Beauty in everything…

I mentioned our garden last week – it’s not much of a garden but it does have some truly beautiful features. It strikes me that, even in the messiest wilderness, there is something of value.

It’s all too easy to dismiss a project or a person because the good or the beautiful isn’t immediately obvious, however, beauty can always be found. Many would even favour the messy wilderness, the unkempt array of plants and weeds that looks more like a roadside grass verge than a loved and tended garden. You’ll find beauty in there if you look.

Our acers, lilies, hydrangeas and potentilla hide among the domineering St John’s Wort, straggly lavender and mad campanula but they are there, quietly asserting themselves and showing that they have something to offer too. Not unlike the reserved thinker in the room who observes, listens and quietly brings to light something important to a project, causing all heads to turn. Yes, she said that and deserves your attention!

As a coach, I hear wonderfully talented clients talk about how invisible they feel because they don’t have the loudest voice in the room, they don’t shoot from the hip or speak for the sake of it. They’re the listeners, the quiet ones, the considered ones, who find it hard when their fellow Board members are outgoing, gregarious and loud, who feel that this is what the CEO values.

Even these accomplished senior people experience such feelings of inadequacy or not belonging and can benefit enormously from coaching. If this resonates with you, let’s have a chat. You can be a beautiful flower without being the loudest.