MeetMyPotential

#120 The Limits of a Controlling Culture with Jan Gilg

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 03:00:00 +0100

A key aspect of Leadership is realizing that you cannot be in every detail of a project for your organization. Instead, you have to trust your team to run experiments, fail often and quickly and provide you with feedback of what is working and sometimes more importantly, what’s not working. So, how do you let go of being in control of all the details? What ingredients are needed to create a culture of collective responsibility instead of control?

Today Deepa speaks with Jan Gilg about the limits of a controlling culture. Jan tells us how we can create empowered workplaces that build trust and growth for all.

Jan’s Tips for Avoiding Control Culture:

Clarity is key. Give your employees the freedom to make decisions. Giving them this environment lets them get out of their comfort zone and grow. Stay away from the “how”.
Over communicate with team members. Give boundaries and set up the right framework.
Fail often, fail early is a key philosophy, not only in the Technology industry.
Total consensus is not the goal in projects.
As a leader- the more concerns you can hear, the better.
Vulnerability is needed for all of these aspects of a product: running experiments, having feedback sessions and how things are going, and there is a sounding board as well.
Articulate a clear vision and strategy in addition to acknowledging nothing is going to be perfect. Create the safety to have open communication, including challenges. This creates collective responsibility in the system.
It’s important to acknowledge and accept the realities of the world and life. We need to give employees more flexibility.
You have to take time to create team spirit which builds collaboration and connection.
Everyone needs to feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves, make sure you connect your people to that purpose and vision which will unlock potential and motivation. This creates amazing things.

We hope you liked this episode! Let us know, what’s a piece of advice from Jan that you’d like to start incorporating in your organization?

Please feel free to connect with Jan and Deepa through LinkedIn to continue the conversation.

About Jan

Jan Gilg is President and Chief Product officer of SAP S/4HANA, which is SAP’s flagship product that encompasses ERP, finance, and supply chain. In this role he has global responsibility for the development, delivery, and product management of SAP S/4HANA, SAP’s Industry solutions, as well as the Digital Supply Chain portfolio. He is a cloud evangelist, a customer advocate and a business problem solver. He is based in Walldorf Germany, but lived in the US for many years.

Thanks for listening and stay cool!

Visit the show website at (http://www.meetmypotential.com)

Follow Deepa on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepanatarajan/)

#119 How to Stay True to Yourself While in a Leadership Role with Anjana Sivakumar

Deepa Natarajan — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 03:00:00 +0100

Have you ever felt a disconnect between who you are outside of work and who you are at the workplace? Have you ever felt like you can’t be with the politics and the way restructuring and tough decisions are made inside your organizations?

Today Deepa speaks with Anjana Sivakumar about authentic Leadership. Anjana has real tactical advice that you can start to use immediately. These are things they don’t teach you in business school!

Anjana’s Tips for Authentic Leadership:

Authentic Leadership starts with knowing who you are and having a good sense of your personal values. You have to feel comfortable in your own skin. And this comes across in every role you have - be it Executive, parent or child, volunteer.
How to stay true to yourself while dealing with sensitive information at work and dealing with colleagues/friends.
Don’t feel like you need to stay in a rigid box in a Leadership role. Bring your personality to the role.
Being Authentic builds trust and connection. Acknowledge the uncomfortable or hard things.
Don’t go easy and blame another person, own your mistakes. We lose a lot of time doing impression management and stressing over these situations!
Communicate organizational changes and then listen to others as they go through their emotions.

We hope you liked this episode! Let us know - what’s hard about being authentic in your Leadership role? Do you feel comfortable enough to be human?

Please feel free to connect with Anjana and Deepa through LinkedIn to continue the conversation.

About Anjana

Anjana Sivakumar is a dynamic HR executive with over 20 years of experience across various industries. She has worked with C-suite and senior leaders in numerous global organizations, both large and small. Her experience spans various facets of HR, from talent and leadership development to operating model and organizational design to DEI strategy development and implementation.

Thanks for listening and stay cool!

Visit the show website at (http://www.meetmypotential.com)

Follow Deepa on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepanatarajan/)

#118 Stepping from Management into Leadership with Tony Stead

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 03:00:00 +0100

As a highly driven person, you are so good at problem solving. And most likely, you have been promoted again and again because you get things done, you achieve and solve the problems at hand. But at a certain point, these problem solving traits do not help you get to the next level. So, are you ready to take your leadership to the next level?

Today Deepa speaks with Tony Stead from Airbus Defence and Space about stepping into Leadership. It’s important to acknowledge the different mindset that is needed between management and leadership - leadership requires letting go and building collective responsibility. Let’s move from management into leadership!

Tony’s Tips for Stepping into Leadership:

As a manager, you can be great at all the doing, problem-solving. Leadership is more about stepping back and reflecting - seeing the whole picture.
When you are growing within your company, the way to stand out is to deliver results. When you are promoted to a higher leader, you have to focus less on delivering as an individual and focus more on the bigger picture and delegating to your team. Leadership is about letting go.
Leaders need to focus on the problems of tomorrow instead of problems of today.
Making the transition from management to leadership is much like going from a parent to a grandparent.
Leadership is about finding the needle in the haystack. It isn’t about knowing everything.
You can’t lead with buzz words. You will lose connection with your team.

We hope you liked this episode! Let us know - where are you getting stuck between moving from management to leadership? And where are you succeeding at becoming a leader?

Please feel free to connect with Tony and Deepa through LinkedIn to continue the conversation.

About Tony

Tony Stead is currently based in Munich working for Airbus Defence and Space. He has been working within the Middle East and Europe for the last 15 years. He focuses on the agility of the team, the agility of the business and the agility of the project to improve our operational effectiveness and ways of engaging the stakeholder community. Tony is also a Fellow at the Institute of Leadership and Management.

Thanks for listening and stay cool!

Visit the show website at (http://www.meetmypotential.com)

Follow Deepa on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepanatarajan/)

#117 The Power of Diversity with Bjorn Ekelund

Deepa Natarajan — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 03:00:00 +0100

Have you ever been in a meeting thinking, “I have the best idea - no one else’s even comes close to mine”?

