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Coaching and “fake it ’til you make it”

 in Coaching  tagged action / business coach / business coaching / career coaching / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching content / coaching courses / coaching model / coaching preparation / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / confidence / confident / executive coach / fake / fake it 'til you make it / Free resource / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / performance coaching / personal development

As a coach you may have been give the advice to “fake it ‘til you make it.” Perhaps you have even given that advice for yourself. I know I remember having a conversation when I was starting out as a trainer and a coach where an experienced colleague gave me that advice.

The plus side of faking it ‘til you make it is that it can be the extra something needed to nudge someone into doing something they were not previously doing. Even if they are pretending to be something/someone they don’t think they are in order for that to happen.

A side effect is that the person doing the “faking” often has a nagging feeling that they are about to be discovered as a fraud at any minute. Considering that they are approaching this by pretending to be someone else it’s understandable that is the response that they are having.

It’s not unusual for someone to have gone past the point of having to fake it as they developed their own approach a long time ago. However, they haven’t actually realised this and adjusted their own perception of themselves. So they still feel like they are a fake.

As always as you read this I encourage you to listen to your own wisdom. If you read this and find that what I am talking about works for you, and you are quite happy doing it, then keep using what works for you!

I am sharing this as I wanted to point out that “faking to you make it” is not the only way of becoming comfortable with any “role”, task or activity. Below I’ll share just 3 different approaches you may consider using.

For instance, you could just keep doing regular small steps to move yourself forward until you find that one day you find it is all really comfortable.

A different way is to be honest with yourself – and others if appropriate, and as Susan Jeffers said “feel the fear and do it any way”

Another alternative is about taking the pressure off and allowing yourself to focus on just doing the task to the best of your current abilities can result in you really surprising yourself.

Usually when someone feels that they have to “fake it” there is a set of expectations they feel that they need to be “living up to”. Sometimes these are expectations that have been set by other people. More commonly, these expectations have been set by our own judgements and comparisons.

These are either a comparison to someone else or by our own judgement about what they think they should do if they were being perfect. It can be worth checking the beliefs, judgements and expectations you are setting for yourself – and if they are really needed.

I mentioned in my post yesterday, “Why did I start Coaching Confidence, the coaching blog?”, I believe having an exposure to different approaches, opinions and techniques give coaches a greater flexibility when they coach. So feel free to share other approached you have/could use instead of “fake it ‘til you make it.”

Alternatively, if you feel particularly strongly that “fake it ‘til you make it” is the only approach to use, you’re more than welcome to comment as well 🙂

Why did I start Coaching Confidence, the coaching blog? 1

 in site news  tagged best coaching blog 2011 / blog / business coach / business coaching / career coaching / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching confidence / coaching content / coaching courses / coaching model / coaching preparation / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / confidence / confident / executive coach / follow up / Free resource / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / performance coaching / personal development

You may have noticed that in the top right section of the screen is this logo:

Please Vote for us

You may also have deduced that Coaching Confidence, the coaching blog, is entered in the Best Coaching Blogs 2011 competition. Obviously I’d love if you would spare a few moments to vote for us.

I’d thought I’d spend a few moments sharing why I started this blog. The final “push” was when I read an “advanced” coaching article that advised coaches to interact with their coaching client during the actual coaching session.

At first I was convinced that there was a typo somewhere and what I was literally reading was not actually the authors meaning. However, it was repeated several times and I could spot no other interpretation so had to come to the conclusion that this had to be the actual “advanced” message.

I cannot begin to imagine how anyone can coach without interacting with a client. In my mind, even non-verbal communication, such as nods, raised eyebrows etc are interactions. It certainly isn’t what I class as a piece of advice for advanced coaching.

Having got on my soap box to a friend and colleague about how much better quality information could be given than interact with your client I realised I was “preaching to the converted”.

One of the possible explanations I’d looked for in that post was if the author had been advising about increasing interaction in general. Whilst I’d found no evidence that was the intended meaning, I did think it sounded a fun approach. As I am so passionate about supporting and nurturing coaching skills and talents creating my own coaching blog would be one ideal way to do this.

