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My article ‘Lean back and learn’ – published in Coaching at Work – notes that coaching clients bring their individual perspectives. Each client also lives and works within a complex, interacting web of systems. These systems need to be taken account of in setting coaching objectives and measuring their achievement. One approach to systemic coaching is via constellations, which demands from me as coach both high-quality presence and the ability to step back and detach myself from intention. I’ve discovered that my detachment in constellation work can enable valuable illumination.

Subscribers to Coaching at Work can read the article on the Coaching at Work website here or ask me for a pdf by e-mailing lw@lindsaywittenberg.co.uk

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Constellations: 'Lean back and learn' - article in Coaching at Work

My article 'Lean back and learn', just published in Coaching at Work, looks at the use of constellations in coaching. This approach demands both high-quality presence by the coach and the ability to step back and detach from intention. I've discovered that my detachment in constellation work can enable valuable illumination for the client

Talent management: the human side

Doctoral research reveals that the experiences and aspirations of 'the talent' are often different from their organisations’ expectations of them and aspirations for them. What's the impact on authenticity, integrity and effectiveness when talent management is commoditised and individual interests go unacknowledged?

'The vulnerable coach': article in Coaching at Work

My new article on 'The vulnerable coach' appears in the January/February 2016 edition of Coaching at Work. if I’m vulnerable I have a greater capacity to be non-judgmental and to compassionately hear the client. My being known to the client nourishes engagement, trust, connection and their feeling of safety - and so enriches the outcomes they create from their coaching.

What kind of leader do you want to be?

What kind of leader are you? And what kind of leader do you want to be? What’s the style that gets you best results and feels right to you? When you return to work after a break you may have a more balanced perspective than when you’re in the thick of the pressure. What are you doing to act on the messages that are now clear to you, to become the kind of leader you want to be and to shape the career you really want?

From peers to direct reports: the senior promotion

When leaders are promoted - and have focused great effort on actually getting the job - there's a risk of not putting enough effort, or not early enough, into making a success of the role once they’re in it. There may be new leadership skills to master - and one of the biggest challenges is to develop new relationships as leader with people who have previously been their peers.

Women, careers and personal safety

Senior women at work, especially those working part-time, may not be as safe as they would like. They need to develop career resilience: a flexibility in being prepared for – and handling - the unexpected, and learning from tough experiences so as to feel more resourced for the path ahead.

'Who are you - really?': article in Coaching at Work

Leaders can become so embroiled in their work that they lose their identity: they have so totally dedicated themselves to achieving outstanding results that they’ve lost touch with the boundary between who they are and the job: they are the job.

Identity and authenticity

For some people change appears unsafe because they fear they'll no longer be who they are. However, it's not behaviour or thinking patterns that define who we are. What inherently and uniquely defines ‘self’ are our deeply held (and possibly unconsciously-held) values, our natural talents, and what we need from our environments if we are to thrive. We each need to understand our true place in the various sets of relationships that comprise our lives - in other words, our systems. Constellations can help.

Resilience and transition: an intimate connection

The relevance of resilience to what can be the challenging process of transition is striking. Leaders have change imposed upon them through, for example, merger or acquisition, or they may be moving into new roles, to new organisations, new cultures, or new countries. During these transitions they need to rediscover their internal resources and call on (or build) fresh sources of resilience. The path to (re-)building resilience can be eased by written narrative and (re-)discovering purpose and meaning.

'Surviving poor leadership': new article in Coaching at Work

My article on my role as coach when I'm working with clients who have a very different concept of leadership from mine, or who are in organisations where the quality of leadership leaves something to be desired, has appeared in the Sept/Oct 2015 issue of Coaching at Work.

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