Birthday Blog
Something to Celebrate “60% of new businesses go-under within three years, and 20% close their doors within just 12 months,” according to 2019 figures in the Telegraph. Today I’m delighted then to be celebrating Nikki Alderson Coaching's 3rd year in business, seeing a...
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How to be a barrister and parent and succeed at both
Link to my latest article for Counsel Magazine which caused something of a Twitter-storm! https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/how-to-be-a-barrister-and-parent-and-succeed-at-both
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How to say “No” but keep the opportunities flowing
Link to latest guest blog, this time for Counsel Magazine, around saying "no" whilst keeping opportunities flowing. https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/how-to-say-no-but-keep-the-opportunities-flowing
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Working Parent Lawyers’ Summer Survival Guide
School's Out for Summer As the countdown to “school’s out” starts in earnest, are you ready for the impending onslaught of routine and pace change? The start of July is the month where suddenly reality bites around the internal conflict of wanting to spend time with...
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Women in Transition: Guest Blog for Oxford Women in Law
Women in Transition: Deciding to Decide, Stepping Up & Your First 100 Days and Beyond Link to my latest blog for the Oxford University Alumna Women in Law – Women in Transition: Deciding to Decide, Stepping Up & Your First 100 Days and Beyond...
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Imposter Syndrome: Delivering the knock-out blows
Imposter Syndrome: A common theme Over the time that I have been coaching female lawyers, recurring themes are coming up for clients around their challenges at work. Confidence issues around a return to work after maternity leave or going for a promotion or judicial...
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Why Female Barristers are Leaving the Profession
Difficulty of balancing work and family life forces out growing numbers mid-career. Nikki Alderson decided to set up a coaching business focused on helping female lawyers achieve their potential. "The hours are punishing and unpredictable, often late into and...
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Do-s and Don’t-s for Career Break Return Women Lawyers: Guest Blog for Oxford Women in Law
Do-s and Don't-s for Career Break Return Women Lawyers Here is the link to my latest blog on behalf of Oxford Women in Law (OWL), founded in 2014 as a network for Oxford Law Alumni of all genders. It covers the do-s and don't-s of career break returners in law and...
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How returning to work typically affects child sleep: Guest Blog with Little Sleep Stars
How returning to work typically affects child sleep Latest Blog post in conjunction with Little Sleep Stars on the challenges of and solutions to a return to work after maternity leave....
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Solving the Retention Crisis for Women in Law: The Profession’s rude awakening after a half century sleep walk
International Women’s Day, March 8th 2019 There is much to celebrate today, International Women’s Day 2019, reflecting on the last 100 years of women in law. I was at the Temple Women’s Forum last week, doing precisely that, with the likes of Baroness Helena Kennedy...
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Mental Toughness: A Choice We Make – Guest Blog for Truth Legal
Mental Toughness: A Choice We Make Follow the link below to my latest guest blog for Truth Legal on Mental Toughness https://www.truthlegal.com/mental-toughness-a-choice-we-make/
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Women in Law: Rising to the Challenges
Link to article for The Criminal Bar Association Criminal Bar Quarterly - see from p.28 onwards. https://www.criminalbar.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/CBA_Winter_2018.pdf
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Wellbeing at Work: What’s your Strategy?
Barristers in the grip of a mental health crisis According to an article in The Guardian (6.5.18), Barristers in England and Wales are “in the grip of a mental health crisis”. A survey for The Bar Council reveal that nearly half of participating counsel said they...
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Making a Career in Law work: Priorities & Planning
Link to most recent blog for The Law Society https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/news/blog/making-a-career-in-law-work-priorities-and-planning/
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Former death row lawyer aims to help women achieve their goals: Yorkshire Post, 12th Nov. 18
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business/meet-the-former-death-row-lawyer-who-aims-to-help-women-achieve-their-goals-1-9440065
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Confidence Breeds Confidence: Guest blog for GPS Return, 1st May 2018
As a Corporate and Executive Coach specialising in coaching lawyers, I note with interest how clients’ words and tone on occasion betray an under- confidence not immediately associated with the profession.
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You are Worth It!! Guest blog for GPS Return, 6th March 2018
https://www.gpsreturn.co.uk/tips/worthit
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Stop Saying Yes, Start Saying No: Guest Blog for The Law Society, 10th July 2018
https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/news/blog/stop-saying-yes-start-saying-no/
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Clarity, Connection and Confidence: Coaching Tips to Inspire and Get Results
I spoke recently at the Leeds Launch event of Women in the Law UK. The theme was Clarity, Connection and Confidence. Delegates, particularly those at a career crossroads or “deciding to decide” on promotion, said they found it an inspiring piece, Here then, a summary...
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Coaching or Mentoring: Which is right for you?
Coaching and Mentoring: An established need for Women to support other Women I have recently delivered coaching workshops to several membership groups for female lawyers. Notably, the Women in Criminal Law and Women in the Law UK groups have, as part of their...
