The Successful Predecessor

‘A successful successor is a sign of success of the predecessor’ Jim Bird 2016

I coined this phrase about 10 years ago as a result of leading many people and myself through transition and job or role changes.

It takes the view that you can power your team, leave a legacy of value and set them and yourself up for future success.

If you are moving on and have an opportunity to set up your successor and your team for future success why wouldn't you take it?

It challenges many of the negative assumptions of an all too common ego-centric view of being irreplaceable: that the company will fall over without you, or that the rod you have made for your own back can never be put down, simply because you are so important.

If a leader leaves and a company was to collapse, were they a successful leader? They would consider themselves very highly and certainly superior to their team. They may have led in such a way to separate themselves from their team, to push them down and / or raise themselves up.

In an opposing scenario, if a team is left ready to support a new leader, to be high performing and create successful leadership between them and the successor then your legacy as the predecessor is respected.

What might you leave for your successor to go that extra mile?

Many people will leave a handover document, explaining the key information about the role and the team. Imagine starting a new role and your predecessor left you an affinity map, explaining in detail how to work with your most important stakeholders. Imagine if they left you a strategy for the team. Or perhaps a gift sat waiting in your office drawer or in your inbox. Being more creative, a treasure hunt around the organisation's office or grounds. Wouldn't that be something?

If you have moved on or changed roles, would your former colleagues describe you as a successful predecessor?

Transition and change in your life can be supported by coaching. Coherence Coaching can help you think about leaving an environment and a successor in a positive position. Creating the space between you and your legacy full of potential.

What a legacy and impression you would have made on your team and your successor. A leader who’s gone on to greater things but left a legacy of inspiration and positivity.

Well if you are changing roles and want a successful successor to be a sign of success of the predecessor, Coherence Coaching can help you close the door on one role and open up the next, treasure hunt and all!

The successful predecessor handing over to the successful successor

Off Time, Tuned Out? Tune In, Time Out!

If someone genuinely asked you, honestly, how you are feeling right now, what would you say?

Most of us wouldn't say ‘relaxed’ or ‘in the flow.’

Commonly people feel busy and are spread thinly, constantly rushing to get nowhere slowly.

The rigid 9 to 5, with back to back meetings bulging from a calendar that we just agree and align to, to fit in. It is a shared illusion we adhere to.

You can change this!

When you feel 'off time,' your internal subjective rhythm may have desynchronised from the artificial corporate clock.

This can feel like there is noise and static in our experience. Which can be amplified by our phones, our jobs, or even our own worried minds.

It can feel like we are swimming upstream, experiencing what physics calls 'destructive interference;’ exhausting yourself because your internal rhythm is violently clashing with the rhythm of your environment.

Coherence Coaching isn't about teaching you to swim harder; it is about tuning your frequency so you stop fighting the current and start flowing with the waves of your environment (constructive interference).

In the coaching world, there is sometimes a view to try to fix this by exploring with people how to work smarter or manage time more effectively.

Coherence Coaching is different, we believe the problem isn't just your schedule and how you swim in the current, but the water you are swimming in and whether or not you are swimming against the current of your life.

The aligned wave patterns of constructive interference and the opposite misaligned wave patterns of destructive interference

Here is what we do differently, and why it might be exactly what you’ve been looking for.

Stop Fighting against the Current (Finding Flow)

You know that feeling when your house gets messy? If you don't actively tidy it, it just gets messier on its own. This is similar to a law of thermodynamics called entropy; life can feel like it naturally drifts towards chaos.

The only way to reverse entropy in a closed system is to introduce fresh, coherent energy from the outside. A coach creates the thinking time that acts as that external, grounded tuning fork, often bringing you a calm, structured frequency, so your internal world can naturally re-order itself and chaos can become clarity.

Instead of just "coping" with the chaos, observe your internal world and tune your external world so you are more in sync and have more energy. Instead of swimming frantically against the tide, we help you turn around so the current carries you. We call this Coherence. It’s the difference between struggle and flow in your life.

