Snippet – No.12: Resilience

Snippet – No.12: Resilience

by | Jun 18, 2020 | Snippet

“Nana korobi ya oki 七転び八起き”
Fall seven times, rise eight” – Japanese Proverb

I was exhausted this weekend. People commenting that I looked pale and I really did feel tired. I’ve been wondering ‘why?’

Lockdown has been a long slog – a mentally and physically demanding ride, which has taken its toll, even on those of us, like me, who have had it pretty easy.

10 years ago, I worked briefly with a lovely man who was returning to Japan after three years working in the UK. He told me they have a saying about the number 3: 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months and even 3 years – all of these are turning points where we have to decide whether to stay or move on, and at each turning point we will wobble and have our doubts. My children know that when they wobble about work or relationships, they have to check – is it 3 weeks, 3 months or even 3 years!

And we are 3 months into this strange world, where we have to decide if we keep going or break out of lockdown, with a totally uncertain future ahead of us. It’s like running a marathon where we don’t know the finish line. So, I am not surprised that I am wobbling: at least my Japanese friend could return to a world he knew!

Arabella Ellis
Founder & CCO,  Jyre

Snippet, Reflect, Fix

Snippet
Resilience is key to running this marathon. Not soldiering on, or pushing through pain, but rather paying attention to ourselves, our thoughts, our feelings and our relationships, and taking actions that will help and protect us now and for the future. Making the focus sustainable.

Reflect
Are you looking after yourself in a way that makes you proud? Looking after your emotions, your health, your sleep, and your relationships?

Fix
Do you know which activities help you recalibrate and regain perspective? Are there ones that you have let slip in this lockdown world, which you would benefit from turning the dial up on again?

Snippet – No.8: Resilience

Snippet – No.8: Resilience

by | May 28, 2020 | Snippet

When I think about my next development goal, I am torn between choosing ‘Resilience’ (my anxieties at this stage of the pandemic are not about death, but rather about job losses and poverty – my family after all were Jewish war refugees) and ‘Influential’ (can I use this time to find my influencer voice?).

Choosing Resilience is driven by a desire to understand and change the anxiety inside myself about money, because I know it is not based on fact.

Choosing Influential is for the future, an opportunity to add something specific to my repertoire, to project my voice outward.

I realised as I was out for a walk at the weekend (walking works really well for me as a way of getting perspective) that this choice reflects something I’ve been writing about and working with my coaching clients: what is the source of our impulse to want to develop? Does it come from within or from without?

Arabella Ellis
Founder & CCO, Jyre

Snippet, Reflect, Fix

Snippet
We can think of our development goals as falling into 2 categories:

a) learning to thrive in a changing environment (new job, new role, new boss, new city, new relationship etc). These are all external change factors, things that happen to us that require a change of us or present us with an opportunity to change.

b) a desire to change myself because I am not thriving, whether it’s in my life, my work or my relationships. These are internally driven changes based on noticing personal discomfort or having this pointed out by someone else, even when it’s hard to hear.

Reflect
What information do you pay attention to that indicates you need to change? What signs do you miss or avoid? How open are you to the idea that change is an opportunity?

Fix
Learn to identify goals from both categories. Pick a goal that you’ve already set yourself or one that you’d like to set. Identify whether it’s driven from the inside or the outside. Now choose an additional goal that is driven by the opposite. Which goal are you more likely to achieve?

Snippet – No.2: Grip

Snippet – No.2: Grip

by | May 19, 2020 | Snippet

I am co-founder and Chief Customer Officer for Jyre, and in these unprecedented times of lockdown and remote working I am struck by the difference between clients who are ‘too busy’ to have coaching sessions, and those who are desperate for time to reflect, make sense and plan how to help their teams to survive and thrive.  I know who I would rather be led by!

And that shocked me because, being action-oriented myself, I too cancelled my own supervision sessions at the start of lockdown.  They are back in the diary now and are invaluable.

Arabella Ellis
Founder & CCO Jyre

Snippet, Reflect, Fix

Snippet
The business world values (or perhaps overvalues) decisive action. In Jyre we call this Grip: goal-driven behaviours which turn plans into progress. But Grip when not backed by Judgement leads to wasted effort and frantic behaviour.

Judgement is more than just making a decision.  It has 3 parts: what do I ‘think’ about this, and what does that imply? What do I ‘feel’ about this, and what does that imply, and what therefore should I ‘do’ and when?

Reflect
What is your personal balance between Grip and Judgement – both generally and in times of deep uncertainty and change? Of the 3 parts of Judgement, which do you use well and value?

Fix
Now is the time to put into place a daily practice to improve your Judgement. Take 10mins to reflect on what you Think, Feel and therefore want to Do.

