Mental Health And Burnout: Coaches

Mental health issues are driving coaches out of sport, says Leigh Nugent, the respected former Australian Olympic head swimming coach and leadership figure. Ian Hansons report today highlights the#lookafteryourcoach initiative unveiled in Australia this week by the Brisbane-based M5 Management. It aims to promote mental well-being among coaches across all sports.

Athletes and staff are being asked to ask Hows your mental health? or Wheres your head at today? as part of their daily routines. Awareness counts.

A good moment to recall a presentation at the World Aquatic Development Conference in Lund, Sweden, back in 2014, whenMarte Bentzen, of The Norwegian School of Sport Sciences,painted a stark picture of a condition that afflicts mentors in sport: Coach Burnout.

Here is the report written on the day for SwimVortex, courtesy of Craig Lord

Olympic season. Lights, action, the world tunes in to singular moments of sporting excellence and achievement. Spills, thrills, smiles and tears and when its done, the world moves on, swimming among those sports that slides back down the spectrum of media exposure.

Behind the scenes: burnout. No, not the swimmer the coach. Followed by the risk of all things collapsing about the coach.

Behind the scenes: across the world this weekend, coaches will be steeped in work in training and at meets, long hours on the deck, travelling and coping with the load ahead of them. For many all will be well. For some, it will not.Anti-social moments ahead, as far as family life and the balance of all things go.

Wrecked lives in the community of coaches who get an honourable mention if their charge makes the podium and are either largely ignored if they find themselves celebrating best-ever performances that fall shy of the medals or pulped under the hammer of stinging criticism and loss of funding after a result in the realms of 4th to 8th.

The pressure is on but like the work that feeds into Olympic podiums, it starts long before the gun goes off at the Games.

Addressing a room full of coaches at the World Aquatic Development Conference in Lund, Sweden, last month, assistant professor Marte Bentzen, of The Norwegian School of Sport Sciences,painted a stark picture of a condition that afflicts their number Coach Burnout:

Every fourth coach in top sport becomes fatigued during the season. An ailing privacy is one of many reasons why coaches lose motivation and passion.

The Aftenposten spoke from true heart of the matter when it reported:

Rowings national team manager Johan Flodin had a weird feeling in his stomach. He knew what awaited him when he opened the door to his own home after returning from the World Cup. When he peered into the empty apartment, he heard himself breathe and the gasp that followed. His family had flown and taken the furniture.

The coach sat on a new sofa for the interview but noted that the room where his two children had slept remains empty. The 48-year-old acknowledged that, in common with many others in his line of work, the job, the traveling, the unsociable hours, the sacrifice of private life had cost him his family and his personal happiness.

Bentzen, of the coaching and psychology department at the NIH, received her doctorate last October for a body of work that can only help improve the lot and understanding of coaches and the coaching role. Norwegian and Swedish colleagues followed 299 coaches from many sports in the two countries for the research, a very solid sample group.

In Lund, Bentzen explained to the coaches gathering that they have embraced a job in which they may experience a much greater conflict between work and life than those who work in realms that leave them less fatigued.

Fatigue is a trigger to a downward spiral, passion for the job a blessing and a curse. Her studies baed on workload and motivation, Bentzen suggests that while a coach remain enthusiastic about their jobs, they can or at least appear to be able to cope with the stress.

Bentzen displays slides that list some of the things that come with coaching: unpredictable; ever-changing; insecurity; intense pressure, highly competitive; unsocial; a wide spectrum of understanding in a given sport, including physiology, biomechanics, psychology, technology.

The study, identifying 182 stressors, found 24 different expert skills in the one job, a level well above that required in many other fields of work.

Those stressors came down to two overriding categories:

Who is looking after the coaches? Bentzen asks. The issue and the welfare of coaches should be best compared to the emergency procedures on an aircraft which demand that you put on your own oxygen mask before assisting others. If you do not look after yourself you will eventually not be able to help others, says Bentzen.

This year (2014), Bob Bowman, mentor to Michael Phelps and others, will place his wisdom in the public domain in a book called The Golden Rules: 10 Steps to World-Class Excellence in Your Life and Work. Co-authored byCharles Butler and forwarded by Phelps, the book has many a gem in it.

Take this for season-end each year that speaks to the work Bentzen has been steeped in. Over the years, I have become a firm believer in the value of celebration as part of the Method in recent years Ive started to celebrate the end of each year with a holiday party at my home

Achieving our dream vision requires plenty of sacrifice: we use hours we can never get back, we must propel ourselves through daily to-do lists, we need to find a way to fight through emotional and physical exhaustion. But once that moment of completion arrives, its imperative to stop, reflect, and consider what has been accomplished and discovered.

If you have found success you have to revel in the spirit of achievement. If success has not found you, then still celebrate the road you have been on .

Bentzens work would appear to back up the value in those words.

One of the more surprising findings of the study was that feelings of burnout do not vanish if athletes perform well.The studies did not find any statistical correlation between poor performance and fatigue in coaches, says Bentzen, one of the qualitative studies she notes producing an interesting finding:

Coaches with excellent results internationally can also experience burnout. We should stress that excellent results is no guarantee for a high level of wellness in coaches.

It is not all dark, of course. Coaching comes with myriad opportunities inherent in teaching, interaction with young and talented people, personal development, a love of sport and the joy and belongingness of team.

Some call it family but for some coaches it comes at the expense of family.

Bentzen her doctoral study entitled Coaching Burnout in Top-level Sport and colleagues conducted four studies to investigate coach burnout in the elite world.

Concentrated on samples of coaches in Scandinavia, the finding that one in four coaches experience a high level of fatigue (a key symptom of burnout) at the end of each competitive season, is stark. Says Bentzen:

This is a significant number and an issue sports organisations and coaching education programs need to address to make sure that coaches can remain in their jobs for a long time.

Burnout is much more than simply feeling tired, notes Bentzen. Think creep, the gradual gnaw of things that pile up on a trajectory to falling down.

