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...
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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,...
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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...
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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 .......
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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_outlineWhat To Do When You’re Feeling Exhausted
We all know work life balance is crucial for fighting work fatigue and yet we're living in this environment with the pandemic and juggling all sorts. There's difficulty in setting proper limits in the working day and resulting in blurred boundaries, struggling with priorities and exhaustion.
So I'm talking to you this work about:
- Why you shouldn't be so hard on yourself
- How you can switch up how you prioritise (because traditional ways are not applicable right now)
- How you can work with noticing your energy levels
- How to put downtime back into your day, in a different way
- Why it's really crucial to take more breaks, but how you can do that.
The Fatigue and exhaustion isn't about just being physically tired, it's also about being mentally exhausted too.
Nearly everyone I talk to are finding that their energy is low, motivation is low and they're generally feeling exhausted which results in:
- Difficult to concentrate
- Hard to focus
- Lack of organisation
- feeling stressed, anxious, fed up
It's difficult for our brains to be able to focus really clearly when we've got so much going on and so many differing priorities. Plus we haven't got the connections and interactions that we used to have in social or work setting that increase the feel-good chemicals.
Top Tips to Help You Feel Less Exhausted
How Do We Prioritise When We're Feeling Exhausted?
The usual ways of prioritising have gone out the window in current times with what is, quite frankly, completely bonkers lifestyle.
Listen to the podcast where I go into more detail on this, but in essence I'm sharing:
- Why we need to start small with some tasks so that it feels achievable and clears same tasks to give breathing space.
- The book "Eat that Frog" talks about doing big things first, however when we're exhausted it's better to motivate and energise ourself with smaller tasks for about 30 minutes.
- Make sure you're using traditional overwhelm strategies which mean getting it out of your head and prioritise (even if it feels like priorities are changing rapidly.
Listen in where I expand on some options and different ways that you can prioritise that will work for you. And how you can work with energy levels as well as priorities.
Look at how to time block and put your effort into chunks of the day. Then fit this around rescheduling your day so it feels you can do and also accommodates any childcare and schooling needs alongside your work priorities.
Save smaller and easier tasks for short time blocks or when your energy is low.
Listen in where I talk about motivating yourself with a 5 minute rule to raise your energy levels and work around that exhaustion.
Why You Might Still Be Exhausted Even Though You're Sleeping Well
This could be a whole episode in itself.
Have a listen when I touch on this briefly about key areas to watch and reasons why you're still tired and exhausted and what you can do instead.
The Best Ways to Add Downtime to Your Day When You're Exhausted
Lots of people are working in the evenings for various reasons around the personal circumstances. I cover some in the podcast.
Spending downtime on mobile phones, laptops and doing emails in the evening is not as helpful as we might think. Have a listen to why this impacts on our ability to get a proper rest and adds to the feelings of exhaustion.
Whilst it might seem counter-productive, I really recommend you take more breaks. Fit these in where you can and often these are not in the traditional ways we've been used to.
I share more on the episode about how you can start with five minute breaks and a quick list of ideas of what you can do.
Balance and Boundaries are Crucial for Fighting Exhaustion
So many of us feel like we don't have time to takes breaks or prioritise rest time. We feel like we're too busy, feeling guilty, under pressure to allow time for balance and boundaries.
Talk to me about my workshops and training creating Health Work Life Boundaries if you want this for your organisation. I also work with individuals and groups to provide coaching on this too.
Don't be hard on yourself. Please put in some time to switch up how you prioritise and take some more breaks.