Author: Alison Reid

Sitting in a traffic jam in town the other day, I saw a friend walking past on the pavement close by. I called out to him several times, but he was lost in thought, walking along head down, seemingly unaware of the world around him.

Recently, I co-facilitated a leadership programme that I hadn’t delivered before. The programme had already been designed so, after the other facilitator and I had agreed what sessions we were going to lead, it was just a matter of familiarising myself with them so I could bring them to life for the participants.

When I was a little girl, my eldest brother used to borrow from my piggy bank to help fund a night out. As a 7 or 8 year-old where my parents provided everything I needed, I didn’t have much of a case to put up to my twenty-something brother that he couldn’t borrow my money.

Alex Honnold is an American rock climber best known for what’s called “free solo” ascents of intimidating rock faces which means that he climbs without any safety equipment. I’ve recently watched the awe-inspiring film Free Solo about his attempt to be the first person to climb the 3,000-foot south-west face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park without ropes. (Spoiler alert : he did it!).

Over the past year, I’ve been setting up my stall as a speaker to share my messages with more people and grow my leadership and career coaching practice. I’ve done alot of training, facilitating and presenting in my time, but I’ve found that speaking is a whole different ball-game. Why is that, when they all involve exposing yourself in front of a room full of people?!

A few years ago, I rented out my flat. The new tenant was initially very enthusiastic about the garden and promised to look after it.