Author of:  Pause for Breath

Tell Us A Bit About Yourself... Based in Scotland, I am an executive coach, coach supervisor and T'ai Chi practitioner. In both my one-to-one work and in small groups of co-learners, I foster the embodiment of dialogue practices. I also host leadership retreats, enabling those caught up in relentless activity to pause for breath and clarify their leadership purpose. For more information see www.originate.org.uk.  

What Is Your Book About and who it is for? My book is for leaders, coaches and practitioners who are intrigued by their contribution to, and impact in, conversations, and who are committed to cultivating an authentic presence and voice.

My book explores:

• the influence of internal dialogue on your interactions with others and your effectiveness in your organisation;
• how to increase your versatility in chalenging or delicate conversations and to develop capacity for doing this in 'bad weather' (adverse conditions); and
• how to germinate systemic change, one leadership conversation at a time.

At the end of each chapter, there is a practice development activity and these are an integral part of the book. The potential benefits of actively working with the practice sessions are:

• raising awareness of your contributions to, and patterns in, conversations;
• exploring how mind, body and spirit influences what you say;
• trying out alternative ways of engaging in conversations, reflecting on any changes that result; and
• becoming more aware of your 'internal dialogue' and how it affects your interactions with others.

Readers who will gain the most are those who are interested in generating richer conversations and are ready to experiment with their own patterns on conversations with the aim of cultivating awareness and new practices and habits.

At the end of each section there is a resource list to enable readers to follow their curiosity and explore more about the material in that section.

You can read an excerpt from my book at http://aliainstitute.org/blog/2011/05/02/accidental-mindfulness/

You can read a review at http://meusblog.squarespace.com/journal/tag/dialogue

What Inspired You To Write It? When my clients asked me what they could read to help them deepen their understanding of what might be happening in their leadership conversations, I had to recommend several books to cover the things that I believe influence what we say and how we react to what others say. I wanted to write a book that would mean that my clients would have one starting place, exploring links between mindfulness, physiology, energy, breathing, leadership and dialogue theory and practice. I also wanted to provide further resources and some sign-posts for deeper inquiry into whatever most caught their attention and interest.

A key influence on my writing is my own experience that 'getting' a theory intellectually is not enough to engender and sustain change. Wendy Palmer says: "we cannot change our minds with our minds alone". We need to engage our body and spirit to fully inhabit new learning. It took me many years to truly grasp this and I hope to ease the path for others!

I was also inspired to write this book to share what I have learned in the last 10-12 years, which sheds interesting light on many of the leadership conversations I had when I was a Director of Finance. In those days I thought that things were very simple and that many things were so obvious that they didn't need to be said. I also thought that everyone thought like me and that people only needed to be told things once. So I didn't understand why people didn't get things right, why they didn't do what was clearly required or how I contributed to these circumstances myself. You can imagine the consequences. If only I had known then what I know now...

What Would You Like Your Readers To Get From Your Book? First and foremost I want readers to enjoy reading the book. I write in a conversational style and hope they will be drawn into conversation with me.

Next I would like readers to kindle their curiosity about what happens in conversations - I find this endlessly fascinating and I hope to spark a similar interest in readers. I also hope that readers will become deeply curious about themselves, in a kind and reflective way. I hope they will begin to connect more deeply to their body and spirit and to understand how these factors influence the conversations they have.

Mostly I hope that my book inspires leaders, coaches and other practitiners to develop their full potential and to more often inhabit their finest leadership spirit. I would like to begin to change the world, one leadership conversation at a time.