Cultivating a coaching approach to support team members in 8 steps

November 28, 2020 Melanie Hawken

by Anja van Beek, Talent Strategist, Leadership and Executive Coach

Over the years, the role of a leader and manager of teams have evolved. It is no longer a command and control scenario, where you give instructions and your team will follow. The pandemic has fast-tracked an agile and empowerment approach. Leaders need to be adaptive problem-solvers. This is due to the uncertainty and pressure over the past couple of weeks and months – there were no clear and obvious answers to issues and challenges and leaders did not have the luxury of telling their teams what to do. They had to be adaptive and guide them to figure it out for themselves.

How To Tame The Inner Critic, Stop The Circling Thoughts And Own Your Headspace

November 22, 2020 Melanie Hawken

by Lori Milner

‘My mind is like a bad neighbourhood, I try not to go there alone.’

– Ann Lamott

We all experience the typical daily dose of circling thoughts – like a recorder going off in our heads reminding us of what needs to happen in the day from who needs what books for school to what projects and tasks need to get done for work.

6 Steps to be an entrepreneurial woman

November 22, 2020 Melanie Hawken

by Josefa Massinga

I have been an entrepreneurial woman for five years. In my opinion, I think it is very important that women develop their own businesses. I am not saying it is easy because until each one of us is sure that she is capable and that she will succeed, it will continue to be challenging.

How Deliberate Practice Supports your Growth

November 22, 2020 Melanie Hawken

by Kathy Mann

Perhaps you have heard of the 10-year rule or the 10 000 hours that are required to become a master at something. This is known as deliberate practice, a concept made famous by Anders Ericsson, a Swedish Psychologist who conducted significant research on the subject. He studied what makes people world-class in their area of expertise, be it violin, ballet or chess.

Choice... is mastery

November 22, 2020 Melanie Hawken

by Ashika Pillay

Our worlds are in a state of flux and change and we simply cannot control what’s going to happen around us. This is the nature of the uncertainty in the world and in our worlds. We can make plans for the future to some extent, and even that is somewhat filled with a sense of what might “not happen”. Are we going on holiday? What will happen next year? Will we have a second wave?

4 actionable ways to end micro management and build trust with your team

November 15, 2020 Melanie Hawken

Lori Milner

“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”

— Ernest Hemingway

Working from home has brought up many challenges - the main one being a pandemic within the pandemic namely ‘performance anxiety’. It’s this need to be constantly on for dread of appearing like you aren’t doing what you need to. Never mind absenteeism, we have gone to the other extreme to overdo presenteeism.

Starting something new is never easy

November 15, 2020 Melanie Hawken

by Mbaliyethu( Lisa) Mthethwa, co-founder of Frutee Belliez

When we started our journey in 2009, my sister Lona and I just wanted to sell fresh fruit salads to students in school, so we could promote a healthier lifestyle. We are meant to have a minimum of five fruits and veggies a day but some of us don't even have one. Growing up, fruit salads were always perceived as a dessert. Veggies were always seen as something that is nasty.

Cybersecurity awareness

November 14, 2020 Melanie Hawken

by Lufuno Khorommbi

Understanding cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting systems, networks, and data from cyber-attacks. It is important to note that the word practice means that cybersecurity should be embedded in the organisational day to day functions. Thus, it is not an event.

The lure of a mud pool

November 8, 2020 Melanie Hawken

by Eldari Visser

In South Africa, the northern side of the country is going into its rainy season and that is always known for big thunderstorms, heavy winds and heavy rain, whereas in the southern parts you get the “non-stop for days” rain mostly during winter. Each of these natural occurrences has a mesmerizing effect. Just watch a thunderstorm with all the lightning and you will understand.

Your mental health matters – why a detox is vital

November 8, 2020 Melanie Hawken

by Anja van Beek, Talent Strategist, Leadership Expert and Executive Coach

Missing that ‘happy feeling’? This article focuses on why your mental wellbeing matters. How would you rate your current mental wellbeing? We all have been challenged over the past few months and have experienced how our mental health (our emotional, psychological, and social well-being) can impact and affect our thoughts, feelings and actions.

Success leaves clues – but are you looking in the right place?

November 3, 2020 Melanie Hawken

by Lori Milner

Writing is my passion, but it wasn’t appearing in my calendar as regularly as I would have liked and I wanted to start dedicating a daily space for it. I looked to other professional authors on how they wrote their books and what tips of the trade I could implement. What do they know what I didn’t get the memo on?

Confession time: I have not cracked the code!

November 3, 2020 Melanie Hawken

by Phindile Ndlovu–Tapula

When we switch on our phones and open our social media applications we are bombarded with many people who seem to just always get it right. We often feel the pressure to act as though we have cracked the code, our businesses are booming, and we are eating healthily.

Pandemic burnout

October 31, 2020 Melanie Hawken

by Elizabeth Otieno

It’s a difficult time for many business owners and employees. The handful of us who have managed to keep our jobs are grateful and ensure to work diligently to keep it that way. We either occasionally visit the office or permanently work from home, until this pandemic is over that is. Now that our safe haven, our home, has become our workplace as well, will our work efficiency rise or fall?

5 ways you’re sabotaging yourself without uttering one word

October 31, 2020 Melanie Hawken

by Lori Milner

“All of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.” — Tom Peters

A brand is a promise and ultimately a sorting device. If I offered you two bottles of Cola, one being a no name brand and the other a bottle of Coca-Cola – naturally, you will go for the Coca-Cola.

Managing the cash crunch – small business survival

October 30, 2020 Melanie Hawken

by Sylvia Walker

To say that it’s a tough business environment right now is an understatement. While many of us are trying to put food on the table, others simply have no income. Adaptability is key and we have to rethink how we operate our personal as well as business finances. New circumstances are creating a new normal for us. Some tips and pointers as to how to adapt and switch our thinking.

Changing the paradigm to flourish

October 30, 2020 Melanie Hawken

by Dr Ashika Pillay

I have written previously about stress and there’s a lot that is known about what causes it, how we sense it in our bodies and that chronic stress can lead to downstream chronic disease and poor health. However, how do we shift the paradigm rather from managing stress, to optimizing wellbeing - so we can be healthier, live longer more fulfilling lives, perform at our best, have wholesome family and social relationships that support us, make a difference in the world and in this way - become true leaders - of ourselves, our families, and our communities.

Tools for Preventing Stress

October 25, 2020 Melanie Hawken

by Kathy Mann

I am fascinated by stress. One of the favourite parts of my work is interviewing people about how they engage with stress. In writing my second book, Harnessing Stress, I found that many people have developed habits to prevent stress. Through experience and in knowing themselves well, they have created rules to ensure they keep their stress levels low.

How to find happiness in a busy life

October 25, 2020 Melanie Hawken

by Usha Maharaj

“Happiness comes from aligning what you do to who you are”

It is said that happiness is a choice, but what if you are struggling to find your happiness, or you are feeling out of balance and stressed? This could be a sign that your outer reality and inner world are not totally in alignment. Perhaps the way you spend your time and live your days is not entirely consistent with the way the real you would want to invest that time to bring you happiness in life.

Stop existing, start living

October 25, 2020 Melanie Hawken

by Elizabeth Otieno

It's been a hectic month. Board meetings and client meetings seem to be happening daily. You still haven’t updated the monthly financial report. Your three articles are still pending and to top it all off, none of your new projects seem to be going as planned. But you still want—need to do more.

‘My mind is like a bad neighbourhood, I try not to go there alone.’

– Ann Lamott

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