Coaching for female leaders this month

Poster for coaching with Love Letters to chefs - Support for female leaders in Hospitality

Are you a female leader who currently feels:
– overwhelmed, because you have taken on too much, or
– exhausted, because you are doing the heavy lifting for everyone else, and
– unable to rest and recover from the mental and physical demands of your work?

Perhaps those feelings are even turning to resentment. You find yourself resenting your responsibilities and wanting to get away from them.

But even taking a break means that you will only return to a bigger workload, which causes even more stress from just thinking about it.

Because you have not put in the systems that allow you to stop for rest, as every leader needs to, in order to be effective and bring fresh thinking to the table.

So you continue to struggle in that Catch-22 situation.

What if the way you worked could be different and you did not have to do it all?

That you have the systems and support in place that allow you to not just lead a team, but make a difference to the people who work for you?

If that is the outcome you want right now, then I invite you to take the first step and book a Game Plan call with me, so we can find a solution to this current dynamic.

Book your free call 30-minute Game Plan Call with me.

You don’t need to ooze confidence

Image of a female chef working in her food truck

You don’t need to ooze confidence in that next step in your career.

Or every time you have a new challenge to deal with.

But what you do need is to get out of your own way:

– To not feel shame over how inexperienced you might be to handle that

– To not feel fear when you don’t have the solution to a problem

– To not feel guilty when you cannot be there for everyone 24×7

With all that out not taking up your headspace, your mind and all your senses are tuned into ways to move forward, because your focus is no longer about how you do not measure up to your expectations.

Your natural resourcefulness takes over. And your capabilities and talents shine through, becoming apparent to you and everyone else.

The outcome is feeling that confidence in yourself again.

My message for you today is this: you don’t really “work” to build your confidence.

But you have to get out of your own way when it has taken a hit.

I help female Hospitality leaders reconnect with their brilliance and express it like they always did.

If this is what you want too, then this is your next step: book a Game Plan Call with me.

I only open enrolment to work with me at certain times each month. The deadline to book your call is the 29th of September.

What season are you in?

Text reads: "I didn't get much time to process the problem. This time for reflection really helped me very much."

We are so accustomed to seasonality in our industry.

You know to expect quiet days in the week, and sometimes months in the year.

During quiet times you might be doing less critical work, which nevertheless still holds a certain value.

Like all of Nature, our lives also follow certain rhythms. But we do not always respect that.

We expect our bodies and minds to function like machines, 24x7x365.

The above testimonial is from a coachee who wanted to review her goals for the year: she was concerned about losing momentum in a year that she started so well.

She also described an intense personal challenge she was going through.

Which meant that she had little to no energy for her goals, beyond persisting with her core responsibilities at work and in her personal life. The rest of the time she spent dealing with the overwhelm of what she was going through. 

Which, to her, did not sound like work.

Understandable, because non one would pay you to do that. But that does not mean it is any less valuable than ‘real work’. Moreover, not addressing your personal challenges can prove very costly in the long term.

I helped her see just how much ‘work’ she was actually doing.

Taking time to process the fears from the things out of her control will clear up much-needed energetic space: for when she is ready to march to a different rhythm.

And ensure she can fulfil all her responsibilities for now. Isn’t that a worthy goal too?

Today I open up enrolment for coaching for female leaders in Hospitality, supporting them with overcoming their challenges and achieving their goals for themselves and their teams. 

If you are also at crossroads in your life, Book a Game Plan Call with me to explore how I can support you with finding a solution.

Let your guard down

A chef searing food for service with a blowtorch

Let your guard down.

In our work we are on the edge more often than not.

Which is understandable, given the fast-paced environments we work in. And the fact that we work with implements that can cause injury and damage to people and things.

But my message to you today is to give yourself the opportunity to let your guard down, at least for a few moments during your breaks.

This is not easy when you have to keep an eye on the time to get back to work.

But it is made harder when you are scrolling social media, for example. You are rapidly scanning the screen for information and your mind is not really at rest.

Join me on Instagram LIVE on Thursday at 6pm (UK) where I share some tips on what would help you.

 

Who is there for you?

A female chef cleaning dishes at her food stall.

 

Are you the person on your team who is there for everyone?

The support system that the team cannot thrive without?

Make sure you have someone or a network to lean on.

Holding a space for someone else can be intense. It means that someone trusts you enough to be vulnerable with whatever complex thoughts, feelings and emotions they are going through.

But watch out for your own invulnerability.