High levels of fatigue come hand in hand with blunted emotions and reduced performance, on the job and beyond it.

In swimming, coaches know well the stories of colleagues who look for all the world on the deck like masters of their one circumstance and art, drivers of success and discipline, when the reality back home is chaos, broken relationships, a ship heading for the rocks. Some turn it round, some never do, a few pay the ultimate price, suicide not unknown in coaching circles.

Coaches on the way to developing burnout syndrome experience negative symptoms both physically and mentally, says Bentzen. The downward spiral churns as the negativity extends beyond the individual coach to their athletes, programs and the organisation in which and for which they work. Where other professions may take to the water, the gym, the road and cycle track to escape work and reduce stress, that environment is not one the coach may perceive as leisure and pleasure: it is just a further opportunity for the mind to work on in the same realm.

Bentzens doctoral thesis consisted of four studies:

On the trail of four Norwegian top-level football coaches over a competitive season, with investigation of the differences in coaches experiencing mild or strong symptoms of burnout at the end of the year.

The Nature of Burnout

Burnout is linked to depression but is not the same, says Bentzen. Is burnout a problem and why, she asks. The answers starts when we consider the causes.

Workload

On top of what is actually done, there is perceived workload and the work-home interference factor to consider (many studies conducted on the impact of work-home factors on womens lives, but few on the lives of men and fewer still on coaches).

Self-determination

Bentzen wanted to see if the self-determination theory could clarify the process of how an individual develops the burnout syndrome. She concludes: The theory has helped to explain why a demanding and unsupportive working environment may lead to a higher degree of burnout in top-level coaches.

The process model is fairly simple and sits on the following pillars:

Bentzen notes whats missing in the interface between swim coaching and studies that tell us what constitutes a healthy worker: there are no specific projects among federations and those with the big budgets that identify and target those at risk; there are no longitudinal studies that might tell us about the extent of the problem.

The self-determination theory (SDT) is an empirically based theory on motivation, personal development and wellness. The theory focuses on different types of motivation, not level of motivation. The quality of motivation is key. More reading: Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2008). Self-Determination Theory: A macrotheory of human motivation, development, and health. Canadian Psychology-Psychologie Canadienne, 49(3), 182-185. doi:10.1037/a0012801 and the Self Determination Theory website.

To maintain the mental energy required as a top-level coach, it is crucial for the working environment to support self-determination, challenge the coaches and allow them to apply their knowledge, say Bentzen and team. It is also important for the coaches to develop good working relationships.

If motivation is thwarted, through conflict with leaders and colleagues, for example, decline is far more likely to set in. The research findings showed that the degree of self-determined motivation (whether the job was perceived as fun, interesting and rewarding) is vital: it prevents burnout. Those who no longer loved their work were at far greater risk of burnout.

In Lund, Bentzen highlighted the cases of five coaches who quit sport and were lost to coaching. She concluded:

If you go to work because you have to not because you want to, it is a red flag.

Equally, the study indicated that those who rejected rules and regulations and those chasing the money and fame the kind of profiles referred to as wearing Ego Glasses by Prof Joan Duda in Lund were more likely to reach at point of exhaustion that would place them at risk of burnout. Those well versed with ways of relaxing and detaching themselves from the strains, stresses and tiredness of the working day could be viewed as at low risk of burnout.

Signs to watch for speak to work-life balance issues, such as:

Among recommendations and measures that could help to prevent top-level coaches from being burnout, Bentzen and team suggest that coaches need to be educated on:

Further, educational programs should prepare the coach for the organisational and administrative aspects of their profession. They should learn about leadership, decision-making processes, conflict management, how to delegate responsibilities and have a good general knowledge about how organisations work successfully.

Bentzen would like sports employers to provide more support that she believes is available. The measures to improve the working conditions for the coaches should be adapted to accommodate the needs of the different sports, she adds.

Frank Abrahamsen, head of the coaching education program at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, echoed that when he urged the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports (NIF), schools and universities should include these findings in their educational programs.

See the original post:
Burnout On The Burning Deck: When Fatigue Flows To The Day Falling Down - Swimming World Magazine

Eight years ago I quit my day job and started doing what I love as a career.

Youve probably heard this story a hundred times from entrepreneurs and self-help gurus. In the story, making a living from what you love is as simple as making a mental shift and perhaps signing up for an online course sold by the person telling the story.

While inspiring (and self-serving), thats not how it actually happens. It takes a lot more. Your skepticism is warranted.

The good news is that it is possible, though. You really can quit your job and make a living doing what you love. Im living proof; I make my living helping people have truly meaningful relationships with more love than they thought possible, and this is something I would do for free if I didnt get paid for it. Im living the dream as a relationship coach who actually makes good money doing what he loves.

What people dont normally tell you is that living this dream takes far more time, effort and planning than the narratives usually lets on. It isnt easy. But it is possible.

So heres how you can join me without the need for luck or any particular superpower. But sorry, no quick fix to follow. Also no online courses to sell you.

1. Fill a Need, Not Your Ideal

The first thing you need to know is that the difference between idealistic and an ideal life is selling something that other people actually want to buy. I cant tell you how many times I see this mistake play out, and how it separates those who try and fail from those who succeed at making a living from what they love.

You probably love doing many things. Not all of those things will earn you a living, though. Or they might earn you a living, but not in the way you imagine. So when you embark on this dream job, start by figuring out something people actually want and will pay for. What market need are you filling, and are you sure youre filling their need and not your own fanciful desire to do something specific and get paid for it?

When I started my relationship coaching practice, I wanted to help people cultivate unconditional love. But as I quickly found out, nobody really wanted that. I couldnt make a living with that. What people did want, specifically singles, was a lasting relationship. So I started focusing on helping people get married instead. That is when I started earning money from my passion. I found a part of my passion that filled an actual need in the market.

2. Keep it SmallOr Hire it Out

The second thing you need to know is that not everyone should be Steve Jobs or Elon Musk. Making a living doing what you love doesnt mean your business must grow big and international. You dont necessarily need employees or wild seven-figure success.

