The holidays can stretch too many of us bringing heightened stress and surface-level conversations, even with those we love. Paris, France-based Coach Marie-Louise Pereira knows how to bring coaching skills and Competency No 5 (maintaining presence) into our daily flow and to our relationships with those we love.

In a lovely conversation with a dear friend and peer coach, we unpack how we use our active listening skills and clear boundary setting (and even our ability to say 'no' vs 'yes' to things that drain us) to stay calm, even amidst the holidays.

If you find the skills and tips from one New Zealand coach and one Parisian coach help you, please forward this episode on to another person needing more calm, flow, and fewer disconnects with those they care for.

You can find Marie-Louise on LinkedIn.

Your show host, D G McCullough, is a communications coach for Fortune 100 leaders, a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. Find her on LinkedIn. Join her communications and active listening workshops on Maven here and here. Blank page to Byline, write your annual review like a global business reporter, her newest writing workshop is on Luma, click here.

It's the annual review season and the final quarterly review for those on the quarterly system. I hear rumblings from many I coach who feel stretched too thin, burdened with too many projects, and exposed to failure more than they'd like. If the task becomes writing on our work, all that went well, and how things emerged as we'd hoped, ought we also address what flopped?

I say: Yes. We ought to. Failure opens up great storytelling opportunities and if you're working 330+ days in a year, perfection's impossible. But how to feel better about the bleak or imperfect moments? Journalism storytelling techniques can help. So can Competency Number 5, maintaining presence, staying calm and peaceful in the wake of not knowing, because it gives us excellent perspective on what matters, and what doesn't. Also, how to trust ourselves amidst ambiguity. And career failures can certainly feel ambiguous.

Reading from Medium, my musings on how maintaining presence helps us communicate what did not go right with our work with more calm, clarity, and conviction in hopes you feel comfortable doing the same as you write your review. Especially helpful for those seeking a promotion, because failure, after all, separates the meek from the courageous.

Your show host, D G McCullough, is a communications coach for Fortune 100 leaders, a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. Find her on LinkedIn. Join her communications and active listening workshops on Maven here and here. Blank page to Byline, write your annual review like a global business reporter, her newest writing workshop is on Luma, click here.

My Master Certified Coaching submission is finally in with the International Coaching Federation! I await my ICF assessors’ feedback on whether I pass or fail. My musings on active listening and masterful coaching since I hit “submit” this past Monday, including final indecisiveness, a solar eclipse across my birthplace in New Zealand, and a stunning reminder from the late Dr. James R Doty, an esteemed neurosurgeon, on what active listening really means, and feels like, for the receiver. (And why we all ought to strive, therefore, to listen to the very best of our capabilities as our generous and uplifting offering to humanity.)

Join the celebrations on LinkedIn here.

Your show host, D G McCullough, is a communications coach for Fortune 100 leaders, a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. Find her on LinkedIn. Join her communications and active listening workshops on Maven here and here. Blank page to Byline, write your annual review like a global business reporter, her newest writing workshop is on Luma, click here.