Lucy Morris Coaching

I received another lovely 10/10 rating client from an end of coaching review today.

"Before we started working together, I was still feeling very recently back from maternity leave and feeling a bit unsure/uncertain about my role. My confidence was also quite low. The coaching was a really wonderful space for self-reflection and time to focus inwards on me. I feel a learned a lot about my strengths and my preferences. During our coaching period, I stepped in to a much bigger role at work (and I'm not sure I would have done so if it hadn't been for our work together). It's amazing how you've always been able to find a positive re-framing for things - and not in a toxic positivity way (bleugh!) but in a "being kind/compassionate to yourself" way that was extremely helpful for me."

If you're also looking for someone to help you step into your power and potential, I'd love to hear from you!

One of the themes that's regularly coming up in sessions with career coaching clients at the moment, is 'panic applying for jobs on Linkedin'. It feels good to take action - but then you see how many other people have applied and don't hear back, and it knocks your confidence and is ultimately ineffective and even counterproductive.

Through my career coaching programme, I help people get out of panic mode and to apply from a place of calm and strength instead by taking the following steps:
📌 Getting to know yourself - what are your strengths, values, skills, accomplishments? What do you need from a job? From life?
📌 Brainstorming jobs that you're interested in and then reflecting on what they'd give you - to get you thinking creatively again and open up new potential options
📌 Going to talk to people. Informational interviews are a really helpful way to find out more about a potential sector or role - how do people get in? What type of people thrive there? What's the future of that sector looking like?
📌 Building relationships and strengthening weak ties - opportunities can come from places you least expect them
📌 Deciding on the option that you're going to pursue that genuinely aligns with your goals and skills, and creating a roadmap to get there.

Jobs are still out there for you, and it sometimes just needs some extra support, creativity and courage to find them.

Despite all of the ongoing disruption in the international development and humanitarian sector, it's inspiring to work with women who are intentionally and courageously stepping further into their power and potential. Diamonds are created under pressure, and sometimes all we need is a little space and support to really shine.

RIP Dame Jane Goodall

Have you noticed that you have different internal 'parts', like in the movie 'Inside Out'? And how sometimes, a part like anger or fear can suddenly take over ?

Instead of either getting mad, or trying really hard to surpress that feeling - the trick is to advocate and speak powerfully 'for' it rather than 'from it' from a place of control and calm.

For example: "There's a part of me that felt really angry when you said x, and it made me want to loose my temper because y. I'm not going to do that, but I wanted you to know the impact that that had on part of me."

One of the themes that people often bring to coaching, is the desire to step further into their power and potential. Often women have been conditioned to keep everyone else happy, which means not allowing certain emotions to surface. But it's precisely these same emotions which give us important data about what's important to us, and can help us really step into our power and potential...

In the UK, the seasons are changing and autumn is in the air, and there's a 'back to school' energy at the mo. Guessing you might be feeling it too? And maybe, just maybe there's a part of you that's ready to try something new...

This year l've been experimenting with digitising my coaching practice. Today my sole trader business bank card arrived, and l've linked my bank and my online accounting software... and that feels like a win!

Back from a week-long UK camping road-trip with old friends, fab food, unexpected art, saltmarshes and costal deserts!

Good to have time to decompress, and was reminded of this excellent blog post about 'resilience' and salt marshes whilst walking through Rye Harbour https://whatsthepont.blog/2024/11/19/be-more-resilient-be-more-salt-marsh-be-more-cwm-ivy/

Re-posting a lovely testimonial from a former coaching client here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7326520424333258753/

👯‍♀️ "A tribute to the power of coaching 👯‍♀️

🧠 Having enjoyed what I branded a month of “retirement” in April, I’m warming my work brain back up & have been thinking about the power of coaching.

💡 I can clearly remember the point back in 2021 at which I realised I needed to find a coach to work with. Things were moving really fast with what was then the Open Apparel Registry. I’d gone for a walk to clear my head & had an absolute moment of clarity that, if I was going to stand any chance of preserving my sanity, I needed to start working with a coach.

📝 Courtesy of a recommendation from a friend I met the one, the only Lucy Morris. And so began a working relationship of nearly 4 years. From a professional perspective, an awful lot has changed for me during that time, but having Lucy as a constant pillar of support has been invaluable. We’ve worked through any number of highs and lows over the years. Highlights include reframing what I’d historically viewed as “confrontations” into “courageous conversations” - that’s a big breakthrough for someone as conflict-avoidant as me. Over time, she learnt when I just needed to monologue on a topic for several (!!) minutes, versus when to step in & get me to refocus. She’s helped me build regular reflection practices into my working life (inevitably by a body of water somewhere, as per the photo). I’ve completed skills audits, work & life stars, dug deep into my motivators and really scrutinised my strengths. We’ve also laughed. A lot. 😆

💚 And so whilst this post has turned somewhat into a tribute to Lucy, the point is this: the recognition that I needed to ask for help paid dividends. Over the four years of working with a coach, I’ve spoken with any number of people about how transformative I’ve found it. If you’re on the fence about whether you need it, have a trial session - give it a go! Life is busy, but I don’t think anyone would regret carving out an hour every couple of weeks for this sort of professional development. For me, moving from one start-up whirlwind to another meant that four years of support from a coach was what I needed, but that duration won’t be necessary for everyone. But in the crazy times we’re living through, regular opportunities to take stock, reflect and retool with tried & tested coaching techniques are something that I truly believe we can all benefit from."

How coaching helped me overcome challenges | Lucy Morris posted on the topic | LinkedIn Sharing this lovely tribute from a former coaching client, about the power of coaching. It's full of great advice including: 🆘 Recognising when you need to ask for help 🌱 Having a trial session and just giving it a go if you're unsure (NB: most coaches offer an initial 'discovery& #...

Hello you lovely lot! This is a post about navigating sudden work endings and how to bounce back again - whether due to aid cuts, AI disruption or conflicts at work.

It's a time of endings/transitions and "it's not an era of change...it's a change of era" as someone commented this week.

If your job comes to an end unexpectedly, you'll need to think about practical issues but also your 'head game'. Here's a framework that can help from the book I've shared below:
1. 🔎Reality - name what's happened
2. 😭Emotions - name how you feel about what's happened which is likely to be several things at the same time
3. 🥳Achievements - what did you achieve and feel proud of whilst in your previous role?
4. 🍻Ritual - how will you mark this ending?

I'd also add a 5th which is 💬 'narrative' - what's the story you want to tell yourself and others about this ending?

You can still have control and agency even if the decision to leave wasn't your own.

And if you have a 'stable' job - don't forget to keep logging your achievements and also trying new things. Getting out of your comfort zone isn't always easy, but if you practice with small things it makes you more resilient in the face of change, because it builds your muscles for bigger challenges/pivots.

Podcast: https://hbr.org/podcast/2025/05/unexpectedly-out-of-a-job-heres-how-to-bounce-back?inf_contact_key=b3f0c9263672279ce5ee4bfaec0441feb7af0999dac2af6212784c39e05d2aef

Book: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/good-bye-leading-change-better-by-attending-to-endings-lizzie-bentley-bowers/7727476?ean=9781788607285

Good Bye: Leading change better by attending to endings a book by Lizzie Bentley Bowers and Alison Lucas. Nobody likes to talk about endings. Here's why we need to.Leaders spend a lot of time planning new initiatives. But what about the endings that go along with them? Most leaders are not taught how to manage themselves, let alone their teams and organization, through the messy, multifaceted discomfort...