Episodes
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In this bonus episode of Building Better Leaders Season 3 we speak to Jennifer Garvey Berger, CEO of Cultivating Leadership – a B Corp that supports leaders, teams, and whole organisations to rise to the challenge and opportunity in a complex, changing world.
Jennifer has a masters and doctorate from the University of Harvard, where she was the student of professor Bob Keegan whose work on adult development theory formed the basis of Jennifers research.
Jennifer is also the author of several books and the reason we've got her on the podcast is to talk about her latest book Changing on the Job which is in its second edition.
In this podcast conversation we talk to Jennifer about her latest book, asking her about:What is adult development theory and why is it important in leadership?What are the four forms of mind?Which questions you can ask to uncover which form of mind you are probably operating in currently?What is complexity fitness?How to identify where your team might be operating from today?The role of the ego in adult development theoryHow do you move towards the self-transforming mindset?Which leaders Jennifer thinks operate from the self-transforming mindset today?
Jennifers Leadership Essentials:Get curious about your own sense making. Ask what other possible perspectives can I take and consider in this situation?Actively listen in a more open and curious way. What is causing this person to say and think this way?Take care of your body. How can I get better quality sleep, choose my diet more carefully, and nourish my mind and body? This conservation was a real privilege, and we are incredibly grateful to Jennifer for giving up her time to join us on the podcast. If you’d like to buy her book or find out more about her, please check out:
https://www.cultivatingleadership.com/
Follow Jennifer on LinkedIn
Buy the book here -
In the fourth episode of Building Better Leaders Season 3 we look at how peak performance works at work. John and Rachael explore the concept of peak performance in a business context, discussing its cultivation, application, and sustainability within organisations.
The conversation starts by examining the psychological aspects of performance, including the Yerkes-Dobson law and the relationship between stress, motivation, and productivity. The conversation covers the importance of understanding individual performance curves and the four short terms zones performance can fall into - the recuperation zone, performance zone, stretch zone and overwhelm. Then they discuss how leaders can use this information to better manage energy levels to balance high performance with rest periods to avoid burnout and maintain productivity in themselves and their teams within the workplace.
The coaching questions posed in this podcast include:
Asking leaders to understand that the performance curve is unique for everyone
How you take personal responsibility for managing your own time, energy management and stress levels to ensure you achieve effective performance.
Understanding that peak performance is not always achievable in the workplace, but it is a valuable goal to strive for.
Leadership Essentials:
Get curious as to how you manage your energy levels by recognising the relationship between your arousal and stress leversWhat are the factors at play in your role and organisation that require peak performance, and restoration? What skill levels are required? What do you need to get better at?Is peak performance something you should be striving for in your role? Short term - Yes, Long term - No. -
Missing episodes?
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In the third episode of Building Better Leaders Season 3 we take a look at the often elusive subject of motivation. Why does our motivation wax and wane? What can we do to increase it?
Starting with a discussion on the continuum of motivation we explore what we can learn by identifying the various stages of motivation to help you connect your behaviour and thoughts to create greater self direction and productivity.
We also link motivation to Gretchen Rubin’s 4 Tendency Types by referring back to previous podcast with some surprising discoveries as to how you might change the way you motivate others.
Finally we introduce you the four main behavioural drivers:
Belief, Rewards, our Ego’s and take a look at our darker side when we discuss our drive to be coercive.
Leadership Essentials:
1. Get curious about yourself , what motivates you?
2. Think about the 5 people you spend most of your time with
3. Listen out for language like: I should, I have to, I will. What are you saying really? -
John and Rachael share their approach to improving teamwork and interpersonal tolerance, by offering insights into how to enhance self-awareness and understand personality differences.
We discuss both popular working preference tools: Myers Briggs Personality Types, and 16 Personalities offering insight, working examples and answer the following questions:
I - Introversion E - Extroversion - How do you direct and receive energy? (14:00)
N - iNtuition S - Sensing/ObServant - How do you take in information? (28:50)
T - Thinking J - Judging - How do you decide and come to conclusions? (35:50)
F - Feeling P - Perceiving/Prospecting - How do you approach the outside world?(42:20)
We look at how these different working preferences come into play in workplace team dynamics, and how they show up in our personal lives. Understanding these types gives you an objective insight to enhance your professional and personal relationships, as well as personal choices.
