Celebrating 100 Episodes
Lessons for Leaders
Welcome to Lessons for Leaders. Can you believe it’s episode 100? The goal has always been to share lessons, learnings, tips and advice and even when things got tough with it, I’ve enjoyed it more and I’m proud to be able to say I got to 100. Many of my regular listeners will know that my girls are the reason I do what I do and my eldest girl is about to make me a Granny next month so it seems like a good time to pause the episodes for a while. This last one is a very special episode, with my other amazing girl joining me at the mic to ask some of the questions you, my listeners...
info_outline
How to Persuade Leaders to Invest in Wellbeing
Lessons for Leaders
This week I'm sharing top tips and conversations that I have frequently with people in organisations to help them know how to persuade leaders to invest in wellbeing. We're covering: What to do to persuade your leaders The 3 R’s that I like to go with organisations I work with. Why we need to look at revenue in different ways and I dive into specifics here to give you a head start. How to highlight the risks to an organisation Why it’s important to include reputation in this persuasive detail too. It’s easy to say wellbeing can help to reverse employee burnout and reduce stress,...
info_outline
Why a Good Leader Will Give Teams Autonomy
Lessons for Leaders
This week I'm joined by Gemma Woodward who is People & Culture Manager for Netsells in York. We are talking about leadership and autonomy. Listen in for: What are the benefits of allowing autonomy. How leaders can encourage autonomy in their teams. Where leaders get it wrong with a top down leadership and how it can affect their people and the organisation what's one key thing that people should remember about autonomy Key comments and take-aways A top down leadership can create a fear of coming forward and fear of making mistake, their ideas and decisions might...
info_outline
Why Leaders Need to Get Back to the Floor
Lessons for Leaders
What on earth is back to the floor? I start with that and why I'm covering the subject (it was inspired by my wonderful friend and leader Tina. So I'm also covering today: Why is it important to know first hand what’s happening on your shop floor Some real life examples and stories of how back to floor worked, and how it didn’t One really, really important question to ask yourself I share stories from my experience in corporate and Tina's feedback too to give real life examples - some are funny, some are lovely, one is a little shocking! Here's one of the key things .......
info_outline
Why it's Worth Investing in Stress Awareness
Lessons for Leaders
This week on the podcast I'm talking about Why it's Worth Investing in Stress Awareness. I wonder if you've ever had a time when you've ever felt stressed and known what would help ... but not bothered to do it???? This is just one of the reason why I'm sharing information that can help you make a decision on whether it's worth investing in stress awareness. I cover: What is causing Stress in the workplace? How Will Stress Awareness Help Your Organisation? How Does Stress Impact Productivity? Is it Worth Investing in Stress Awareness? Ways I can support you or help for you to do...
info_outline
Lockdown Lessons for Leaders
Lessons for Leaders
Two years since the UK locked down from the Covid 19 virus. In fact pretty much the world locked down. It changed so many things About how we live How we work Connections & communication Wellbeing – what were thankful for – fear / perspective Resilience Have you looked back at those pictures from cities that were empty and streets that were bare? I know I have. There were bits that I loved, bits I didn’t love. There was a significant difference in how people viewed the lockdown. Some loved it. Some hated it. For some it was...
info_outline
Supporting Female Leaders
Lessons for Leaders
In honour of International Women's Day, I’m here to give ideas of ways that you can support women in leadership roles. There can be a number of reasons why there are less women than men in leadership roles. Data from the House of Commons found that companies led by women outperform those led by men - but despite this, we're very far from achieving gender parity in the workplace I share information about Break the Bias Unconscious biases, opinions, beliefs are formed early in our childhood. We learn these from family, friends, people of authority that are social...
info_outline
Why Empathy is Crucial for Great Leaders
Lessons for Leaders
This week I'm talking to you about why empathy is crucial for great leaders. I cover : What is empathy Why does it matter in leadership Whether empathy can be learned How it can improve performance, create connections and What you can do to be more empathic. Why empathy is crucial for great leaders and what is empathy anyway? Empathy is the ability to experience and relate to the thoughts, emotions, or experience of others. So it's about truly feeling what the other person is feeling. You know I often talk about how we don't 'do' emotions. But empathy is about...
