I’ve found ‘professional companionship’, stretching ideas and joy, both via the organised programme and informal networks.

Community

Alana asked me to reflect on the Meyler Campbell community and to write something about how it’s helped me personally and professionally. This hasn’t been difficult because I’ve really appreciated my five years as part of Meyler Campbell – it’s warm, supportive, and jam packed with learning and great people. I’ve found ‘professional companionship’, stretching ideas and joy, both via the organised programme and informal networks. Before doing Mastered, I studied at Tavistock and later with the Kets de Vries Institute. Both were great – but it’s to Meyler Campbell that I keep coming back.

The ‘homestead’ is of course the syndicate; formed at the start of the pandemic and under the (beady but twinkly!) eyes of Anne Scoular and Saverio Grazioli Venier, the online tutorials gave us a positive trajectory which ‘held’ us and saw us through those confusing years. On a day-to-day basis, we were living the very liminality we were learning about in Working Identities – everything was changing, and no one quite knew where we would land. This was complicated for me by the illness of my father who then died around the time of my T5, by which time I’d left London and decamped to Llangollen. Being with him in that intensely bittersweet period, while also walking the Mastered path with my syndicate, helped me see that my father had been a kind of parent coach – and to appreciate how profoundly valuable this had been to my security and development. He always had time, was keen to hear what I thought the solution was, did not judge, and offered his perspective eloquently when asked. The impact of that unconditional positive regard on a person is something I internalized while doing Mastered – and really matters, both in coaching and relationships.

Since then, I have been at many fantastic CPD events, parties, online chats, intervisions, coffees, lunches. I bedded this into my coaching practice in a way that felt safe and supported. My supervisor is part of the Meyler Campbell family, and I’m closely in touch with my syndicate members and tutors. I nominated the winner of one of Meyler Campbell’s John Stopford Scholarship recipients. I took part in a pro-bono scheme for a school. I was honoured to give a masterclass on family businesses, my area for twenty years. I am part of a Meyler Campbell book club and have become close to faculty members and graduates from other syndicates – all giving me horizontal, vertical, and diagonal relationships! I was even lucky enough to join a second syndicate a few times (long story!). I find both the formal and informal points of contact give me a superb sense of learning and progress. I have turned to colleagues for many, many things – psychometrics, vision days, chemistry sessions that didn’t go my way, HBR articles, books, bereavement coaching, AI, team coaching assignments, pricing data… I could go on.

My kids are in the thick of A-level revision right now and it’s miserable but the ‘revision’ and renewal that Meyler Campbell events give me are anything but… it’s just GREAT to be reminded of simple but transformational ideas I encountered during Mastered. Like what? Well, for a start… the maxim that performance is equal to potential minus interference. Genius! Often, the thing holding us back from our best performance is ourselves – I think of that very often. How about the simple but profound deployment of active listening techniques? Genius again! Facilitating difficult meetings with Nancy Kline techniques… Triple genius! Each time I go back to Meyer Campbell, something key comes back to the fore and something new emerges.

New peer groups, rich ideas, dear friends – MC gave them to me in spades!

Rhian-Anwen Hamill

With an engaging, flexible and outcome focused style, Rhian operates to high standards, levels of integrity and values. An advisor to owners and an executive coach, Rhian works with organisations and owners to prepare and develop family members, leadership teams, boards, and individual senior professionals.