Is your goal fame or doing what you love? For the latter, all you need is enough to live and support a family. And by keeping things small, youre much more likely to spend your time doing what you love instead of morphing into a captain of industry. So think small.

Not that theres anything wrong with dreaming big, of course. My roadmap includes a large relationship practice with a global network of associate coaches and allied professionals, as well as an online school and a MyFitnessPal for relationship health.

But if you plan to go big, hire out everything that isnt your core passion. Automate or outsource everything thats not a true passion so you stay focused on what you love and dont run yourself ragged.

An early mistake I made was building my own web site and handling my own appointment scheduling. I should have used a service like Amidship, which gives service businesses like coaches and personal trainers an easy way to set up a web site, automate appointment scheduling and handle invoicing. I probably would have been making a living from coaching at least a year sooner if I had used Amidship instead of doing everything myself.

Use such services widely, and hire your way out of tasks you dont love (like writing this article; notice I have a coauthor on this piece).

3. Be Ready for Bad Days

One of the most important keys for making your living from what you love is realizing that there will be many hard days before you turn the corner to profitability.

What saved my dream business was the early decision that I would persevere no matter what problems confronted me along the way. I took as fact two hard truths: There would be many hard days, and I didnt know how hard it would get. All I knew was that I would persevere and succeed in the end. I wouldnt give up no matter what happened along the way.

Honestly, this saved my business more than onceand it can save your dream business, too. When you expect the hardest journey of your life, and you expect the headaches and the setbacks, the startup problems you do face are not as insurmountable. You knew they were coming. You built setbacks and failures, long hours and nightmare problems into the model. So when they hit you, theres no question of giving up because you knew this was part of the process.

My first relationship client was an utter disaster, and one year I worked until 5am on Christmas morning. Ive had equipment break while shooting on location, business partners who failed at the critical hour, and big assumptions that were wrong. But I never even thought of giving up because I knew this was the process. The result is that Im still doing what I love professionally while many of my relationship coaching colleagues gave up long ago.

4. Iterate Along the Way

Theres a path to making a living from what you love, but the truth is that you dont know the path yet. Almost nobody does. I certainly didnt.

The idea for a product or service that allows you to follow your passion wont be the product or service that actually makes you money. You will need to iterate and evolve your ideas as you go along, especially if your goal is doing what you love. What sounded like a good idea might not work in practice. What looked like a sustainable business model could turn out to be all wrong.

This is a blessing in disguise, though.

If you know your journey is filled with evolution and lots of unknowns, you dont get bogged down in the planning phase. Things dont have to be perfect because you know you probably will get it wrong the first time, so the burden shifts from having it all correct at the start to pushing out minimal viable products and seeing what sticks. This is very freeing.

But it does take patience and a willingness to try things along the way.

At first I envisioned a coaching model where there was weekly client homework and a long exploratory phase at the beginning, for instance. But this was me teaching instead of coaching, and almost none of my clients liked it. So now we do nothing like that.

I also thought that content marketing would be my primary way to attract clients, but webinars and word of mouth proved far more effective. So I still produce a lot of content, but I focus much more on important interpersonal relationships for my business now.

5. Block Off Time for Your Sanity

It sounds strange, but the fifth key for making a living from what you love is not letting the business take over your life.

As personal development authors Preston Smiles and Alexi Panos note in their book, Now or Never: Your Epic Life in Five Steps, you need balance when running a business based on something you love.

Theres always more you could be doing for your business as an entrepreneur, and the pull is twice as strong when this business is based on something you love. The problem is that this creates burnout, and somewhere along the line doing what you love becomes serving something you formerly loved. You can wreck your passion if you dont keep balance.

The key is blocking off time for activities outside of work, even if you enjoy what you do. Schedule time for the kids. Make room for reading and personal development. Defend social time with friends.

Remember, youre working on your dream job. This dream probably doesnt include spending all day, every day on work. You need a balanced life so your dream job stays dreamy. Otherwise you burn out.

I fell into this trap myself the first few years of my business. I was almost the relationship coach without any relationships because every waking hour was spent on my business. Thankfully, I eventually woke up and reasserted the balance. My life got much more sustainable when I did, and so did my happiness.

So I gave up my day job and now make a living doing what I really love. You can, too.

It might not be quick or easy, and there will be false starts along the way. But it is worth it; that part of the story people get right. Making a living from what you love is pretty special.

More:
How to Make A Real Living Doing What You Love - Thrive Global

ON-LOAN goalkeeper Steven Benda says playing for points as well as personal development adds a new layer of pressure that he has never before experienced in his fledgling career.

Benda had only made four professional appearances for Swansea under 21s before moving to the County Ground all of which came in the EFL Trophy and is therefore learning about the nuances of lower-league football as he goes.

Things like washing your own kit, battling with bumpy pitches and players putting bodies on the line in order to pay the mortgage matter more now as minutes on the pitch no longer mean a gaping allowance for and acceptance of mistakes.

Rather than shy away from those experiences, as some of his peers may been tempted to do, the Stuttgart-born goalkeeper threw himself headfirst into the opportunity in order to better himself as a professional.

The 21-year-old said: In under 23 games, the most important thing is to develop.

They (the coaches) want you to make mistakes and learn from them, but if youre playing in a League Two game, youre playing for points and you have to be spot on.

You have to be at your best in every game, so its a whole different feeling and a whole different pressure.

We have good quality in League Two, and its a whole different playing style to Swansea, for example.

I came here to get those different experiences, so Im enjoying it.

Standing at nearly two meters tall, Benda has a small advantage on leaping strikers when attempting to clear aerial danger, but unlike many of his peers, the 21-year-old sees catching the ball as his preferred option so that he can start fast and piercing counter-attacks.

Coming from a team that values playing the ball on the floor above finding a big striker with long balls, the German feels a lower-league team that has a similar outlook as the best place for his development.

Benda said: Im a goalkeeper who likes to play the ball out from the back.

