Archives for April 2020

30th April 2020

5 Tips for Lifting Morale, the Manager’s Role

Back in April, watching the UK football end of season playoffs, where the last few games for those at the top of their leagues, offer the hope of a promotion along with the fear and disappointment of staying where they are. It made me think of the role corporate managers have lifting morale with their teams.

The manager has their own feelings and emotions to deal with, each individual in the team has their unique perceptions of the tasks ahead and the realities of a positive or negative outcome.

Both impact how the team gel, support and push each other to remain cool headed and perform under pressure.

So what can you do? Here are 5 Tips
1. Always acknowledge your team’s achievements as they happen, so you can all draw on them again in high stake situations.
2. Acknowledge the skills and techniques of each individual and the value of their camaraderie.
3. Create space to hear, share and understand their greatest fears if success is or is not forthcoming.
4. Clarify with them what is in their control, what is their responsibility, what is not, to provide real focus for their attention.
5. Re-enforce that what ever result, the team will always face challenges and tough times build their resilience for these.
#leadership #neurocoaching #mentaltoughness

16th April 2020

What happened when a videographer met a NeuroScience coach?

There are some collaborations that are an easy pairing and others that are less obvious, but become extremely powerful. This is the story of when I, Dominique met John!

I’m grateful to Nick Shrimpton who provides me and my business with excellent marketing guidance that is bearing real fruit. He rightly pointed out that what visitors to my website wanted to see, was me. Afterall it is my expertise and delivery style that people are buying into at the end of the day, and I needed to give a ‘flavour’ of this in my website content.

Having accepted the logic of the argument, I was faced with the reality of knowing I would have to produce a video, and a little of the blood drained from my cheeks! Nick said not to stress overly, as he knew someone who excelled at putting people at ease in front of the camera – John Peddie at J Productions.

After a short period of reflection I considered my reaction to the idea of a video. I mentioned my reaction to John and it was his response that got me thinking. I stand up and give talks to groups and larger audiences for a living, why instinctively did I give the video idea the cold shoulder? If I felt like this, with my neuroscience background, then why don’t I share with others about what is going on in our brain when we are asked to do something that we don’t want to do. Through John’s insight, our idea for some neuroscience videos was borne.

The reasons why a great many people do not like being in a video is rooted in their past. We are a social species, like a tribe, and any risk of exclusion can drive a sense of fear. In adulthood, if you connect to a situation (like being in a video) with fear, which risks embarrassment and exclusion, anti-abandonment strategies from childhood kick in. An obvious one is avoidance; I don’t want to do that. There are though ways to train the brain to overcome this fear, as this first video explains.

With John’s help and my neuroscience knowledge we are helping to explain why the fear of appearing in a video is wholly natural. There is context for the fear and more importantly a proven strategy to overcome it.

To learn more about overcoming anxieties in stressful situations contact me: dominique@reachnewheights.co.uk

To learn more about expert video making for businesses contact John

9th April 2020

Podcast: Coaching people through stress and anxiety using NeuroCoaching

Last week I was invited to a podcast interview with the IAPC&M. The ‘Both sides of the Coin’ format focuses on what a particular coach specialises in. I chose to focus on Leadership and NeuroCoaching (Applied Neuroscience for Wellbeing).

Unusually, the format then flips to the other side, that being the view of one of my coaching clients. With confidentiality a key ethic for coaching, I wasn’t sure if any of my clients would be willing to partner with me in the interview. As it turned out, I didn’t have to look far. I’d like to thank Nick Shrimpton of Sixth Sense Marketing for joining me and sharing his insights of our coaching experience and tips for us coaches to keep in mind.

As a coach serious about keeping my standards high and my business growing, the view of the coachee is invaluable and I thank him for his honest comments.

PODCAST: Both sides of the coin with Dominique Stillman

If you would like to know more about how the practice of Neuroscience and Neurocoaching can help achieve performance under pressure, contact me on 07703 564451 or by email: dominique@reachnewheights.co.uk