19. What Brian Carr, CEO of BVSC calls “coalitions of kindness.”.

Charity leaders can use this to strengthen their organisations. One of my clients has been able to meet with a partner in a large finance corporation after struggling unsuccessfully for two years. Oher clients have been looking at ways to twin organisations to provide staff development through peer to peer discussions. Others are looking at ways in which they can work closer, share assets or even merge.

There are great opportunities within the challenges of this pandemic for charities to reinvent themselves. Senior charity staff must be on top of the operational challenges here and now. And yet they must also find space to look at the strategic opportunities they need to address for their organisation to thrive.

REthinking the future

21/6/2020

The pandemic has forced a lot of organisations to shrink. I don’t mean in size but in thinking as they concentrate on survival. A necessary reality for some.

It is also a great opportunity for expansion. I don’t mean in size but in thinking as they concentrate on survival and the future. A necessary reality for all.

BVSC’s innovative link with Birmingham City Council and a wide range of 3rd sector local organisations is creative and an appropriate response to a challenge that is bigger than any one organisation. Brian Carr, BVSC CEO is helping to harness what he calls “coalitions of kindness.”

It appears that the future will involve some level partnership working so now is your chance to reach out at a time some are turning in on themselves.

One client of mine is exploring how to upskill her team by linking with a similar organisation and buddying up individuals to share ideas, learn from problems and get tips from successes. How cool is that? And who knows what that cooperation might lead to in the future.

Talk to your landlord, how can you help them? What can they do for you?

Connect with neighbouring organisations. What do you have in common? What local information can you share? What help can you provide?

Reach out to people in other organisations like yours, now might be a time for sharing ideas and skills or combining to organise future events together.

challenges of leading a team remotely

26/5/2020

Published recently on BVSC's Update Brum, this blog is for those of you in the charity sector that are now leading teams remotely. This is a big challenge for you, your staff and your organisation and can take its toll. Your previous ways of leading often need a tweak or in some cases a radical overhaul.

Here I explore the tricky subject of communicating with remote staff, which will make or break your leadership.

https://updatebrum.co.uk/c19supportbrum/successful-communications-as-a-remote-manager/

Home working: recipe for stress or a dream come true?

26/5/2020

Source: Image by butterflystroke from Pixabay

With many of us working from home it has thrown up a number of issues that we haven't had to think about before. For some it is a dream come true as you don’t have to deal with a long and expensive commute or deal with the friendly but ultimately annoying colleague. For some the freedom to work uninterrupted has turbo charged their output.

For others the reality is not so idyllic. They are perched on a stool in the Kitchen with a laptop while partner or children are in the lounge working or home schooling.

The combination of work colleague isolation and the constant distractions of family or fridge can be a recipe for stress.

how the humble tomato can help

An Italian student many years ago faced a similar problem when he had the daunting task of revising for his University finals. He developed a simple system that has increasingly been adopted and adapted by many others to increase focus and minise distraction resulting in fantastic achievements.

The technique is called the Pomodoro technique. Pomodoro is Italian for tomato and he called it this after “borrowing” his mother's plastic tomato shaped kitchen timer.

the pomodoro technique

So what is the Pomodoro technique??

Get the rest of the house occupants onside.
Get all the equipment: laptop, paper, pens, notes etc ready
Switch off all distractions, mobile, email pings, other non relevant programmes
Work for twenty five minutes on one topic only and make as much progress on it as you can.
Stop and take a break, physically get up and walk (to get a drink, go to the loo, talk with someone) for five minutes.

And that is it!

I have found this gets me to work effectively through small stuff (in box emails) to big stuff (developing leadership programmes for 45 managers).

break the task down

For me 25 minutes of laser like focus is just right.

I can complete a lot in just the time period and it leaves me wanting to do more. If I have more space in my diary I will do another “Pomodoro”. Twenty five minutes is not too long to not be connected to emails or social media and similarly for work or home colleagues to leave you in peace.

If I have big tasks I am in danger of procrastinating. Starting off with a Pomodoro session breaks the task down and I can see progress and the momentum encourages me to progress the thing I have been resisting.

The five minute break is important.

It tells your brain that it will have a rest soon. There is something important about physically moving from your workspace to refresh body and mind. But five minutes is enough and then back to work, another focused Pomodoro session perhaps.

I know what you are thinking, where did my mom put the plastic tomato timer?