If you want to take the 16 Personalities Quiz to understand your traits and working preferences you can click the link here.
Our Leadership Essentials:There is no right or wrong; just appreciate the differences in peopleEverything that irritates us about others, can lead us to understanding ourselves betterHave fun with this, there's much to learn and enjoy with greater understanding. -
Inspired by Gretchen Rubin's "The Four Tendencies" we take a deeper look into Tendency Types. Gretchen's work looks into how you respond to expectations. Whilst not absolute, people tend to fall into one of the following tendency types:
Upholders want to know what should be done (6:46)Questioners want justifications (17:25)Obligers need accountability (26:30) Rebels need the freedom to do something in their own way (34:25)We look at how these different tendency types present for children, and how it challenges us as Parents and Carers, helping you identify your families tendency type, and giving some tips on how to approach some difficult conversations.
As we describe each type we also look at the sort of things to look out for in the world of work, what this means for you as a leader, and how you can identify team members and alter your approach.
If you want to take Gretchens Tendency Quiz to understand your tendency type you can click the link here.
Our Leadership Essentials:How you can increase your own self-awareness of your response to expectationsHow you can check your own perspective, and consider how you approach othersTake the opportunity to ask more questions, rather than make statements.For more information you can visit https://gretchenrubin.com/ -
In this month’s episode of the podcast, we are joined by serial entrepreneur Lorri Haines. Lorri and his fiancé Fearne McCann (Public figure and star of ITVBe’s My Family and Me) are co-founders of mental health and wellbeing app Shoorah.
In this conversation we continue our theme of mental wellness and how mental health, and personal wellbeing can either improve or reduce the productivity of teams in the workplace. We explore new ways that leaders can prevent, and support employees improved wellbeing using new technology, and dare we say it – artificial intelligence! Which is a core component of the Shoorah’s counselling offer – Shuru.
If you’re curious about how technology can be used to help not hinder our wellbeing, how we function in a world of ever-increasing stress, and how the NHS could be revolutionised by using technology and AI, then this conversation will spark your interest.
Lorri’s 3 leadership essentials are:Do what you say you are going to doPeople don’t work for you, they work with youDon’t work so hard because one day it’s going to be over.Excitingly Lorri also shares some brand-new features coming later this year in the Shoorah app, and how HR and L&D managers in organisations can try the app for free. It’s also worth noting that the cost for Shoorah business is significantly reduced per user. Find out more and request a free demo at: https://shoorah.io/shoorah-business/
You can contact Lorri at [email protected] or follow him on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/lozzahaines/ or LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorri-haines-8a1336136/ -
Melissa Sookia, founder of Live, discusses menopause, its impact on women in leadership roles, and the need for affordable treatment.
Menopause symptoms vary and can affect productivity at work. Perimenopause starts with subtle changes like irregular periods and mood swings. Awareness is key in supporting women experiencing symptoms. Menopause can last for a 15-year period, with some women sailing through, while others may have severe symptoms.
Lack of awareness often leads to confusion and emotional distress for women experiencing symptoms.
We ask Melissa what can women do for themselves, and where should they go for help and direction. What should considerate employers be thinking about when it comes to discussing this thorny subject?
Leadership Essentials:
Melissa shares her main takeaways about what women should be thinking about:
1. Communication: whether its your home life, or in the workplace talk about your feelings, and symptoms because you need to be heard and understood
2. Delegate: shift some of your workload
3. Time Management: take time, and be kind to yourself.
Melissa can be contacted through linkedin, or you can visit her website and book a consultation with her at LIVVE.UK -
What does wellbeing in the workplace mean to you? There’s a lot of talk about mental health, and mental wellbeing, yet when it comes to understanding the full breadth and depth of our wellness this nowhere near the full story. Are your people happy, healthy and comfortable?
