Category: Articles

Over the years I’ve found traversing from forensics into corporate, then corporate into having my own business a bit like beauty & the beast. For most of us success can look very different, and it’s the truth of those moments when clients you know you’ve been striving to make a difference, benefit from an outcome that was a long time a longed for opportunity, that maybe you can tick one of those boxes. 

It’s only those moments, when your truely successful that you meet the “beast “ though. While your at the pinnacle of social & economic outcomes because they want what that can give them/ you/us .. it’s as much an event that can occur to turn the tables …as that opposing force you feel when good shows up. We’ve all been there as leaders. 

It’s the distraction trying to draw away from the good outcomes for cultural groups or clients & noticeably turn attention to them as it’s not the cause they are truely there for.

Often in our courses & programs we’re working with supporting & educating, also with our teams and partners.. that is the nature of culture building. We see it so frequently and there’s an old saying that’s floated through time and no matter what our religious intent “ let go let God “ has been translated many times. 

Often we see the hunger, pain, and circumstance of nations, communities and social currencies, and we feel uncomfotabke, driven or helpless. Usually it’s the unthinkable like people taking resources, IP, or trying to be what they have seen, harming with intent …. as greed means they always are not not authentically themselves, but more attaching to the attention they need to themselves or problems not the work itself. 

It easy from the outside looking in to assume we know & jealousy & judgment is a madness through gas lighting and elevation set apart the moths & the fireflies. Countries & people become misjudged or judged. Moths are only drawn to a flame .. fireflies contribute & become part of an ongoing legacy that belongs to outcomes, not individuals. 

As leaders in a changing climate we have to see both for their value as even the moth has value as it creates change that can look bad, but it actually ends up being an incredible opportunity that wouldn’t have been there if the moth hadn’t created a small wind.

The challenges are the moments when 0 to hero happens & the unthinkable happens something incredible & remarkable that elevates your business, people & outcomes ….remember don’t step off the climb, as true leaders of nations emerge at this time.

Stories of success are built upon those moments when trust belief hard work and the real heart not just for the commercial but the social economic outcomes delivers a truely remarkable future for all. Hope is an exchange of vision & dedication. 

Lots of great things are coming for this amazing nation & its people – Nigeria 🇳🇬 70% of its population are below 30 – a fountain of incredible growth and innovation. Take the opportunity to get to know nigeria.

World Women davos World Economic Forum collectively paved a road that was a thought shattering & ground-making not breaking day. 

The World Women Davos Moonshot conference, was nothing short of worldleading. Amidst the packed room stretching beyond capacity, the energy was palpable, and I didn’t leave from 8:15 am to 9:30 pm. A road paved by founder Rupa D. From the Power of Equality Moonshot to Global Media Dialogues, India Equality Moonshot, to the future of AI, and funding womens projects by 2050 and countless more Moonshots aiming for the moon and passing on to the stars, it felt just right. In every seat or space where I stood or spoke, I was enveloped by mutual admiration, care, conversation, and a shared commitment.

It was a transformative experience, a room filled with selfless genuine men and women dedicated to weaving our collective stories and avenues of work. 

From being an avid fan of HON Helen Clark for 30 years to experiencing the incredible supportive network facilitated by Rupa D. and the World Women Foundation, the awards evening highlighted the extraordinary wisdom of HRH Ambassador Reema Bandar A. Saud, Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the United States and a true World Women Hero, leading global diplomacy.

Acknowledgment is due to World Women Hero Nadja Swarovskim Managing Partner at Pegasus Private Capital & Businesswoman, whose commitment and accolades truly stand out. Special mention goes to Rhiannon Martin FIFA Women’s World Cup who graciously touched on women’s need to support each other in collective wisdom . Being in the presence of these women and witnessing their commitment and energy was an inspiration. As Helen Clark stated, facing the daggers at your back is part of the journey, and the mark of success is carried with grace and forthrightness.