I like to come for crosses and to be there behind my teammates, and show them I can help them if they need me.

Every cross that comes in, I want to fight for it and help my team out.

Coming from Swansea, we have the mindset to always play out from the back, and its not too different here.

We want to play out as much as possible, but if its not, I am able to adapt and go long instead.

The managers playing style, he wants us to play out from the back, but we have to be cautious as well. He trusts us to make the right decision.

See the article here:
Playing for points has added a new layer of pressure for Benda - The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald

Autism Warrior: Russell LehmannAward-winning motivational speaker, poet, author, and advocate, who continues to overcome his personal struggles with autism to travel the world and share his knowledge, compassion, and hope.

In 2003, eleven-year-old Russell was admitted to the psychiatric ward at his local city hospital and stayed for five weeks. Later that fall, he was diagnosed with autism after years of developmental and behavioral symptoms without answers. Despite starting the journey towards proper treatment, Russell still struggled.

He dropped out of public school in the fifth grade and pretty much became a recluse for the next decade, battling incapacitating OCD, tumultuous panic attacks, and severe depressive episodes. He almost lost his life to anorexia and was admitted to two more psychiatric wards at 21 and 25. At the height of his distress, he was practically non-verbal, petrified of speaking to anyone other than his parents.

Any external stimuli was terrifyingthe ring of the doorbell, the TV being on, the beep of the microwave. He felt like a prisoner in his own body and was extremely low-functioning.

Now, at 28, Russell is an award-winning and internationally recognized autism advocate. He has written two books, On the Outside Looking In: My Life on the Autism Spectrum and Inside Out: Stories and Poems from an Autistic Mind, the first of which was released in April 2019. His passion to be a voice for the unheard drives him to continue writing and speaking, especially due to his intimate understanding of the frustration of going unnoticed.

He works towards erasing the stigma and stereotypes that come with having a disability, and his efforts have led to being named Reno-Tahoes Most Outstanding Young Professional Under 40 in 2018. He has lectured for the prestigious Kings College of London and his story is archived in the Library of Congress as well.

Russell considers his greatest achievement becoming a functioning member of society, as well as the personal development it required. Hed always been driven to overcome any obstacle in his path, but hed never expected he would come as far as he did, believing hed be dependent on his parents forever. Even at 22, he needed his moms company to walk to the mailbox.

However, he pushed himself out of his comfort zone over and over to become a more well-rounded and adaptable person. While he greatly appreciates his career success and acknowledgment, nothing compares to looking back on his life and seeing just how much hes grown.

Russells biggest inspiration is his daily struggle. Every day is still a fight. He never wants to portray himself as someone who reached personal and career success and no longer has any problems in terms of mental health or autism. Rather, he wants to emphasize how he found success through his challenges and how his perseverance bolsters his understanding of himself and others.

He sees how much pain and silent suffering is in the world, and it makes him ever more passionate about spreading lasting compassion, understanding, and the importance of broadening ones sense of perspective. He believes the most valuable of lifes lessons and insights are hidden within its trials.

Career-wise, Russell has only been in the public eye for about two and a half years, and though he has achieved more in that time than he ever dreamed of, hes just getting started. He hopes to turn his advocacy into activism at some point in the future. Yet, sometimes he gets too caught up in advancing his career and takes a moment to prioritize his personal goal: to find peace of mind in contentment.

While happiness is a gift of the moment and thus more of a privilege, he believes everyone deserves to be content. He has already won at the game of life and views it as a moral obligation to pass his knowledge on so others may do the same much faster than he did. When he recalls how he was given no resources, interventions, or supports other than the love of his family, he wants ensure others will have more.

Russells biggest advice is to trust in the journey. Do not doubt yourself or question if you are on the right path. Rather, have conviction that the path you are on is, and will always be, the only path, therefore making it impossible to step foot on the wrong path, he said. Living with autism can be brutal, but he believes the heaviest burdens are only given to those with the strength to carry them.

For parents, he believes if you do something out of love, you can never go wrong no matter the outcome, so lead with your heart and parental instinct. You know your child better than anyone else; this makes you the professional, not a doctor or therapist. Embrace your loved ones and embrace the ups and downs of life. He also recommends remembering this comforting quote from an anonymous author: Everything will be okay in the end, and if its not okay, then its not the end.

Website: http://www.theautisticpoet.com

Facebook: fb.com/lehmann.russell

Instagram:www.instagram.com/autism_advocate

Twitter: twitter.com/Russell_Lehmann

Email: Russell_lehman@yahoo.com

This article was featured inIssue 92 Developing Social Skills for Life

See the original post:
Multi-Talented Man with Autism Spreads Hope and Awareness - Autism Parenting Magazine

Before his team played its preseason finale Friday night, Brett Brown labeled the game as something approximating a dress rehearsal. But, unless a flurryof unexpected misfortunehits the Sixers before their regular-season opener Wednesday night vs. the Celtics, Furkan Korkmaz will not start, as he did against the Wizards in place of Ben Simmons (out with back tightness).

It does appear, however, that the Turkish wing will play legitimate minutes early this season. Brown seemed to confirm as much before the Sixers' 112-93 loss, talking about Korkmazs progress and resilience in glowing terms.

The Sixers declined Korkmazs third-year option last season, then ultimately re-signedthe 22-year-old in late July.

I am [looking for him to contribute]. And I dont want to be harsh about itthats what hes gotta do," Brown said of where Korkmaz finds himself now after his struggles last year. "Thats part of life in the NBA. Its not like hes an established player. This is not the league for the weak.

He should go to Europe if that was going to dismember his spirit. Hes great people, and hes fighting to stay in the league, hes fighting to get minutes hes fighting. Thats the phase and the stage that the young man is at, and I give him credit for not blinking. He just didnt go away. Now, here he is.

Browns answer was impassioned, and his words weren't bogus. But Korkmazs character and attitude alone dont warrant a spot in the Sixers rotation. He started Fridayfor one primary reason the notion that he is an outside shooter.