Then this episode is for you! Today Deepa speaks with Bjorn Ekelund about diversity and the need for all perspectives to be shared by everyone on the team and organization. We tend to believe our own thoughts and processes are the right way, but it is so important to hear from everyone and get curious about ideas and structures.

Bjorn’s Tips for Diversity Ice-Breaking:

It’s difficult to discuss cultural differences because it is so much a part of our identity.
Culture is not only a personal matter; it is important to business.
We have been given a certain structure for how to succeed at life through our upbringing and culture. Every person is unique.
Diversity Icebreaker is about getting a group together to recognize differences and our own processes.
Many times what happens is the participants realize it is very easy to have an individual think their way is better than another person’s way. The process brings awareness and consciousness to each person so that going forward they will acknowledge another person’s idea differently.
We need all perspectives, this is a level set for the icebreaker. It creates understanding and respect for the team. It creates psychological safety.
Go find someone that you disagree with and talk through the topic with openness and curiosity.
Managers and Team Leaders who expect the unexpected will make the best leaders. Listening is a powerful tool.

We hope you liked this episode! Take the challenge this week and go find someone to disagree with. The point of this conversation is to get curious about their different viewpoints rather than arguing who is right and who is wrong. Be open to learning something new!

Please feel free to connect with Bjorn and Deepa through LinkedIn to continue the conversation.

About Bjorn

Bjorn Ekelund is a psychologist with over 25 years experience. He is most known for creating the Diversity Icebreaker – a concept that combines assessment of cognitive styles with an experiential learning seminar. Besides running his own companies, he has been lecturing at management schools in organizational psychology and international management. Learn more about Diversity Icebreaker here - https://diversityicebreaker.com/.

Thanks for listening and stay cool!

Visit the show website at (http://www.meetmypotential.com)

Follow Deepa on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepanatarajan/)

#116 The Essential Shift Organizations Need to Make with Tobias Klein

Deepa Natarajan — Tue, 10 May 2022 03:00:00 +0100

Is your organization looking to build and sustain an innovative growth culture? What is holding you back from fully embracing this change?

Today Deepa speaks with Tobias Klein about the essential shift organizations and senior leaders need to make this culture change happen. It is not sufficient enough to only build an organization with knowledge and expertise. So what else is needed?

Tobias’ Tips for Making the Essential Shift:

It’s time to take a look at the inner game of leadership.
Cultivating a culture of failure is key. The point is not about failure, it is about how you move forward from the failure.
Organizations need to take a look at how they measure success and how they reward their employees.
Societal norms have set us up to have to finish what we start - but it is necessary to evaluate when is it time for something to stop, to come to an end.
You cannot do everything at once, everything cannot be the priority.
The top level leadership should take the time to ask and listen to their bottom levels.
Empower the younger employees to be creative and innovative. Don’t be afraid of trying new things.
Critically look at your recruiting approach. What values are you looking for and what is missing from your current team? It’s important to have shared values.
Everybody is better than you at one thing. This is a great way to embrace and include everyone on your team.

We hope you liked this episode! Let us know - what are the values that your leadership team shares? When was the last time you spoke about your organization’s values? It’s so important to be on the same page.

Please feel free to connect with Tobias and Deepa through LinkedIn to continue the conversation.

About Tobias

Tobias Klein is a Chief People & Culture Officer at SEBA Bank. He has full accountability for building, maintaining and continuously improving the entire HR Life Cycle. He has implemented objectives and key results as one of the 1st financial institutions in Switzerland. He believes to win the marketplace, you have to first win the workplace.

Thanks for listening and stay cool!

Visit the show website at (http://www.meetmypotential.com)

Follow Deepa on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepanatarajan/)

#115 Become a Better Leader by Making Better Decisions with David Siegel

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 03:00:00 +0100

Leaders are often judged by their decision-making. So, how do you make better decisions? Is there a formula to making better decisions?

Today Deepa speaks with David Siegel, author of Decide and Conquer, where he offers three main principles for better decision making.

David’s Tips for Making Better Decisions:

Not making a decision is actually still making a decision
Culture matters, don’t ignore behaviors.
Don’t only make decisions based on tangible items. There can be a lack of accountability around toxicity.
Be kind and nice as a leader! You can be nice and clear.
Surround yourself with people who will disagree with you. This will ultimately lead to a better decision. Make sure you ask your team to disagree with you before the meeting.
Repeat the same message many times in order to change your organization’s culture.
Embrace optionality - think about what options you can give yourself based on the decisions you make.
Be careful when decisions are made by your ego.
Be willing to share about your mistakes and failures.

Remember that being vulnerable as a leader will make you a better decision maker, which will lead to becoming a better leader. The vulnerable leader creates a culture of learning and developing by being open about their own failures and successes.

We hope you liked this episode! Let us know - what’s the hardest part of making a decision for you? Please feel free to connect with David and Deepa through LinkedIn to continue the conversation.

About David

David Siegel is the Chief Executive Officer of MeetUp, with 20+ years’ dramatically growing revenue and profit in digital media, subscriptions and e-commerce. He has recently authored Decide and Conquer. He is a motivational leader with full decision-making and P&L ownership. His experience includes M&A, turnarounds, scaling operations and growing post startup phase. David is a Management Professor at Columbia and has an MBA from The Wharton School.

Thanks for listening and stay cool!

Visit the show website at (http://www.meetmypotential.com)

Follow me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepanatarajan/)

#114 How to Become a Steward of Change and Build Collective Responsibility with Trevor Comyn

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 03:00:00 +0100

Change agents can be a buzzword, and you may want to be one. But have you ever thought about how humans have acted as agents of change towards this planet? Instead of listening to nature and letting it show us the best way, we have created and controlled nature. Now shift this metaphor to you and your organization. Are you taking responsibility for your development? What would it look like if the collective group allowed you to figure out the best way for you to grow?

What does it mean to shift from being Agents of Change to Stewards of Change? This is a paradigm shift. How can we unfold the potential within each of us? Listen to this conversation with Trevor Comyn and Deepa to start exploring these ideas.

