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_outlineTracey Matthews joins me on the podcast to talk about authentic leadership.
How it can sometimes be a scary place to be but also the reasons why it’s so valuable to be that authentic leader
We share how authenticity can go beyond leadership in to other areas of lives
The lessons Tracey has learnt over the years
Where to start if you want to be an authentic leader too.
Tracey joins me on the podcast to talk about authentic leadership.
We talk about how we education needs to reflect that times have oved on and incorporate different skills, technology and environments. It’s beyond education and a leader is about helping people to grow and develop to be the best that they can be.
Tracey shares what she thinks it takes to be an authentic leader.
It can sometimes be a scary place to be. It means there’s a core set of values, principles and these are brought into our leadership and that you’re prepared to share and communicate those things that important and being strong enough for those to shape the way you are as a person.
We talk about some of the values that people have and thinking about having the resiience to be able to cope with people sometimes disagreeing with you. If you are trying to be something that you’re not, then that lack of congruence becomes apparent. Tracey the lack of congruence seeps out of every pore and people begin to get a sense that things are not right by recognising body language and tension.
Emma explain about some of the subconscious things that can happen when we are not true to ourselves and the reasons why we need to be authentic as leaders.
What made Tracey passionate about authenticity of leaders. Tracey is passionate about education and how it can shape lives, through her own journey and also through learning and adapting throughout her own career, which she puts down to a variety of education. This might have been through courses or networking and learning from people.
Part of Tracey’s MBA was studying on leadership with lots of models and authentic leadership has stuck with her, With the authentic leaders it’s about making sure that we reflect on previous experiences and understanding “what is it that makes me the best that I can be”. For Tracey, she has been at her best when she has felt very aligned. When she has left an organisation when she’s felt there’s a mismatch with values.
The human element of people being aligned to Tracey has shown and been rewarding when people have followed her through her career. Those connections are exactly what we need as human beings and form the basis of what we need survival and then that builds trust and feel safe to be ourselves.
Emma explains about the feeling safety that runs through our core subconscious level. When we have connection, trust and safety there’s so much more that can happen in a team and workplace that breeds amazing things through culture and growth and more.
Listen to Tracey’s explanation of someone anticipating going into a meeting and where we want our people to feel that they are the experts and are able to tell things as they are.
We talk about the correct use of power that enables people to be vulnerable and the positive and negative opportunities for using that power. Authentic leadership means being able to use that power appropriately.
Authenticity goes beyond leadership into being a good colleague and being a good customer. Tracey talks about her listening to Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits book and the learning she took from that.
Listen for Tracey to share her one place to start to be an authentic leader and how that needs to be a journey of discovery and knowing your own values.
Connect with Tracey:
The Career Colleges Trust https://www.careercolleges.org.uk/
Tracey on Twitter: @TLMatthews
Tracey on Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/traceymatthews1/