I was also keen to have a regular guest post feature. For three reasons:

  1. I believe that having an exposure to different approaches, opinions and techniques give coaches a greater flexibility when they coach. Something that, in my mind, helps you to be a stronger coach so you can adapt to the individual in front of you.
  2. I don’t expect that my approach to coaching will be every other coaches approach – yet I still wanted to provide a space where all coaching styles could get an opportunity to share. I want to credit my audience with the intelligence but also have the responsibility for deciding which ones appeal to them.
  3. I wanted to provide an opportunity to support the guest posters by providing a space to connect with a new audience.

I know that my work is about supporting, nurturing and encouraging coaching skills and talents for all levels of coaching. It’s what I love doing. It’s also what I check if a particular post has the potential to do when I sit down to blog.

Technically it could be classed as part of a marketing strategy; however, I did not wake up one morning and think, “I know, I’d love to start a marketing strategy!” I did come to the realisation I enjoy writing for this blog – I enjoy this form of interaction.

I have never claimed to be a marketing expert yet the one piece of “marketing advice” I give to coaches when I’m asked is to find strategy(s) that you enjoy doing – rather than ones you hate. You are far more likely to do something that you enjoy more than something you hate. The best conceived marketing strategy and knowledge in the world is not going to create clients if you don’t put it into action!

You’ll notice if you click through to the best coaching blogs 2011 nominations that there are other coaching blogs there. If you enjoy this blog I’d love you to vote for us. If you have the time, why not have a look at the links to the other blogs at the same time. You never know when that right comment may just give you the nudge to take that next step!

After all, who knows if and when I’d have started this blog if I hadn’t read about interacting in a coaching session!

Click here to vote for us in the Best Coaching Blogs 2011.

Follow up between Coaching Sessions 2

 in Coaching  tagged business coach / business coaching / career coaching / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching content / coaching courses / coaching model / coaching preparation / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / confidence / confident / executive coach / follow up / Free resource / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / performance coaching / personal development

One of the requests for topics that people wanted to read more about that I have received recently was about follow up between coaching sessions. So today’s coaching post will share some of my thoughts to answer this request.

Personally, I believe that when a coaching client hires me as their coach it isn’t just about what happens during the appointed time of our coaching session.

This means that I have built into my coaching packages the ability to provide follow up and assistance as and when it’s wanted. I know that this may concern some coaches from a time management perspective.

Personally, this is not something that worries me, probably because I’ve chosen to include those as a solution and as I offer coaching packages rather than thinking of charging by the hour.

I give all my clients various different means to contact me in their welcome pack, including guidance about which is usually the quickest method and how quickly I will respond. This includes priority email response if they wish to contact me between sessions with questions to share successes etc.

When a client commits to their action assignments (the action they will take before the next session) it’s not unknown for me to ask if there is anyway I can assist to make those tasks easier.

Note that I usually leave the responsibility with the client to request but offer the invitation for them to use, as they want.

Why do I say usually? Well, sometimes I suggest action assignments that I have designed with a specific purpose in mind and that may involve following up with me before our next session.

Let me list some examples of what I think of as follow up and why it may be used. The reason’s I mention will not be the only ones, so if you think one of the following would be beneficial for one of your clients don’t eliminate it if it doesn’t fall into my reason why!

Sometimes following up may involve a daily email updating the action taken with a requested email nudge from me if it’s not sent. This isn’t for every client or every occasion but can assist if someone is looking to include something into a routine or just become more comfortable doing.

Other occasions may include a commitment to sending me a completed piece of work. Again, not for every client or situation but for some having that extra accountability can make it easier for them to keep their focus.

I do offer a coaching package that has coaching sessions every 2 weeks instead of every week – some clients like to have a reminder email of their action assignments and commitments sent to them after 1 week.

Some coaches, myself included, suggest clients complete a coaching preparation form before a scheduled coaching session. I find that this allows a client to reflect upon the time since our last session. It also allows them to identify what they want to get from our next session. It’s not at all unknown for the act of completing the preparation in advance to act as a reminder to finish anything they had committed to during the last session but not yet completed.

There are also other electronic means of following up on coaching. Some online coaching tools provide the coach with the option of providing feedback on the answers a client enters.

