Nick Smith, founder of Square Pegs Coaching joins us from Glasgow to share his sense of freedom from being outside and how his background in outdoor education and youth work shaped the development of his coaching business working with leaders from the corporate setting.
Nick gets super practical on what you need to consider before taking a step outside with advice on route selection, location considerations, risk management from a physical and psychological safety perspective, safety equipment, possible hazards, note taking, weather forecasts and mud! The current lack of evidence behind coaching outdoors is discussed and how ‘some numbers’ could support the development of this niche and gain further traction with the business world. We then dive head into the benefits of collaboration and competition between coaches based on sharing ideas, learning from each other and awakening ideas from within.
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Our guest
Nick helps technical leaders to enjoy effectively influencing people through playing to their appropriate strengths. He has a background in outdoor education and experiential training, following a short career in IT, and has been involved in coaching and training leaders and teams since 1998. He is authorised to use tools such as persolog Personality Profiling, GLA360 feedback, the GameChanger Index and Tapestry of Life and is an Outdoor NLP Practitioner. He is also fully qualified in outdoor pursuits including Outdoor First Aid.
After working with Nick, leaders deal better with people (including themselves) so that they and their teams become more productive ; they also feel less stressed about the way they are achieving results. Through the course of the walks, leaders to see where their strengths lie, make a plan to use and improve them and then follow through to get better. Nick’s coaching walks have helped a wide variety of people across Scotland and England to be inspired by beautiful places, on top of gaining coaching-driven success. “Seeing people achieve their full leadership potential, rather than living a life of ‘if-onlys’, is what gives me a buzz and is why I do what I do.”