Rough

I felt rough all this week, started with a sore throat on last Sunday, developed into a cold on Monday and the after-effects have hung around until this Sunday as i'm writing this. Spent most of the week soldiering on, until some of my team were like 'you look and sound really rough, what would you tell us to do?' so i ended up having Friday off, sleeping, resting and just generally feeling yuck. Part of me wonders whether the cold hit me harder than i would normally expect due to me just not being very exposed to colds since the pandemic, due to remote/hybrid working and people being a bit more sensible about working from home when they've got the lurgy, dunno if thats how it works or not?

Anniversary

This coming week is the 26th anniversary of me and my wife being together so to celebrate we spent part of the weekend staying in a Shepherd's hut in North Norfolk. It was lovely, but i was still pretty wiped out from the cold.

Coaching feedback

I received some really great feedback from one of my coaching clients this week, we were having a chat about continuing to do some work and as part of that chat it was lovely to hear some feedback on the difference i'd made.
NB I am an experienced and qualified executive and leadership coach and mentor, my niche is helping tech and tech-adjacent leaders, but my coaching experience covers all-sorts, feel free to get in touch if you feel you need a positive, challenging, supportive shake-up :)

Communication

I've been reflecting on this week how important good communication is. When i briefly worked at PA Consulting they were really clear on the importance of good communication and ran what they called 'Top Down Thinking' training, inspired by Barbara Minto's The Pyramid Principle. I remember one partner once saying 'if you learn one thing at PA make sure you learn this because you will use it everywhere'. Since leaving PA its not something i've actively used every day, but i have used it regularly, and it has always informed the way i think about things when i communicate.

Running

No Parkrun again this week, due to the cold and other commitments, my plan is to re-commence this weekend so i can make progress on my 2025 goal to run all 22 Norfolk Parkruns.

How to IT Strategy

The latest article in my regular 'How to IT Strategy' newsletter was published this week How to IT Strategy Newsletter focusing on how we get clear on answering the 'where will we play?' question. The newsletter is free to subscribe and each article focuses on a different element of how to create a great IT Strategy.