What, if any, other examples of follow up in coaching do you use? Feel free to comment below.

 

 

Do coaches need to be confident? 6

 in Coaching  tagged business coach / business coaching / career coaching / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching content / coaching courses / coaching model / coaching preparation / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / confidence / confident / executive coach / explaining coaching / fake / focus / Free resource / inner critic / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / listening / negative thinking / negative thought / performance coaching / personal development / questions / selling / thinking / thoughts

I’m often interested to see the searches that people do that lead to this blog for coaches. Some are quite frankly mystifying but one recently attracted my attention as it was the simple question, “do coaches need to be confident?”

So my coaching related post today is going to give my own personal answer, with reasons. I invite you to consider your own answer, as well as how that fits into how you are currently coaching.

Now considering one of the programs I offer to support coaches is “From feeling a fake to confident coach” my actual answer may surprise some. No, I personally do not think that coaches need to be confident. I think that it is perfectly possible to run a coaching session without feeling confident.

Confidence is one of those things that we cannot nip down to the local supermarket and pick up a tin of – it means something slightly different to each person. Just so that I am perfectly clear, I’m talking about feeling confident. I’m not talking about someone’s competence with my previous statement.

For some it may be true that a reason for them feeling a lack of confidence is genuinely because their skill levels have not been developed – it’s not always the case, hence my statement that you do not need to be confident to run a coaching session.

I do think that there are many benefits to being a confident coach. Here are just 7 of my initial thoughts:

It’s often makes coaching easier

How does your lack of confidence effect your coaching? If you are not confident then it’s easy for your client to start questioning the coaching and shift their focus off what they want etc.

It feels better and is more enjoyable!

Whilst your client may or may not have a suspicion about how you are feeling there are two of you involved in this coaching conversation. There is nothing to say that, as a coach, you can’t enjoy your work – in fact I personally encourage you to enjoy your work. 🙂

It’s easier to focus on your client if you’re not afraid someone is about to discover that you’re a fake etc

Coaching is much easier when you are listening and focusing upon your client and not any negative thoughts in your own head. I wrote last week about 3 ways to keep your focus on your client and not on your inner critic or negative thoughts etc.

If you trust your skills and coaching instincts you will ask the questions/give the feedback that you think will make the difference.

Often if a coach is not confident they can question yourself about what they will think about you, if that’s the right question etc and hold back from asking a question or giving certain feedback.

You will allow yourself to take the coaching in a different direction if the first one isn’t going anywhere

Coaching conversations are like any other conversations, they can take a turn in a different direction at any time depending upon the response the other person gives. Sometimes I see coaches/trainee coaches think negatively of themselves because they either haven’t got a plan about how a session is going to go or any plan they had alters as the session progresses.

You don’t hold yourself back from taking action just because you don’t feel confident

To run a coaching session you need a client. I’ve often seen coaches who share that they don’t feel confident reluctant to take action to actually get a client – either paid or unpaid. What action would you take if you were more confident about your coaching?

If you are “selling” the idea of working with you, a potential client is more likely to say yes if you appear confident in your own service and skills.

I’ve already mentioned that to run a coaching session you need a client. There are many strategies that you can use for marketing and sales and this isn’t a post about the numerous approaches that could work for you.

Even if you are not asking for an exchange of money you are asking a potential client to invest their time and effort. If you don’t appear confident and appear to be questioning if it will work etc how likely are they to say yes?

At the start of this post I said that coaches do not need to be confident to run a coaching session. What do you think? Feel free to share your comments below.

3 ways to keep your focus on your client and not your own inner critic/ thoughts

 in Coaching  tagged business coach / business coaching / career coaching / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching content / coaching courses / coaching model / coaching preparation / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / executive coach / explaining coaching / focus / Free resource / inner critic / language / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / listening / negative thinking / negative thought / performance coaching / personal development / thinking / thoughts

So how do you avoid being distracted by your own thoughts when you are coaching?  This is a conversation and question I often get asked.

My answer normally is that there are many different techniques and approaches that you can use. And finding the ones that work for you is, in my opinion, beneficial.