Though Brown praised Korkmazs defense and his maturation, the Sixers head coach also said this:

Were always just trying to mine shooters. Youre trying to find and mine and help cultivate shooters. If he is anything, he is that.

Korkmaz has, in fact, not been a good shooter at the NBA level. Hes shot 38.8 percent from the field in 62 NBA regular-season games, 32.3 percent from three-point range. After a 2-for-9 performance Friday, he finished 10 for 25 overall during the preseason, 4 for 13 from behind the arc.

The concept of Korkmaz filling a three-point shooting void after JJ Redicks move to the Pelicans is, on its face, appealing tothe Sixers. Korkmaz has a pretty shot; hes done well in international play; he had an incredible July night last year in Las Vegas, scoring 40 points in a summer-league game.

Perhaps those hints of promise will translate to the NBA. However, if theres an assumption that Korkmazs identity as a shooter makes him worthy of a rotation spot, it would be misguided.

There are alternatives in that mix for bench wing minutes, though theyre also young and unproven in the NBA.

Shake Milton, a two-way player last year,has played both at point guard and on the wing during the preseason. The SMU product, who averaged 24.9 points in 27 G-League games as a rookie, is a more advanced playmaker and a superior defender to Korkmaz.

The 23-year-old told NBC Sports Philadelphia he hasnt been given an indication yet of his regular-season role.

No, he said. My job is just to come in and do whatever the team needs me to do. Ive kind of been flip-flopping during practice. Ive just got to do whatever the team needs me to do, bottom line. Guard and either make plays for others or be ready to knock down shots and score.

This time last year, Milton was returning to competitive basketball aftermissing summer league because of a stress fracture in his back. He acknowledged Friday night he feels more explosive, and hes looked it, showing off a burst on the fast break that wasnt present early last season.

I feel like its been a huge jump, personally, he said. For one, the confidence that I have out there, my body feels good, feel physically ready. I go out there with confidence, my teammates have confidence in me, the coaches have confidence in me. Just going out there and being fearless.

Zhaire Smith, meanwhile, has been seen exclusively in garbage time this preseason. Just as Korkmazs shooting or Miltons versatility might be attractive to Brown, one would think Smiths pogo stick athleticism and penchant for on-ball defense could boost his stock.

That hasnt been the case, with Smiths novel of a rookie year one that included a broken foot, a severe allergic reaction and jumpers with tubes in his stomach putting him behind Milton and Korkmaz at the moment, in Browns eyes.

Hes expecting me to develop all around, Smith said Friday of Browns expectations. Last year we tried to develop, but then obviously I had the setback. He feels like this is my rookie year, like this is [about] development.

The perspective that this season should be centered on learning and personal growth for Smith is fair enough. So is the idea that Korkmaz might have unique value for the Sixers.

He hasnt delivered it yet, though. The Sixers would, in this writers view, be wise not to let their vision of his potential block out other options.

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See original here:
Sixers' vision of what Korkmaz could be shouldn't lead them to block out other options - NBCSports.com

Nearly a quarter of secondary schools in North Yorkshire are falling behind the required standard, the education watchdog says.

Of the 43 schools in the area, Ofsted rates four as inadequate, its lowest mark, while six require improvement, as of 30 September.

Its latest figures list 12 as outstanding and 21 as good.

The regulator visits all new schools, including academies, within three years of opening.

Inspectors judge them on categories including the quality of teaching, personal development and welfare, the effectiveness of the leadership and pupils achievement.

Schools requiring improvement will be inspected again within 30 months, while those rated inadequate now face mandatory conversion into academies, funded directly by central government.

In North Yorkshire, there are 367 schools registered with Ofsted including primaries, 18 of which are rated inadequate while 39 require improvement meaning 16% overall are below standard.

This is, though, slightly below the 19% average for Yorkshire and the Humber.

Across England, 20% of all schools were classed as outstanding, 66% good, 10% requires improvement and 4% inadequate.

But with more than 1,000 outstanding state schools going without an inspection in a decade, the National Education Union warned this did not accurately reflect the quality of education they offer.

Dr Mary Bousted, the unions joint general secretary, said: The fact that some schools havent been inspected for over 10 years demonstrates that the information Ofsted provides is misleading at best and may be downright wrong.

The Department for Education recently announced it will consult on plans to remove the exemption for outstanding schools, a move Ofsted says it welcomes.

A DfE spokeswoman added: This Government is committed to providing world-class education for all students.

Teachers and school leaders are helping to drive up standards right across the country, with 85% of children now in good or outstanding schools compared to just 66% in 2010.

Link:
Nearly quarter of North Yorkshire secondary schools are inadequate or require improvement Ofsted figures - The Scarborough News

Its important to understand the data you have available to give you insights into the priorities, and then it is important to ask people how they think and feel about the priorities, Ekkelenkamp says. This includes cultural surveys, engagement and sick leave data.

Once a business understands how it can measure these elements, there are lots of opportunities for workplaces to take a proactive approach to managing mental health.

These include interventions aimed to protect everyone in the business, specific interventions targeted to higher risk work groups, and interventions that are inclusive and are aimed to reduce the impact of mental ill health where it does occur.

icare relationship manager Adam OLeary travels around the state supporting employers and helping them implement good mental health practices. He says that workplace harassment and bullying is the most common cause of mental health claims in NSW.

OLeary says its not easy to manage these claims. They can be quite personal in nature and can create a challenging working environment, especially when a direct accusation has been made against a colleague or manager.

icare relationship manager Adam O'Leary says that workplace harassment and bullying is the most common cause of mental health claims in NSW. Credit:icare

Mental health research centre The Black Dog Institutes data shows depression and anxiety are the most common psychological injuries in the workforce. In certain high-risk occupations, you may also see elevated levels of PTSD and substance abuse, says Dr Aimee Gayed from Black Dog Institutes Workplace Mental Health Research Program.

She says organisations have a responsibility regardless of the cause of a workers mental illness to support their staff through a period of mental ill health and provide an environment free of stigma.