In this episode Rachael & John are in conversation with Claire Burns Health and Wellbeing Consultant - Mental Health First Aid Instructor and Founder of Wurkplace Wellbeing; uncovering the range and scope of employee help, that better leaders should be seeking within their organisations.
They uncover the four pillars of well-being and discover how each one can be affected by the other. Looking after your employees makes obvious sense, it should be the human thing to do; vital for the individual, their family and friends and the good of your organisation. Yet it is not so obvious to match peoples outward behaviour with their thinking, and understanding what’s most important to them.
Three Things for Leaders to be on the lookout for:-
People have different starting points - The critical importance of showing affirmation and validation of someones situationVulnerability to stress - Appreciating the different triggers, and our individual capacity that fill up our “stress tank"Hidden behaviours - Asking why perfectionism is a real problem alert?Claire’s Leadership Essentials:
1. Curiosity
2. Empathy
3. Role Modelling
The four pillars of wellbeing: social, financial, mental health, and physical health.
You can contact Claire on LinkedIn, and access her website here at https://www.wurkplace-wellbeing.co.uk -
In this podcast Rach & John talk to Former Counter Terrorism Covert Operations Leader and HUMINT specialist turned Entrepreneur and Solo Ocean Rower – Mike Bates.
Born and raised in Doncaster, Mike carved out a career that most boys would dream of. Spending years undercover as a human intelligence specialist, covert counter-terrorism operations leader and commando in the Royal Marines. Mike was the real-life James Bond. But all those years spent undercover, Mike didn't know who he really was. Until he undertook the biggest challenge of his life - becoming the fastest British person to complete the ‘The World’s Toughest Row' solo in a little over 46 days.
Rooted in his personal experiences of fighting terrorists, tackling mother nature at her most powerful and attaining his black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Mike shares his unique experiences to provide a powerful and credible perspective on resilience, leadership, humility and overcoming adversity.
Leadership Essentials
Courage – to challenge the status quo, to do things differently, to admit you are wrong. Clarity - of mission. The mission needs to be absolutely clear. Clarity of communication with no doubt in any communication what you are trying to do and say. Clarity about the achievement and praising staff. Clarity in the culture of the organisation you are trying to create. Credibility – this is different from experience. It's integrity, care and empathy. The ability of a leader to inspire others to follow you.Get in touch with Mike:
Links to Mike Bates on: LinkedIn, Instagram
Or email Mike at: [email protected] -
Everyone keeps talking about where they want to work, how they'd prefer to work, yet employers often have a different view; the media have dubbed it "The Great Return," so for those of you with Zoom fatigue, or perhaps people who are reluctant to be in the workplace John & Rachael thought it was worth talking about.
With more questions and answers they look at the dilemma from both employer and employees points of view:
How much do we trust our people to do the work?Is productivity now a problem?Should we keep our offices anymore?What about people's health and their ability to be social when working remotely?Should we cater for everyone's needs?What do our clients think we should be doing? Do they even care?What sort of leadership style is being dictated by hybrid working?How long can you put up with back to back virtual meetings?When do I actually get any work done? Ledership Essentials:
What kind of approach does the work require?What kind of leadership style do different people in your organisation need?What is the role of individuals in meetings, do people really know why they are there? -
In the second podcast on 2023 we chat with David Harper, Career Coach. David is an ex CIO for a major UK insurance company with extensive experience of leading people in a £4bn business. In 2015 David was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer, initiating his own career move into coaching.
David’s true purpose is helping people achieve. We talk to him about how he enjoys helping younger people start their careers, the sort of questions he asks them, and how the value of truly listening to people is in very short supply.
We discuss the sort of questions that employers should be asking themselves when it comes to employing people in their late forties and early fifties and beyond. The value of employing people based on outcomes and results, rather than just paying someone a salary based on a number of hours.
David’s Leadership Essentials
Remembering it’s always about people and to speak and listen to your team at an emotional levelLeadership is about walking about, being available without agendaGetting into the work; visit and listen to the people who actually use your products and services David can be contacted at https://harper360.com -
In the first episode of 2023 John & Rachael are joined by Business Coach and entrepreneurJonathan Mills.