Shut up/ don’t listen

One of the coaching skills that is highly valued is listening but in a coaching session it’s probably useful to listen to your client not any negative thoughts inside your head 🙂

There are many different techniques that you can use to quiet/not connect with any thoughts that you are finding distracting.

On day 4 of my confidence e-course I share five different ones. Here is just one technique that you may like. It just turns down the volume of that voice that was yakking away.

Imagine that you have a control panel, now this is your control panel so you can have as many buttons, dials, slider switches etc as you want. You will notice that one of these actually controls the volume of that voice and in a moment you can just reach out and gradually turn down the volume of that voice. Do that now and notice that voice get quieter and quieter and quieter.

Personally, because I believe that the coaching session is a time for the client not me I found saying to myself a simple “shh, later – their time not yours” works for me. Whilst that may appear to invite a deluge of negative thoughts after the session – in reality those thoughts are not relevant afterwards.

I’ve also found that the more I used this, the less I’d actually needed to use it. It’s become habit to fully focus on my client and not any negative thoughts.

Preparation

Make life easier for yourself by not having your thoughts go at thousands of miles per hour. Do whatever you know to do to slow those thoughts down prior to your coaching session.

I know some coaches who do a short meditation, others who listen to a particular piece of music, whilst others use other techniques to get into a more useful state.

Personally, I don’t think there is a “right or wrong” way, just ones that will work for you as a coach!

Don’t get caught in a loop

If you notice during a coaching session that you have momentarily been distracted by a thought what do you then do? Curse that you have “done it again”, followed by various other thoughts and stories about how this is just more proof about how bad you are as a coach etc?

Getting caught in a loop of negative thinking or telling yourself a much longer negative story about what that must mean is a very common reaction. Yet, it doesn’t have to be the only way.

What you can also do is to congratulate yourself for noticing and bring your attention back out of your head and to the client in front of you.

You’ll find that you attention returns to your client a lot faster when you don’t start interacting with other negative thoughts that may pass through your head.

As a coach, over time, you will develop your own style. One that you are comfortable with and that works for your clients. As far as I’m concerned, there is no reason why you shouldn’t also find the way that works for you to focus upon your clients and not negative thoughts whilst coaching.

If you have a particular favourite technique etc you use feel free to comment below.

 

Coaching and did it work?

 in Coaching  tagged business coach / business coaching / career coaching / closed questions / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching content / coaching courses / coaching model / coaching preparation / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / executive coach / explaining coaching / Free resource / language / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / open questions / performance coaching / personal development / question

At some stage in a coaching conversation it’s not at all unusual for me to ask a variation of the question – did/does it work?

I’ve written before about different types of questions (you can read that post again here) and you may recognise that “did/does it work?” can be labelled as a closed question.

In case you have not come across the terminology of a closed question – they are questions were the answer is only yes or no.

You will often come across the label of open questions at the same time – These are questions that start with Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. Open questions are designed to allow answers that are more open with the scope of the information provided.

Often as coaches, we can develop our own “rules” or what should or shouldn’t be done to get coaching “right”. Sometimes these are rules, or beliefs, we have been told by someone we perceive as being more knowledgeable about coaching.

On other occasions it can be something that we have inferred and then told ourselves is what we should do to be a good coach.

From time to time I come across, usually trainee coaches, who have taken on a belief that when coaching closed questions are always bad and open questions are always good.

If this is a belief that you have then I ask you does it work for you at the moment? If so then, as always, I encourage you to keep what works for you!

Personally, I don’t think that it is always so black and white. Sometimes a clear and decisive yes or no is actually really productive.

One of the benefits of a closed question is that it can cut through a whole story that someone is telling themselves about a situation.

“Did/Does it work?” is one of those questions I find can do just that when chosen and asked deliberately.

Particularly if a client is telling you about a course of action where you suspect that he/she is comparing themselves to someone else/the perfect way of doing something.

In this instance, it’s not at all uncommon for your client to have missed and not acknowledged the results they did achieve.

Let me give you an example. Imagine that you are talking to Bob who is “beating himself up” about the fact he could have approached a sales conversation, with a potential client, “better”. He feels that he lacks confidence in his own abilities.