It is important upper management model accepting and supportive behaviours towards staff who are experiencing mental ill health, and provide evidence-based training for their managers if they are uncertain how to support staff, she says.

Strategies managers can implement include initiating conversations about mental illness as soon as it becomes known an employee is unwell. Its also important to maintain contact with employees regularly during periods of ill health because there are many benefits to taking a proactive approach to mental health.

When workplaces support the mental health needs of staff and better manage mental health risk factors present in the workplace, we see an increase in health and productivity and a reduction in absence. Workers are also more able to stay at work or return to work sooner from a period of leave for mental health reasons than those who are not supported, she adds.

Credit Union Australia (CUA) is a great example of a business that has taken a planned and proactive approach to good mental health in the workplace. They looked at their data and consulted with their people and have specific solutions for their needs, says Ekkelenkamp.

PwC research has found financial services has a high incidence of mental health issues, which is one reason why CUA takes a proactive approach to supporting good mental health.

CUAs senior safety health and wellbeing business partner Vanessa De Amicis explains the frontline role its team members play during stressful times in their customers lives is one reason why its important to support employees mental health.

The financial services sector has a high incidence of mental health issues, says PwC research. Credit:Getty

When youre buying a house, going through a divorce or after a death, one of the first steps is getting your finances in order. We also work in a highly regulated environment and understanding how banking and insurance works is complex. So our workplace is inherently stressful. As a credit union, mutual good is part of our purpose and values. So we have a genuine interest in caring for our peoples mental health, she adds.

CUAs program recognises people's mental health is impacted by many aspects such as relationships, physical health and also personal development. So it has a multi-pronged approach to supporting staff mental health and wellbeing.

It provides team members with access to the Headspace mindfulness mobile app and conducts health assessments to identify people who are at risk of declining mental health (as well as physical health). It also gives staff access to a mental health portal full of great information, tools and resources. Additionally, it trains leaders to have evidence-based, structured conversations with team members to support good mental health practices across the business.

CUA measures how effective its actions are in relation to supporting good mental health. Thanks to its focus on this issue, 79 per cent of its people believe it is proactive in supporting their wellbeing.

Ultimately, says Ekkelenkamp, good mental health in the workplace all comes down to culture. It's important to make it okay to talk about mental health and to ensure leaders are appropriately equipped to have good conversations with their teams, especially when people work remotely and are less likely to have traditional relationships with leaders. Its also essential not just to support people when they're unwell but to prevent mental health problems from developing in the first place, she adds.

There are dividends for businesses that get this right. A more engaged workforce and a workforce that feels supported, regardless of what's happening in their life, are just a few.

This leads to operational benefits such as longer tenure and higher productivity, as well as lower workers' compensation costs and reduced sick leave. Moreover, focusing on protecting and promoting mental health not only makes good business sense, it makes good sense from a community perspective as well.

Do you want to make workplace safety a priority for your business? icare can partner with you to offer valuable strategies to reduce the risk of physical and psychological injuries in the workplace.

For more info visit https://www.icare.nsw.gov.au/prevention

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Creating a mentally healthy workplace - Sydney Morning Herald

When Dave Anderson started Famous Daves in Hayward, Wis., 25 years ago, his plan was to smoke up a couple cases of ribs and then go fishing. He had no idea that people would drive 100 miles to eat ribs, brisket and corn muffins. At its peak, the barbecue chain grew to 200 locations across the country. It is now at more than 130 locations in 33 states and three countries. After a period of revolving CEOs who paid little attention to Andersons core beliefs, he says current CEO Jeff Crivello has put the restaurant chain back on track. Its smaller, neighborhood-focused restaurants are still using original recipes side by side with healthier alternatives. The two sat down for an interview last week at the corporate office in Minnetonka:

Q: Dave, when you started your first restaurant in Hayward 25 years ago, did anyone tell you that barbecue was not really an upper Midwestern thing?

Anderson: They did more than just tell me that. They laughed. When we were building the first one, people would drive up and say, What are you doing? Id say Im building a rib joint and theyd say Are you crazy? Theres nothing but Swedes and Norwegians up here in Hayward. Nobody knows what a barbecue joint is here. Why arent you doing this in Nashville, Memphis or Kansas City? Who knew that by the end of the summer in a town of 2,000 people, we were serving almost 6,000 a week.

Q: What convinced you that it could succeed?

Anderson: I had a cabin up there and would hold backyard barbecue parties and at some point people would come and say, Anderson, why arent you selling this? You should open up a restaurant. I dont think I ever thought it would grow until people starting poking me in the chest and saying, When are you putting one of these in my town?

Q: Competition is fierce among restaurants, whether its barbecue, pizza or burgers. Smokey Bones, Tona Roma, TGI Fridays and Chilis are hurting. How do you stay alive?

Crivello: Competition has become brutal in the last 10 years. As the market has evolved from full service to counter service, the quality of the food has been downgraded in most counter-serve models. Were going to stick to the great food weve always served for 25 years. When Dave started he said someone must be willing to drive 100 miles to have the ribs or another favorite and that has helped us stand the test of time.

Q: How is barbecue different from pizza or burgers?

Anderson: Barbecue typically has more of an everyday appeal down South. So we have to offer just plain good food.

Crivello: Weve added turkey, doughnuts, salads, bowls, and Beyond Meat to cast a wider net. Were trying to attract a lower age demographic. Theyre the ones buying the non-barbecue items. But we have core items that we dont mess with called the third rail ribs, brisket and corn muffins.

Q: Jeff, what kind of an imprint has Dave made on Famous Daves that does not relate to food?

Crivello: Both Dave and his family have made huge philanthropic efforts, giving millions of dollars to work with Native American schools and at-risk youth in inner-city and rural areas. Hes brought the management team to personal development seminars called Life Skills. Our general managers tenure, at 10-years plus, is unheard of in this business.

