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Helena Clayton Newsletter - View this email in your browser

Leadership Developer • Facilitator • Writer

Welcome to the April 2020 Newsletter

A month of surprises.
And if we can go along with Pierre Revedy who said 'there is no love only proofs of love', a month where proofs of love and sacrifice and generosity have been everywhere.

My blog last month was about 'a million small things, done with love' and we're seeing so much of that. I see love in the way that my elderly and frail dad's neighbours have looked after him and looked out for him when I'm a three hour drive away. I see it in the rainbow in my neighbour's window, drawn by their little girl. The image of stranger leaving daffocils on the windscreens of the cars of NHS workers. And you can see many more examples of love in action in this blog by George Monbiot here on how mutual aid is our salvation.
Small things, done with great love.

So as you read this month, I hope you find stimulation and interest here. Please do share this Newsletter with others who might like or resonate with it.

With love
Helena x

FEATURED THIS MONTH:

Just one long piece this month (I tried to make it a short one, but I'm not sure I'm capable!). In it I explore love as 'holding space' and ask whether it's something you can do for someone around you. It takes courage. And feels vital.
I'm also letting you know of some new developments in the pipeline. I'm finishing the design of two coaching programmes and I'm setting out some high level information here ahead of an email from me later in the month with more information...
And no dates of upcoming events as, clearly, they're not running but soon as I have rescheduled dates, I'll post them on the website.

For more information please see below or visit my website. If you have any questions please do get in touch.

Love as 'holding space'

This month, I'm mostly struck by the range of conversations I have about what we're living through now. Some of us like to talk about the big picture and what's happening at a societal level. Others of us are more inclined to talk about the-day-to-day shifts we're each having to make as we adjust to new ways of living.

The conversations that I think are most needed though are the ones where people feel able to say, 'I'm having to scrape myself off the ceiling each morning'. Or 'I feel such a sense of dread but I have to put on a happy face for my kids'.

And so I'm writing this month about how maybe the most use we can be - the most loving gesture we can make - is to 'hold space' for someone.

You'll find it here and I hope you enjoy it.

Leadership and Love:
New coaching programmes

As I mentioned above, more details coming soon about the following programmes, bringing together much of what I've learned about love and leadership over the last few years and offering you the support and challenge to build a leadership culture with love at its heart.

A 1:1 'Leading with Love' programme

The programme is anchored by 6 coaching sessions with me, supported by reading and other resources, and built on learning from tailored experiments. With me, you will:

explore the business case for love and why it matters for you, your teams, your business, society and beyond
decide what love is and what it means for you and in your organisation
get to know more about your own relationship with love and what enables and blocks love in your leadership
conduct a series of practical and tailored experiments for you to learn more about what love might look like in practice, in your leadership
develop a 'field guide' for putting love at the heart of your leadership and creating a culture of compassion and connection

An Action Research 'Leading with Love' programme

Built around 6 online action research sessions, you'll be part of a small group of between 4-6 leaders from different organisations will follow a similar journey to that outlined above but in addition you''ll benefit from:

a rich and stimulating mix of perspectives almost certainly unlike your own
learning from other leaders about what works and what doesn't and where the 'edges of love' might be in their leadership and organisations
support, challenge and inspiration from your peers
a sense of belonging to a tribe and a community of like-minded people

I'll send a separate Newsletter with more detail soon, but please drop me a line using helena@helenclayton.co.uk or call on 07771 358881 if you'd like to know more now.

Forward

Upcoming Events

For full details on both these events and all other upcoming events, please visit my website by clicking here...

Some changes here to the plan :-)

The OD Network Europe Conference was cancelled but there may be an online conference on 24th April, so keep the date free. You can check out details on the ODNE page.
Also in April, the Public Services People Management Association Conference 2020 in Manchester was cancelled but they have developed some amazing resources to support people and teams through these times and you can see those here.
And June would have seen the 6th Relational Coaching Conference on 'Love over Fear' at Ashridge, exploring how we create the conditions for love to emerge in a coaching relationship. More info on that coming soon.

Let's Connect

If the idea of love in organisations interests you (or more interestingly if you think that love doesn't have a place in organisations...) come and explore it with me. You could hold a Learning Lunch session for your team on the role love might play in leadership - or run my 'Leading from Love' survey in your organisation. You might welcome a 1:1 session to explore your own relationship with love. Or take part in one of my Action Inquiry groups, exploring love in the workplace. Whatever, please do get in touch as I'd welcome the chance to explore this with you further.

Beyond that my leadership development work is all about conversations and relationships and building programmes that really open partcipants eyes to new ways of seeing and working. Whether you're interested in finding out more about that, want some good books recommendations, or can share your own experiences of developing leadership, it would be good to hear from you.

I'm social too so you can follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn or connect via Email. Or call me of course, whichever suits.

Helena x

Email: helena@helenaclayton.co.uk
Call: 07771 358 881

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