Author Archives: Matt Smith Personal and Professional Coach

Working in a complex and uncertain industries such as health and social care (but not exclusively) requires you to attend to 3 things to remain effective. These 3 things can often be in tension with each other and if not attended to can work against each, causing significant risks to yourself, your patients/clients, stakeholders andContinue reading “3 Things to attend to when working in a complex uncertain environment.”

The pressure from every angle can feel like we a being squeezed at the moment. Speaking to friends it is evident that many of us are being squeezed not just for our finances, but for our time, our emotions and our attention. A friend of mine recently was talking about the pressure to support andContinue reading “Feeling Squeezed”

The past few months have been the most difficult in my life so far. I have never felt emotional pain like this. I have not tried to push it away I have sat with it and accepted it. It is worth it, it is worth it for the 51 years of unconditional love I hadContinue reading “Thank you for everything Mum”

I teach Clinical Supervision, and practice as a supervisor for Nurses and AHPs ,as well as coaching, I also provide coaching supervision for our internal coaches. Recently I have been thinking about the challenges faced by leaders not just the NHS but across all industries, and how much of a burden this places on theContinue reading “Meaningful support for leaders”

Whether you want to give up smoking, cut back on drinking or lose weight, focusing on giving something up or denying yourself something you are attached to is unlikely to end in success. If we set ourselves goals on moving away from something, such as smoking, or drinking too much, or reducing our weight, thenContinue reading “Trying to give up? Stop it, it won’t work!”

On 28th August 2022 my Mum died. Since that day I have felt traumatised, lost, alone, loved, grateful, angry, frustrated, sad, distraught, hopeful, most importantly uncertain. The time between her death and her funeral on 20th September feels unsettling and uncertain. I am mourning the loss of the life I had with my mum inContinue reading “Reflections on love, certainty and loss”

Apart from Women’s Football and Commonwealth Games there is very little in our world in the moment that feels positive. The news is dominated by the cost of living crisis, war in Ukraine, climate change and child murder. When I go to work the extreme pressures on the NHS are evident, everything is much, muchContinue reading “Three simple steps for taking control of your life”

1. Connect to Your Story Listen to and understand what you are telling yourself and what you are feeling. Recognise where they come from. Let them inform you, not define you. 2. Connect With What You Value Identify your most important values. What motivates you? What moves you into action? What you cannot imagine beingContinue reading “5 Step Guide to Living a Value Based Life”

The title sums up how I feel at the moment. I have been consumed with helping teams write their mission statements, preparing for and delivering on our leadership programmes, talking about coaching, teaching some coaching skills and approaches, and actually coaching people. The past month has been full on, so full on and consuming IContinue reading “Is that a light at the end of the tunnel or someone bringing more work?”