Awesome... my Aunty's a YouTuber!

The proud exclamation from my 8-year old niece last week! Intrigued I logged onto YouTube to find my youngest sister, a teacher, delivering a phonics lesson for her ‘early years’ class, equipped with the ‘blending monster’ on one hand, her phonics cards in the other and her usual kids TV presenter energy levels. Brilliant!

My sister is a natural presenter, but I could imagine it was a leap from classroom to YouTube. When I asked her about it she said ‘it was definitely outside my comfort zone but what made it easy was the thought of the kids’ excited faces – getting through to them wherever they are is my role isn’t it?’

We’re all having to work and think differently at the moment and that has been the focus of many of my recent coaching and strategy conversations with clients. Most of those conversations have involved at least a brief discussion around core values and purpose.

Last week Louise Rodgers and I ran our fifth round of online workshops for leaders within our Step Up community. A tool we use in those sessions asks participants to consider eight areas of their resilience, one of which is ‘purpose, direction and values’. We ask people to think about their sense of purpose and their core values, how connected they feel to those right now and how they might make one step towards better in that area.

For the architects we coach this has led to conversations about how to achieve their usual levels of creativity, for the leaders we support we have discussed how they continue to make decisions which are firmly aligned with their values. Many of the practice owners I work with are talking about future direction, positioning and strategy, however, their purpose and values remain constant.

For businesses and individuals alike, during such high levels of uncertainty, a strong sense of purpose acts as an anchor, provides a source of motivation and can help us adapt quickly to changing circumstances.

How connected do you feel to your purpose and values right now and how could you take one step towards better?