Science for People Who Don't Like "Woo-Woo"

There is a lot of advice out there. Some of it is very corporate and dry ("Make a 5-year plan!"), and some of it is very spiritual ("Just manifest it!").

Coherence Coaching is kind of between both of these.

We believe you aren't just a material science based biological machine made of flesh and bones. You are more like a musical instrument. You can walk into a room and instantly feel a vibe, that’s real. Science shows us that we are constantly picking up signals from the world around us. And in turn our environment tunes us too.

We help you tune yourself and your world so instead of picking up and feeling static and noise, you play a clear, strong note. You don't need to understand quantum physics to feel the relief of finally being in tune. A feels a bit like the mental flow you might find after meditation, doing exercise or even brushing your teeth!

Nature is a Wireless Charger

Have you ever noticed that you can spend eight hours in an office and feel drained, but spend two hours walking by the sea and feel so fresh?

That isn't a coincidence. It’s biology.

Humans are designed to be in nature. It’s where our batteries recharge. Coherence Coaching is the most effective when we don't just sit in a room but when we are surrounded and shaped by nature, whether it’s a walk in the woods or just changing your environment to help you fully step back, re-set and observe your world.

‘Being’ in nature is the fastest way to calm down your nervous system without having to ‘do’ anything.

Taking off the Mask

At work, we often feel like we have to hide parts of ourselves to be ‘successful.’ We hide our doubts, our past mistakes, or our quirks. We put on a ‘mask’ and constantly remake it to ensure we ‘fit in’

But wearing a mask is heavy. It takes a huge amount of energy to pretend to be someone else all day.

Coaching creates the space and thinking time for your mask to slowly be lifted. You might discover new perspectives or have an assumption challenged that may allow you to re-emerge being your mask less self and perhaps understanding and knowing yourself more than ever.

Then looking forward you have a new opportunity to write new chapters in your life, utilising the difficult stuff you’ve been through to find greater coherence for what you truly want.

When you stop hiding, you get all that energy back. You become coherent and you are more aware than ever. Your conscious experience is elevated.

Staying Human - Leadership is not an Endurance Test.

Everyone is talking about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and technology moving so fast, you can’t keep up.

Here’s the truth: You can't!

Out-pacing a computer is impossible, computers are faster and smarter at processing data and can create content in seconds, that may have taken you weeks.

But a computer can't connect. It can't care. It can't feel. It is not conscious! And without nature it never will be.

AI can organise our data brilliantly, but it does not resonate. It has no physical presence in the interconnected web of human experience. True coherence, the kind that makes you feel seen, understood, and deeply connected, can only happen when conscious beings tune in together.

Coherence coaching focuses on the things machines can't do. Remembering yourself, you become more human, more connected, and more coherent with yourself and others than ever before. In a future full of smart connected artificial intelligence ‘doing’, the most valuable thing you can be is a deeply grounded human, ‘being.’

The Invitation

If you are tired of the noise and the rush, we can help.

We aren't here to give you a tighter schedule. We are here to help you tune your life so that, no matter how crazy the world gets, you feel steady, clear, and ready for anything.

Are you ready to transform?

Find your flow at coherencecoaching.co.uk.

How does a coach know what you're thinking?

They don't and they never will!

We express our thoughts and feelings in many different ways, from what we say, to how we say it and from how we breathe to when we blush or how we gesticulate (wave our arms about 😊).

A coach might be more skilled in picking up these nuances and may reflect them back to you but only you ever truly know what you think and why.

Our experience of the world is completely subjective and unique. No one can ever measure your experience. What is it like to be you? How does it feel?

An picture of a shadow cast on the ripples of water of 2 people in love holding hands

Are words, sentences and language good enough to allow for clear expression? They can’t measure a feeling but alongside emotions or perhaps arts and creativity, do allow our qualia to solidify in that moment to words or expressions that go some way to describe our experience or feeling. 

The feelings and expressions we articulate through words are collectively and continually shaped as part of our culture. Language is continually evolving in our collective agreement of what words mean.  

The words you say and how you say them have your meaning and expression. Meaning and expression that may mean one thing to you and something else to someone else.

