Dominique Stillman

I have been associated with The Wellbeing and Performance Company for over two years. We are a coaching collaboration and we all believe in assessing and improving individual wellbeing. In doing so performance and profitability goes up at a corporate level and staff are both happier and more engaged.

Business leaders have a lot on their plates at the moment. Managing return to work, adapting to hybrid/flexible working and making provision for staff wellbeing.

A team that is well cared for can be high performing and that’s good news all round. I’m pleased to be a member of this collaboration that has put together wellbeing packages that can be accessed remotely and on-demand to help bring your teams back together as a cohesive unit. You can read more about the “Wellbeing in a Virtual Box” here or why not watch our introductory explainer video!

As lockdowns have come, gone and come again, how have you used the time to evolve or change?

A page on this website quotes Charles Darwin – ‘It’s not the strongest of the species that will survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones responsive to change.’

Evolving and growing with change, rather than railing against it is how people and businesses survive and thrive. Anticipating and planning for change is a threat for some and an opportunity for others. Embracing change is easier said than done.

Change means challenge

For the brain, challenge means facing fears, taking risks and shifting commitments.

I have been fortunate to have remained working with some great organisations and people during all three lockdowns. But life has been far from perfect; things have been put on hold and business is generally quieter.

My reaction to this situation is what is important to me.  My reaction was worry, naturally enough. After all income is important – it pays the bills and spares anguish. But after some thought, I realised what I was worrying about was not actually in my hands. I can’t control lockdown, its severity or how long it will last. For me, my worries very quickly became ‘action focused’ and I found ways to be pro-active in such challenging times.

Finding positives from a negative situation 

I deliberately found time for a short period of reflection. I considered my purpose; what I do and how I do it.  This highlighted to me the need to be clearer about my purpose and be proud enough about it to ‘shout it from the roof tops!’

“My purpose is my passion for leaders to be skilled and motivated to create psychological safety that engenders high performance, fulfilment and commitment.“

My fascination with how our brain works remains undimmed. Increasing our understanding of neuroscience opens a whole new level of work opportunities for me. It led me directly to gain qualifications under Dr Sarah Mackay, in both neuroscience and brain health.  But clarity on how I applied this new knowledge to my work with clients was needed. I hadn’t always put the benefits across in way that was easy to understand.

The outcome

A new logo and an evolution to my coaching programme.

Neuroscience and applying that to leading, and leading well, is what I do. Out went my previous logo, replaced with this one above and immediately I became more connected and focused to what I offer.

With the confidence of a new logo, I re-worked my existing coaching programme. Again, better clarity was to the fore and when we settled on the title of ‘The Headstrong Coaching Programme’ the pieces started to fall into place. A coaching programme with an upward flight path that explains simply the route map for improvement and greater belief among my coaching clients.

I am grateful for the support, expertise and humour of Nick at Sixth Sense Marketing. He helped the creative process and provided words and structure to my ideas and thoughts. We made a good team!

How many people are you hearing describe the tiredness and fatigue that they feel after a day, let alone a week of ‘Zooming’?  And it doesn’t end with work Zooms either. There’s the evening social Zoom, the quiz Zoom, the weekend family Zoom. Video calling can be constant and ongoing due to increased connectivity with work and family (perhaps including across time zones.)

As humans we have a deep-seated survival need to connect with other humans. With COVID, working from home and lockdown (v1 and v2), a solution has been the video call. But are we over valuing its impact?

Pre-COVIDS (remember that) we had teleconferencing and 1-2-1 calls. Yet they seem to have diminished in use, with video-conferencing being favoured.  Let’s not forget that voice conference calls and Zoom calls both need high levels of facilitation so all parties can contribute and remain engaged.

Telephone coaching is not unusual for Leadership Coaches

As a leadership coach, telephone coaching is not at all unusual and can be additionally insightful for the very reason that we have both cut out one of our senses – sight.

It may seem counter intuitive to think that not being able to see the person/people your are communicating with can be beneficial. But by removing your sense of sight, your brain can rest an element of processing that hardly ever gets a break in waking hours (assuming you are blessed with sight). 

Have you noticed that when you really want to concentrate, you shut your eyes?  Often you shut out the people and what’s around you, so you can be free from visual distractions and think in a more focused way. 

As a coach, the telephone sessions cause me to listen even more intently.  I can still pick up cues and signals beyond the words being spoken.  A tone change, or change in pace in a client’s voice is an indicator for me to enquire into that change.   How someone is breathing will impact their voice too – someone sitting upright and attentively will have unrestricted breathing, a stronger voice and often show more engagement with the conversation.  Someone slouching is restricting their breathing and can then sound less energised, distracted or more distant.  Both are worth noticing and providing feedback on.  Without visual cues, I have to ask more questions to check I understand rather than assume. 

You may believe that face-to-face or by video call will secure a contract.  In my experience, I have many clients who I first meet by an email introduction and then a phone call.  My first video call with them, if I cannot meet in person, is preferably our first coaching session, but it doesn’t have to be and it doesn’t have to be every session either.

My tips for leaders and teams

• Vary your connection methods throughout the day and where possible change some Zoom calls to voice calls.
• Offer voice call options. It can help those who may feel pressure and judgement over how they ‘should’ look or their surroundings. 
• Try walking voice calls when, rather than getting into work details, you want to purely check-in on a team member (encouraging them to be walking too). Great for idea creation too by the way.
• Remember that thinking time is less pressured if someone isn’t looking at you!

If you’d like to work with me or learn more about what I do. Contact me at Dominique@reachnewheights.co.uk