If someone told you there was a magic bullet to help you withstand the turmoil underway in the UK Higher Education (HE) sector now, most leaders, managers and members of staff working in universities would take it. The way ahead for universities is far from easy or straightforward. And while there really is no 'magic bullet', coaching is a key tool in making important and impactful steps forward.

SUMS Associates from Oyster Outcomes joined the SUPC & LUPC Covid-19 Impact Webinars on the 15th of April, to deliver a session on personal resourcefulness in times of change – building resilience during Covid-19. Expert Coaches Tim Bromfield and Helen Moreton provided the context for what coaching can offer, and used NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) techniques to coach the audience through resourcefulness and grounding, in preparation for a coaching session on well formed outcomes. The well formed outcome coaching tool is widely recognised as an effective way to enable clients to work through challenges, and positively develop an objective or strategy which stays away from using negative terms. The idea is to switch the brain’s thinking into a positive state which enables clients to move towards solutions, rather than focus on the problems they are facing which can prevent them from achieving their goals. The audience was engaged in the process and asked questions relating to how to shift their focus away from the negative, and feelings of threat during these challenging times. The biggest takeaway was the opportunity to look towards the future – a transitional period of returning to work and setting up what we would like the ‘new norm’ to be using positive thoughts and language.

You can view the webinar here.

To find out more about the coaching services on offer please visit:

https://oysteroutcomes.co.uk/coaching

https://sums.ac.uk/academic-career-pathway-design/

Or email: f.gasparro@reading.ac.uk or felicity@oysteroutcomes.co.uk