Trevor’s Tips for Rewilding Leadership:

Rewilding Leadership is a metaphor taken from agriculture. It is a concept to play with.
Instead of bending nature to our will, we can become stewards and allow nature to show us the way. This is believing and trusting in the cyclic nature of life.
In this stewardship model, ownership is taken by the individual and collective responsibility is in the system.
Before starting development, it is important to start with why. Why are we developing?
Instead of focusing on the problem, focus on the shift needed in the person.
It is important for everyone to feel psychological safety in order to encourage personal development within an organization.
Collective learning is the key to sustain change and keep accountability.

Becoming a part of a community that has a shared goal is the best way to grow. We can read all of the books and articles on developing leadership, but until you start an open conversation with others you won’t be able to fully integrate all of your learning. You are part of this learning community, thank you for listening and please let us know how we can best support you.

We hope you liked this episode! Please feel free to connect with Trevor and Deepa through LinkedIn to continue the conversation.

About Trevor

Trevor Comyn is the Director of Knowledge, Learning and Development at Mills and Reeve, where he has been for over 16 years. He is currently focused on developing a deeper understanding of adult development theory. Trevor is a systemic coach and believes team coaching can deliver meaningful results for both organizations and individuals.

Thanks for listening and stay cool!

Visit the show website at (http://www.meetmypotential.com)

Follow me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepanatarajan/)

#113 Bring Innovation to Shift Your Organization’s Culture with Erwin De beuckelear

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 03:00:00 +0100

Have you ever heard of the idea to have people stand on airplanes instead of being seated? Does that sound crazy to you? Do you immediately think that is not possible? Well don’t jump to that conclusion yet.

Today Erwin De beuckelaer joins Deepa to discuss innovation, change and challenging assumptions. Every team and organization needs to set the right foundation for innovation to happen - this includes psychological safety, setting the right candor and being explicit about critiques on the idea instead of on the person. Erwin shares his best practices for engaging with innovation from his experience.

Erwin’s tips for Innovation and Change:

It can be hard to bring change to highly regulated areas, but also the most rewarding.
Signaling is a great tool when bringing up new ideas. Frame the conversation of innovation to your audience. You are signaling the type of responses you want to receive.
Every belief about if an idea will work or won’t work is an assumption. It is important to test assumptions. Testing an assumption will then offer a shared belief in your team.
There should be a story that is told with innovation and new changes within the business. You have to know the very clear “why” in the change and how the “why” changes at every level of the organization.
It’s easy to think of innovation in terms of products. Don’t forget that innovation can be applied to culture and team management too. Teams can get stuck doing the same thing, don’t be afraid to check in with your team and see what’s working or not working. Find something to test together as a team!
Give yourself permission to innovate - it’s easy to get caught in perceived barriers.

Signaling can be a powerful tool for you to create breakthroughs in your ecosystem. You and your crazy ideas are needed, don’t give up. If you need a place to start your innovation, pick up a paper and pen and answer this question, “What would I do if I gave myself full permission?”. Set a timer for 10 minutes and see what you come up with!

We hope you liked this episode! Please feel free to connect with Erwin and Deepa through LinkedIn to continue the conversation.

About Erwin

Erwin De beuckelaer is a guest professor at the University College of Ghent and the Director of Innovative Capabilities at The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. He is transforming innovative practice and culture for the Quality & Compliance in Clinical Trials team. He is an expert in design thinking, digital health, strategy definition and business process management.

Thanks for listening and stay cool!

Visit the show website at (http://www.meetmypotential.com)

Follow me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepanatarajan/)

#112 Being a Strategic Leader with Victoire de Lajudie

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 03:00:00 +0100

It is the beginning of a new year and the perfect time to reflect on the way you lead. As you move forward into 2022, let’s make sure you are thinking about being strategic in your leadership.

Today Victoire de Lajudie joins Deepa to discuss - what is a strategic leader exactly and how do you keep your strategy alive throughout the year.

Victoire’s tips for being a strategic leader:

Being a leader is being strategic. Make sure you think about your strategy before diving into a project.
Leaders should: learn fast, fail fast, and have empathy.
Learning includes curiosity and pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone.
A mission can be short–term. The most important piece is for everyone to know and stay connected to why they are working on the project.
Creating a vision needs a team, it is a collective responsibility.
Dream big and don’t get stuck wondering “how”.
Ask questions to keep your organization on track for culture change and strategy.
Challenge the stories and assumptions that run your organization.
Vulnerability is needed for connection and connection fuels collective work.

What practices do you put into place to reflect on your goals? Do you write in your journal or have an accountability partner? Remember being a strategic leader does not end in January - keep going throughout the year.

We hope you liked this episode! Please feel free to connect with Victoire and Deepa through LinkedIn to continue the conversation.

About Victoire

Victoire de Lajudie is VP, Head of Group Strategy at Michelin. She previously worked with Sanofi and McKinsey. She has a Master of Science, Applied Mathematics & Economics from Ecole Polytechnique.

Thanks for listening and stay cool!

Visit the show website at (http://www.meetmypotential.com)

Follow me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepanatarajan/)

#111 Key Rituals of a Successful Team with Nils Michael

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 03:00:00 +0100

We learn from some of the most successful people. Nils Michael’s leadership has brought him extraordinary results and he created that with people. He was the Head of A400M Retrofit at Airbus Defense and Space and he now heads Center of Competence for Programme/Project Management (PM).

Listen to this episode to hear what key factors have contributed to Nils’ success with teams and projects.

Key Points from this Episode:

Start journaling. You’ll be surprised by how much clearer you will be when writing ideas down. Journaling also forces you to reflect on what is happening and how best to move forward.
Foster a sense of belonging for your team. Bring the organization’s purpose to the individual level.
Team building is necessary for every team. And it keeps motivation up on the project throughout. An example of this could be to come together as a team to support a charity that everyone can connect to.
Remember to celebrate hard - you work hard, make sure you take adequate time to celebrate those successes and failures as a team.
You always need to be yourself and be able to look into the mirror with pride. If you start acting not within your values, then that creates a problem.
Don’t fall into the mode of compliance and control. Believe in yourself and your team.
Remember that change does not happen overnight. That doesn’t mean that we need to give up.
Being a good project manager is being a good leader.
Change should be considered positive, look forward to it.

We hope you liked this episode! We’ve written up a wonderful article based on this interview, it is in our latest issue of Samskara magazine. I hope you will subscribe here!