Well don’t worry, there is an app for that!

managing yourself remotely

11/5/2020

With most of us working from home during the lockdown I wanted to share over the coming weeks a few tips I have learnt from my own and my clients’ experiences.
Today I want to provide some basic ideas to ensure you can make the most of working from home. In my coaching sessions a lot of managers complain that they struggle to get things done at work and they are much more productive when they can work from home.

Perhaps, then we should experience a fantastic explosion of productivity! It would be good to see that, but the duration of the lockdown and the context, with children having to be home schooled, concern about family and friends and the enforced restrictions all chip away at our ability to focus.

Tip one:
Create a working environment

If you are lucky you might have a separate room (spare bedroom/study) that can be the place that you “go to work”. Others must make do with the kitchen or dining room table.

I know someone who goes to his car with his laptop to work. The important thing is to step into work mode. Others will dress for work; some will even use their daily exercise allowance to create an artificial commute. All these actions are to help you get into a work zone, where you will be your professional best.

Tip two:
Create boundaries

One of the benefits of working from home is that you can be flexible and prepare the main meal, sort emails, mind children and take client calls all in the same day.  However, for your piece of mind and quality of work I recommend that wherever you can create boundaries for your work and your non-work time.

I currently get to my desk at 8 am, read articles and work-related books until 8.45 am. I then start my work and finish at 1.00 pm to have lunch. We have my youngest daughter, her husband and their two year old staying with us during lockdown. It is a joy! And we have established that I will take little Joshua for a walk to see the sheep around 10 am.  I mix and match but this I find increases my focus between 9 am and 10 am and 11 am to 1 pm.

After lunch I am usually with the family or in the garden unless I have a client call and I then do a couple of hours writing or planning work from 7 pm to 9 pm.

So that works for me and currently I can work hard and play well with the family. This routine has changed significantly from BL time (before lockdown) when I used to be up at 6 am, play racquet ball at 7 am and typically, three times per week, commute into Birmingham to provide training sessions or individual face to face coaching sessions.

The takeaway message I want to give you is work when you work and don’t work when you don’t! Your schedule can be flexible, but I recommend that if you are committing to, for example, six hours of work per day you schedule it and have the discipline to do it.

Tip three: Focus

To expand on the above suggestions to get the most out of your time “at work” you need to focus. One of the problems of working in an office are the distractions. Clients complain how others interrupt through face to face, email and phone to prevent them getting on with important work. On further exploration my client will conclude they often collude with this problem. They will look for distractions and can be the problem to colleagues by disrupting their workflow.

Working from home many of the distractions of the office have disappeared. But they are often replaced by new stronger distractions. The kids, your partner, TV, Amazon delivery, the fridge(!) come to mind!

One of the best and simplest ways I use to get quality work progressed is called the Pomodoro Technique. It was developed by an Italian student who wanted to find an effective way to revise.

This is the technique.

Get all the things you need to do the work you plan to do ie. laptop, background information etc ready so that you are not wasting time searching for them (and then being distracted in the process).

Minimise and if possible, eliminate distractions. That means phone off or on silent, emails and social media off or on silent. Children off or on silent!!! (well we can hope).

Focus your work on one topic for 25 minutes and then stop. There is some science behind the length of time in terms of your ability to work at peak flow. In practice I find go for 35 minutes. The important thing is to focus on one topic with no distractions for a defined period.

Take a five-minute break. Physically move (cup of teatime or whatever) and then return to work.

If you have time do another Pomodoro session.

This technique needs no special equipment. The originator used his mother’s kitchen timer (a plastic tomato - hence the name, pomodoro is Italian for tomato). And yes, there are several apps that you can use. It gives you great satisfaction to make progress and I find once I have completed one session I want to do another as my work is gaining momentum.

Tip four: Priorities

So often we can be busy fools and working from home with blurred boundaries it is so easy for us to have had a busy day and achieved very little. We need to priorities. How you do that is up to you. But doing it gives you a chance to achieve and get a sense of satisfaction at work.

In my first 15 minutes at work (usually before 9am) I will review my to do list, written the night before and star three as the most important to achieve or progress. The decision to select them is driven by a mixture of importance (i.e. will make a big impact) and time urgency i.e. is the deadline looming?

Then, subject to any virtual meetings planned I will take the first topic and do a pomodoro session to make progress and so on.

I think the start of the day is important and I try to make sure I make progress on one of my priorities first. So many of us do the opposite and start the day catching up on emails or social media. This might be vital for your role. However, emails are often other people’s priorities and the real danger is that from the start of the day your work focus can be highjacked and is not recovered. If this is you I recommend that for the first 15 minutes of your work day you concentrate on your to do list and only after this decide if you are ready to open your in box.