Anderson: I grew up on the west side of Chicago never thinking I could succeed in life. I was like the dumbest kid in class with Native American parents. There were a lot of struggles in my early years. I always felt a need to pay it forward. I realized that if we were going to be successful, we had to grow people who genuinely believed they could be successful. Our training program put the focus on people rather than the history and products. Most companies say, Heres our product line and our goal, and they tap you on the butt and say Go get em tiger. We created leadership from the heart.

Q: Dave, how did you get into barbecue?

Anderson: I never got into it as much as I was born into it. When my dad, whos from Oklahoma, married my mom after the war in 1945, they moved to Chicago because thats where all the jobs were. My dad used to haul my mom down south every other weekend to learn how to make fried chicken. That was the intensity for barbecue. I knew my family was different because when all the other kids were going out for burgers and pizza, we went to the south side of Chicago for rib tips. I can remember eating at Lems Bar-B-Q, a black-owned barbecue joint at 59th and State Street as early as 1959.

Q: Jeff, how are you celebrating the anniversary?

Crivello: Were doing Famous Deals with $3 burgers on Mondays, $2 ribs on Tuesdays, $4 pork sandwiches on Wednesdays and $5 hand-breaded chicken sandwiches on Thursdays.

Q: Dave, what does Jeff bring to the table?

Anderson: First, he grew up eating Famous Daves. Hes willing to take on the hard stuff to become a stronger company. For any restaurant to be around 25 years is not so much a testament of what happens in the ivory tower but what happens in the restaurants. Jeff and I both realize that the most important people in the company are the ones that are belly to belly with our guests.

Originally posted here:
BBQ and doughnuts: Famous Dave and the CEO who turned things around - Star Tribune

Morgan Sindall Infrastructure has sponsored the school as a lead partner alongside Heathrow Airport Ltd and Brunel University.

Morgan Sindall Infrastructure is currently working at Heathrow to upgrade key elements of the airports infrastructure including taxiways, a number of landside roads and car parks. The partnership with UTC Heathrow will provide opportunities for young people to enhance their skills and development in local communities where it works.

The company will work in partnership with UTC Heathrow to help run a variety of programmes to provide students with real project-based learning experiences and personal development skills essential for employment pathways.Their commitment to UTC Heathrow will also include funding for the provision of essential equipment and resources, offer work experience placements, as well as contributing employees time in school for mentoring and practical project learning.

Simon Smith, managing director of Morgan Sindall Infrastructure, commented: We are delighted to support this innovative school as a Lead Partner and privileged to be able to help positively influence the students and their lives after education. We are keen to share our success with students to help them achieve all they want in their future careers.

We are very grateful to Lord Baker for his sterling work as chair and co-founder of the Baker Dearing Educational Trust, and Wayne Edwards, Principal UTC Heathrow, for the opportunity of this partnership. Our own teams benefit greatly from the relationship and we look forward to playing our part within this fantastic school.

Michael Halliday, head of employer engagement strategy at the Activate Learning Education Trust which manages the Heathrow UTC, said: We are delighted to be working with Morgan Sindall Infrastructure in building the engineering skills pipeline and in developing innovative ways in which young people are prepared for the world of work.

With the experience that the Morgan Sindall Infrastructure team brings, we will together foster an environment where we transform young peoples lives through learning.

Wayne Edwards, principal at UTC Heathrow, added: We are extremely pleased to be partnering with Morgan Sindall Infrastructure to help support the education of young people in the Hillingdon area. Students here will benefit from developing the employability skills and plugging the skills gap that we have currently in the UK.

These skills will help support the students moving forward in their future whether they go to University, into an apprenticeship or employment.

Link:
Morgan Sindall Infrastructure partners with UTC Heathrow - Planning, BIM & Construction Today

I thought I knew about feminism. I had the word FEMINIST written in black marker pen across the front of my homework diary aged 15, along with an anti-war sticker that incongruously involved a cupcake. I had graduated from the girl power of my primary school years to reading Germaine Greer on a beanbag in the college library. I felt sorry for the girls in sixth form getting Brazilians, who, unlike my enlightened self, clearly hadnt clocked that waxing was a tool of patriarchal oppression. I studied feminist theory, went to feminist gatherings and listened to feminist podcasts. I had spent several evenings sitting cross-legged at a collective organised by other middle-class, university-educated women talking about intersectionality and Frida Kahlo. By the time I graduated from university, I had firmly absorbed a list of the correct ideas and words that I needed to be a proper feminist (but was probably not someone you wanted to invite to a dinner party).

In 2015, two years after graduating, I began a job working in a high-security womens prison. I had read enough statistics and policy reports before I started to know that women in prisons were in desperate need of a little female empowerment. But what I quickly learned was that my feminist education had a thick wedge of information missing: namely, the part where it connected to actual women being very fundamentally oppressed because of their gender. Confronted by someone whose cervix had been plugged with four egg-sized capsules of crack cocaine on the behest of a controlling boyfriend who would reap the profits, I found it difficult to work out quite how my Frida Kahlo T-shirt and mansplaining radar were going to help things.

I quickly learned that my feminist education had a thick wedge of information missing

Women in prison are a group statistically likely to be on the wrong side of almost any curve: to have grown up in areas of deprivation and be victims of childhood sexual exploitation, sexual and domestic violence, domestic homicide and homelessness. Half of women in prison are there for committing a crime to support someone elses drug habit almost always a mans. For some, this crime is selling sex from pavements, or soliciting; for plenty of others it is professional shoplifting, known as grafting. This means pocketing anything from fillet steak to mascara to be resold round the houses. In the months leading up to Christmas, shopping lists are collected in pubs for toys and gifts to be stolen on request and sold cut-price. Women are sent out on these grafting missions because they are seen as less conspicuous than men.

Needless to say, I was very green in my first few months in prison. I worked between the education and chaplaincy departments and the majority of my time was spent running art classes to help women with their personal development and self-expression.

I had been helping to run a soup kitchen, and lived at a community house where we gave homeless people emergency shelter in our spare room, so I had naively thought the problems would feel familiar. It was so different, though, when those issues unstable housing, addiction and abuse were condensed in the prison, packed into classrooms and three metre by two metre cells.