About Nils

Nils Michael is the Vice President Head Of Programme Management at Airbus Defense and Space. Prior to that he was the VP of A400M Retrofit & MRO Programmes. He has a history of working in the European aviation and aerospace industry. He was part of the German Air Force for 10 years.

Thanks for listening and stay cool!

Visit the show website at (http://www.meetmypotential.com)

Follow me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepanatarajan/)

#110 Shift Your Work Culture to Embrace Diversity & Inclusion with Cheryl Thompson

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 03:00:00 +0100

Have you ever felt excluded in the workplace? We are willing to bet your answer is yes. Feeling excluded can range from being the minority to not being invited to a lunch group. What corporations tend to forget about is that employee motivation and retention is directly linked to belonging and inclusion.

Today Deepa is speaking to Cheryl Thompson, Founder and CEO of CADIA - the Center for Automotive Diversity, Inclusion and Advancement. Cheryl is on a mission to double the amount of diverse leaders in the Automotive Industry by 2030. She offered great tips for how we can begin to change our work cultures to be more inclusive.

Key Points from this Episode:

A big challenge for minorities is feeling as if you are always being watched and will be judged more than the majority.
When someone doubts us, we immediately turn and doubt ourselves.
We can easily give up our own sense of identity to fit into corporate culture.
When we can’t be our authentic self, our brains don’t work as well! How much more productive and profitable would organizations be if all employees can be authentic?
It is not enough to hire diverse talent, organizations need to embrace all cultures. This promotes creativity within projects and the organization is able to keep talent instead of having a high turnover rate.
A change of culture within organizations will help build inclusive environments. First thing is to include yourself, take responsibility for showing up authentically. You can be the change agent.
There has to be a Leadership Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion- they set the tone and the priorities, they model what is valued within the company.
Systemic Change is needed for overall inclusion in a company as well. You have to look at how your company hires, offers benefits, and unconscious biases.
Start to assess performance differently. Ask your leadership team - What do you define as success? What would get in the way of someone who doesn’t look like you to reach that success?

We hope you liked this episode! Let us know in the comments - have you had moments where you have felt excluded in your work culture? What did you do?

About Cheryl

Cheryl Thompson is the founder of the Center for Automotive Diversity, Inclusion & Advancement. A veteran of the automotive industry, Cheryl has over 30 years of experience at Ford Motor Company and American Axle and Manufacturing in positions ranging from skilled trades, operations, engineering and global leadership. She is trained in diversity and inclusion, career and leadership coaching and is Six Sigma trained and certified as a Black Belt. Learn more about CADIA and their mission to double the amount of diverse leaders in the Automotive Industry by 2030 here.

Thanks for listening and stay cool!

Visit the show website at (http://www.meetmypotential.com)

Follow me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepanatarajan/)

#109 Is Your Team Always Focused on Tasks? Try Playing Attitude in Dialogue with Katja von Bergen

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 03:00:00 +0100

As the workplace has turned more and more virtual over the past year, teams can fall easily into the trap of getting onto a meeting and only discussing the projects at hand. At the end of the day though, we are all still human beings. Humans require connection and building trust with your team will actually increase productivity.

Today Katja von Bergen joins Deepa to discuss attitudes and dialogue. She ventures to say that managers and executives should lead the way to create meaningful conversation for their teams and organization.

Key Points from this Episode:

In the Virtual environment, it can be easy to jump directly into business and tasks. We cannot forget to connect with each team member directly and get to know them as a human.
Be aware that these valuable dialogues are going to be different and possibly outside of your team’s comfort zone. It’s good to make it fun, like bring a game. Keep it fun, the conversations do not have to be hard work. Try it once and see how they react. If it works, great. If not, try something different next time.
These meaningful conversations lead to teams listening to each other deeply.
You get to decide how deep you go. You cannot build trust unless you get vulnerable.
Be easy with these valuable conversations and have fun with it. Be the example for your team.
Create a space that is non-judgmental.
If the person does not want to go deeper, accept that. Do not force anyone to give more than they are willing to.
This can be a great tool for inclusion.
Here are 5 great questions to start these conversations-
What was the best decision in your job and why?
What are you most proud of?
What are you grateful for?
What gives you energy to get up in the morning?
What is your type of humor? What do you laugh about?
You must first open yourself in order for others to be open.

We hope you enjoyed this episode! Thank you for listening. Tell us in the comments, how are you taking one step towards meaningful connection today?

About Katja

Katja von Bergen is the Managing Director and Entrepreneur of Agile Transformer, business unit of the German consultancy Kraus & Partner, but starting her own business in 2022. She has been in change consulting for 12 years and has been involved in quite a few projects, some of which went well and some of which went badly. Make sure you write to Katja on LinkedIn to get your free copy of questions for your next meeting!

Deepa will be starting another Rethink Leadership Bootcamp in October. Please get in touch to find out if this could serve you in your leadership journey. You can send a message through LinkedIn or email deepa@meetmypotential.com.

Thanks for listening and stay cool!

Visit the show website at (http://www.meetmypotential.com)

Follow Deepa on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepanatarajan/)

#108 How to Encourage Connection through Digital Learning with Detlef Hold

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 03:00:00 +0100

We are no longer strangers to the digital space. The pandemic has forced us into this environment if we were not already there. We’ve had to move quickly and adapt and continue to evolve how we make use of digital platforms.

Today’s episode dives into the world of digital learning and transformation as Deepa speaks with Detlef Hold, Head of Digital Learning Experience for Roche. They talk about what digital learning is as well as give practical tips for how to use the platforms to achieve the most engagement and success within organizations.

Key Points from this Episode:

Digital Learning leverages technology platforms for individual or group learning. And it is about creating the best environment for digital workers, the world we are living in today.
There is a lot of responsibility on digital workers. They have to be able to search, assess, and find what’s relevant. It’s important to use technology and build community around it.
Small things make all the difference in digital learning, but it does require you to rethink the way you design these experiences.
You have to create an environment where everyone has a voice and feels comfortable sharing.
Focus on people first.
Climate, Facilitation, and Pace of program are key ingredients in keeping transformation happen in digital learning environments.
Use co-creation to increase engagement in your digital environment.
Make the most of your meeting time! This means you focus on dialogue and connection rather than tactics and summaries. Make videos of those items before the meeting.
Utilize all forms to communicate on your digital platforms, be breakout rooms or chats or small groups. Engage in multiple ways so that everyone has an option to get in the conversation.
Keeping cameras on for online meetings creates more connection, so encourage the use. This can take time and needs to be woven into your organization’s culture.
The platform is a means to an end. You will have to convince your stakeholders of the technological investment.
You are asking your employees to rethink the way they work. You are helping them build new habits and forget their old ways of doing. This is about mindset.
Focus on the social structures needed to engage every employee. This is more important than the actual technological part of the transformation.
Articulate your intention.
Experiment and observe ourselves. This brings about change within us.
When you find yourself in a place where there is opportunity, take it!