Remember that emails do not require urgent immediate response. If they do the author should call you to bring it to your attention. Your task is to priorities them with your own list, not to let it overtake your list.

Tip five: Regular conversation

When working during lock down we miss the social interaction of the office. At one level this is a blessing and gives you the opportunity to concentrate way more than you could in the open plan office. At another it can create some challenges of professional loneliness which can impact on your mental health. Working from home can find you go days without conversation with work colleagues. Email are efficient and, in most cases, effective but for me I miss the verbal interaction with another person.

During lock down be more purposeful about your communications. Use technology to best effect. Many have set up what's app groups with their teams for quick social chat and information type dialogue. Zoom has suddenly become our go to app for virtual meetings. And I don’t think you can beat picking up the phone and reaching out to colleagues and customers, particularly at this time, to ask how they are doing. We are social animals and we need to connect.

I hope these five ideas are of use to you and help you reflect, adapt and add to so that you can make the most of the current situation. In the next few weeks, I will add other tips to help you manage the lock down.

10 things for you to consider doing during the covid-19 pandemic

3/5/2020

This COVID-19 crisis has radically changed our lives. Just a few months ago, we had no idea our 'world' would be confined to our homes. This crisis is a powerful reminder of how important freedom is - and how much we need human connection!

Remember you are not alone. Because what is DIFFERENT here is that everyone is impacted. Your neighbour, mom, boss and friends as well as your counterparts around the world are all going through something similar.

Here are 10 ideas that I feel will be of help during this strange and difficult time.

1) Create a healthy, supportive routine

When we feel powerless or helpless (as so many of us do at the moment), one EXTREMELY easy thing to do is to create a routine or schedule. While we're all stuck in anxiously waiting at home, it's easy to lose our sense of time.

Days can begin to blend into each other.

A routine can give us an anchor and greater sense of control over our lives. And if you have children, creating a routine is especially important to give them a sense of normality. Be sure to include food preparation, social time, exercise and outdoor time and some learning or creativity so you get some benefit from this challenging time.

It's also important to recognise weekends because it's too easy for weeks to blur together. So, make a looser schedule for your weekends. For example, you could include; sleeping in/later bedtime, brunch, "treats", movie night with popcorn, a virtual happy hour with friends or colleagues, a larger project (perhaps some art, craft, gardening or home redecoration).

So, create a routine for a sense of control and mastery over your environment and life circumstances. Reclaim what power you can over your own life, because with all this uncertainty it's important for you - and especially important for children - to have predictability.

2) Build Your Physical Strength, Fitness Levels or Flexibility!

Building your physical strength is powerful and health-boosting. Not only is physical strength and flexibility life-affirming and good for our health, but feeling more physically powerful actually helps us feel more empowered and less helpless in life too.

Add some physical activity into your schedule - as little as 15 minutes daily. Maybe by the end of this you'll be fitter or even be able to do 10 (or 100!) press-ups!

There are many options to boost your physical strength and health. Here are some ideas;

Take up a yoga practice - excellent for strength-building, flexibility - and calm! There are lots of online options. Here is one with everything from 10 minutes for beginners to an advanced practice. Sarah Beth Yoga on Youtube has more (free) yoga videos than I can count
Learn do a press-up or push-up. Then see if you can get to 10 (or more - depending on where you start)!
PE with Joe (on YouTube is my favourite)

REMEMBER: BEing stronger = FEELING stronger and more in control! And building your PHYSICAL strength or fitness = REDUCED feelings of helplessness!

3) Learn with Non-Fiction Books

Use this time at home to educate yourself with non-fiction books. There is so much to be gained - like self-confidence, negotiation skills, health (sleep, nutrition), how to have difficult conversations and much more.

What keeps you up at night? There's probably a book about that! What do you wish you were better at? There's probably a book about that too!

Here are some book ideas to get you thinking:

Be more productive or creative with "The Now Habit" by Neil Fiore and "A Whole New Mind" by Daniel Pink.
Think (or rethink?) how you live with books like "In Praise of Slow by Carl Honore
Get personally inspired with "Dare to Lead: Brave Work.” by Brene Brown, or "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E. Frankl.
Up-skill yourself with "Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most" by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen.
Learn about the human mind with "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell or “Drive” by Daniel Pink
Get healthier with "Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams" by Matthew Walker PhD.
Finally, read memoir! Choose someone you admire, get inspired and learn how other people think - and live their lives. An excellent example is “Becoming” by Michelle Obama

4) Gain a New Skill with Online Learning

There are so many opportunities online to gain a new skill and they're growing by the day! Grow your personal or creative skills or choose a new skill to learn and take back to work with online training providers.

