Self-awareness: let's get specific

Hi there!

With summer turning into a distant memory, it's time to turn towards Autumn, dark evenings and colder weather. I'm consoling myself with a combination of reviewing holiday photos from Japan and engrossing myself in interesting course design and writing projects.

This past month has been all about discussing self-awareness, putting the finishing touches to our new online community, and pressing 'go' on my favourite training course. 

Read on to find out more. 

Know thyself: leadership and self-awareness

Earlier this month, I was joined by Dr. Wayne Mullen for the latest in our Sustainable Leadership webinars.

Wayne is a practitioner with an incredible amount of leadership coaching and leadership development experience. Our focus was the importance of self-awareness when it comes to effective leadership. It's a topic that gets a lot of attention in the pop psychology literature, but rarely beyond a quite superficial level.

Far more than a simple awareness of strengths and development areas, we frame leadership self-awareness as having three complimentary aspects: 

• Intra-personal: Awareness of all the factors that make a leader a unique individual. Values, personality, preferences, thinking styles and biases, strengths, motivators, fears, hopes, ethics. We ask leaders: Do you know what makes you, you?
• Inter-personal: Awareness of how your thinking, emotions and behaviour have on others. For leaders this is all about awareness of their impact on others' motivation, performance and wellbeing. It's about the extent to which they cultivate psychological safety, and role-model effective ways of navigating challenges. How they inspire others, how they convince and influence. And so we ask leaders: Do you know what kind of shadow you cast at work?
• Contextual awareness: Awareness of how leaders 'show up' in person, how they read the room, how they deal with what shows up for them when they connect with the present moment. And the extent to which they can use that awareness of the present to avoid mental time-travel. The question for leaders is: Do you understand how to successfully navigate this moment?

Self-awareness isn't a goal to be attained or a task on your checklist. We frame it as an ongoing area for personal reflection, requiring curiosity on honesty. Check out the recording of our discussion below and don't forget to check out our recent white paper on the topic of Sustainable Leadership.  

'Thriving with Psychological Flexibility'

I'm delighted to announce that registration for the Winter 2025 cohort of my wellbeing course is now open.

'Thriving with Psychological Flexibility' is all about taking a step back, considering your wellbeing from a new perspective, and learning how to do what really matters. 

Through a combination of self-directed online learning and interactive online workshops, delegates will learn how to consider their wellbeing in a joined-up way. They'll learn how to use the skills that build our psychological flexibility, to take helpful action in ways that support wellbeing and growth. 

You can find out lots more about the course here, but don't delay. Pre-reading is available to registrants now and our first workshop is scheduled for 29th October. We wrap up the four workshops by December and then reconvene in early January for an open review and Q&A session. 

It's really the perfect time to set yourself up for making wellbeing-related changes for the year ahead - without all that 'New Year's resolution' panic!

Previous participants have had this to say:

"Participating in the Psychological Flexibility training programme was such a rewarding experience for our team. It offered practical tools and techniques that really helped us increase focus, manage stress better, and respond to challenges more effectively. The content was clear, relatable,  and immediately applicable, and working with Richard was a pleasure. He is approachable, supportive, and great at guiding reflection. Every session felt collaborative and engaging, leaving our team with valuable insights we could all put into practice right away."

“Thriving with Psychological Flexibility is a great programme. It helped me understand practical tools I could use to respond well to challenges in life and be my best self more often. It’s really well delivered and combines evidence based practice and theory with simple, actionable take-aways and endearing facilitators – much recommended”

"The course structure was also really accessible, with a blend of self-paced modules and live interactive webinars, creating an optimal learning environment—allowing time for reflection, integration, and immediate real-world application. Whatever background or experience, I'd recommend this course for supporting psychological flexibility to be not just a concept, but to become a daily, lived skill that can meaningfully improve well-being and performance."

🚀 We have lift-off!

After several months of planning and review, I re-launched our online personal development community earlier this month.

With a new name, a new platform and a new structure, WorkLifeSpark represents the culmination of user feedback and reflection across 2025. And with just three months left in 2025 (I know, right?) it's the perfect time to consider how you can bring some focus to your personal development.

We continue to have a free level of membership, which gives you access to articles, our monthly 'Learn at Lunch' events and our 'After Hours' series of Q&A sessions with expert podcast guests. 

Spark Plus membership includes all of that, plus monthly 'Office Hours' sessions with yours truly, access to a digital library of resources to support your development, free places on our masterclass sessions, and discounts on WorkLifePsych training and coaching programmes.

Spark Pro membership includes everything above, plus quarterly one-to-one coaching sessions with a member of our core coaching team! 

Are you an existing community member? You can sign up on this new platform by following this link.

📆 Upcoming events

On October 7th, we have the latest in our Sustainable Leadership series. I'll be joined by the excellent Dr. Rachael Skews for a webinar all about the role that coaching can play in leadership development. We'll be discussing the valuable contribution it can make, but also flag some of the ways it can go wrong and how to ensure you're working with the best kind of coaches. Find out more here.

On October 15th, I'll be running another of our 'Considering Coaching?' webinars, where the focus will be on the various ways that coaching can address productivity-related challenges. From procrastination, to overwhelm, prioritisation and over-working our prospective memory. If your task list is causing you panic, this could be the session for you. Find out more and reserve your place here. 

On October 30th, I'll be facilitating the first in a new quarterly masterclass series: 'The Value of Values'. Designed to support all aspects of personal development, this series is being made freely available to our Spark Plus community members. Non-members can sign-up on a per-masterclass basis. The first session is all about getting clear on values and bringing them to life in the service of our different roles, goals and habits. I'll explain how to clear on what matters to you in life, how to cultivate values-aligned habits, and use values to navigate options, challenges and setbacks. Find out more and secure your place here. 

Thanks for reading. As ever, do get in touch with your questions and feedback.

Until next month!