What touched me the most was the graciousness of Her Excellency, who extended her love to Rupa Dash’s 11-year-old daughter, the MC for the segment. Her words, “As a princess, it’s right now for me to give accolade to the next generation. To our incredible MC, a princess needs to give deference to a queen.” A day filled with countless memorable moments and a profound reminder that no matter what, we must dare to be the first and navigate through challenges with resilience and courage. What is the one thing that surprises people about you or me will always be how we carry ourselves through challenge to overcome and maintain single focus.

Our Coach’s, Our forgotten Athlete’s

Writer Graziella Thake BA. Psych Ma. Psych NZPS PhD CandidateResearcher, Writer, International Speaker, CEO

Research has shown that the social psychology involved in coaching is multi-dimensional and should be a part of coach development, especially as coaches step more and more into the realm of being recognised educators.

The interesting part is there is a juxtaposition for our coaches as many themselves have been athletes, and that tie to their sport runs deep.

Coaching identity is multi-dimensional but one thing we can confirm is that coaches are often under-represented in the voice of sport, yet that they have strongest, longest lasting voice.

There are many different facets that dictate how, why, and when we enter coaching, but it is clear that coaches may be our forgotten athletes, and are often not supported, and equipped with the tools to assist them in becoming the best educators and administrators they can be.

2020 has seen huge changes in sport, the likes of which has never been experienced and as we return to a new normality. Therefore, building the recognition of coaches as educators needs our attention, and action. It’s our coaches collective moment to take the stronghold of their role as educators, and for us to seek to support them with the tools they need. This will be necessary to take sport, and sport as a community building asset forward into a new limelight.

Increasingly our sports people are getting younger. They often become the unlikely conduit for other business to build through their representation. Are our young athletes in sport increasingly at risk as they search through digital and non-digital frontiers for appreciation and identity?

After professionalisation, and with the advance of the social media audience, we now see young people baring their all on social media. Often it isn’t just their sporting prowess, but their soul and their body that they bare, as well as their mental health. Given the push to be so present on social media, build a following, and show their worth, we’ve seen a reoccurring series of questions over the last 5 years.⁠

What happens when “they” stop liking me? ⁠What if I don’t get followed and my agent gets upset?⁠ What about that guy? He’s better than me they say?⁠ I’m told I’m not good enough because I don’t have enough of a following? They all know each other and I get stories about me posted. I love my sport but they say I won’t get far because I’m not known enough and I’m not from here? I can’t seem to please them? They liked me, but now they don’t , im just not getting enough”likes”? 

 ‘They’ is a word we are hearing more and more from athletes. So who are they? ‘They’ are an increasingly larger and larger social audience.

Are our young people as young as 11 or 12, equipped and prepared to manage followers that often their agents cash in on, encourage them to affiliate with online, and they themselves work at building?

We have to ask ourselves, is it not our ‘duty of care’ in sport to consider the impact of lowered boundaries and a lack of experience to filter feedback?

Often our athletes function in a world of external representation, that now through a wider view of popularity needed to be ‘good at sport and recognised’. We have all seen crashes in otherwise fairly robust performers. Fears which can increase anxiety and plague performance, begin to isolate young athletes at a fragile stage of their identify development. Even the word fragile may see the school of sport quake to think that an athlete my be emotionally vulnerable at a point of their development . So when do we change this mindset and how?

One of the most profound things to remember is “you can be in a crowded room or in a team and still feel alone.”

Sometimes very talented young athletes leave because they perceive that they are not “liked enough” or have enough of a following, or they are just so talented they can’t mange the physical audience pressure, “other parents” and increasing heckles as objects of sport and not as high performance human beings. Much of this is tied down to s sense of failure at being ” not liked” reinforced by multiple digital and non digital filters.

Between both our online and offline audiences, our pressure for representative sponsorship and following, have we forgotten who we are providing sport for? Or is the bigger question “ who are we providing sport for? Are we simply selling the benefit’s and forgetting to deliver these?

Sport at its foundations is a social educator designed to be fun. We have an opportunity in the post Covid pivot. We need to ask ourselves, Is It i time for us to get back to sport as an educator of positive social constructs? Learning how to work with others, learning to co-operate and compete in healthy ways, understanding striving for your personal best, self-discipline, long lasting friendships that don’t need to be seen, and skills of agility and self-management are just some of the positives we could regrow if we stepped back to rebuild the sports community the right way. 