If there's a skill you always wanted to learn, search for it. But be sure to read the course descriptions thoroughly, check reviews if there are any - and check money-back guarantees as you need to! But a lot of the ones I have checked out are free.

5) Explore your Life Vision

Rather than watching endless news streams, you can choose to focus on a bigger picture - your future. What do you want from the rest of your life? What would you be disappointed you did NOT do? Where do you envision yourself in 10 years?

Having a clear vision of how you want your life to be is a powerful motivator. A vision helps us work towards our goals, take action and make change. Soon, we'll all be super-busy again - and a vision might be just what you need stay focused!

Here are 5 questions to ponder or journal around to go deeper;

What do you desire or yearn for in your life?
How do you want to feel?
What do you really, really want to be different in your life?
What would have happened in 3 years time such that your life is spectacular and you feel magnificent about yourself?
What's your dream for this lifetime? Imagine you're 90 years old and looking back over your life; what did you do that made you proud and happy?

TIP: Remember to think possibility not probability! Don't limit yourself and your ideas because you don't believe something is likely. Instead believe it's possible - and even if you don't get all the way there, you may get close - or even find something better along the way!

6) Be in the moment

In THIS moment you are OK. You are safe. Take one day at a time. One hour or even one breath at a time if you need to.

This tip is about being super-present, not thinking ahead or remembering the past, but practicing BEING.

"Mindfulness@work" by Anna Black is an excellent introduction to the subject with several easy to do exercises that would work for anyone that I have used in my leadership training courses.

This is a PRACTICE - meaning you will have to do it over and over again - bringing yourself back to the NOW. Over time it gets easier, and it's a great skill to have to take back to "normal" life.

EXTRA TIP: Reduce or minimise how often you watch and read the news! And DON'T read or watch the news (or articles about COVID-19 or similar) just before bed!

7) Laugh

Distracting ourselves from our fears is a valid technique for feeling better! Laughter releases helpful chemicals in our bloodstream - Endorphins (our natural "happy" drug) and Dopamine (part of our bodily "reward" system).

What are your favourite comedy shows? I am watching reruns of “Modern Family” as well as “Gavin and Stacey”. Is there a comedian you like?

Netflix and similar have so many watching options, so find something that makes you laugh.

8) Start a Journal!

If you've always wanted to journal, now is a good time to start. More than just keeping a record of your day, a journal can help you explore and sift through your feelings and experiences and learn from them. It's a great way to get to know you.

It's great to choose a beautiful notebook, but the most important thing is to just get started. Here are some prompts to get started with:

Today I am feeling _________. I think this is because __________.
One big thing I have learned during this crisis is _________.
I remember the last time I was stuck in the house _________.
One thing that's surprised me recently is _________.
What matters most to me in life is _________.
Describe your ideal day _________.

9) De-Clutter

I bet you have some organisational things on your to-do list that have been there for a while. Going through winter clothes, sorting out toys to donate or tidying the laundry closet, garage or shed. Use this isolation period to get them done.

Getting organised and de-cluttering allows us to exert some control over our lives - and therefore feel less helpless. Plus it'll feel amazing just to have it done.

Organise your closets, your garage, your books, your photos, office, kitchen equipment. Whatever needs organising. Or perhaps you need to go through your receipts or file your taxes!

If you need some inspiration (and great clothes-folding tips) you could watch the Marie Kondo series on Netflix!

10) Help Others

Helping others is empowering and makes us feel better. Here are a few ways you could help others.

Check in on a neighbour or friend and see if they need anything. You can do this by phone, or in person, remembering to maintain a 6 feet distance.
Offer to get someone groceries if you're going.
Help someone less technically savvy learn how to use Zoom or WhatsApp or whatever they need to get online.
Host a virtual get-together with your regular friends.
Reconnect more deeply with friends or relatives who have moved away.

Final Thoughts

So, which of the above ideas resonated with you? The areas I am focusing on are fitness with a regular slow jog for 5k, picking up on my love of photography with an on line course as well as starting a gratitude journal.

Believe you have the skills and power to tackle this situation and you will! Choose to make the best of a difficult situation and no matter what - you'll find a way.

This current and strange COVID-19 situation will end. And when it does, you'll be proud you made the effort to learn something - whether it's about yourself, fresh knowledge, a new skill - and who knows what else!

If you need any help with any of the above, I am available via zoom or mobile to provide coaching support.

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