http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/blog/ en jennifer@liston-smith.com Copyright 2010 2010-06-14T11:29:12+00:00 http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/maternity_coaching_pioneer_jennifer_liston-smith_joins_my_family_care/ http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/maternity_coaching_pioneer_jennifer_liston-smith_joins_my_family_care/#When:11:29:12Z Jennifer Liston-Smith joins My Family Care as Head of Coaching Development, adding her strong presence in the maternity coaching field to MFC’s leading-edge range of services. Press Release 15th June, 2010 Maternal Leadership 2010-06-14T11:29:12+00:00 http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/one_reason_women_dont_make_it_to_the_c-suite/ http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/one_reason_women_dont_make_it_to_the_c-suite/#When:14:21:37Z I re-read today this smart article from HBR by Louann Brizendine, MD http://hbr.org/2008/06/one-reason-women-dont-make-it-to-the-c-suite/ar/1 Louann points out that making a push for leadership roles in our forties is bad timing for women, especially those with children. Could organisations helps themselves improve the gender balance by widening the window of promotion opportunity to women once in their fifties when life’s day-to-day stresses may be less distracting? Maternal Leadership 2010-05-28T14:21:37+00:00 http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/my_management_today_blog_-_latest_entry_on_idenitty_in_motherhood/ http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/my_management_today_blog_-_latest_entry_on_idenitty_in_motherhood/#When:20:02:30Z How does motherhood impact our identity as a career woman? I value my expert role on this brilliant Management Today blog. Here’s my latest entry: The Parent Project: Identity Opportunity Maternity & Parent Coaching 2010-05-21T20:02:30+00:00 http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/coaching_people_through_transitions_-_lifespan_development_perspective/ http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/coaching_people_through_transitions_-_lifespan_development_perspective/#When:19:36:04Z Some thoughts on how we can bring lifespan development theories to our work in coaching people through transitions. I was responding to a question from a student today following a university lecture I gave on coaching people through the parenthood transition, as part of a coaching psychology module. We had been looking at Levinson’s (1978, 1996) ideas about transitions and life eras, as well as cognitive-developmental approaches, such as Kegan (1982). Thought it would be helpful to share these thoughts more broadly: The way I tie the life eras and developmental stages into my perspective on transitions is: 1. that people may have different goals depending on their life stage, so it can help our empathy as coaches to tune in to that (could be very different from the goals we might assume if we are not currently in that life phase e.g. varying career goals etc) (e.g. Cox, 2006) 2. people at different developmental stages will have access to different resources, solutions and states within themselves for handling complexity, relationships and demands and we have to work with people at the stage they are at, rather than assuming they are at the same stage we are (may be further on or further behind so to speak), or wishing they were at a different stage that might be easier to work with. (e.g. Kegan, 1982, 1994) However, an important proviso: as coaches / coaching psychologists, while it can be helpful to have insight into where people are ‘coming from’ the most important thing - in my opinion and experience - is to be present to the real individual in the room rather than getting caught up in our imagination of who they are because of their life stage (so we carry the psychological knowledge ‘lightly’). For more on the references behind this, please see the extended text by clicking the title of this entry. And do email me if you have a shared interest in this area. Coaching & Psychology 2010-05-21T19:36:04+00:00 http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/parenting_values/ http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/parenting_values/#When:12:21:05Z I’ve just added a comment to an interesting discussion about values on the Coaching at Work LinkedIn group and thought it worth keeping it here too. A significant area of my work is corporate maternity coaching: coaching women (sometimes men), 1:1 or in groups through the transition to motherhood / parenthood at work. An area in which values really surface and are key to resolving so-called ‘work-life balance’ issues. Clarifying values can be an important part of coming to terms with one’s own choices and way forward. Following - with a light touch - Stephen Covey’s approach to picturing ourselves taking in the impressions at our own funeral, I sometimes encourage these new parents to look forward to the moment when their new child leaves home / has 18th birthday etc. How would they hope that person looks back on their childhood? Gives some perspective on parenting values. It also gives perspective too to those who say that checking our values are being met in a situation shows a kind of selfish demandingness.  Rarely do parents’ values about their own children focus solely on how those children meet the parents’ own needs, and similarly when we check a situation (job role working hours etc, childcare provisions) for whether they are meeting our values, it’s not an expression of ‘me, me, me’, as criticism of the individualistic career woman sometimes supposes. For parents it’s most often about our own struggles to meet deeply generous expectations / values we hold in relation to supporting others. Maternity & Parent Coaching 2010-05-05T12:21:05+00:00 http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/uk_major_political_parties_plans_for_baby_leave/ http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/uk_major_political_parties_plans_for_baby_leave/#When:19:01:38Z The excellent Emplaw newsletter has brought together some employment law related extracts from the election Manifestos of Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties. Here are some snippets on maternity / paternity leave plans: Labour: Parental leave.  “We will introduce a new Fathers’ Month, four weeks of paid leave rather than the current two”;  “... we will introduce more flexibility to the nine months’ paid leave that mothers currently enjoy – allowing them to share this entitlement with fathers after a minimum of six months” (Emplaw editor comments that this has already been achieved - see the Additional Paternity Leave Regulations 2010, SI 2010/1055 in force on 6.4.2010). Conservative: Parental leave: “We will introduce a new system of flexible parental leave which lets parents share maternity leave between them, while ensuring that parents on leave can stay in touch with their employer”. LibDem: Parental leave: “Give fathers the right to time off for ante-natal appointments. Allow parents to share the allocation of maternity and paternity leave between them in whatever way suits them best”. Maternity & Parent Coaching 2010-05-04T19:01:38+00:00 http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/maternal_leadership_the_first_90_days/ http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/maternal_leadership_the_first_90_days/#When:19:48:55Z I’m struck again by the relevance of thinking on leadership transitions to the new mother’s return to work. Michael Watkins’ 2003 book (The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels: HBS Press, 2003) offers advice for the leader who is new in post and is also highly relevant here. The return to work looks a lot like the new leader’s first 90 days in this HBS Working Knowledge interview by Senior Editor, Martha Legace The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels (HBS Press, 2003). The extract from Watkins’ book, further down the page, offers a helpful list of points of focus. In the HBS interview with Martha Legace, Watkins says: “Transitions also are times when small differences in a new leader’s actions can have disproportionate impacts on results. Everyone is straining to take the leader’s measure and people are forming opinions based on very little information. It’s a bit like starting high school; those early impressions, right or wrong, can really stick. And the stakes are high. Failure to create momentum during the first few months guarantees an uphill battle for the rest of their tenure in the job. Building credibility and securing some early wins lays a firm foundation for longer-term success.” Just as the description of transition sounds familiar, the advice for new leaders extracted from the book is also very sound for the returning mother who wishes to make an impact and work out where to focus her (limited) time and energy. Maternal Leadership 2010-05-02T19:48:55+00:00 http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/the_depression_of_the_sandwich_generation/ http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/the_depression_of_the_sandwich_generation/#When:16:31:39Z Elizabeth Day reflects in The Observer on the reaction to Alison Pearson’s farewell column in the Daily Mail. The much-loved columnist admitted to having suffered from depression while finding herself sandwiched between children and elderly parents and full of high expectations of herself. “Is it women who are mad, or is it the society we live in?” Pearson had asked. “We always suspected there would be a price for Having It All, and we were happy to pay it; but we didn’t know the cost would be our mental health.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/02/allison-pearson-depression-sandwich-women?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter Maternity & Parent Coaching 2010-05-02T16:31:39+00:00 http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/association_for_coaching_leadership_coaching_conference_8_july_2010/ http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/association_for_coaching_leadership_coaching_conference_8_july_2010/#When:14:42:01Z I’m looking forward to this Association for Coaching Leadership Coaching conference, which I will be reporting for Special Group in Coaching Psychology publication The Coaching Psychologist. Details and booking are on the Association for Coaching website, and there is a flyer attached below here. Leadership_Coaching_Conference.pdf Coaching & Psychology 2010-04-30T14:42:01+00:00 http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/mum_ultrapreneur_book/ http://www.liston-smith.com/index.php/site/mum_ultrapreneur_book/#When:11:06:51Z The Mum Ultrapreneur book is an upbeat, honest yet encouraging look at the factors that support success in business for women who are also mothers. Advice is offered through a fictional format for part of the book, as readers become involved in ‘Gemma’s’ entrepreneurial journey. The other main part of the book provides tips under different categories from leading ‘mumpreneurs’. Research for the book included Susan Odev’s discussions with contributors, including an interview with me Jennifer Liston-Smith and my former business partner Anna Hayward discussing Managing Maternity, a pioneering corporate maternity coaching consultancy which we ran for five years until January 2010. (I continue corporate maternity coaching now under My Family Care). The main part of the interview starts around 1min 20secs in. Mum Ultrapreneur is written by Susan Odev and Mark Weeks. Susan’s bio reads: “Susan is a proud, working mother with four beautiful children. She is a skilled writer, performer and human development specialist with nearly 20 years experience of designing, coordinating, managing and delivering training.  She has written on subjects such as time management, customer service and training for several trade journals. She has acted as an “expert” contributor on handling stress as a working mum for magazines such as Women’s Own and Women’s Weekly. Maternal Leadership 2010-04-30T11:06:51+00:00