http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/ The latest Blog feeds from www.fireflycoaching.nz en-us Fri, 19 Jun 2026 20:36:51 +1200 Rocketspark http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/post/166358/from-surviving-to-thriving-what-career-wellbeing-looks-like/ "So how's work?", your friend asks. "Good", you say, "really good". But as you walk away from your coffee date, you're wondering if that was really accurate.It's Wednesday afternoon, and the day's been OK. You've attended a couple of meetings, you've checked and replied to lots of emails, you've got tasks in your calendar that you've been working on.  Which is fine, right? You've been productive, and you're productive like this most days. But you also have a nagging feeling that it's n... Mon, 15 Jun 2026 13:23:41 +1200 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/#post166358 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/post/166009/why-public-sector-people-are-my-people/ Most coaches will work with any client. In this blog post, I'm going out on a limb! I've made a deliberate choice to specialise. As well as having a particular interest with solving work-related challenges, I specifically love helping people who work in the public sector, especially women.I’ve worked in different parts of the New Zealand public sector over 20 years – four Government departments, three universities, and two Crown entities… which means that working in the public sector is w... Mon, 08 Jun 2026 14:30:21 +1200 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/#post166009 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/post/165535/recalibrating-work-the-most-helpful-books-ive-read-this-year/ Whether we like it or not, work keeps changing. Whether it's the tasks we have to complete in our role, or the different aspects of our work environment. Or it might even be us that's changed - maybe we had a child or got them off to school, or we decided to study again to enter a new profession, or our work now has to fit with caring for a mum or dad who's not doing so great.And as long as work, our work environment and we keep changing, we have to keep adjusting and reinventing ourselves, and ... Thu, 28 May 2026 10:20:39 +1200 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/#post165535 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/post/165295/self-confidence-at-work-quiet-your-chatter-and-push-off-from-hard-moments/ Let me share with you, if I may, a blow-by-blow account of the highs and lows of my self-confidence at work last week. I could probably draw it as a graph. It would look like a rollercoaster.Monday, blessedly, went without a hitch. The rollercoaster started on Tuesday. I happily embarked on my usual start-of-the-day admin stack. (I was feeling good. I'd had a great sleep and the before-school routine was fight-free.) Email - fine. Calendar - all still do-able. Website inbox - no replies needed. ... Fri, 22 May 2026 13:25:42 +1200 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/#post165295 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/post/164534/what-does-job-satisfaction-mean-to-you/ Job satisfaction is not something I've written about here on this blog yet. Which is kind of remiss of me - it's at the heart of why I started this little coaching business.Job satisfaction has a lot of different facets to it. Feeling you did well in the work tasks you filled your day with. That your work was for something or someone - a cause, perhaps - beyond yourself. That your job enables you to work in line with your identity. It could simply be that it enables you to earn enough to cover y... Thu, 14 May 2026 09:38:22 +1200 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/#post164534 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/post/164196/walking-in-nature-to-reduce-your-work-stress-and-boost-your-thinking/ I have always walked - as an adult, anyway. I live in Wellington, New Zealand, which may not seem an ideal walking location. It is as hilly as it is windy. But I walk almost every day, even multiple times some days. I do express walks at lunchtime to clear brain fog after hours of staring at a monitor. I walk to the school gate for the afternoon pick-up. I walk with friends on weekend mornings for exercise and a good, solid chat.I mostly walk through built environments, on asphalted footpaths, p... Tue, 05 May 2026 13:55:20 +1200 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/#post164196 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/post/163890/the-importance-of-making-progress-at-work/ I really hate behavioural event interviewing. That's when an interviewer asks, "Tell us about a time you encountered conflict at work…" or something like that. They can be so hard to answer well. At one interview a few years back, I was asked, "Tell us about a time a roadblock appeared in the way of your project. How did you get past it to get to project completion?" Ugh, what a question. And, ugh, roadblocks.I am someone who is strongly driven to finish things. In one work personality test I ... Tue, 28 Apr 2026 15:44:03 +1200 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/#post163890 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/post/163454/symptoms-of-burnout-what-you-need-to-know/ A couple of weeks ago, a friend told me she was exhausted and completely burnt out. I wasn't surprised – between a busy job and everything else on top, she's juggling a huge amount. But I was a bit worried. Burnout in its most serious form can stop you in your tracks – and it feels as if lots of highly capable people are falling prey to burnout these days. So, I thought I'd devote this week's post to burnout, what it is, why it's a big deal, burnout symptoms to look for and how to respo... Wed, 15 Apr 2026 11:15:25 +1200 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/#post163454 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/post/163176/working-with-your-wiring/ Last week, a friend and I were exchanging WhatsApps about my recent long weekend holiday away. I had sent 10 or 11 shots of one of the most beautiful parts of the country: trails through virgin New Zealand bush, the jewel-like clarity and sparkle of the water in a natural spring, a vast expanse of dune and sea at a picturesque beach. And all of that was stunning.Then I sent a picture taken on the deck on a sunny morning, with my green tea on a table in front of me, and a view of the sea in the d... Tue, 07 Apr 2026 12:26:03 +1200 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/#post163176 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/post/162610/its-the-little-things/ Do you have little things you do as part of your work day that help it to go more smoothly? Or at least feel better? Things that inject a little bit of who you are, what you like, that help you to be your best self? You could call them rituals. When I hear the word ritual, the first thing that comes to mind is someone lighting a candle before they do yoga. Or the ‘Ding!’ of a bell at the end of a meditation.I’m sure those things are rituals, but they’re not really the type of ritual... Fri, 27 Mar 2026 16:28:45 +1300 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/#post162610