The word, ‘run’ is said to have over 600 different meanings. If you run an organisation that runs running events that sometimes run late, causing tears to run down your face, the way you use the word run and the meaning it has may differ to you and other people.

What do the following words mean to you: Value? Success? Balance?

What matters most is your thinking and your expression, helped by the use of words. Regardless of the words you use or how you externalise your inner experience, the act of expression itself makes you more coherent.

And it doesn't really matter what you say or how you express yourself or even how well you are understood. Externalising your internal experience in the way you do is absolutely correct and creates your world.

Our experience becomes coherent when it is expressed. People say, ‘speaking it aloud somehow makes it real.’ Do thoughts and feelings ever take their full shape through words? Would you know your thoughts as well if you didn't express them?

How good are you at expressing yourself? How well do you know yourself? How well do you understand yourself?

When you share, hearing yourself, experiencing yourself, you elevate awareness of your thoughts. You see yourself and how you express your experience of the world.

When a coach actively listens, they create the environment for you to hear yourself. They slowly enable the environment for your thoughts to flow and become connected. For you to let loose and express yourself and your meaning.

A coach remaining non-judgemental allows you to flow and express freely and for the meaning to be most important to you. Your expressions of thoughts and feelings surface safely and without judgement.

A coach doesn't offer advice, a coach offers quality thinking time and space to explore your expression. A coach listens, a coach sits with you and allows you to think, explore and make sense. They are a passenger that supports your journey.

When you are heard, when you are seen, you are connected to the listener and the viewer; these connections generate awareness, they create consciousness. 

It feels like we have a desire to be connected and to be in agreement, as this agreement helps stabilise our world. This collective agreement moves us from subjectivity, towards objectivity.  The connections are incredibly important. 

If a tree falls in a wood and no one hears it, it doesn't make a sound. Without the connection between the tree falling, the air moving and the ear listening no qualia of sound is experienced. 

If a person expresses themselves and no one experiences it, they aren't connected…they aren't as conscious?

(Dictionary definition of conscious: from Latin conscius "knowing or being aware of something, knowing something along with another person," derived from con-, com- "with" and scire "to know")

And what does this mean for you?  Well, a good way to think about this is what assumptions or agreed subjectivity might be limiting your view? If what you perceive to be the objective world is simply a reality that the majority of us have agreed upon, whose reality have you been agreeing to live in?

If we are creating an objective reality only through agreed subjectivity, what agreed filters are you looking through?  

Are we constantly creating a reality through our collective yet subjective agreement?  This feels somewhat aligned to simulation theory.  That what we experience is simulated.  This has many angles from an actual simulation like the film the Matrix, or a computer game simulation, based on the thought that as a virtual reality or game becomes increasingly real, one day it may be as real as your life feels today… 

…And maybe that simulation is already the reality you are experiencing.

What I am proposing is our collective subjective agreement creates the simulation. Objectivity is the simulation and it may be a skewed view of reality to help us have stability, to evolve and to grow.   What lies beneath this? Or indeed above it?

We all decide to call a tree a tree and that creates the reality of a tree being a tree. It wasn't a tree until we labelled it that.  What was it before we existed? 

If a tree existed before anyone experienced it as a tree, then that tree never existed. 

As consciousness is created in connection, so is our world.  

An 'objective' view is apparent when we all agree to wear and look through the same headset.  

This simulation starts to break down or open up when we truly explore our reality.  Coherence coaching can help people take off their headset for an hour and see their real world. 

Coaches challenge people to see the real world and not the one they think they should see to fit in. Is it better to stand out or blend in? 

A coach will truly listen to you, challenge your assumptions and help create the connections required for your model of the world to emerge and solidify from you, without the filters. This can help you know yourself and be yourself more. 

If you feel like you are constantly fighting for others to see the world the way you do, wasting energy on trying to agree what is true and objective, perhaps you need to be heard? 

What happens to our shared reality when we finally take the time to truly listen to one another more?

