Joyce Matthews's Page

Pilates for the mind. I’d never thought of what I do as some kind of mind stretching exercise until my hairdresser called it that as she snipped away at my hair the other day.

I’d been paying my usual six weekly visit to get my haircut and we were discussing my latest trip to Brunei, where I work with the School Principals there. I described what I did, and how the programme evolved over the week, and how I challenge the participants to think in different ways, different directions.…

Sometimes we need a bit of a push to help us fly.

We might seem outwardly confident, knowledgeable and experienced. We might even believe that ‘we’re worth it”, but many of us falter when it comes to taking the first step to realizing our dreams.

My colleague Peter Smith often helps school leaders ‘fly’ by reading this Apollinaire quote at the culmination of a two week-long leadership programme.

“Come to the edge," he said.

"We can't, we're afraid!" they…

I was 6 when I decided I wanted to be a PE teacher. A lively child, I loved taking part in any kind of sporting activity. 

It was 1971 when I set eyes on our new track suited next-door neighbour. I was hooked. I wanted to be like her. I wanted to go to work in a tracksuit and trainers and play sport all day. No amount of persuasion or advice could change my…

The X files hold the key; the truth is out there, especially when it comes to discovering your own strengths.

Identify your strengths; it’s that what everybody needs to be able to do these days? It’s all over LinkedIn, in articles, self-help books and every leadership course you’ll ever go on. It’ll help you to “Screw Work Let’s Play” or “Find your Niche in 60 minutes or less“ or “Go Put your Strengths to Work”. We’ve all seen those types of articles, been given the task and tried to…