In one session, we asked the women to make an A3 map of their lives from torn-up magazines. The collage would show a road that meandered from their past experiences to future goals. Almost every road began with bottles of vodka, syringes and shadowy characters, and almost every one ended with symmetrical houses and white wedding dresses and Laura Ashley sofas. I had spiked the magazine pile with my partners railway-modelling magazines and glossy Sunday supplements in the hope of inspiring something different a new job, an interesting hobby, some travel, perhaps? but to little avail. What else would you be doing in the future? I asked Cathy*, looking at the scenes of domesticity she aspired to. Youve been writing some beautiful poetry about your experiences, I told her. I could help you get them published as part of a campaign for prison reform.

Cathy was about my age (29) but since leaving the care system had only known the control of either a man or the state. She, like many others, was a shoplifter and was frequently in and out of prison for theft and drug possession. It will be finding the one that will get me out of my mess, she said. He will look after me and keep people away who come round trying to sell me gear [heroin] again.

Cathys was an oft-told story. She had been prevented from seeing her children by social services because she couldnt stop seeing an abusive partner. He kept coming round and, against her best judgment, she opened the door.

What I wanted to say was that she didnt need a man to straighten her life out for her, that she had everything she needed inside of her (life advice that works best when Instagrammed over a picture of a thin white girl walking into a sunset).

In time I came to realise that she was probably right. Ambition and independence are a good deal further up the hierarchy of need than security. Its pretty realistic to assume that the quickest way to ward off a coercive and abusive man is to find another man who is kinder and stronger to stand in the way.

Prison changed my attitude to sex work, too. The jail had just appointed its first female governor and she was keen to put feminism on the agenda for International Womens Day that year. My projects (I had previously hosted a lecture by a non-binary Mars astronaut, run a workshop on gender-neutral pronouns and started a choir that sang protest songs) that would have been met with eye-rolls before her arrival were now enthusiastically scheduled: a showing of the film Made in Dagenham followed by a debate on the gender pay gap. The learning and skills department was running a concurrent visit from a local museum, featuring artefacts from the suffragette movement.

I had engaged with ideological debates on the topic of sex work before, of course I had. I knew that to question whether sex work is really like any other work would make you a dreaded swerf (sex worker exclusionary radical feminist) and like the patriarchy is an attempt to control what women do with their bodies. People dont need rescuing, the theory goes, they need rights and unions.

I had assumed that sex work was well paid. Most women could only keep 10%

Phoebe was the first to speak after I had introduced the topic of equal pay and sexism in the workplace. She was, as many of the women in prison were, on the game. She worked as an escort, managing her business online, so she could charge her own prices and didnt need to rely on a pimp. She was fairly new to the jail, and had been transferred from a big city prison, ruffling the other inmates with her manicured nails and diamante sliders. I dont think women get it worse at all, she said. We get doors opened, bought presents, we got everything we need to get what we want right here. She ran her hand down the length of her body and winked. You cant do that if youre a man.

She directed her comments pointedly to the woman next to her. Lesley was the kind of sex worker we more often see in prison, known as a survival sex worker, someone on the game because they have no other choice. Lesley sold 6 blowjobs from street corners to fund her and her partners heroin addictions, the signs of which showed on her face, with hollowed cheeks and yellowed teeth. Before I worked in prisons, I had assumed that sex work must be quite well paid per hour that even those with a pimp could surely enjoy a 60:40 split of the takings. This was wishful thinking. Although there are plenty of women like Phoebe, they are less likely to end up in jail, meeting people like me. Most of the women I met were getting more like 10%, or being paid in drugs and housing rather than cash. The almost universally male pimps often have a group of women in their employ and rake in the takings in return for protection. In other words, its a racket. Survival sex work has a worse gender pay gap than almost any other industry. Does anyone disagree with Phoebe? I asked. There was a silence, then Lesley piped up. I dont see anyones boyfriends having to go out on the game, she said. Phoebe rolled her eyes. No ones making you, babe. And no one is setting your prices that low either. I started to sense that there was some sort of argument from the wing going on here that I was not aware of, and the spat was working its way into our discussion in the guise of a price war. Youre bringing everyones prices down with what you charge on the pavement, you slut. By this point, they had both got up. We do the same thing, Lesley shouted. Dont you go thinking youre better than me. By this point, I had lost the room. Security had arrived. And the questions I had planned about unionisation and female solidarity were drowned out by more immediate concerns.

It was not the International Womens Day I had planned. But as happened so often in my time in prison, the theories and beliefs I came in with sat uncomfortably next to the nuance of the reality. The majority of sex workers I met in prison, who arrived with bruises and track-marks, would rather have been doing anything else. They needed their rights protected, sure, but they also wanted a route out. The reality was not simple. It rarely is.

I learned that my idealism had made me treat feminism like a club rather than a journey. My self-congratulatory, cross-legged-femcast feminism was not flexible enough to accommodate the volume of womens conflicting experiences, thoughts and feelings in the prison.

The truth is that some women want to start a business, and others would like the safety and security provided by giving control to a trustworthy man, at least for now. Some sex workers want unions, others want an escape route. For feminism to be at all useful, it has to be uncomfortable. It has to include people whom it would be easier to leave out: women who say theyre not feminists; who think they need a man to save them, or who say they fancy Piers Morgan.

Working in prison messed up my ideas of what feminism should be. It didnt invalidate the ideas I had learned and fought for, it just disrupted the clean lines, leaving me with unresolved tensions and fewer opinions. I went into prison thinking that I would be able to use feminism to help empower women, and to reform a system. Instead I met women who taught me about feminism, and saw myself change instead.

* Womens names have been changed.

Jailbirds: Lessons from a Womens Prison by Mim Skinner is published by Seven Dials (RRP 16.99) To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com or call 020 3176 3837. Free UK p&p over 10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of 1.99.

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I thought I knew about feminism then I started work in a womens prison - The Guardian