Why don't you just speak up?

At Yellowrattle Coaching, I am opening awareness of the whole experience of what it means to exist in relation to your world. These monthly newsletters bring a different lens to look through your world and hopefully inspire you.

Welcome to all 182 subscribers across LinkedIn and Substack ????

What happens to bird song when the noise pollution disappears?

A recent study (2020) showed that birds give up the complexity of song for volume in noisy places. The songs are louder, but less interesting. During COVID, when this study was carried out, the birds became quieter but sang far more interesting and complex songs.

With less noise pollution, we can understand that the song would be heard more clearly and over larger distances, but it is heart warming to read that the birds engaged in more complex song given the right environment. The researchers felt there was early indication that this could contribute to greater species diversity and demographic recovery.

As leaders, how much attention do we put in to noticing how the environment is affecting the quality and complexity of what is being said by our teams?

We know there are complex problems, surely we do not want complex conversations?

A lot of our conversations are reduced to transactions and we struggle to sit in conversations that open up more questions, seemingly taking us away from the goal.

As a coach, when I invite the coachee to say what they would like to take away from the session, it inevitably involves ‘a list’ or ‘some actions’ which is how we are used to being measured. When a conversation flows, what really matters will start to materialise and it’s rarely about taking more actions away. However, the flow will often get interrupted with the coachee’s inner voice telling them they need to get to the point.

A bit like the birds who needed to simplify their song to be heard above the noise. The noise that may be requiring us to simplify our song may not just be the voices in the office, but voices of people who have criticised us in the past.

What are your conversations about?

If you consider your last conversation with a team member, was it spontaneous or planned with an agenda? What did you notice about the difference?

Were you in ‘ego states’? This is when we are in adult-to-adult conversation, not parent-child. If one person is guessing what needs to be said, as they are worrying what the other person needs, they may try to fill the silence.

How did you feel once the conversation was over? Did your thoughts go to productivity or connection?

It is often helpful to delineate your conversations into whether they are about knowledge or wonder:

Structure and process belongs to a world of knowing, emergence and discovery belongs to a world of wonder

How will you blend your conversations?

In other news…..

Business Builder - What Katie Did

This latest podcast is with the fantastic Claire Pedrick MCC, the author of ‘Simplifying Coaching - how to have more transformational conversations by doing less’. Topics we cover:

?? - how I got my first clients

?? - how my previous careers have helped

?? - my trouble with the language of sales

?? ?? - what’s kept me going

???? - the importance of knowing oneself

As you’ve got this far, would you like to work together?

I am open to working in a consulting, speaking and coaching capacity.

My professional coaching is twofold:

• Psychodynamic coaching: understanding why you are resisting the changes you want to make, exploring the defensive tactics that keep you stuck. A deeper investigation using insights from analytical psychology, facilitated through coaching.
• Person centred coaching: building your convergent and divergent thinking capability to enable you to gain clarity over how you want to address your challenge or opportunity.

Find out more check out my website here

Previous content you might enjoy:

Podcasts:

Leadership beyond the job title

My Realisation

Previous Blogs

Why do we need a sprinkling of Yellowrattle?

The best is yet to come

Meaning and discovering the part you play in the world

Boundaries and Design

How leaders can think and act like entrepreneurs

No regrets

First times and why they are good for us

Trading spaces

But what’s the whole story?