Jonathan started this career as a footballer for Cambridge Untied but at age 18 fell into a franchise business model that would pave the way for him to own and lead not one but four businesses.
Jonathan shares his habits on effective time management, task privatisation and journalling to increase self awareness. He shares his thoughts on the importance of trust in leadership and how any leaders first job is to set clear expectations and hold their team members to account.
This is a fantastic conversation for anyone in a leadership role who finds themselves time poor, over worked and not being able to prioritise their own development.
If you loved this conversation and would like to get in touch with Jonathan you can find him on Instagram @Jonathan_ascend360 the Ascend360 website is https://www.ascend360.co.uk/ if business coaching groups are of interest. And his football coaching franchises are with https://www.premier-education.com/
Jonathan's Leadership Essentials: (58 minutes)
1. Self awareness - knowing your strengths and weakness and surrounding yourself with people who are better than you
2. Integrity is key
3. Seeing the bigger picture and being able to see opportunities disguised as challenges
4. Ultimately doing your best and knowing that, that is enough. Letting go and surrendering to what the outcome will be. This is especially important if you are a perfectionist. -
In this weeks episode John & Rachael are joined by Executive Coach, Sue Baker. Sue has been working as a coach working with leaders at board level in large corporations since the 1990's.
Sue talks about how coaching has changed over the last couple of decades and how organisation and leaders requirements of coaching are changing as the challenges they face are change. Most importantly we talk about what is next in coaching. What new trends we are seeing in coaching? And what are some of the issues that senior leaders come to coaching looking to work on?
This is a fantastic conversation for anyone thinking about getting an executive coach or wondering what very senior leaders in organisations do in coaching sessions.
Sue shares her personal story of what she's learned in her coaching journey and how she's leaned more about herself as she's gained more experience as a female coach working with incredibly senior leaders in large corporates.
If you loved this conversation and would like to get in touch with Sue you can find her on LinkedIn or email her on: [email protected]
Sue's Leadership Essentials: (57:18)
1. Humility. Is an underrated leadership quality. Its time for the people with humility who ask for help can be the most powerful leaders
2. The ability connect. This is a mindset and a learned skill. When it's authentic it's really powerful to be in a great leaders sunshine. Being able to connect on a human level.
3. The courage to say we got this wrong. -
In this episode Rach & John visit the subject of Difficult Conversations, a topic which they cover in depth on their Building Better Leaders Programme.
“Good intentions don’t always result in good impact.” Often with the best of intentions things can go wrong, and the impact you intend is never the one you had in mind.
They tackle the subject from a “miscommunication” angle and take a look at three different areas of a conversation?
We learn from our ability to catch ourselves and become more self-aware of what we are contributing in any conversation, so understanding the anatomy of conversation can help us when we consider:
Who did what, Who said what, Who was right and wrong?How we tackle our feelings, and those of the other person?What does our behaviour in the heat of the moment say about us as a person?They discuss, various areas of a conversation and how we can better prepare and plan for a successful outcome.
The books referenced in the podcast which inspired their approach are:
“Difficult Conversations.” Patton, Stone & Heen. “Atlas of the Heart.” - Brene Brown
For more information on the Building Better Leaders Programme -
In this weeks episode Rachael & John are joined by Lee Warren to understand how using the Alexander Technique can help us communicate and perform better when under stress?
The way that you think affects the way you perform, and vice-versa; the way you perform affects the way you think
Remembering that stress is very uncreative, Lee take a little step back and asks us to think about focussing on our awareness.
He asks: Do you sometimes make the mistake of focussing on yourself when presenting, when you should be focussing on what the audience are expecting from the presentation?
Instead of thinking how am I doing? Turn your awareness to focussing on the audiences thinking:
-What’s in this for me?-What am I going to get out of this?-How will this help me?-Will I make any money?-Is this a good use of my time?
What does the audience expect to hear?What des the audience need to hear?