In response to a question about how the last sales conversation went, he could give a detailed account of what he had done wrong, but doesn’t mention the outcome.

When asked, “Did it work?” Bob’s “yes”, both verbally and non-verbally, was surprised – as if this was completely new information.

There may indeed be space for Bob to strengthen his skills and develop other approaches. However, if he never acknowledges his achievements and abilities the harder it will be for Bob to have confidence in his own abilities!

I find that using the question

“Did it work?”

at this stage focuses their attention upon the reality of what they have already achieved. Particularly if they are in the middle of listing everything they perceive they did wrong.

How often do you use a variation of “did it work?” both as a coach and in your own life?

 

It’s Coaching But …

 in Coaching  tagged and / business coach / business coaching / but / career coaching / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching content / coaching courses / coaching model / coaching preparation / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / executive coach / explaining coaching / Free resource / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / performance coaching / personal development

Have you ever had a situation where you know by your clients stance or tone of voice that there is an unspoken “but”? Something that they may not have verbalised out loud “but” is obviously a thought they were focusing upon at that moment.

So what do you do as a coach?

If you are a regular reader, you probably won’t be the slightest bit surprised when I emphasise that this is about a choice you can make to suite the individual client you are working with and your own style.

In this post I’ll discuss 3 different potential approaches and invite you to consider the circumstances and your perspective about each one. I also invite you to consider other approaches you could use when you can see/hear an unspoken “but”.

Approach 1 – Is that “but” important/getting in the way?

Just because you have heard or seen that unspoken “but” does not automatically mean that you have to ask what that “but” is all about. For me, sometimes effective coaching is actually about knowing when to stop, get out of the clients way and let the client take action.

I will admit that generally if I’ve heard or seen an unspoken “but” that I will explore this in more depth. However, occasionally I can see/hear that “but” when it is obviously in response to something that isn’t going to get in the way of the clients next step.

For example, imagine that a client is happy and willing to commit fully to taking a first step on something that they have been procrastinating about starting. In preparation for building momentum for taking further steps I may say something that presupposes future steps will then be easier etc.

I know that people can change in an instant. Just because someone has one perspective before taking an action does not mean that they will still have that same perspective afterwards.

The very task of successfully completing that first action, particularly if it was easier than they initially imagined, may naturally lead to them believing that further steps will be easier.

Challenging the unspoken “but” may not be necessary and may actually have taken longer to get the same result.

Approach 2 – Change “but” to “and”

Get the client to tell you what that “but” is so that it turns from being unspoken to spoken. This then gives you the opportunity to work that “but”!

The earliest I’ve seen this technique mentioned is in Dale Carnegie’s book “How to win friends and influence people.” (First published in 1936). What is your natural response when you hear the word “but”?

Most people immediately ignore what was at the start of the sentence and just focus upon the bits that follow that “but”. So if the bit that follows that “but” is what the client perceives as the problem they focus generally just on the problem.

So, for example: Imagine that a client says

“I did a presentation that my clients loved “BUT” I know it could have been better.”

Their focus is most likely to be on “I know it could have been better” rather than acknowledging that their clients loved the presentation.

There are many different directions you could take a coaching session if a client was to say that to you. One gentle way of starting to shift someone’s perception is to repeat back to them what they said replacing the word “BUT” with the word “AND”.

So this example would become

“You did a presentation that your clients loved “and” you knew it could have been even better.”

Can you see the difference between the 2 sentences?

Approach 3 – Turn the “but” on its head.

Again this approach uses the language that your clients used and shifts their focus. It presumes that you have established what was that previously unspoken “but”.

Approach 2 has already talked about how most people focus on the bit after the word “BUT”, so this approach uses it as an advantage.

As you’ll see with the example that follows, this is an approach that is actually much easier in practice then it appears first appears with an explanation! With this approach we swap everything that the client said in the sentence before they used the word “BUT” for everything after.

For example, if we still use

“I did a presentation that my clients loved “BUT” I know it could have been better”

Using this approach we could say:

“You know it could have been better “BUT” you did a presentation that your clients loved.”

The “but” may reveal a limiting belief that you may want to challenge. As I began this post in saying, there are many other directions that you can choose to take the coaching session.