We hope you enjoyed this episode! Tell us in the comments, what is one way you are embracing digital learning? And what is one new way you learned from this episode to use digital learning?

About Detlef

Detlef Hold’s skillset is in digital learning, entrepreneurship, design thinking, the innovation life cycle and global leadership development. He has worked as an independent OD consultant, in HR and teach Psychology, HR, Change Management and Corporate Learning Leadership (Executive MBA programs) in South America, Switzerland & in the US at Stanford. He is a very creative problem solver who can recognize patterns of an emerging future.

#107 A Manager’s Guide for How to Be with Transformation in High Pressure Organizations with Elodie Loing

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 17 May 2021 03:00:00 +0100

Have you ever been a part of a transformation project? Or an organization who was looking to make scalable, rapid change? Being a part of these times in an organization can be stressful and intense. Many times employees are nervous about entering a transformation project due to all of the unknowns.

Today Deepa is speaking with Elodie Loing about transformation in critical situations within organizations. Elodie shares her real life experiences with scaling organizations and creating change within teams. Elodie’s approach is about empathy, letting go and collective responsibility. This episode is for any one who may be experiencing a critical time in their organization, but especially for executives and managers.

Key Points from this Episode:

Many times change agents are called into a project and organizations are called in too late.
Critical times happen when there is high pressure and stress within an organization. It is generally systemic and performance is low.
Being a mediator is different from being an operational manager.
Empathy is enriching and humbling because you are looking at the situation from another person’s perspective.
Being unattached - the ability to do the best you can and let go of what the future holds or what the outcome actually is.
There is an opportunity to grow in every situation.
Promote diversity in your teams. Hire those who have different opinions from yours and let them talk.
Here’s an easy way to practice stillness - make an appointment with yourself, put it in your calendar!
The hardest part of a reset is your ego and your rational brain. Watch out for those!
Co-creation allows you to let go of your own ideas and let others in to help you. Give your teams the benefit of working with you.
Collective responsibility comes from within each person.
Accept yourself - the strengths you have, the weaknesses you have, every part of you. And realize you will make mistakes. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone.

We hope you enjoyed this episode! Elodie gave so much wisdom. Let us know in the comments, have you been a part of a transformation project? Was it during a critical time? What was the most memorable part? Was it stressful or fun? :)

About Elodie

Elodie Loing has 25 years’ experience in retail organizations including The Disney Store, Le Cèdre Rouge, The Nuance Group, Fashion History, Jean Paul Gaultier and Manutan. Elodie scales up and turnarounds organizations (in France and Internationally). She implements conflict wise dynamics which lead to improved team spirit and accelerated performance. Elodie is a National Mediator at French Ministry of Economy and Judicial mediator at the Paris Court of Appeals. She is also a Lecturer and Independent board member. Elodie is convinced that conflict-wise organizations are wiser and more competitive on their market!

#106 How Bold Leadership Actually Helps You with Zana Goic Petricevic

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 03:00:00 +0100

How many times have you had an idea or suggestion and not actually spoken it out loud? How many times have you seen something wrong happening in your workplace but you have not told anyone about it? Did you know that you are having an impact whether or not you are speaking? What is the legacy that you want to leave as a leader?

Today, Deepa is joined with Zana Goic Petricevic, Founder of Bold Leadership Culture, to discuss how and why you need to be bold in your leadership. We are all leaders of our own lives, so why not be bold about it?

Key Points from the Episode:

Boldness takes your soulfulness. In order to be bold, you have to engage your entire soul.
There is a limit to your boldness that comes from your head.
Reasonable and safe behaviors and decisions come from the brain. Unreasonable and risky behaviors and decisions come from the heart or soul, anywhere besides the brain.
You have a choice to act more boldly and step outside of your comfort zone.
Your discomfort matters less than your vision. This pushes you to act boldly.
Zana shares a perspective to see how bold you are, based on SOUL - Self, Other, Universe, and Legacy.
This is not easy!
Leadership is as much about the “being” space as it is in the “doing” space. There needs to be moments of pause and presence as well as moments that challenge and grow us.
There is no boldness without personal risk involved.
Try to break out of the mindset that your work is solely a means for income.
You cannot create legacy by staying small.
You are creating an impact whether or not you speak up.
Silence is a misused privilege.

We hope you liked this episode! Let us know in the comments what part of the SOUL was most intriguing to you and your bold leadership.

About Zana Goic Petricevic

Zana is the Founder and Managing Director of Bold Leadership Culture. Our mission is to cultivate bolder individual and collective leadership in organizations through coaching, learning and development. Zana also holds many certifications and credentials that make her a sought after Leadership Coach, Executive Coach and Facilitator. Visit her website here.

Thanks for listening and stay cool! 😎

Visit the show website at (http://www.meetmypotential.com)

Follow me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepanatarajan/)

#105 How to Persevere Through Crisis with Magali Euverte

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 03:00:00 +0100

Many organizations are finding themselves in crisis right now. The pandemic has turned businesses upside down. So how do you persevere through crisis and come out stronger on the other side?

Today, Deepa is joined with Magali Euverte who is the Director of the Normandy lines contract with SNCF. Magali shares her experience of pushing through crisis, when it lasts for more than a year. Listen to this episode to hear real life experience of how you can inspire and invest in your team to build collective responsibility and achieve success.

