Activist* - Stefan’s Week-Notes 2/11/2024.
Inspired by the weeknotes of friends and coachees including John Fitzgerald, Steve Messer and Nour Sidawi - I thought I'd give it a go.
Inspired by the weeknotes of friends and coachees including John Fitzgerald, Steve Messer and Nour Sidawi - I thought I'd give it a go.
Here's a dive in to the happenings of the past week. I start with what I’ve been up to, to frame the week and then the successes.
Why? Because it's easy to look into the dark rather than the light; isn't it?
Hope you enjoy it; comments, observations and thoughts welcome.
What have I been up to?
(Question inspired by @James_ Arthur_Cattell week notes). It's been a busy week.
Cycling and Strength and Conditioning
I've been without my Van as it developed a very costly electrical fault - and so it’s been a week of commuting. A full set of @tailfinn kit as well as gravel wheels and tyres on my @northroadcycles ‘Swiss Army knife’ bike has enabled me to carry laptops, changes of clothing and gym kit all week and has meant adjusting to ‘going slower’.
In reality it’s been a healthy shift though as my body & mind has been grateful to ‘ease off a little'‘ and I think I’ll come away from this winter stronger for next years race calendar too.
One strength and conditioning session out of two completed this week as a cold and a tired body suggested I needed to rest.
Oh and I may have a bonkers ride plotted for next year; cant wait to finalise it and share it with you.
Coaching, Mentoring and Inquisitive Sessions.
This week’s been a little ‘lean’ on the coaching and mentoring sessions as it’s been half term and many of my coachees have been away; it’s also a week for me to have the children for four days; so its been helpful. Even so, sessions did include:
An inquisitive session with a leader within the wealth management space; talking purpose, making a difference and creating space to spend with their partner and children.
A mentoring session with a leader in the Diversity and Inclusion space, looking at what they need to ‘accept’, ‘lean into’ and ‘grow in’, in order to ‘lean out and ‘grow out’ of their position in the meantime. This was part of the @93percentclub mentoring programme.
A coaching session with a leader within the creative industries who has been taking a 2 year sabbatical from the stresses and strain of a high pressured working environment - who is now considering ‘going back in’ on their terms - determined to make a dent in how valuable the industry is deemed to be in the ‘eyes of the powers that be’.
Testimonials
This week I received this wonderful testimonial from Andy Hoath. An incredible leader in the engineering sector who has worked with both Williams F1, and McLaren, his testimonial relates to the 1-1 and team coaching I did with his leadership team at Stannah as they looked for greater efficiencies across the whole design and engineering lifecycle. I am very proud of the work we did together and the impact for good that Andy and his team have embedded. This is what Andy had to say:
“I commissioned Stefan to lead several projects focused on team performance and culture. His approach, grounded in both theoretical knowledge and practical leadership experience, provides unique insights and quickly established credibility with a highly experienced team. This capability has led to outstanding results.
I have complete confidence in recommending Stefan for one-on-one coaching, team building, and project performance reviews”.
Writing
This week I found the time to write and release the second piece on WORK, the first of my four life pillars. In the piece, I talked about the 5 characteristics that I see my most successful coachees exhibit as leaders. You can read the full journal post here and in the meantime, here is a snippet.
“I thrive on working with people who have what I call the 4th element - Societal Focus. What this means for me, is that they can at least unconsciously connect the work they do and the change they want to make to everyone in ‘their’ society i.e. their team and organisation and explain this to those around them. The real growth, through coaching comes in being able to consciously do this across their organisation developing a string foundation for sector wide and cross sector influence”.
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What's been good about this week?
I’ve really enjoyed this week.
In particular, I enjoyed writing the piece on WORK, I mentioned above.
Why? It feels like I am making strides in articulating the concepts which underpin my coaching.
As a coach I have always believed that ‘it’s all about the questions’ but years in, I see the value in being able to share the concepts and experience which underpins those questions and which I have created ‘on the spot’ within a coaching sessions from the ‘bones; of the very conversation we have been having.
This ability is something that my friend and coachee Steve Messer commented on in one of our sessions recently, when he said something along the lines of ‘it’s amazing how you create structure and models out of what we discuss, in the moment’.
This is something which I’ve always been able to do and it’s something I was taught formally to do in my NLP training as part if the modelling success process.