The audience effect is so much more than we recognise. The social psychology behind this effect without understanding development psychology and the pressures we are putting on our young, we have become a filter for resurgence of early onset anxiety. Often there’s so much confusion at a young age, the mix of professionalisation without direction can cause a bevy of pressure we don’t see the harmful effects of until later.

The real achievement in sport is the recognition of why we take part in it and what we feel good about in ourselves once we have. 

Our change of focus and digitisation has cost our athletes in many different ways, now is the time to give back to our younger athletes the tools to assist them. We can’t turn the clock back but we can reorient what we’ve let go of. If we stripped sport back, we would have a community that is an extension of family, a safe place to go to connect with others and learn about yourself in most instances. 

 In an ideal world we would not have the social pressures at the magnitude they are, but we do, and now we need to consider what tools our young athletes will need to assist them throughout their sporting careers. If this article strikes a chord with you, then email or pm me for a what we can do.

Graziella Thake B.Psych M.Psych CEO International Speaker Global leadership consultant 

Equity Vs Equality In Sport pathways for both athletes and leadership globally 

Is Sport the last gender frontier?…..or a pathway for change to build an economy of equity pathways ..

This article is a premise for a discussion about equity pathways for all and gender as just one lens. I hope you enjoy it !

In recent years, there has been a significant shift from advocating for ‘gender equity in sport’ towards using ‘sport for gender equity and personal development’. Women and girls’ health and wellbeing has become the focus of sport participation and so too has the focus on gender equity in positions of leadership. A large amount of research into the extent to which sport and physical activity has a positive confidence point and has shown that involvement in regular physical activity enhances physical and mental health and well-being. The growth of the women’s game has given rise to the question of representation of women in leadership within sport and indeed within society.

As the boundaries between businesses and the sports sector combine, as we begin to kick start events that will bring economic flow, a consensus seems to be emerging that we are all responsible for our world and must work together to make it better. We may even find ourselves wondering how we could ever have thought otherwise. So now as we gaze at the present stats we may ask the question: is equity an illusion, or have we made progress? There are so many pathways to leadership that hit frustrating ceilings not just gender. However, if we use the gender lens we see only 3% of sports leaders are women?

The leading question is why? What could we recognise, to adapt, adopt or change to magnify a change in this statistic. When we consider that most grassroots sport administration is largely supported by volunteers who are also predominantly females, why then don’t we see these administrators go on to lead in sport? 

Building a lens that examines not just administration at the grassroots level but also how pathways for female athletes could grow roles within sport as they now transition, may possibly help us build an adaptable lens to answer our why and our how? Inclusion begs a new lens and sport for women has moved away in 2020 from just the pursuit of health to the pursuit of excellence. It’s broadly acknowledged that sport is also a society builder and inclusion is a larger topic, or is it? 

It is important to note to change an outcome for anything in our history as a human race we need to adapt the lens so we don’t see a difference and we experience only inclusion . Among graduates of elite MBA programs around the world, women continue to lag men at every single career stage, right from their first professional job. On average women earned $4,600 less as a starting salary which was compounded over time. Men reported higher career satisfaction than women, more opportunity to be educated and advance. So how do we change what we see so we can in turn change the outcome?

If we move to be more expressly inclusive we need to consider socio-cultural influences as they also play a role for some females who enter the athlete world and have commonly experienced ostracism from family, friends, or even within sport itself, taking on both verbal, and physical abuse. Professional athletes are celebrated and idolised as gladiators of the modern world. These modern day warriors are faced with unique challenges that have the potential to impact their psychological wellbeing. Four unique challenges are identified as (but are not limited to): i) globalisation, integration and immigration to pursue athletic opportunity; ii) professionalisation of sport and increasing numbers of athlete stakeholders; pushing the presence of women forward: iii) cultural norms relating to what is acceptable and how we see leadership and authority expressed via length of experience or how we see gender and authority as something that still is part of our sociological make up; iv) conflicts in athletic performance abroad also comes with the additional challenge of managing the expectations of multiple stakeholders on gender expression. Another thought is perhaps gender is a lens to not only build equity pathways for women but also equity for all, race, creed, age.