Key Points from this Episode:

Invest time and training in your frontline managers. Get them on board and encourage them to bring their teams.
Find your purpose and why you will continue on this journey. If you don’t know your why, you won’t have much luck in continuing when the journey gets difficult.
Understand what is in it for your fellow employees. Both in the sense of empathy as well as anticipating any possible roadblocks that may come along down the way.
Celebrate every step along the way, otherwise the team will lose their motivation.
Transparency includes engaging your employees in solutions, allowing them to contribute their feedback to build the solution.
It pays to spend more time on the short term goals, rather than the long term goal.
Communication builds team spirit. Team Spirit is what keeps the project going, even for over a year.
It is important to be able to zoom in to the short term and zoom out to the long term, even with the crisis right in front of you there is a need to put processes in place that will help in the long term.
Remember to reward every part of the project, especially in support of the long term goals.
Resiliency is needed during a long crisis.
Be honest about the crisis now and hold the future goal – yes the process will be hard and we can see what the future will be so we are going to keep going.

We hope you liked this episode! Let us know in the comments what was the most inspiring part of Magali’s journey.

About Magali

Magali Euverte is the Director of the Normandy lines contract - monitoring and implementation of the operating agreement signed by SNCF and the Normandy region. She has operational management experience at the service of clients and teams. Magali implements several change management systems and supports managers for successful customer relationships.

Thanks for listening and stay cool! 😎

Visit the show website at (http://www.meetmypotential.com)

Follow me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepanatarajan/)

#104 The Intersection of Spirituality & Leadership with Gaurav Arora

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 15 Mar 2021 03:00:00 +0100

What is spirituality? Does that question make you nervous? Spirituality is not a part of the rational mind. This is why it is so hard for us to get into a practice of including spirituality into our lives because it is not in our comfort zone. The world favors the rational mind and we are conditioned to leave behind what is innately in us.

Join Deepa and her guest, Gaurav Arora, as they explore the intersection of spirituality and leadership. How could including a practice of spirituality improve your leadership? What does it mean to ‘come home’? Are you living a life of intention? Listen to get simple tips on how you can start on this journey today.

Key Points from this Episode:

From Gaurav’s perspective, spirituality is a process of coming back home. Where you unlearn what you’ve learned from social conditioning. Spirituality is being your true authentic self without any need of appreciation or acknowledgement from the world. It is a lifelong journey.
Just by starting to ask questions about how you begin this journey, you have started this important work.
Ask yourself “Who am I?” continuously over time, keep checking in with yourself and discovering who you are.
Find your source of joy.
When you are fully in what gives you joy,, you are not fulfilling a need. A need to show how smart you are or a need for approval from others.
Define your version of success, and make sure it is truly from you instead from others or the world.
Intentions are extremely important. They can guide you on this journey. To find your intentions, ask yourself “What do I stand for?”. Your intentions should be the foundation of your leadership.
Take a moment before your day starts or before a meeting to question, “What is my intention for this day or meeting?”.
Gaurav says Leadership is a process of a leader leading a team to a common goal. It is a performance art. “Who you are is how you lead.”
“Who you are is how you lead.” If you don’t know who you are, you won’t be able to lead.

We hope you liked this episode! Let us know in the comments how you define spirituality and how it is included in your leadership journey. If you’d like to dive deeper into how you can achieve more in harmony, come take Deepa’s masterclass on why you need to rethink leadership here.

About Gaurav

Gaurav Arora is the Country Head of Erickson Coaching International - India as well as the Director of Certifications at The Leadership Circle. He is a Master Certified Coach, designated by the International Coach Federation. Gaurav co-founded Inspire Coaching Systems, a professional training and coaching company in 2009, with the mission to inspire himself and others to live up to our own expectations.

Check out Gaurav’s podcast, The Xmonks Drive. You can get in touch with Gaurav and gauravinspires@gmail.com.

#103 Arrogance: Triggers, Awareness, & Responsibility with Bob Anderson

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 03:00:00 +0100

Have you ever come across an arrogant leader? I bet everyone has come across at least 1 arrogant leader. I have come across many in my years as a Transformation coach, working with many high level executives in organization. But, have you ever taken the time to turn around and examine your own arrogance? What would you find if you asked yourself why that leader’s arrogance bothers you?

We will always have arrogance to deal with, but the most important piece of this is to recognize what triggers you and how you can better deal with the arrogance. Once you know why arrogance irritates you, you’ll be better equipped to name it and move forward. Listen to this interview with Bob Anderson where we dive into specific examples of arrogance.

Key Points from this Episode:

It is easy to spot arrogance in others around us but more importantly arrogance needs to be identified within us. Instead of placing blame on others, first look at yourself and see what you find in yourself.
We can feel vulnerable in work environments. As much as we want to feel like we are equal to or have the same amount of power as another, the truth is we all have different amounts of power at work.
We attach many things to our identity, our ego. We get validation from those around us which inforce how we think about ourselves. This has the potential to grow our arrogance.
If you are curious about how you are showing up, go ask a few of your colleagues how they see you. You might be surprised to hear what you are telling those you work with, even just with your facial expressions!
You never know someone’s story, where they came from and what they are dealing with. Remember compassion.
There are no difficult people. They only exist because they raise a difficulty in ourselves.
“It’s not who we are, it’s how we’re not who we are.”
Get in the practice of asking yourself, “Am I part of the problem?”
It is so easy to identify ourselves as our ideas or our title, and if those things are not accepted then we feel not accepted.
Remember to be open and listen.
Our life stories have developed us in a certain way. This is not a bad thing, but it is something that needs to be examined and looked at so that we can know why we behave the way we do.

I hope you liked this episode! If you are curious about knowing how and why you behave the way you do, schedule some time with me! I love helping others get to the root of how they act and figuring out next steps to create the change you are wanting. Schedule a session with me here.

About Bob

Bob Anderson has been a pacesetter and thought leader in the field of Leadership Development for over 30 years. He is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Development Officer of The Leadership Circle and Full Circle Group. Bob has completed his second co-authored book "Scaling Leadership: Building Organizational Capability and Capacity to Create Outcomes that Matter Most." "Scaling Leadership" is an essential guide that offers senior leaders the information needed to develop conscious leadership at scale with their organization.

#102 How to Make Complex Simple with Lisa Bodell

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 03:00:00 +0100

Our world is built on a lot of complexity. But what would happen if we stopped and took the time to evaluate if that complexity is serving us? What if we realized that the complexity within our organizations is actually wasting time and doing the opposite that we are hoping for?

