Have you ever found yourself softening your message, holding back your opinion, or wondering whether being direct will make you seem “difficult”?

You’re not alone. In her latest post, Rachel Morris explores the assertiveness paradox many women face: how to speak up with clarity and confidence without losing warmth or connection. If you’ve ever felt the tension between being true to yourself and keeping the peace, this article offers a thoughtful and empowering place to begin.

This video by Rachel Morris, Executive Coach and partner at Motion Learning, explores “assertiveness”, which is really nothing more simple – or maybe complicated – than knowing when and how to state your own needs truthfully and clearly in a way that enables others to state theirs too.

There’s been a squeeze on meaningful conversations at “work”, and a knock on effect upon our well-being and work-life balance.

Rachel Morris, executive coach, explores the impact of the dramatic changes in 2020 on our conversations and notes the need for coaches to adapt their working practices to ensure coachees still get the full value from coaching

We’re all part of personal and professional systems, whether we are mindful of it or not. Visualising them, representing them and then discussing them can open up routes to greater awareness and understanding.

Rachel Morris and Kim Gieske discuss the value of adopting a systemic approach and share their own examples of its application.

We’ve been listening to a lot of people this year, which is good, as it’s our job to listen. There are a lot of things people want to talk through, work through and share – but in a quiet, safe space; away from all the noise.

We’ve asked a few of our coaches to tell us about what they’ve been listening to, and how they’ve been helping people this year.

Communities of practice have been much on our minds over the last 12 months, particularly in light of the value we gain from two of our own.

In the course of our own investigations and experiences, we’ve come across information we think might be useful to others.