In the search for equity as “a lived experience“ we are really searching for an absence of judgment according to a lens that may be outdated but also in a time that is migrating to allow inclusion and change. There is a need to recognise sport as an educator and also sport education in its broader context of grassroots and intercultural difference. We may possibly have gotten ourselves tied up in metric knots and lacked the simple lens of sport for enjoyment and inclusion. So perhaps if we examine how we approach sport as part of gender inclusion and encourage pathways that are open and accessible for all to experience “the norm”, then the leadership question might become a leadership conversation. The very healthy aspects of sport may need consideration and broadening where we consider mental attitude, health and the language of emotion, motivation and meaning. We may then be asking for less judgement, more open transparency and acceptance as “a new lens.” What we’ve got now is a model of humans performing in the name of measurability. Now is the time when we need to learn how we begin with inclusion and serve equity as the lens that doesn’t keep requiring “definition” rather one that ‘just is and this is how we do it here’, without dropping striving for excellence. We might just start to “live inclusion” rather than strive for it as we could bend everyone out of shape.

The discussion may consist more of questions but we hope it may have a step of outcomes that we could take on and follow as we steer a road to simplifying inclusion and equity as ‘this is just how it is’ by examining models of inclusion that are already happening and working. 

I hope you will enjoy the discussion and click to listen to the panel above “Is sport the last gender frontier?” designed to be provocative, exploring ideas, examples and to provide a pathway of possible steps and stages to adapt a new lens with guiding questions and practices from some great minds.

It’s vital to drive value for the world and maximise the world. I am excited to be attending World Economic Forum 100 Davos Women Davos 2024 The AI & Blockchain Lounge by Ahura AI to focus in on & Ambassador Human Optimisation System to fast track mental resilience.

Exploring sustainable trade and financial investment inside the SDGs requires human capacity & social trust, a central topic linked to AI at World of Women Foundation 

In his timely new book, “Why Trust Matters,” economist Benjamin Ho reminds us of the crucial role trust plays in our growing prosperity and human progress. The COVID-19 pandemic has tested our resilience, and AI has provided us with tools to overcome challenges and build trust. 

My take – Lets embrace this new world emerging within AI and rebuild the foundation of trust for a better future. 

Inclusion and diversity are not just buzzwords but require meaningful actions. Let’s bridge the gap between words and deeds to create a more inclusive and diverse society.

AI challenged us to work faster. Exploring sustainable trade and financial investment inside the United Nations SDGs requires human capacity, a central topic linked to AI at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. Davos 2024 The AI & Blockchain Lounge by Ahura AI. 

Just two days left me inspired & fully engaged interacting with Paul Polmanformer Ceo of Unilever & a panel discussion between Professor Marc Le Menestrel from INSEAD Michael Spence from UCL University. The greates inspiration shon through André Hoffmann the man behind the United Nations SDG Davos tent Vice Chairman of Roche & Co-Founder of Intent.

As a leader, it’s an honor to be surrounded by the most powerful decision-makers and to learn from the incredible contributions of leaders like the RHT Hon Helen Clark. 

The Optimisation Hub System App & fast track mental resilience, designed around the UN SDGs. The one area that neeeds our focus is human capacity, and our identity which will in turn strengthen our resilience and inter societal trust. 

Creating a mindset that encourages collaborative endeavors and redefines success as a shared journey amplifies our ability to build a more interconnected and compassionate global community. Sadly we don’t educate these tools which is why we’ve created the e learning white label assets we have to stabilise a challenged global Soc eco market.

Together, we can make a difference. The notion of doing well be doing good Let’s connect and make it happen! Thankyou for the wonderful friendships Ben Banerjee Bobbi Trehan-Young Dr Mohammad Saeed

If there were ever a year that coaching both in corporate and sport was extreme 2020 would be it. If there was a way of describing a year of trials and conduits of both experimentations and absurdity 2020 would also be it. I left Australia over 2 decades ago and returned bringing with me 3 decades of international experience. It afforded me the ability to found and bring very quickly a range of global contacts to the forefront of my work in sports and corporate. Often people say to me I want your job. 