Today I’m joined by Lisa Bodell and we talk about why it is important to get back to simple. There can be so much value in simple things like asking ourselves what are we saying yes to? In this question you can find what you are valuing and you will instantly know if you are on track to what you’ve said is the purpose of your work. Take a listen and get ready to be very honest with yourself!

Key Points from this Episode:

We add complexity with the best of intentions, we are trying to solve a problem or trying to add onto a process we already have. We should spend more time stopping and getting back to simple.
The goal of simplifying means to get to the heart of the work, meaningful work. We get too stuck in the meetings and emails.
We all value getting stuff done. We all need to check our behaviors to take into account not our own work loads, but also our colleagues’ load.
Complexity is driven by fear and creates comfort because there are places to hide.
Most of us have been taught to not take risks. And no one gets punished by following the status quo so not taking risks is reinforced.
Change won’t happen unless the leaders give permission.
‘Kill a stupid rule’ exercise - remember to look at the rules that you adhere to each day, not only the rules in other departments.
The way to make change stick is to change behaviors. Instead of changing tactics, you must change behaviors. Start doing this by questioning the assumptions around you and that you are run by.
Complexity not only wastes time but it also kills your company culture.
When everything is simplified, transparency rises above everything. It is easier to spot the problems and see what needs to change to make companies more efficient and innovative.
Everywhere can have simplicity, no matter how regulated it is.
Do a calendar audit - think about how many meetings you may not be needing to attend a week!
These 3 behaviors are needed to embrace simplicity: Permission to be questioned, Say No, and Streamline decision making.

Thanks for listening! If you liked this episode, you will LOVE my masterclass on how to Achieve Success in Harmony. It is all about diving into what drives you and what behaviors you could add into your life to achieve more balance in your life. Check it out here!

About Lisa

Lisa Bodell is an award-winning author and CEO of FutureThink. She was recently selected as one of the Top 50 Keynote Speakers in the World. As a futurist and expert on the topic of innovation and simplicity, she serves as a global council member of the World Economic Forum, and has helped thousands of senior leaders ignite innovation at Bloomberg, Pfizer, Lockheed Martin, and more. Check out her website- https://www.futurethink.com/ - for free resources.

#101 How to Live and Thrive in Complexity with Sonja Blignaut

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 03:00:00 +0100

What does a “good” leader look like? What do you want from someone who is leading your organization? Times are changing, our environment is always in motion, our world is forcing us to think outside of the boxes we have created. As humans we create these boxes in order to give ourselves a sense of control and certainty, but the time has come to rethink the way we lead.

Sonja Blignaut joins me today to dive into our complex world and talk about how we as leaders need to reframe what we think is leadership. Sonja provides a very realistic and human approach to complexity. She highlights 5 points to thriving in complexity as a leader.

Key Points from this Episode:

Complexity is multiple aspects in a system that interact with each other in ways that are not linear. Each thing is changed when they interact with another thing and you are not able to predict the changes. It is a messy environment.
We need to let go of what we think of as “Traditional Leadership” and what being a “good leader” looks like when we are faced with complexity. It won’t do us any good to be stuck in old expectations.
Leaders need to normalize the idea that the world is uncertain and that will always be the case. One easy way to do this is to say “I don’t know.”
Instead of drilling down to time-based goals(6 month or 5 year), it can be more helpful to focus on a direction than being very specific so that you can be flexible within complexity.
Being fully present in complexity is key.
All of us live and thrive in complexity every day, in social situations, in family events, even just in driving on roads. For some reason though, we decide that experience is not valid to bring into the workplace. Instead we walk into work and think everything is going to be ordered and we can control it. We need to let go of that.
Here are 5 points for leaders to take to better deal with complexity:

Be open to diversity. In addition to being open to different races, cultures, genders, it is important to have a diverse set of perspectives and ideas on your team and within your organization. Oftentimes it is easy for an organization to have employees who end up all thinking alike. We need to be aware of multiple perspectives so that we can catch our blind spots as well as diversifying the way we do things because the only constant is change and you cannot do the same thing the same way for too long.
Be curious and cultivate it. Be open to being surprised. Over the past few decades we have become obsessed with being efficient and that has made us extremely task focused. There is no time to be curious in this efficiency world.
Have the courage to be vulnerable. Acknowledge that situations are not always enjoyable and foster co-responsibility so that everyone can work on the problem together.
Get closer to the front line. We need to understand as leaders that it doesn’t serve us to outsource the frontline workforce; those are the people who are representing your brand and have the best relationship with your customers. Instead of living in a fixed hierarchy, it’s time to evaluate how to create an adaptive hierarchy.
Empower those who are closer to the complex problems to bring the solutions to your problems. As leaders, don’t get so stuck in the day-to-day. You need to take time to think strategically. Get off the dance floor and get on the balcony. Once you are on the balcony, you can start seeing the patterns and then start influencing the patterns.

Leaders don’t give themselves permission to step back and think. Managing the tension between taking time to think as well as having the courage to make decisions even when you think you don’t have enough information.
Take time to reflect and have a group around you who will challenge you and ask difficult questions.

About Sonja

Sonja Blignaut is a thinking partner for leaders, change-makers (individuals and teams) who need to lead in uncertainty. She enables strategic agility and creates future-fit organisations. Sonja co-creates and delivers fit-for-context interventions to enable responsive and adaptive organisations. She looks after the global Cognitive Edge network and is the South African partner for Cognitive Edge for over a decade. Sonja is certified in various individual and systemic coaching methods and a sought after speaker, with experience at various conferences locally and internationally, including TedX. Visit the Cognitive Edge website to learn more - www.Cognitive-Edge.com.

I hope you liked this episode! Please rate and leave a comment on the podcast. Let me know in the comments - how can you bring more of yourself, your human-mess, into your work so that you can better deal with complexity?

Thanks for listening and stay cool!

#100 Embarking on the Path of Spiritual Leadership with Sam House

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 03:00:00 +0100

100 Episodes of MeetMyPotential podcast!! Wow!!! Thank you so much for being a part of this journey with me and for taking the time to listen to each show. I truly wish that you are inspired after listening and get ideas on how you can unlock more of your potential.

