Architect - Stefan’s Week-notes 17/05/2026
Inspired by the weeknotes of friends and coachees including John Fitzgerald, Steve Messer and Nour Sidawi - I love doing these when I get time to ‘do it properly”. cementing thoughts, refining approaches and who knows , adding some value along the way.
Weeknotes
The theme of this week was architecture. Not just in my own work, but in the way I help others build their future and steward both their work and their calling. It was also about creating strategies that protect the source of their fire, while understanding and addressing the things that can so easily extinguish it.
1. Activities
This week felt like one of those weeks where many strands of my work began to pull together into something more coherent.
I coached a Marketing Director in an international consultancy, exploring strategy, measurement, delivery, and brand.
I met with the wonderful Camila Young to discuss innovation in the retail space, including the shift from barcode to QR code technology, and the evolution of her own coaching practice.
I spent time with Chris Brammall from the Isle of Wight Council, talking through the island’s economic development strategy and how to better align support for organisations ranging from the smallest local businesses to internationally ambitious disruptors.
I acted as a thinking partner to the Managing Director of a global consultancy, focusing on how to get the very best from several important new hires.
Through the Digital Boost programme, I mentored eight founders using the Business Model Canvas and delivered a full-day workshop helping business owners turn their ideas into viable offerings aligned with both their calling and the needs of their communities.
Across all of these conversations, I kept returning to three simple questions:
What are you here to build?
What is yours to own?
How will you architect it?
Calling. Claim. Architect.
2. The Central Thread
The central thread running through the week was a growing recognition that my work is often as much about being a thinking partner and adviser as it is about being a coach.
This week, more than ever, I found myself blending inquiry with opinion, reflection with perspective, and coaching with mentoring.
Sometimes the most valuable contribution is not another question.
Sometimes it is helping someone recognise that they are closer to burnout than they realise.
Sometimes it is naming a difficult decision that needs to be made.
Sometimes it is lending them confidence by sharing your own experience.
What struck me was how much value people derived from my willingness to draw on the full breadth of my background as a leader, entrepreneur, coach, artist, musician, and endurance athlete.
I was not just asking questions.
I was offering perspective.
I was helping those I work with Architect their future.
And that felt both natural and energising.
3. What Lit Me Up
One particularly meaningful moment came when someone with a prestigious fellowship doing exceptional work in strategy told me that the hour we spent together was the most valuable hour of their year so far.
That landed deeply.
Not because of the compliment itself, but because it affirmed that the synthesis of my experience can have a profound impact.
I was also energised by seeing the Stewardship Arc continue to come together. Ideas that have lived within my coaching practice for years are becoming a coherent and teachable methodology.
And I was encouraged by several conversations about Be the Waves. Sharing that larger vision and seeing others respond so positively reminded me that this is resonating beyond my own imagination.
4. What I’m Wrestling With
I’ve been wrestling with how best to shape Be the Waves so that it remains true to the vision while creating genuine space for collaboration.
I want a strong centre: a clear philosophy, methodology, and direction.
But I also want a generous edge, where others can bring their own wisdom, experience, and passion.
I am increasingly aware that the next step may be to gather a founding group of stewards: people who resonate with the vision and can help shape its governance, structure, and practical reality.
The challenge is to create something that is both coherent and collaborative, commercially viable and deeply purposeful.
In many ways, this is exactly the kind of architecture I most enjoy helping others create.
5. Personal Moments
This week I’ve enjoyed a series of wonderful conversations with people I’ve coached, mentored, or met along the way.
Many drifted beyond work into discussions about music, bands, art, writing, and creativity.
Those exchanges remind me that leadership is never just about outcomes.
It is about whole people carrying stories, passions, and dreams.
I’m also looking forward to seeing the kids this weekend as I collect them and take them to school next week.
And I’ve had some lovely conversations with my mum as we supported her through a couple of medical issues.
A reminder that stewardship begins much closer to home.
6. Stewardship Sightings
The clearest example of stewardship this week was a founder who decided, following our conversation, to book some time off.
After eight intense months of building a successful business from scratch, they had not fully paused to appreciate how far they had come.
Nor had they given themselves permission to recognise that they had done enough for now.
That simple act of stepping back felt profoundly important.
Sometimes stewardship is not about pushing harder.
It is about caring for the person carrying the vision.
7. Image of the Week
An empty pint glass resting on my crossed legs in a quiet pub.
A small salute to the week.
A recognition that enough had been done.
No need for another drink.
No need to keep pushing.
Just a moment to reflect, appreciate, and rest.
Sometimes success is simply knowing when to stop.
8. Beneath the Surface
The question beneath the surface this week has been:
Who am I becoming?
I feel increasingly comfortable stepping fully into the identity of a steward.
In truth, stewardship has shaped much of my life and work already.
But there is a difference between acting as a steward and consciously claiming that identity.
What is becoming clearer is that my calling is to help others identify the great things they are here to lead and to steward them well.
Be the Waves is the emerging expression of that purpose.
9. What Writing Flowed
One question in particular stood out:
What is the great thing you wish to lead?
Alongside that, I mapped the changes I would most like to see across the STEEPLE sectors and began pulling together many strands of my wider business vision.
What once felt like separate ideas is increasingly converging into a coherent body of work.
Helping good people lead great things well.
10. What I’m Carrying Forward
I’m carrying forward a renewed sense of energy to build something again.
There is something deeply satisfying about helping others construct what matters most to them while also applying the same thinking to my own work.
Be the Waves, the Stewardship Arc, and my coaching practice are beginning to form a single ecosystem.
And energetically, that feels like a very good place to be.
11. Parting Thought
Anything worthwhile building takes time.
That time is not a delay.
It is part of the work.
One of the most liberating realisations for me has been recognising that this wider ecosystem does not need to be completed overnight.
My ambition is to have much of it in place by my 50th birthday in January 2027.
That perspective has created a tremendous sense of release.
So my question to you this weekend is:
What is the great thing you wish to build, and are you giving it the time it deserves?
12. Sign-Off
Keep building what matters, keep questioning the system, and keep the volume somewhere between Nirvana and Rage Against the Machine.
You matter - and remembering that, may be the first act of stewardship.
If something in this resonates - or you’re carrying something you want to think through:
Just reply…
Ps - Oasis image taken by the brilliant Jill Furmanovsky