Working in sports and corporate with both leadership and mental health, I consider how good the job looks, and I often smile and think about what it takes and consumes from you as a person. I have a diversely inter-cultural background as a female which hasn’t always given me the easiest pathway. On that note the advice I give is that I’ve forged through one lens the what I do not’ not any other lens which has helped immensely in not getting involved in barriers. I also consider my job is a tough one. Many people also still misunderstand leadership, culture, people and mental health and this poses an often undervalued and misunderstood end of the spectrum that is essential to economics. Why?

The answer always goes back to where do we build our communities, and where do they need to most help. This is my 50th year come to the conclusions that leadership sports, and disengagement, diversity and inclusion are the areas I can give my best to, but that also consistently seem to be the areas we struggle with. To me they stand out for 2 reasons. We congregate at mass social events and most often in this era in sport, education and with leaders. Secondly if we look at the patterns of pain that occur and where we seem to have our greatest failings, disengagement, diversity, and inclusion are the social partners of congregation that take our focus for many reasons. 

Apart from the skyline of simple opportunities in human beings in groups ,there also is an absence of understanding of what unifies them and how safety plays such a vital part.  Like most of our snapshots of human change we often grow and understanding of where to grow ability without solving what gets ignored or put in the too hard basket. Often human emotions or differences which actually pose our greater opportunity are given to another professional as our problem.

The culture of people and teams is a great navigation tool for leadership and coaching. If we examine what breeds healthy economics, its culture. If we examine ‘positive ” culture we often end up going back to original ways to build combined values. I could not speak enough about how amazing researching the work in culture and engagement is for anyone invested in corporate, or sports coaching. One of the greatest assets and challenges to coaches both in leadership and sport, and to schools invested in education of any kind, is the population growth and transference, we see of different perspectives that have to be engaged. this has to happen “well”, so the ship of community, and industry steers in a direction, and doesn’t fall apart. But often we don’t teach leaders or coaches how to build culture in inclusive ways or to build ” well culture”. What do I meanly “well culture” you ask?

Leadership is no longer just telling, and coaching is no longer about handing down a series of technical skills and capabilities, it’s about a far greater series of skillsets. You may see this as due to population growth, migration, but its also the challenge of a technological era thats given us the greatest deficit to build a unified congregation or group who can move together.

Change and culture are what economies are built on.  Technology hasn’t been enough to build culture on its own, so the era is struggling and forcing us right back to basics. Human beings are still human doings, and a need to understand why the cyber era alone still fails to engage us in culture is essential. Recent events in 2020 have forced us to screens and disjointed congregations and we have struggled. Culture as we face an era of connection through technology with more knowledge and connection through the “ web” than in person provide us with a challenge to how we do this. It has forced us to reconsider the final frontier that we have not overcome.

Ive found myself coaching the basics of how we can form and formulate culture through the microscopic lens of technology and its not that easy. We need each other and we need good old fashioned skillsets of culture coaching invested in values and a combination of skillsets that build inclusiveness, and talent growth.

The simple conversations that have built outstanding revolutions in cultures and turned them around to profit, growth, and accolade are often just the really imbedded tools of listening to what makes people tick, taking time, actually really being interested, incorporating differences and involving them, slowing things down and finding ways to be inclusive and represent what is important to all.

The coaching grids I have built over the years have been transformational, and not transactional of nature. Transformative language, adaptable behaviours and inclusive cultures in essence. Ive had the good fortune to walk beside and consult to, not just corporate and sport teams, but also government and community that have persistence, perseverance and patience, but also co-developed economics that are adaptable and healthy, mentally sound and safe. In the productivity is embedded in feeling safe. This is grounded in agreed patterns of resilient actions that can be trusted, great communication, and patient sound thinking as well as a sense of belonging. What makes any team profitable, and builds sound economics is a 7 step process. If we were to build heath inclusive, adaptable cultures in all community groups, sports teams, schools, and organisations what would global economics see? 

I’m more than happy to share my tools. Feel free to pm me or write to me at graziella@theoptimisationhub.com