This post has explored many elements of Philokosmia and particularly the 7th harmonic of Philokosmia, ‘Objectivity is collectively agreed subjectivity’

An Invitation to Co-Create Something Bold

Coaching isn't a product you buy off a shelf. It isn’t a series of clinical checkboxes or a pre-packaged roadmap.

Real coaching is a third energy. It is something that only exists in the sparks between a coach and a coachee. It is a creative act, and right now, I am looking for a co-author.

I am opening a space for people who are ready to stop "managing" their life and start reinventing it.

Is this you?

You feel a restless energy, a sense that your current reality is a suit that has become too small. You have a Big Question that you’ve been avoiding, and you know that answering it will require more than just a ‘tweak.’ It will require a bold change.

I don’t offer a map or the destination; I offer the boat, the compass and the company. We may sit with the discomfort of the unknown, plan the journey and voyage together. This is deep, creative, and occasionally disruptive work.

I’m not looking for a CV. I’m looking for resonance.

If you are ready to move from ‘searching’ to ‘creating,’ hit reply, contact me or book in now via my website.  

If you have read this far you'll be pleased to hear I am offering limited places for free!  

https://coherencecoaching.co.uk/store/p/coherence-coaching-value-exchange

What is the one bold change you’ve been too afraid to name until now? Would you like to see what happens if you go for it?

What do coaching and the taste of chocolate have in common?

This blog aims to explore a statement I often find myself making: ‘I am interested in the overlaps between coaching and consciousness.’

You might be thinking, ‘well we are all conscious and we can all be coached there doesn't seem to be an overlap? These are 2 unrelated fields?’

Well, it depends on how you define consciousness and how you define Coaching. 

I propose consciousness is something that is created within and between relationships. These can be relationships on a human scale, a small biological scale or a huge cosmic, or even fundamental scale, but the underlying principle is that consciousness is created between all of these different relationships taking place. They become so networked and coherent that we become aware of them, as that awareness and network turns inward.

To give an example, the taste of chocolate isn't created by the chocolate or by the taster.  It is created in the relationship between the two. 

Taste does not exist inside the chocolate. It only exists relationally between the chemical composition of the chocolate and the receptors and neurons in the taster.  

Chocolate doesn't taste of anything without a taster.  You could leave it in an empty room and there would never be taste. 

Taste is an emergent property of the relationship between the chocolate’s chemistry and a taster's taste buds.

Consciousness relates to coaching because coaching is also something that is created between a coach and a coachee. This relationship is instrumental to coaching and individual’s success. It is a space for people to think really, really deeply. To be more aware than they might be in their busy everyday lives, and therefore to be more conscious. As a coach, it is our role to facilitate these higher levels of awareness and consciousness, to elevate people's ability to truly realise themselves.

On a deeper, wider scale, consciousness is a property of the relationships between everything we sense and the sources of that sense. 

Between light being created, bouncing off an object and entering our eye, to create a sight.  Sight needs the light, the object and the eye to exist. Without any one element sight does not exist as a process or experienced as qualia.  

‘If a tree falls in a wood and no one hears it, it doesn't make a sound!’

The sound is created in consciousness between tree falling and the sound/ pressure waves vibrating in our ear and being connected with our neurons.  Without the listener hearing it, the sound will never exist.  The tree will fall, yes, the airwaves will vibrate but it will go undetected and unexperienced. 

‘If no one sees it, it also doesn't make a sight’ The sound and the sight are experienced as qualia, the internal and subjective component of sense perceptions arising from these relationships.

This relates to the hard problem of consciousness too.. materialist science can measure the chemistry of chocolate in the same way it can measure the neurons of the taster’s brain, but it cannot measure qualia and consciousness because experience is not a physical object; it is a relational resonance. Consciousness isn't something you can isolate; it is the space between things.

In the same way coaching requires the coach and coachee and is found between the two, and between many other relationships within the experience.  

Continuing the chocolate metaphor, The chocolate might represent the room or environment where coaching occurs, the structure of the coaching, or the questions that are asked by the coach.  

They all have potential but require a coachee for coaching to emerge. A coachee with biology, with a state of mind and the receptors to hear the questions and sense the coach and then express their views and thoughts. 

