That meeting. You know. The tricky one. Here's how to manage that. With some tips taken from swimming in cold water….

A few times a week I go to a local outdoor pool. They say it’s heated and I think it was probably was - shortly after the last Ice Age.

And so getting in the pool as you can imagine is quite the experience.

Time for a song. A song about how communication skills coaching boosts your career, helps get you that promotion and increases your impact in the workplace.

How speaking up can get you seen and raise your visibility. How building your engagement skills can strengthen your network.

How telling stories that bring ideas to life and listening more and talking less makes you a valued member of a team.

Being creative with how we communicate can pays dividends. How we present something can grab people’s attention. Make them sit up and take notice.

But how do you do this? You can use a different shape for your talk. Spice things up a bit.

Take the Pecha Kucha format.

Oxygen tanks and sherpas. Blisters and stunning views. The endless cycle of one foot in front of another. My husband and I recently went mountain climbing. And didn’t experience any of these.

But we did go to a place we’ve never been before. And saw sights we’d never seen.

You may have heard of where we went.

So, you’re thinking of getting coaching. And you’re wondering how to go about it. Maybe you’ve never done it before and aren’t sure where to start because there are loads coaches out there.

Maybe you’ve had coaching and so it might feel a bit like getting back on a bike.

But one thing is for sure: you want to find a safe space to think, grow, make decisions, try things out and have some time for yourself. Boost your confidence. Improve your career development.

Communication skills coaching has a lot to do with gardening. Are you after a brilliant pot plant, a section of your garden looking stunning or do you want the whole package: landscaping the lot, to create a wow factor among your colleagues and the leadership?

What I am talking about? Well, it all started when I went to the garden centre at the weekend. And it swallowed me whole.

It’s where, in addition to 15 other indoor and outdoor plants,  I picked up Chamaedorea Elegans, which sounds like a posh sexually transmitted disease but isn’t.

Here’s my third and final post on how to manage your inner critic, and today it’s all about changing the tune that you listen to.

Imagine the scene.

Something’s happened and you’re not happy about what you said or did.

And in your head the “Ballad of Regret” is playing big time.

D’you know that voice in your head? Recently, I posted the first way to manage that. Here’s a second way you can tame the voice if it’s getting a bit big for its boots and all bossy and judgy with you. And it’s to do with having good manners.

Using this technique lets you create distance between you and your thoughts. And puts in a bit of a boundary.

And why’s that important?

Your inner critic. The sh*tty committee. Fred. Or perhaps Tabitha. Do you have a name for the voice in your head?

I’m going to share 3 ways of managing that voice, and this is the first of those articles.

This first method is to check in with yourself.