Creating a culture of leadership

Creating a culture of leadership

by | Dec 11, 2018 | Our thinking

Can everyone be a leader?

The word ‘leader’ for most people brings to mind those in positions at the top levels of an organisation. The idea of viewing everyone as having a leadership contribution to make can come across as idealistic and unrealistic. It instinctively seems at odds with the reality of how organisations are structured. 

Yet at its simplest level, leadership is a choice. We are leading every time we make a decision on behalf of our team, push a conversation in a certain direction or go out of our way to support a colleague or friend. It is less about position in an organisation and more about appetite and willingness to make a difference.

The risk of followership

So let’s we reframe the question: if not leadership, does an organisation need followers and followership?

Many leaders see it as their responsibility to energise their team to tackle and solve the operational problems, challenges and complexity which naturally arise in a business. But if the team has the capability to solve them, then why do they need motivating and inspiring?

If leadership equates to action, then the risk with a followership mentality is that it naturally tends towards inaction. The result all too often can be a sense of people passively watching, waiting, debating and feeling uncertain. And even worse, of people blaming and criticising their leaders for not being good enough – placing the reason for their own lack of motivation and satisfaction on their leaders.

A culture that creates leadership

Culture is effectively a self-supporting web of beliefs and behaviours. Over time these become leadership practices and eventually create an environment that attracts people who share their values. Senior leaders have a key role to play in creating this culture, but need to be careful that this culture creates leaders and leadership, rather than followers and followership. 

A culture that drives development

People’s leadership contributions needs time and space to grow and people must feel this growth is valued. They also need to be able to openly discuss and reflect on their progress and the obstacles they face and be able to experiment with new ideas and approaches. 

Developing our leadership contribution revolves around recognising and unlocking potential: identifying our natural talents, having a vision of ourselves making a leadership contribution, and working to turn that vision into a reality. It is rooted in the mentality that each one of us already has natural strengths of character and that becoming a good leader will be built on a foundation of these strengths. At the end of the day, people choose to follow other people because of their characters as much as their competence. 

A culture that drives performance

Organisations that prioritise developing leadership lead in attracting, retaining, and nurturing the best talent. A developmental mindset empowers that talent to go beyond their comfort zone, with an awareness of their natural strengths. A culture that embeds these principles inevitably drives a company to high performance. It tends to adopt core values. It inspires employee and client engagement. It aspires to lead in its industry. It organically fosters innovation and collaboration while recognising and unlocking potential.

Imagine an organisation full of people that understand their own value, the strengths of their peers and their potential. Where every team functions at peak performance, understands the organisation’s overarching business goals and has a true sense of purpose and direction. This is the catalyst for business transformation.

Do people change?

Do people change?

by | Nov 6, 2017 | Our thinking

Do you believe people can change, learn and grow? Or do you believe that abilities are innate and can only be developed up to a fixed level? Can intelligence and character can be changed? Or are they set, and there is not much we can do to alter them?

This difference in beliefs is known as the ‘fixed vs. growth’ mindset and has been researched extensively by Carol Dweck. Those with a fixed mindset believe that success and intelligence are innate, and those with a growth mindset believe that success is due to hard work and learning, and that with effort, intelligence and character can be changed.

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Her research is familiar to many, but to summarise: Dweck has found that those with a fixed mindset can get caught in a desire to look intelligent whatever the situation, seeking to confirm that they are inherently intelligent. This can lead them to avoid challenges if they don’t think they will perform well, and they are more likely to give up easily when faced with obstacles. The result is that those with a fixed mindset may achieve less than their full potential, as they are hesitant to push themselves out of their comfort zone.

In contrast, people with a growth mindset are more likely to persevere with challenges even if they don’t perform strongly in the first instance. Their openness to learning and belief in the possibility of growth serving as a motivation to sustain them through set-backs.

Jyre’s growth mindset

Jyre is founded on a growth mindset: that character and intelligence can be developed given the right focus, effort and support:

  • Focus means choosing goals for yourself wisely. We believe that people can achieve anything they set their mind and heart to, but if they try to be everything and achieve everything their effort will be diluted and lack focus. Put differently: you can be anything you choose to be, but you can’t be everything!
  • Effort means accepting the hard work that comes with the chosen goal. It is easiest to see in sport – top level performance does not come without sacrifice and dedication.
  • Support – Jyre is carefully designed to support you and prompt you to be your best self. Yet it is even more powerful if there is are team colleagues, a mentor or friend to help you stay motivated and handle the inevitable obstacles.

So our message is that the change you want to see is possible and Jyre will help guide your journey.