Rhodes to Change Coaching

06/10/2026

Sometimes it can feel hard or uncomfortable to accept someone else’s "thank you".

We’re quick to say:
“It was nothing.”
“You don’t need to thank me.”
“Anyone would have done the same.”

But sometimes, accepting someone’s thanks is the kindest thing you can do for them.

Let them acknowledge what you gave, said or did.

Let them express their gratitude.

Let them give something back.

You don’t have to minimise your kindness to make it genuine.

And you don’t have to refuse someone else’s gratitude to prove you didn’t expect anything in return.

Sometimes the kindest thing is simply:

“Thank you. I’m glad I could help.”

05/10/2026

04/10/2026

A little amusement for your Sunday (just for
sh!t$ and giggles)

There’s something fascinating about company names.

I saw a toilet paper dispenser from a brand called Good Decision.

Good decision?

Surely that’s the only decision when you're in need of a toilet roll dispenser. 😂

It got me thinking about how much pressure we put on a brand name to tell us something about a product.

Then I watched the latest episode of Mobland and Maeve came out with this absolute belter about lawyers:

“I'm as fond of lawyers as you are. They're like bog paper. When you need them, you really need them.”

And honestly...

Good Decision...Bog Paper...Lawyers.

Maybe some things really do just need to be named exactly what they are.

Estate agents: Good Luck.

Accountants: Where Did It Go?

IT Support: Have You Tried Turning It Off?

Recruitment agencies: We'll Be In Touch.

And toilet paper?

Good Decision.

Obviously.

03/10/2026

You can offer the best service in the world.

But if you don’t communicate well with your customers, you might not keep their business.

Because your customer doesn’t experience your service in isolation.

They experience:
How easy you are to deal with. Whether you answer their calls. Whether you respond to messages in a timely, professional way. Whether you keep them informed. Whether you listen.
Whether you do what you said you would do.
And how you make them feel when something goes wrong.

Great service isn’t just what you deliver.

It’s the whole experience.

Communication isn’t an extra.

It IS a major part of the service you provide.

Neglecting your customer service and ability to communicate effectively and easily at the peril of your business.

And for goodness sake...when the phone rings, just make sure you answer it...

02/10/2026

Who you sit next to matters.

And apparently, it matters a lot more than we realise.

Researchers Michael Housman and Dylan Minor studied more than 2,000 employees at a large technology company over two years, looking at performance alongside where people sat.

They found that sitting within about 25 feet of a high performer could improve your own performance by up to 15%.

That’s the bit that made me stop.

Because it suggests something important:

Our performance isn't entirely individual.

We are influenced by the people around us.

Their standards.
Their habits.
Their energy.
Their way of approaching problems.
What they consider normal.

And the really interesting part?

The strongest effects happened when people had complementary strengths.

Someone who was slower but produced high-quality work could become faster when sitting near someone who worked quickly.

The high performer didn't become worse.

They lifted the other person.

That makes me think about more than workplace performance.

Who are you surrounded by?

Who makes you think bigger?

Who raises your standards without making you feel smaller?

Who brings out a version of you that you actually like?

And perhaps just as importantly...

What kind of influence are you having on the people around you?

Because we don't just absorb our environments.

We are part of them.

Research: Housman & Minor (2016), “Organizational Design and Space: The Good, the Bad, and the Productive.” Reported by Kellogg Insight, Northwestern University.

01/10/2026

If you’re dealing with a lot of crap in your life, feeling the strain is not a sign that your mental health is failing.

You might feel tired.
Jaded.
Irritable.
Frustrated.
Overwhelmed.

That’s an entirely understandable and rational response to what you’re carrying.

Mental health doesn’t mean feeling good all the time.

It’s contextual.

Sometimes the healthiest response to a difficult situation is to acknowledge: this is hard, and I’m finding it hard.

30/09/2026

If it’s not a yes, then it’s a no.

Stop negotiating with yourself.

Stop talking yourself into things because you’re worried about disappointing someone.

Stop mistaking obligation for choice.

Stop waiting for permission to trust what you already know.

You are allowed to say no.

You are allowed to change your mind.

You are allowed to choose yourself.

If it’s not a yes, listen to the no.

28/09/2026

My philosophy as a coach sits at the intersection of quality of life, positive wellbeing, psychological needs, capability, meaning and agency.

At the centre of my work is a simple but profound question:

What does it mean for someone to live a meaningful life?

The answer is different for every person.

For me, a meaningful life is not simply a life where someone feels good.

It is a life in which they have voice, choice and agency; feel connected to what matters to them; and are able to act in ways that are congruent with their values, relationships and the realities of their circumstances.

That means looking beyond wellbeing as simply feeling better.

It means exploring whether someone has the freedom, capability, connection and psychological space to live in a way that feels meaningful to them.

That becomes particularly important when those things are threatened or taken away...
Injustice.
Power imbalance.
Silencing.
Loss of autonomy.
Moral injury.
Psychologically unsafe environments.

These experiences can disconnect people from their voice, their choices, their values and ultimately from their sense of agency.

My role as a coach isn't to tell someone what their meaningful life should look like.

It is to help them reconnect with what matters to them, what choices they have, what is within their agency, and how they want to move forward.

Sometimes it is when our values are tested that we discover what they really mean to us.

Meaningful change isn't necessarily about changing our circumstances.

Sometimes it is about changing our relationship with them, understanding our choices, reclaiming our agency and finding a way forward that feels more aligned with who we are.

26/09/2026

I’ve driven past Harewood House countless times on my way to York.

Recently, I noticed something I’d somehow never really seen before.

Hidden among the trees was a castle ruin.

A medieval castle, quietly sitting there long before the Georgian house we know today.

I promised myself I’d come back and explore it properly.

Today was the day.

It got me thinking...

How often do we notice something, feel curious about it, tell ourselves we’ll come back to it...

…and then never do?

Sometimes we don’t need a new direction.

We just need to stop rushing past what has already caught our attention.

Curiosity is a pretty good compass.

And sometimes, the path worth taking is the one you’ve driven past a hundred times.