by Robin Cox | May 26, 2020 | Building strengths, Coaching leadership, inspiring adolescents, Mentors, Relationships, Resiliency, teachers, youth mentoring
What is the most important life lesson you learnt from COVID-19? Will you do things differently now? This might be a hard question to answer. Much will depend on your experiences to date. Lost a loved one during this time? Lost a job or business? School closed down for a while? Spent time in a lock down and isolation situation? Could not complete a course you wanted to finish off? Unable to travel, so lost an opportunity to pursue a dream or possible job opportunity? As I have followed the media, had to experience lock down and was unable to see my other family members, including my grandchildren, the most important lesson I have been reminded of again and again is how important relationships are – face to face relationships. And it has been interesting to listen to young people. All the majority of our youth wanted was to get back to school to be with their friends. How will the global community emerging from COVID-19 respond to this reality? More of the same? Seek to become a more compassionate, caring community? I am already reading many articles about online learning gaining momentum, shorter working weeks or more people working from home and so on. Yet, we have a chance to reimagine what our global community could be like. I have written elsewhere how I observed a Vertical Tutoring System transform a school and the time is surely right for schools to explore this system. It transforms school cultures in so many positive ways and there is a significant focus on how to build meaningful relationships. However, I digress....
by Robin Cox | May 13, 2020 | Building strengths, business people, Coaching leadership, Mentors, motivating teenagers, teachers
Can you remember the people who influenced you the most when you joined the work force? How has the work place today differed from when you entered it for the first time? How would you motivate and encourage a young adult joining your team in their first career move? These are interesting questions to consider. They are questions I have been reflecting upon as I think about how COVID-19 will impact economic development in the months ahead. Neuroscience research continually reminds us that the brains of youth are only fully developed when they are in their mid-twenties. This highlights how important it is for empathetic employers to guide and navigate new young employees entering the work force for the first time. Here is what I learned.Research I spent some time researching employer and employee relationships, exploring what social researchers say and reading general articles in which employers share their experiences working with youth. I saw over the years how the advent of technology seemed to change the mindset of young employees. In some cases I saw youth unafraid to be creative and innovative. In other situations I observed young people unable to empathize with others, severely lacking teamwork and often with questionable management of time skills. I saw others who took life so seriously, were unable to laugh at themselves, and whose perfectionist attitude led to heightened stress levels. And, I observed others who lacked a healthy and balanced lifestyle which had a negative effect on their output. 10 top motivators Here are ten of the top motivators employers can reflect on as they employ today’s youth, always remembering...
by Robin Cox | Apr 21, 2020 | Christian teachers, Coaching leadership, Family, Mentors, motivating teenagers, Relationships, Resiliency, teachers, Uncategorized
How has COVID-19 impacted your relationships with your teenage child or children? How has COVID-19 impacted your relationships with young people? Are there any tips you can share to encourage other parents or adults working with youth? I have given plenty of thought to these questions in recent days, especially as I read how parents respond to the challenge of working from home and facilitating their child’s learning. Of course, the older the child, the more they should be able to study on their own. Is this true? Perhaps it is with many teenagers, though certainly not with all. I hope that the COVID-19 experience strengthens relationships between parents and their children, as well as reinforces the importance of the nuclear family in our communities, and that it also improves relationships between schools and parents. Our global community will be enriched. Perhaps these ten proven tips will help. The framework When parents work as a team, their relationships within the family are strengthened and there will be fewer conflicts. Children watch how their parents interact with one another, how they approach conflicts and challenging situations and learn from these observations. They need to see that disagreements are a normal part of life, yet there are healthy strategies that can be followed to resolve any challenging issues or conflicts. When parents are seen to be working as a collaborative team, their attitude can provide the key to the long-term health and the developments of positive relationships. All children do not have the privilege of growing up in such a loving household, yet parents can still strive to develop a positive...
by Robin Cox | Apr 6, 2020 | coaching leaders, Family, Mentors, motivating teenagers, Parents, Relationships, Resiliency, teachers
When you were a teenager how did you bounce back from adversity? What form did this adversity take – rejection by friends? A family bereavement? Challenging family circumstances? Living in a high-risk environment? Failing an exam? Omitted from a team? The COVID-19 lockdown, as I shared in my last blog, has helped me to focus on my new mentoring book due out later in the year with over 1000 tips, strategies and discussion topics to encourage anyone working with young people. I have had plenty of time to reflect on my own teenage years and how I dealt with cancer, the loss of my mother, changing family circumstances, peer relationships and all the challenges every teenager faces as they seek meaning and purpose in their lives. And, each time I reflect, I am drawn back to ten key life lessons which I have shared with hundreds of young people, especially those I have mentored. In almost every case I have observed extraordinary positive life journeys being developed before my eyes, as these young people embraced most, if not all the life lessons over a period of time. A unique time No teenager is likely to have experienced anything like COVID-19 in their lifetime, an event that will change how our global community thinks and operates. Already we are told that the creative, innovative and entrepreneurial spirit will be rewarded in the coming months and years as the global economy recovers from this pandemic. We have so many wonderfully creative young people whose creativity is often squashed by narrow-thinking, dull, exam driven education systems. Time to free them up and...
by Robin Cox | Mar 23, 2020 | Building strengths, Coaches, Coaching leadership, Education, Family, Mentors, motivating teenagers, Parents, Relationships, Resiliency, School, teachers, youth mentoring
Can you remember the relationships you had when you were an adolescent? Did you belong to a small clique or did you have a wide circle of friends? Do you think more deeply about what meaningful relationships are all about? Will you place your relationships at the front and center of your journey through the COVID -19 pandemic? We are living in ‘unprecedented times’. I hear this phrase every day at the moment, We move into a time of lock down. It will be tough, but I am fortunate, as I can still do my beautiful daily beach walk, and am now forced to finish my new mentoring book to meet the publisher’s end of April deadline. I won’t be able to link up with my daughter and her family and the grandchildren to enjoy lots of laughs. And, while writing this book – converting my 260 free podcasts into 312 daily messages – I have reflected on all the people who have impacted my life through expressing the spirit of mentoring. I have written tributes to some of these people in the new book. As I played plenty of sport in my youth, I tended to hang out with some of my team members in the different teams in which I participated, which led to a wider circle of superficial friendships, though I had one or two closer friends who remained friends for many years. My experiences also reminded me of a conversation I had with 16-year-old Gabby who was working through relationship issues. Gabby was keen to do well at school and was genuinely striving to fulfill...
