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

In my late teens, burnout described an adrenaline-fueled moment in a car. You floored the accelerator, redlined the motor, dropped the clutch, the wheels would spin, scream and smoke. The vehicle would have no momentum. Eventually though, the tires would grab and the vehicle launch forward. Often the vehicle was then out of control. This was dangerous driving.   Burnout

Our vision at Verve Lead is to create thriving Christian leaders and flourishing communities. But why is the vitality of a leader so important? If the community itself is strong, it may thrive or at least survive even with a struggling leader. However in the long term, a community will only be as strong as its leader.  In the book

Most of our blogs are dedicated to helping practitioners in three specific lines of work: coaching, mentoring and professional supervision. If you have been following Verve Lead, you will see that I often group these practitioners together. You might ask; aren’t these unique professions with important differences, so is it appropriate to group these together? While understanding the differences is

Verve Lead has some very exciting news!  In early February, I had the privilege of joining the dissertation committee of Alyssa Serpa, with Biola’s Rosemead School of Psychology, alongside Professor Chris Adams (Director of Flourishing in Ministry and consultant and researcher with the Duke Clergy Health Initiative) and Professor Todd Hall (Faculty Affiliate in the Harvard Human Flourishing Program). I’m

How would you sum up the role of a practitioner? I recently stumbled upon two words in a conversation with my professional supervisor that have really stuck with me: grace and truth. Both of these are principles that I try to bring into every session, and I believe they are the linchpins of a safe and effective relationship with clients.

As a practitioner, I’ve spent extensive time working with leaders across churches, communities, and organisations; from school principals and CEOs to lead pastors of large churches. I have found that they often share a deep drive for achievement.  Leaders dream big, work hard, and are always considering what comes next for themselves and their community. They are constantly creating performance

When a client is in a leadership or care-giving profession, it can be almost impossible not to become emotionally invested in the people around them; problems, objectives and causes of others can become important to the client as well. Most of the time, this investment in others is part of what makes them good at their job.  As mentors, coaches