How do you generally respond to those unspoken “but’s”?

Have you used any of the above approaches yourself?

As always, I invite you to submit a comment below.

Explaining how coaching works 1

 in Coaching  tagged business coach / business coaching / career coaching / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching content / coaching courses / coaching model / coaching preparation / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / confidence / executive coach / explaining coaching / Free resource / leadership coaching / learning / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / performance coaching / personal development

I’ve mentioned before that one of the things that anyone who signs up for my free what to put in a coaching welcome pack e-course is also invited to share what they would like to read more about on this blog.

One of the requests I’ve had recently was worded simply as “Explaining how coaching works.” As I read that request I’m aware that it’s something that there are a couple of ways that this may have been meant.

Some coaches and change workers may have read that request and automatically thought of a variation of the following question – “explain coaching to whom?”

It may be a request for more posts that literally take you, as the reader, step by step through how to do various coaching processes, models and developing skills used in coaching.

It may also be a request about how to explain coaching to a third party, probably someone who you would like to become a potential client.

Firstly, if you are the individual that made this request I want to thank you (and everyone else who has made suggestions and comments) for taking the time to share. I really do appreciate you doing that.

The main reason I draw attention to the 2 different meanings is so that I can address both potential meanings and make sure I’m honouring that request! 🙂

It also is an opportunity to demonstrate one of the things I consider as a coach when choosing which question to ask next, the story to share or even if to use a technique etc.

The language that someone uses can give an indication about how they are currently seeing a situation. It can be an indication of what is keeping them stuck, why they are not seeing potential solutions or taking action etc.

Using “Explaining how coaching works” I could have just written a post examining a specific technique, skill or coaching model. That may be sufficient to satisfy the original questioners request. However, as you will read in a moment, my answer about how to explain coaching to someone who is a potential client is different.

One of the methods of learning I enjoy is to read, listen, observe and generally experience other coaches work. Sometimes they will explicitly say why they have asked a specific question, phrased something in a particular manner or designed a particular exercise with a specific outcome in mind.

On other occasions there is no explicit explanation. In which case notice what you are noticing about their work:

  • Perhaps you can piece together why they may have asked a specific question or gave a particular response.
  • Maybe there is an indication about what beliefs etc that coach has about coaching in general and their work.

Some of the posts on this blog with specifically talk about a particular skill, technique or coaching model. Others will not be so explicit. I invite you to read a post and initially take any personal learning and insights from the content.

I also then invite you to re-read the post and see what you can learn from each one about how that posts author uses and approaches coaching.

Why do I suggest using both approaches? Some posts will have specifically been written for you to experience the content first hand. Don’t miss out on those potential insights and learning’s by not connecting and disassociating from the post.

If you are looking to explain how coaching works to a potential client I’m going to suggest that they are likely to be interested in the answers to slightly different questions. Firstly, they are likely to be primarily wondering about what can/will your coaching do for them?

If they are interested, the second question they are likely to be curious about is what actually happens. If they book a coaching session with you, what will happen, what will they actually do?

Notice that both those questions potentially produce different answers to how coaching works.

“How” coaching works is not going to be a burning question to a lot of potential clients. That’s not to say that there will never be someone that doesn’t want to know how something works, which models you use and any research that applies to the way that you work.

For example, I’m aware that working with coaches that sometimes out of professional curiosity they can be examining what I am doing and answering how my coaching works. Which I’m quite happy with as long as it’s not getting in the way of whatever we are working on directly.

I believe that each coach develops his or her own style and approach over time. A client working with each one of us will potentially have vastly different experiences because we are all individuals.

I am very aware that I have many readers from a range of different coaching backgrounds and niches. I’m sure that if I was to ask a sports coach how their coaching works they would provide a different answer to a spiritual coach. If nothing else their language would be different because they are talking about different contexts and normally different audiences.

So lastly, I would encourage you to develop a sense for yourself about how you work as a coach rather than how coaching works. After all, a client will ultimately be choosing to work with you.

Feel free to add your comments below. Including any extra ways that “Explaining how coaching works” can be interpreted and any insights, observations and thoughts you’ve had whilst reading this post.