Lee also shares some really valuable tips on how we can network more effectively.
You can contact Lee at: leewarrenspeaker.com -
In this weeks podcast Rachael & John cover four different leadership styles.
How do you like to be led? Is it always the same for every aspect of your role?
When you're leading you team do you always use the same approach?
They differentiate between Directing, Coaching, Supporting and Delegating leadership styles explaining when and where you can effectively use each and how you might adapt your approach. -
On the podcast this week, in Leadership 101 a bitesized approach to:what leadership is and what it isn'thow leadership differs from managementwhere best to use a directive or non-directive styleIn the Coaching approach we ask which leader(s) have influenced you, what kind of leader are you? and what other leadership possibilities might be open to you?
Our bite-sized sessions are brought to you using content from our Inter-Active Building Better Leaders Webinar programme. -
In this weeks podcast we speak to Andrew Robshaw who after a life changing Parkinson’s diagnosis decided to pursue a question that had plagued him most of his working life.
What is the true meaning of value? And how can businesses better measure value in real time by looking beyond traditional accounting and economic processes we currently use.
Some of the questions we cover:What is value really?What is money?Is it the best measure of value?What paradigm shifts are required to make everyone in the world wealthier?What should Leaders be concentrating on in 2022?
Thankonomics is the exploration of "Value" in terms of appreciation, and how we can look beyond economics and the law of diminishing marginal returns. To instead looking at how appreciation of products and services changes over time and the customers state of "need."
Andrew's Leadership Essentials
1. Appreciation
2. Passion
3. Remember your people are here to help you solve your problem, support them, rather than give orders.
Andrew also shares his personal story on getting diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and the life changing treatment he has received to enable him to write this book and continue to live and work.
Andrew's Book Thankonomics -
We celebrate this episode by summarising the past year, sharing a little of our personal histories and reviewing the year spent with our wonderful guests.
We chat about our school age experiences and what shaped us as youngsters, and how & when our careers started. What did we see and hear at work, reflecting on the great leaders, and the not so great leaders? We discuss what led us to work together, and what was so alluring about coaching?
We each approach our guests Leadership Essentials in a different way; discussing what we have learnt about ourselves in the process.
A big thank you goes to all our Guests in 2021.
Kurt Lindley Drew Povey Jan Iceton Matt Lock Céline Williams Kevin Urrutia Philip Grant Dr. Josie McLean Dr. Pam Wells Katherine Whitton Tom Manning Andy Thomas Adrian Hawley Melanie Weller Simon Town Clare Pooley Jonathan Hemus Michael Lawrence Graham Keen Peter Pritchard Brian Bachand Colin Hunter Andy Copsey Gert Jan Hofstede -
In this weeks episode we meet Gert Jan Hofstede Professor at Wageningen University and co-author of “Cultures & Organisations - Software of the Mind.” He is a speaker and trainer about cross-cultural issues, evolution of culture, organisational behaviour, trust and transparency, specialising in agent-based models of socio-technical systems.
In understanding Cultures across the world, he make sense of understanding cultures in organisations and looks at how culture specifically influences leaders and leadership. We discuss peoples inert traits, and what tends to happen when people feel wronged.
By taking a look back over time we delve into how the dangers to people have changed from an outward perspective to a more inward threat. We ask Gert Jan why he describes “Culture as ripples on the ocean of shared human nature,” where he defines human nature as: “Status, power, and logic in reference groups.”
We all discuss how we’ve been affected by our experiences of leadership good and bad, and ask whether any individual is strong enough to coerce everyone? What traits must political leaders display, and how does this differ across the world?
Gert brings the whole cultural discussion to life with a short story loaded with lots of useful questions and examples describing the six issues of social life.
Gert Jan’s Leadership Essentials:
1. Maintaining a stable good mood, but be vigilant (technically: non-neurotic)2. Awareness that modesty counts when it comes to knowing that your followers make you3. Being Culture-aware (know that one size does not fit all)
Links for Gert Jan Hofstede: http://www.gertjanhofstede.com/ - Show more