This goes especially for women in leadership. And equally for men who lead their teams from the heart.

It is not uncommon for you to be judged harshly when you express vulnerability of any kind.

But that does not mean you are immune to strong emotions yourself. You are, after all, human.

I am sharing this message because I have encountered this, particularly in my conversations with female leaders.

They do not always have that safe space to process what they truly feel, because they just have to keep going and get things done. And be there for others.

Our coaching session might be the first time that they have allowed themselves to really acknowledge what they are going through.

What I notice is that their energy then gets so much lighter.

They are recharged, once again able to give their energy to their work and to others they want to support.

I urge you to find your own support system.

A person or a community with whom you can be the one without the answers.

If I can be that person for you, then get in touch!

Choose your greatness

Poster reading: Bookings close today! Coaching with Love Letters to Chefs - support for female leaders in Hospitality

Choose your greatness.

That was the message from my own teacher this week. Something I myself needed to hear and embody. Which is why I am sharing it with you.

Choose not just the new job or the new venture, but show up at that level too.

And make all your choices from that level.

No more stories of not being ready or not having what it takes or not having the resources you need.

.

You have no idea of just who you can be in your greatness.

This is not always the case during a coaching session, but last year I had the privilege of helping a client tune into that vision of who and what she could be.

It was such a glorious vision: the way she was leading her team(s) and fulfilling her dream of making a difference to Hospitality through her role as a manager!

All she needs every time she doubts herself is to recall that vision and embody it.

It only came about because she was committed to stepping out of the limitations she perceived about herself.

Are you?

If your answer is yes, then let’s see what working together can achieve for you.

Book a call with me before the end of the day (Thursday 18th August).

Gravitas

A female chef preparing dumplings at a counter behind the shopfront windowSometimes you have second thoughts about where you are right now.

You have landed the promotion you wanted, or the right customers for your new business.

But stepping up to that new level is not easy. And it has been a lonely journey.

Only you know the obstacles you overcame to get here. Which means the pressure on you to succeed is enormous.

The stress is beginning to take a toll.

You have lost your sense of lightness and your responsibilities feel heavy.

You are less present, because there is always the next thing that needs to be done weighing on your mind.

And you cannot step away from work long enough to give yourself a break.

What you really need right now is to take a deep breath. 

Because having to do it all yourself or having to get it all right is likely to lead you to burnout.

Without that sense of lightness, you are working harder and working yourself harder as well. And you know it is unsustainable.

Can I help you handle the stress and the responsibility in a more healthy way?

Book a call with me before Thursday the 18th of August.

Protecting your team

Café workers behind the bar preparing for service

You have your first opportunity to build a team.

A chance to really make a difference and an impact on those who work with you.

You want their experience to be different from the harsh environments you have endured in the industry.

Which means you are approachable and always there for them to reach out to.

But you struggle with knowing how and where to set boundaries. So effectively, you are working 24×7.

Doing all the heavy lifting means means that your ambitions for the team take a back seat.

Which makes you sometimes resent having to be the one who has the answers.

You wish that they would just step into their roles properly, taking some of the pressure off of you.

But the truth here is that you are the one that has to step into your role fully, owning your leadership.

This comes with setting boundaries, but this is not easy when you cannot cross the line from being part of the team to being the one that directs their destiny.

Can I help you with that? 

This month, I am opening up coaching sessions for female leaders in Hospitality who are stepping into their next role, challenge or venture, but struggling to fully embody their leadership.

I want to help you and your team thrive. Book a free 30-minute coaching assessment call with me before Thursday August 18th.

Too much too soon

Female café owner training her staff

Sometimes when your dreams come true, it can feel bittersweet.

Perhaps you are at that next level already: the new job, the promotion, or the new customer contract.

It feels like too much, too soon.

The overwhelm kicks in, and you feel you are simply going through the motions. From one item on your list to the next.

And not making the impact on your team or in your work.

So you struggle to get it all done.

As a female leader you feel the added pressure. The sense that someone is waiting for you to fail.

So the joy that you expected to feel after getting to that next level is just missing.

This is the thing: with any uplevelling, you are not always perfectly prepared.

You are in the process of becoming.

That makes you incredibly insecure: this is where you meet your demons.

And no doubt, this affects how you perform in that next level role.

When I work with clients who are going through this, I help them rise above the insecurity, the overwhelm, the self-doubt.

They begin to believe in themselves again.

And start seeing it reflected in their work and the success of their team.

What can I help you change?

Book a call with me and let’s see if working together is a good fit.