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Blocked Drains and Breakthroughs

burnout leadership wellbeing Feb 08, 2022

My weekly lives have started again over on LinkedIn and Youtube on Tuesday afternoon's at 4pm UK time. I'll be sharing with you the videos from the lives for you to watch at your leisure.

This week's LinkedIn Live is about Blocked Drains and Breakthroughs, enjoy!

Kelly

Women Are Doing More To Fight Burnout: And It's Burning Us Out

burnout wellbeing Feb 04, 2022

Why is it that so many women are doing more to fight burnout and yet, it's this that is contributing to us burning out?

From my experience, and from lots of work I've done with my clients, I think the key to this is the word, doing. We keep doing and we keep doing more, assuming that what we are doing is right for us. But by doing and doing and doing, we are adding more stress and more pressure to ourselves.

When I burnt out in 2013, as part of my recovery I wanted to understand what had gotten me to that point of burnout in the first place. And so I kept doing! I did so much stuff.

I learnt about burnout, I did my therapy qualification, I did my psychotherapy qualification and I was doing research. My daily tasks became overwhelming.

I had this massive list of things to do from journaling, to yoga, to meditation, to ensuring that I was getting outside everyday, to eating a healthy diet, to making sure I was getting enough sleep. I was...

Can The Four-Day Work Week Prevent Burnout?

burnout Jan 22, 2022

With BBC News reporting trials beginning in the UK for the Four-Day Working Week the main focus is on whether this will increase productivity and yet this isn’t the only benefit that the four-day week provides. True four day working works on the premise of the 100:80:100 ratio. 100% pay, 80% hours worked and maintaining 100% performance.

In 2014 when I founded The Chrysalis Crew, even before I had a business plan, I knew what the purpose and values would be. I’d burned out in 2013, the toxic environment, backstabbing by the Exec team and prolonged stress broke me. I’d ignored the signs of burnout for months and the physical symptoms became overwhelming. I knew there had to be a healthier way to work and a more ethical way of consulting.

In 2018 I wanted to reward the team at The Chrysalis Crew, provide them with a different sort of benefit, and yet with big investments into the business, I didn’t have pockets of cash. So, what could I...

There Are No Rules

burnout wellbeing Nov 01, 2021

Its Monday, it’s the 1st of November, and already my social media is filled with posts about how with only two months left of the year we should all be smashing our goals and people asking if it’s too early for Christmas songs yet.

Let’s get the Christmas songs out of the way first, I love them! Play them as much as you want, do what makes you happy. If getting in the festive spirit is what you need right now, do it. If other people don’t like it, they can scroll on past or walk away. We have this ever year don’t we? Asking other people’s permission to do things that make us feel good. Why? Because we don’t want the criticism or the negativity of others. So we wait, we ask permission and when it feels like it’s acceptable to others for us to do something, then we go ahead.

What if there were no rules? What if you want to listen to your favourite Christmas song in September, or April? If it makes you feel good do...

Women In Business After Burnout

burnout coaching hr leadership wellbeing Oct 01, 2021

I’ve made no secret of the fact that after my Burnout I continued in my corporate career and that’s where I thought I’d stay, until, three months after my two operations in 48 hours, I heard myself say for the very first time that I wanted to start my own company.

Never had I ever imagined that this was a path I would take. Firstly, I had no real idea what I would do, secondly I knew nothing about starting a business, and thirdly, my dreams of the super large global role that I would be able to take on once my sons were finished school was the thing that had kept me in my role.

The drive though of starting my own consultancy became overwhelming, and within three months, I’d left my six-figure salary, created a business that was aligned to my values and started to really focus on the change that needed to be made in the world of work. And seven and a half years later, I’m still here and growing from strength to strength.

Recent...

10 Ways In Which Working Environments Are Causing Burnout

burnout leadership Sep 28, 2021

10 Ways In Which Working Environments Are Causing Burnout

More and more workplaces are offering a week off to prevent Burnout and many individuals assume that one week off will fix how they are feeling.

If it truly is Burnout that is being experienced, a week off will not solve this.

In 2019 when the World Health Organisation defined Burnout as an occupational phenomenon and it stated that:

“Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:

feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and
reduced professional efficacy.

Burn-out refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.”

If you Google Burnout in the workplace...

10 Ways to Move from Burnout To Balance

burnout leadership wellbeing Sep 20, 2021

Until my burnout in 2013, if you had asked me about the important things in life, what I valued and what I prioritised, it wouldn’t have even occurred to me to put myself on that list. I had a long list of what I wanted to achieve, the goals, the promotions, the lifestyle, the income, the house, the type of mum and wife I wanted to be – for my sons and husband, not for me, and I was set on achieving it all.

I exercised a lot because it was a stress release and another thing to tick off the list, but I was never really present, just focusing on how much more I could do in the time and how much further I could go. Everything in my life was about doing, being and having better.

I’d been told that I couldn’t grow and develop my career whilst being a mum to twin sons, I was told I’d need more time to reach the top, I was told that my timelines and aspirations were unrealistic. I was told I should lower my expectations.

And...

Alignment

burnout coaching leadership Sep 01, 2021

I speak and write a lot about leading from your core, and alignment plays a big part in this.

When I hit Burnout in 2013, I was not aligned with my values. I'd been working in a toxic environment that was causing me to be much less of the real me, and it was shaping me into something and someone that I didn't recognise. Determined to fix the issues in the workplace and to do what I knew I was capable of doing, I kept on pushing, kept on trying to fit, and I kept on fighting.

I had seven months going in and out of hospital, working from my hospital bed, refusing to be defeated, refusing to give in and refusing to rest. I had work to do and change to create and I was damn well going to make it work.

Fast forward to today, and I'm aligned to my core, to my values, and to my work in ways I would only have been able to imagine back in 2013. And yet it hasn't been easy to get here.

Burnout caused me to question everything. Who I was, what I wanted, what I was good at, where I was heading....

It's Not All Netflix and Chill - 7 Types of Rest

burnout Aug 17, 2021

This week I’m away with my partner and our dog on the East Coast, a break away and just what we needed to recharge our batteries. We’ve walked a lot, mostly in the rain – British Summertime in full swing – we’ve talked a lot, we’ve explored and yesterday we found a beautiful Chinese garden and walks through the trees and by the streams and waterfalls, I found my Zen.

In 2015 whilst still recovering from my burnout, everyone was telling me to rest. To stop and to rest, to do nothing. And I spent some time doing nothing, and resting, and getting sleep, and nothing changed – I still felt exhausted.

We’re told that sleep and resting is good for us and something that we should do to benefit our health, but what if time out and sleep aren’t working for you? Did you know that sleep and rest are not the same thing and that many of us confuse the two?

We go through life thinking we’ve rested because we...

Hi, I'm Kelly

burnout hr leadership wellbeing Jun 11, 2020

Getting to know someone can vary depending on the situation, the time you have and the environment you're in, but I guess if you're looking for a coach, and you've found your way here, the first thing you may want to know is why you'd even consider working with me? What makes me different to all of the other coaches out there? What skills do I have? And can I really help you with the particular thing you want help with?

I've worked in HR for over 20 years, latterly as an HR Director before starting my first company The Chrysalis Crew. I love HR. I hate the politics that often surround it. I've never really 'fitted' always too much of something in one way or another. Too colourful, too bold, too outspoken, too intuitive, too confident, too fast, too visionary, too blunt, too feisty, too confrontational, too argumentative, too bossy, you get the picture. But, I was always, always good at my role. I needed to learn a new things of course, I needed to adapt more, and I...

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