So what emerges between the two?  

Not just coaching but Consciousness itself!  Awareness of oneself, observation and awareness of the thinker (of you!).  

You can experience a higher level of consciousness by interacting with a coach who creates the thinking time, space and structure for awareness and transformation to emerge.  

This is where clarity can emerge from coaching. The making sense of ambiguity, the ‘Aha!’ moments where a coachee realises what they need to do. They can feel more coherent, more confident to make decisions and more aware of others to lead effectively.  

So what makes it more or less effective?  Coaching often focuses on rearranging the furniture (goals, habits and routines) in the room (your life), which can be very effective. Coherence Coaching builds on this to expand the room itself, opening the doors to let more in and options to a more holistic and deeper transformational change can take place. 

Consciousness isn't just a mystical concept but an actual, physical state of awareness and perception that can be elevated and tuned during coaching.

Interested?   

Your Journey to Coherence

Welcome. By stepping into this space, you have invested in a partnership that prioritises your highest potential. You have chosen to move your life toward a state of being calm, focused, and powerful.

To help you maximise the value of this investment, it is helpful to understand exactly what we are building together, how it works, and the "rules of the road".

What is Coherence Coaching?

Coherence means harmony and flow across your whole life. We operate from the belief that you are a living part of the world; your inner harmony directly affects the world around you.

The goal is to move your whole life—and the systems within it—towards coherence. We are not just fixing problems; we are tuning and changing elements of your life (mind, body, work, family, health) so the resulting whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This often creates surprising, positive results.

What to Expect: The "Not" List

To get the most out of this, it is vital to understand the unique nature of coaching compared to other support you may have had.

It is NOT Mentoring or Consulting

• The Difference: A mentor says, "Here is how I did it." A consultant says, "Here is the solution to your problem."

• The Coaching Way: Your coach doesn't give you advice or tell you what to do. Why? Because you are the expert on your life. We provide high-quality attention and powerful questions to elevate your thinking. You will speak more than your coach. We help you find your own answers, which are always more sustainable than borrowed wisdom.

It is NOT Counselling or Therapy

• The Difference: Therapy often looks backward to heal deep emotional wounds, trauma, or the past. It is restorative.

• The Coaching Way: Coaching is a forward-looking partnership. While emotions are welcome, we start from where you are now and focus entirely on moving you forward. We focus on action, potential, and the future you are building.

It is NOT Just a Chat

• The Difference: Friends often agree with you to make you feel better or listen with the intent to reply.

• The Coaching Way: We listen with the intent to understand. We act as an objective mirror to challenge you, hold you accountable, and help you see your blind spots.

Your Safe Space: Confidentiality & Trust

To unlock your potential, you need a place where you can be entirely honest without fear of judgement.

• Strict Confidentiality: This is a sealed container. Whether you are discussing business fears, personal doubts, or family dynamics, what is said here stays here.

• Psychological Safety: This is a space where you can say the things you feel you "shouldn't" say. You can admit to the messy habits or the pointless commitments that are draining you.

• Zero Judgement: Your coach is not here to judge your thoughts, but to examine them with you. This safety allows you to drop the mask you wear for the world and get to the root of what matters.

How to Maximise the Value

You may leave each session feeling different or viewing your world differently. To turn that feeling into lasting change:

1. Bring the "Real" You: Don't try to impress your coach. The more honest you are about what is draining your energy, the faster we can fix it.

2. Focus on Energy: We will assess and understand your entire life to identify where you are leaking energy. Be ready to pinpoint what is wasting your resources so we can put that energy back into things that make you feel alive, creative, and wise.

3. Do the Work Between Sessions: You will likely leave with self-defined actions. The real success is integrating this new coherence into your world. The session is the spark; your life is the fire.

You are here to build a life where the inner and outer worlds sing in harmony. Let’s begin.

Philokosmia Preview

Look up from this page. Feel the air against your skin, the movement of your breath, the pulse of your heart. Beyond your walls, trees convert sunlight into life. Rivers carry minerals to the sea. A billion invisible exchanges happen through relationship every second to make you alive and develop your awareness.