I simply break something down into its constituent parts to ‘model’ what bring success; in order that I may replicate it and build from it.
In this weeks session, we formulated the ‘growing into and growing outside’ of metaphor which is the notion that you should seek to grow to fill the role you’re in, and address whats ‘restraining’ you from growing out of it.
In my work, I have seen to many people run away from the challenge, where their long term success and advocacy of change relates in them finding ways to beat ‘it’. You always carry the baggage of what you left behind ‘unfinished’. The caveat of course is that you should only do this if it is safe to do so.
What am I grateful for?
This week I am grateful to Sean at Luptons Garage on the Isle of Wight who sorted my electrical fault on my van; what a great fellow.
Jack was also brilliant at enterprise car rental in Newport - after they had two vans become unavailable and yet still found a way to accommodate me and my bike.
This week I am again grateful for some one to one time with Vera whom I had a wonderful afternoon with a Blackgang Chine Theme Park on the island. @Dom_Wray will be proud.
A chance to laugh, run, bounce and eat loads of ice cream I couldn’t have been happier - she makes me feel happy to be alive.
I’m also grateful for all who have visited my gallery @thelittleboat this week; I sold 10 pieces of artwork as well as, hoodies, t-shirts and some gift cards too ;-) .
Social media gratitude…
This week I am grateful for some new connections and the work of @ianBoyd and @Debbietann of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife trust who inspired my - ‘word of the week’ - Activist.
Likes, comments shares and signs ups make these 3 main differences:
They help me get seen on linked and on instagram by ‘leaning into’ their algorithms.
They mean that others, outside of my immediate network, get to see my work, know I exist and contact me to find out more about my work, chat about the great thing they are leading, or wish to lead, and just maybe ask me to coach them.
They makes me feel valued and motivates me to do more.
Thank you all for helping me to do more of what I love.
What could have gone better?
This week I think the biggest thing could have gone better was the budget.
I believe that it needed to go further in incentivising climate change action and de-incentivising unsustainable practices.
I believe that it needed to go further in helping the poorer and less affluent amongst us to improve our standard of living and reduce stress across the board.
I believe that it needed to go further in obtaining funds and resources from large UK and International based corporate organisations working in the UK, to help address this.
Can we say that this budget will be a catalyst and drive a change ion behaviour or offer significant support to those seeking to meet our 30 x 30 targets, for example?
Can we say that this budget will drive change in the 1 in 5 people in this country, including children, who live in poverty?
Can say that this budget will drive the change that will really empower people to strive for business success at the first rungs of the business ladder?
Or will it continue to drive ‘monopolisation’ and power mongering in the upper echelons?
I saw neither a long term strategy announced to work towards which would do this, or short term, interim measures which will either. Is this poor communication, or because these strategies simply aren’t there?
As a coffee house founder, I realised that I had been shielded from just how tough it is in small business, particularly in the hospitality industry and it seems to me that unless this is a gradual shift with bigger ambitions which will come rapidly; this budget serves those who wish to contitne to make money from others and from continuing to exploit its resources.
You cannot change the status quo by supporting it. there is too much status quo bias, causing people to prefer the current situation and resist change.
Am I looking for revolution? Yes - true parity and social conscience showed for and by all.
What am I reading?
This week, based upon the above, it won’t surprise you to hear that I am reading a lot on climate change.
I read what I think was a really helpful summary of the key climate and energy announcements within this weeks budget; You can read the full piece here.
Meeedless to say there are some pluses but so much more that could be done:
“Despite speculation ahead of the budget, Reeves extended a 14-year freeze in fuel-duty that has cost the exchequer a cumulative total of £100bn and left overall UK carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions as much as 7% higher than they would have been.
Elsewhere, the budget hiked taxes on private jets, extended incentives for electric vehicles, confirmed an increase in the rate of windfall tax on oil and gas companies and pledged investment in technologies including “green hydrogen” and carbon capture and storage.”
For me, whilst the pluses are to be welcomed it simply didn’t go far enough and doesnt sit comfortably under our obligations under the UN SDG’s or in-line with our obligations under the framework which the KK signed up to as part of the 30x30 COP28 framework.
Signing up to the framework means that we have committed, along with other global leaders to conserve “… 30% of Earth's land and sea by 2030 through protected areas and other conservation methods” which “…serves as a linchpin to enhance both biodiversity and climate change mitigation, offering a comprehensive approach to environmental sustainability”.