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Choosing Positive over Negative: Making a Conscious Choice
Unconscious Bias An American Business School Case Study undertaken in the Noughties examined perceptions of men and women in the workplace. An identical (and truthful) story about a successful venture capitalist was told to the students with only one detail changed to...
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The Digital Age: A Help or Hindrance to our ability to “Own” Time?
There can be no argument that the digital age has made the world a smaller and more accessible place, and that opportunities, in particular for women, to work flexibly within the work place have improved immeasurably with the rise in remote working and the so called...
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First Year Reflections: Acorns, Oak Trees & Icebergs- 10 Top Tips to Get Your Business Started
A year ago to the day, on 14 August 2017, Nikki Alderson Coaching launched. And what a year it’s been. A year in which I’ve had opportunity to grow, both as a woman in business and personally. Reflecting on the gains and areas of stretch that I have experienced, here...
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Making a Career in Law Work: Getting your priorities right and action planning
A Legal Career: Where are YOU headed? As a former criminal barrister, practising at Broadway House Chambers for the best part of 20 years, and dealing with heavy weight Rape and Sexual Offences cases, I have direct experience of managing the competing interests of the...
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Positive Mind, Positive Outcomes
Helpful Habits & Behaviour? Have you ever examined whether the habits and behaviour you have formed over time actually help or hinder in getting to where you want to be? If you consider how you might adopt a different approach, how might that also effect a...
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Improved Wellness at Work: Tips for a happier life in law
"Busy-ness" I recall one morning, on one of the last occasions I was enjoying the usual robing room banter with Bar colleagues waiting for my case to be called on at Bradford Crown court, overhearing countless lawyers greeting one another. It caused me...
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Increasing Work Place Performance and Assertiveness: Mastering the Art of Saying “No”
Saying "Yes" to prove a point As a former criminal barrister, practising at Broadway House Chambers for the best part of 20 years, I am all too familiar with the expectations of a profession which can lead lawyers to say "yes" to work undertakings simply to tow the...
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Busy 24/7 Lives
2 24/7 Living Listening to the Radio today the Arcade Fire song “Everything Now” stopped me in my tracks. How many of us are wrapped up in this pressure-laden world of clients needing “everything now”, where we’re on call 24/7 because we’re accessible to them, and the...
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Coaching Female Lawyers: Women Being Women
Old School Senior Female Lawyer Role Models International Women’s Day has doubtless caused many a working woman to reflect on their experiences to date. As a senior Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Prosecution Barrister, I experienced nearly 20 years of life as a...
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The Beast from the East…Tamed : Turning challenging Snow Days into Business as Usual Productivity
Understanding Urgent/ Important As we enter the grip of Day 3 of The Beast from the East, as a working parent, I totally understand the competing emotions of enforced time to reflect, spending time sledging with my nearest and dearest, and the nagging thoughts of what...
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Barrister to Corporate and Executive Coach: Calling Time at the Bar
Criminal Barrister Background I have 19 years experience as a Criminal Barrister practising in Yorkshire, working from Broadway House Chambers, Bradford/ Leeds. From the outset, I had no hesitation in developing my practice in an unconventional way, with a...
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Your USP is You: Knowing your own worth and how to get it
You’re Worth It! Gender Pay Gap As a 40+ year old woman, having taken extended maternity leave and experienced the perceived “negative impact” on career progression and income, I wasn’t surprised to learn the gender pay gap in UK for women in their 40s is around 25%...
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Sea Change
Changing and Learning During the two and a half years that I have been on extended maternity leave I have been learning so much about little people, and indeed myself. The unconditional ease with which you prioritise, as though your life depends on it, another human...
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24/7 Businesses: Finding Focus from Fog
Everything Now Listening to the Radio today the Arcade Fire song “Everything Now” stopped me in my tracks. How many of us are wrapped up in this pressure-laden world of clients needing “everything now”, where we’re on call 24/7 because we’re accessible to them, and...
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The GROW Coaching Model: Goals; Reality; Options; Will/ Way Forward
Golden Acre Park, Leeds Crunching through the reddy-brown autumn leaves in Yorkshire’s Golden Acre Park today whilst my youngest delightedly scooted through muddy puddles, we came across a freshly dug mole hill. To him, it was huge, and an opportunity to scramble up...
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Life isn’t about waiting for the winds to change; it’s learning to adjust your sails
3 Helpful Hints to safely navigate significant change & new challenges in business Planning is key 1.A goal without a plan is just a wish - Antoine de Saint Exupery I started my coaching business whilst a full time mum working in the nooks and crannies of time. In...
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Business Coaching: An introduction, and the benefits
Coaching defined A conversation between 2 people during which the Coach assists the Coachee move from where they currently are to where they want to be, more quickly and effectively than if they had acted alone, thereby supporting the Coachees achievement of...
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From Barrister to Business Coach: A “Koru” Case Study of Personal Growth
Yorkshire Barrister with Global Credentials Hailing from Sheffield, reading law at Balliol College, Oxford, and completing Bar Finals at the Inns of Court School of Law, London, naturally developed in me a strong work ethic. A Criminal Barrister in Yorkshire for...
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