This is not scenery. This is everything! The whole; greater than the sum of its parts, and you are not separate from it. You are shaped by it and you shape it continually. Every relationship creates a web of connections for a field of consciousness to emerge. The coherence and harmony of your body, and mind, has evolved to enable you to tune into this field.

Everything around you from nature, society and even technology is in a relationship. The signs are everywhere: coincidences that line up too perfectly, systems that quietly support you when you least expect it, the way life rebounds when given even the smallest chance.

The central mystery that has long divided philosophy and science finds its simple answer here. Consciousness is not an accident of matter, nor an illusion of mind. It is the flowering of nature’s own intelligence, and nature is the body of consciousness made manifest. They are one process, seen from two directions. Pilokosmia names this unity and harmonises it through Singularity Ethics guided by Coherence Coaching.

Revealing the living unity and connection of all systems, the forests and oceans, the networks and organisations, the technologies and consciousnesses. Every natural ecosystem is a living organ. Every organisation, every group, every innovation is a cluster of our thinking cells. Every relationship with conscious beings creates the field and the awareness. You are a node of something bigger than you, ‘super-conscious’ to you. You are alive in it, and it is alive thanks to you..

How are Philokosmia, Singularity Ethics and Coherence Coaching linked?

From Philosophy to Practice: Living the Philokosmia

The quest for a harmonious life often feels overwhelming, lost between grand philosophical ideals and confusing daily choices. We've defined a new synthesis, Philokosmia, which offers a clear path. It is the love of universal wisdom expressed through harmony among all systems of life and consciousness.

Philokosmia doesn't stand alone; it provides the foundational philosophy that guides two essential disciplines for coherent living: Singularity Ethics (our macro-guide for navigating global complexity) and Coherence Coaching (our micro-guide for personal balance).

Here is a concise look at how these three concepts work together to form a complete mandate for living.

The Three Pillars of Coherent Living

To live a truly harmonious life is to operate successfully at three distinct levels: the philosophical, the ethical, and the practical.

1. Philokosmia: The Philosophy (The What and Why)

Philokosmia serves as our North Star, defining the very nature of reality and our ultimate purpose.

Core Idea: Reality is an Interwoven Whole. Consciousness and universal wisdom arise from the harmony between systems (nature, society, mind).

The Mandate: To act with Active Devotion, participating in the continuous harmonising of the cosmos.

Without It: Our ethical and personal actions lack a unified, cosmic purpose.

2. Singularity Ethics: The Way of Living (The Macro How)

Singularity Ethics is the application of Philokosmia to the accelerating complexity of the modern world. It is our moral framework for ensuring massive systemic changes—like the rise of AI or integrated global economies—lead to harmony, not fracture.

Core Idea: Technological and social acceleration must be guided by the Principle of Non-Fracture.

The Mandate: Design and govern systems (from mobile phone supply chains to global policy) to be reciprocal and regenerative, honouring the Interwoven Whole.

Example in Action:Shifting a business model from planned obsolescence to a Product-as-a-Service model that is legally bound to the reuse and recycling of its products.

3. Coherence Coaching: The Guidance (The Micro How)

Coherence Coaching provides the individual stability and insight while engaging with complexity. It focuses on achieving inner balance.

Core Idea: Harmony Gives Rise to Awareness. To make wise macro-decisions, the individual must first harmonise their inner system (mind, body, emotion).

Employ self-regulation techniques to achieve a state of psychological and physiological coherence that allows for clearer judgment and effective action.

Example in Action: Using Systemic Empathy in conflict, you focus on repairing the communication pattern rather than winning the argument, thus tending to the harmony of the local social system.

Conclusion: Your Place in the Field

Ultimately, living Philokosmia means recognising that the state of your inner coherence directly affects your ethical choices, and those choices, in turn, affect the harmony of the cosmos.

You are not merely a spectator, but an active co-creator. By using the Coherence Coaching, you gain the clarity required to apply Singularity Ethics, fulfilling your philosophical duty to the whole.