End of Year Reflections
Over the last few weeks I have travelled almost three thousand miles on trains.
This includes going to Scotland (twice), the north-east of England, Sussex and Cornwall. Most of it was for work with clients, all of whom I am extremely excited to be working with. The rest was for difficult personal reasons I will not talk about here – safe to say there has been a lot to absorb.
By ‘end of year’ I mean my business year which ends in August. I know for many of you the end of year is another time, such as March or December. Plenty of you also work in schools, or have school age children, where the end of year has either happened or is about to happen.
Although I love my train journeys, and get a lot of work done while travelling, there has also been time to reflect on the year gone by.
It has been a year of many highlights, working with new and existing clients, seeing the public speaking side of what I do start to take off and broadening my leadership team coaching work. Although I am looking forward to a break I am also more than ready to pick it all back up afterwards. I am grateful for everyone who has helped me along the way, thank you.
It is six years since I came out of running schools. In that time I have met so many wonderful people, engaged in all manner of qualifications and professional development and learned far more than I can ever relate here. Only this week I was talking to a former headteacher colleague who is winding it back at the end of this academic year. As I went through some of the details of the various processes and operations of my business it occurred to me how much I have had to learn to transition from education from elsewhere, and from ‘CEO’ to solopreneur.
I could have made life much easier for myself by sticking to what I knew before, but variety is the spice of life. It is so brilliant getting to work with people from all walks of life and supporting them with their challenges, whether in banking, commercial property, local government, pensions, policing, construction or education.
I know that my conversations with senior leaders in one profession provide helpful context for those in others. So many themes run across everything and where one sector has it bad, there is always another where it is worse. The same applies to the issues faced in different areas for the UK.
For all those involved in public sector senior leadership in this post pandemic phase, I take my hat off to you. Those in schools are breaking up for the end of term not knowing what their staffing costs will be, or if they can cover them. Far too many councils are deeply concerned about whether their finances will see the year out. I can assure you that in every industry there have been significant issues, and a great deal of uncertainty. The public sector is not alone.
This will be my last blog until September 2024. I have the small matter of a book to write on my Gen Z material. I figured that if I keep mentioning I’m writing ‘The Snowflake Trope’ (working title) then I have no choice other than to finish it 😊. At some point early(ish) in 2025 it will be done.
At some point I also plan to pull all the ‘from Frantic to Fulfilled’ blogs into book form. A big thank you to all of you who have read and commented upon them. As ever, if there is a topic you would like me to cover please let me know. It is particularly exciting in this day and age to be able to write responsively in this way. Some topics are as old as the hills but they always have new twists.
The heart of my work, whether in my one-to-one coaching, leadership team coaching or public speaking, is supporting senior leaders do important jobs that society needs doing well. I learn from every client, and I hope that comes across in what I do.
If you are a client then a very big thank you for your custom this year. I look forward to working with you further in 2024-25.
I’m away from the end of July until mid-August but the inbox remains open.
Happy summer, it might even have arrived!
Alex
How can I help you?
1. One to one coaching programmes for senior leaders who are swamped by their jobs so they can thrive in life. Click here to discover where you are on your journey from Frantic to Fulfilled? Just 5 minutes of your time and you will receive a full personalised report with guidance on your next steps!
2. Team coaching programmes - working IN a team is not the same as working AS a team and yet they are often treated as if they are the same. I help teams move from the former to the latter, and generate huge shifts in productivity and outcomes.
3. Talks, workshops and seminars - including topics relevant to the two areas above plus explaining Gen Z to Gen X.
