At Verve Lead, we spend a lot of time exploring the less buoyant phases of life; the times where the tank is low, energy and resilience are drained and our emotional, physical and spiritual worlds are lacking.  We use the buoyancy gauge as a way to check our resilience and energy: The first few phases are difficult and can lead

When you wake up each morning, are you feeling weary? As you go to work, are you feeling stressed? Throughout the day, are you distracted? Bored? Tired? When you get home, do you find yourself spending most of your evenings in front of a screen?  Many people would describe this as normal… expected, even. Life is tiring. Work is hard.

When considering how to be a better leader, we often focus on our physical health last. Priorities tend to lean towards the emotional and spiritual. However, a healthy body is foundational to a practitioner’s work and a balanced life for any person.  I was recently challenged by this verse during a sabbatical trip:  Joshua 14:10-12 (New Living Translation) 10 “Now,

Who’s Present with You Besides the Client? When a client sits down for a mentoring session, what we see is a single individual. However, an experienced mentor understands that it is more complicated than this. In Coaching, Mentoring and Organisational Consultancy, Peter Hawkins and Nick Smith discuss the law of three clients, which is the idea that our clients all

Learning to fill the tank My journey through burnout and recovery has remade me. I used to just go, run fast, and pay little or no attention to how I was doing. To recover from burnout, I had to learn to rest. For some reason, cultural—the pioneer spirit, a warped Christian perspective of self-emptying, or just plain low self-value, I

I didn’t see it coming Something was wrong, and I thought I was sick physically. I didn’t wake up one morning and say, “I’m burnt out”. It was a process of realising something was not right and my GP saying, “Don, I think you are heading to burnout”. Thank you, Dr Don, for your diagnosis. Feeling tired and flat. At

Having a code of ethics, and then living by that code, is a mark of a strong mentor or supervisor. As a guide and caretaker of others, you set an example by reflecting on your own beliefs and becoming aware of the codes of ethics at play around you…

As with many abstract terms, it can be hard to articulate how to maintain integrity. For me, integrity means that a person acts consistently honest and true to their morals, whether in private or in public. Think of our modern social media influencers; they may present themselves as living a perfect life while hiding their struggles and flaws. Many people often hide behind a false image of themselves, but we need to be authentic, honest and open to sharing our flaws and struggles with our mentee/supervisee when appropriate…

My Message Some wonderful news: a research project on Christian Leaders Health is underway. It’s an empirical validation of the health of a Christian Leader assessment tool I developed with Dr Bob Logan and Prof Chuck Riddley.  It’s based on Dr Keith Farmers’ 5 core questions. If you are interested in being healthy, take the survey. Also, pass this survey