So infuriated am I by the apathy attached to this, It motivated me to write a post about it on linkedin here and I have put my name down on @ianboyds list alongside @mattgreg to see how I can further the biosphere preserving work on the Isle of Wight. You can read more about his work here
I’ve also been reading and absorbing a lot of content shared by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust. And Debbie Tan MBE, their CEO, beautifully articulates what we need to be doing and her blog post and videos, motivated me to choose the word Activist as my word of the week.
I’m inspired and think 2025 will be a year of ‘gentle rebellion, change work and reform’ of me.
Oh and…I’ve continued to read the fabulous biography “Step by Step” by journalist and adventurer Simon Reeve, which I highlighted in last weeks week notes.
What am I wishing for?
I am wishing for more joy in this world (I know, you might say I haven’t helped with this post ;-)).
Joy starts with a smile and what makes me smile is progress, good comedy and seeing other people enjoy life.
This week I was visited at the Little Boat by a mother and her daughter; who spoke so excitedly and enthusiastically about my art work and the recent Van Gogh exhibition she attended as well as the Van Gogh artwork she had recreated for her school art project and I am smiling at the thought of it.
She had painted his famous ‘cypress trees’ in oils and I recounted the pastel version I did at school and which still sits in my art folder in my parents loft.
I really wish Van Gogh was able to see and hear the joy his work has created, inspite of the great sorrow with which he sometimes lived.
I’ve included the image of his famous Cypress trees, for you to have a look at and you can still go and see his work at the brilliant immerse Van Gogh experience in London; find out more here
A Last Word - Activist (no no that type).
This week, I’d like to leave you with the word Activist.
My friend and coachee @Sara_Truckel has already grabbed the label of “the marketing and branding activist” and inspired me to think about being more activist in my work too.
You’ve probably picked that up though.
Before we go any further, I think it goes without saying that I don’t mean the learning style.
No, I mean the type of activist which writer and Activist Alice Walker referred to as being “…MY RENT FOR LIVING ON THE PLANET”.
I’ve always been an activist for good, a change leader driving for change that needed to be delivered to make life better for customers and colleagues but so rarely did I take that ‘activism’ out into my neighbourhood or community when I worked in corporate world.
If I’m honest - I simply didn’t find the time and wasn’t connected enough to what was going on outside of my work and family life bubble to do so.
As I’’ve got older and more attuned to the community by founding a coffee house in it, running a small business and parenting kids whose future I worry about - I’ve started to think more about my legacy and that’s where I now see more of my coaching and non coaching work focusing its time.
Helping good people lead great things, or in other words being change agents and activists within work to help the world outside of it.
As part of the evolution of my work, I’m beginning to visit texts like Bill Moyers 8 stages of social movement and the 4 activist roles and would love to hear your thoughts on books and films etc to watch in this arena.
I know that the word activist can conjure up many thoughts - some of them not so savoury - but when I think of and focus upon the acts or behaviours which bring about constructive dialogue and constructive action for all - I cannot help but realise I need to be more activist for our world.
i’m also minded that I sowed this seeds for this a couple of years ago in the piece I wrote for my wonderful friends JoJo and Barrie of @feastsandfables and their encouragement manifesto, when I wrote about Claudette Colvin the American pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement and retired nurse aide.
I think it’s time to dust off more of that thinking cap.
Stefan
Thank you for reading my week notes.
For now, let me leave you with 5 questions based upon Bill Moyers 4 roles of social movement I talked about above (have a read here).
What can you do to demonstrate that you are a good citizen?
What can you do connect your good citizen work with that of the rebel?
What is your next step on being a change agent
How do you become known as a reformer?
What is the great thing you wish to lead and how can an acfivots snidest help you?
If you’d like some help answering those questions get in touch via my contact page here; or via stefan@stefanpowell.co.uk
Have a great weekend and love to you all
Stef
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For now; thank you
I am…
An executive coach who specialises in helping good people lead great things.
Good people care about others, our planet and beauty. Great things are changes for the betterment of society and all that lives within an around it.
It sounds big and fun - it is.
I'm also an endurance racing cyclist and a go. getter.
You can read more about me and what I do; how I work here