info_outline
Easy Ways to Say No
Lessons for Leaders
Do you find it difficult to say no to people? Perhaps it means you end up being busy, stressed, over-committed? Often when we struggle to say no to people it can leave us feeling used, put up-on, juggling too many things. Are you the one who ends up working late because you’ve said yes to others, yet you’re the one with more to do? This episode is for you where I talk about Say no and establish healthy boundaries How to handle the fear, stress, worry and guilt The surprising reason that saying no is good for you Key phrases that you can begin to use to get...
info_outline
De-stigmatizing Mental Health
Lessons for Leaders
This week I'm sharing tips and information about De-stigmatizing Mental Health. I share key points on: Why mental health is stigmatized How stigma brings shame and what that looks like How it will impact on your organisation Good news on the wider impact of investing in destigmatizing Key things that you can do and examples too When we prevent people talking openly and transparently we also prevent those who need it from having support. Stigma brings shame. Listen in for information about how people respond then feel ashamed and what the impact will be...
info_outlineCuriosity is the impulse to seek new information and experiences and explore novel possibilities is a basic human attribute.
Curiosity is something that we're born with. Listen as Emma talks about how a toddler or young child demonstrates that natural curiosity. All those questions, and exploring and no holding back on whether things are right or wrong. They’re just amazed and interested in everything. Emma often says that brains are like sponges, taking everything in and learning at an amazing rate. A young person is like a little learning machine and part of this is because of curiosity.
Curiosity is often the first point of the learning process, with a gradual move from a conscious to an unconscious action. Emma explains this more on the podcast.
Research shows that curiosity improves our ability to learn and retain information.
Curiosity means we explore, try, learn, invent. Just think about all that exploration and what if that has resulted in high rise buildings, mobile phones, computers, aeroplanes, travel in space.
Apparently Einstein used to say
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious,”
Curiosity is a mindset that can be activated. Curiosity is the fuel for inquiry, learning and discovery – that’s why it’s critical for you, personally, professionally as well as for business and organisational growth and innovation.
Leaders who curiously observe what people say, what they do, and seek to understand deeply what matters to them find the most valuable problems to solve. In my coaching with business leaders we often have discussions around human behaviour and how the brain works because these leaders are curious about their teams and staff. Why do they do that? How can I get / improve / change
Is your company a ‘curious’ organisation? Putting curiosity at the heart of your organisation helps boost employee wellbeing.
When we are curious, we view tough situations more creatively. When we ask questions and genuinely listening to the responses it improves relationships and some research has shown that ‘curious’ companies said they were happy at work compared to just 45% in the ‘non-curious’ organisations.
Why do we refrain from being curious?
There can be a number of reasons we shy away from being curious or asking questions, but essentially because we fear we’ll be judged incompetent, indecisive, or unintelligent. Plus, time is precious, and we don’t want to bother people.
By asking questions, we promote more meaningful connections and more creative outcomes.
Another way that you or any leaders can model curiosity is by acknowledging when they don’t know the answer; that makes it clear that it’s OK to be guided by curiosity.
Encourage questions - any type of question. Even the daft or silly questions.
Open up questioning and curiosity. Some of the ways I first learnt to do with is with the kids.
Listen as Emma explains that asking 'why' kicks off a part of the brain that jumps into fear, judgement, panic. So starting your sentences with curious questioning helps calm down the brain so the person is not in a state of panic and reacting in a defensive way. This is some of the most common conversations I have with clients.
Curious questioning often works well with a tilt of the head, and even a slight sing song voice, or as if you’re thinking out loud.
Listen in as she explains how you can use the different ways of questioning with the following examples:
I’m wondering
Help me understand
Tell me more (a favourite of Brene Brown)
I’m curious - of course, its an obvious but valid one
I can see that ….
Correct me if I’m wrong. This gives the other person the opening to explain and is similar to help me understand but can sometimes be good if you’ve been exploring a lot of information and you’re trying to summarise or gather thoughts.
When leaders create an environment of curiosity, they inspire their employees to ask questions, to learn, and to seek problems and solutions for themselves.
When employees are curious, they are open to discovering new things, and this leads to better insights, understanding and creates opportunity for problem solving and innovation.
WHEN DID YOU LAST FEEL CURIOUS? WHAT IF YOU FOLLOWED YOUR CURIOSITY?
Contact Emma here to let her know when you were last curious or if you want to ask any question or provide feedback.
To book a call with Emma and get curious about how coaching will help you use this link.
To vote for Emma in the business awards she mentions on the podcast (voting open until August 2019) click here and look for her name in both Business Service and also in Health &Wellbeing. Emma says "I'd love it if you would vote in both categories for me, it only takes a minute".