Thank you to all of the amazing and fascinating guests we have had on the show from Episode #1. I’ve been so honored to speak with so many different leaders across many industries. It has enriched and inspired my life, thank you again to our guests.

I’m very happy today to say that one of our very first guests on the podcast is back. Sam House is an Executive Coach, a Leadership consultant, a Senior Faculty Member of the Co-Active Training Institute and my personal coach. What a treat to have him join again to celebrate this occasion.

In this episode, Sam and I discuss what is spiritual leadership and why should we be interested in starting a journey. Don’t confuse spiritual with religion here; we speak of spiritual in a very broad sense of being connected to everything in the world. It is a big conversation, both conceptually and literally, so get ready! And stay open to what might show up for you.

Key Points to this Episode:

Spiritual Leadership is Leadership with a broad lens. It asks, what is the thing that needs to be done in our organization that is aligned with something bigger in the world? It’s a holistic approach.
There is room for holding onto a goal and moving toward it as well as being open and flexible to what actually shows up in our lives.
Control is an illusion.
You need to observe yourself, without judgment.
Appreciate yourself and others, especially those who you disagree with. Appreciation does not mean “to like”.
As humans, we will become attached to an idea or an opinion but you need to realize when you become attached and know how to recover from attachment.
Highly Driven individuals always have a goal in mind and the drive to move forward to achieve them, but if something happens to derail their progress to that goal they can get lost or frustrated. We need to get to a place of balancing the drive forward with flexibility and moving with flow.
We are in constant relationship with everything in our world. Sometimes we make up that we are alone and that we are in isolation.
Three practices that will allow us to be more receptive to messages from the universe are: meditation, be in connection to nature, or any kind of physical movement. Stay open to receive anything or nothing. Make sure you start by making a decision that these practices will be valuable to you no matter the result. This leads to an expanded relationship with everything in our world.
Don’t look for evidence, look for the experience.
Spiritual leadership is a path to see wholeness instead of separateness. We have a need to work this path instead of sitting back and doing nothing.
Shift from evidence gathering as the only way to see we are making progress as the only way to a decision process where we decide we are on the path and are ready to yield and be open to what comes to us.

About Sam

Sam House is an Executive Coach and Leadership Consultant. He is the Founder of Soulutions Leadership and Coaching. Sam is a Senior Faculty Member and Course Designer with the Co-Active Training Institute. Formerly a psychotherapist and social worker, Sam has extensive experience in multiple settings, specializing in individual, family and couples therapy.

#99 Cracking the Curiosity Code with Dr. Diane Hamilton

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 03:00:00 +0100

Did you know the peak of our curiosity is at the age of 5? After that, there is a quick decline in how curious we continue to be. This is part of my conversation today with Dr. Diane Hamilton, author of Cracking the Curiosity Code and Behavioral Expert. Diane walks us through the four inhibitors and shares examples of how they show up in our lives.

Curiosity is needed now more than ever in our world. I hope you enjoy this show and I hope it encourages you to ask more questions.

Key Points of this Episode:

There are four inhibitors to curiosity - Fear, Assumptions, Technology and Environment.
If you don’t take the time to look at what factors are stopping you, then you won’t know how to move forward.
Curiosity requires us to have compassion and to be courageous. Time and experience help with this.
Curiosity is the spark that lets leaders create whatever they want to make. For instance, if you were going to bake a cake, you not only need the ingredients but you also need the oven. Think of curiosity as the oven.
The biggest step is to realize what behaviors you are exhibiting and seeing if they are rational or not.
Ask yourself, what stories are you telling yourself? Are they working for you?
To build your emotional agility and curiosity, you need to ask questions because that will develop your empathy. Asking questions is the foundation of curiosity.

About Dr. Diane Hamilton

Dr. Diane Hamilton is the Founder and CEO of Tonerra, and Co-Founder of DIMA Innovations, which are consulting and media-based businesses. She is a nationally syndicated radio host, keynote speaker, and the former MBA Program Chair at the Forbes School of Business. She has authored multiple books which are required in universities around the world, including Cracking the Curiosity Code: The Key to Unlocking Human Potential, and The Power of Perception: Eliminating Boundaries to Create Successful Global Leaders. Visit her website here.

I hope you liked this episode! Please rate and leave a comment on the podcast wherever you download your podcasts. Let me know in the comments what you think is the biggest inhibitor of your curiosity!

Thanks for listening and stay cool!

Visit the show website at (http://www.meetmypotential.com)

Follow me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepanatarajan/)

#98 Reach Out of Your Comfort Zone with Andy Molinsky

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 03:00:00 +0100

When we are young, it is so easy for us to try new things and get out of our comfort zone. But as we grow up, different situations happen where we start to learn to stay where we are comfortable. Perhaps we have a big failure and lose something dear to us. Maybe we do something wrong and get criticized harshly. No matter the way it happens, we become conditioned to not take risks.

Today, listen to the show to hear Andy Molinsky speak about his formula, The Three C’s, to reach out of your comfort zone. Get inspired to discover your conviction, customize your approach and gain clarity on what your reality might look like!

Key Points from this Episode:

We all have different zones: comfort, panic, learning, etc. Different tasks fall into different zones and they can change over time.
Anxiety does serve a purpose; too much might paralyze you from action but a little bit might provide the right amount of motivation for you to step outside your comfort zone.
The Three C’s: Conviction, Customization and Clarity. Think about a situation that is outside of your comfort zone. First think about the why, this covers Conviction. Next you can figure out a way to make stepping outside a little easier for you, customize it. Finally establish the realistic outcomes of this step outside of your comfort zone, this provides clarity.
Babies have a learning orientation, they get feedback from parents and the outcomes of what they try. Over time, we shift from learning orientation to a performance orientation.
Psychological safety plays a big part in stepping outside of comfort zones within organizations. Think about how you can contribute to your organization's psychological safety.
We are really good at avoiding anything outside of our comfort zone, but if we try and reflect on what happens then every time it will get easier.
When stepping outside our comfort zones it is very common to have some kind of physical or body response (like a knot in your stomach). Normalize this!

About Andy

Andy Molinsky is a professor, consultant and keynote speaker. He helps individuals and teams reach their potential by learning to step outside their personal and cultural comfort zones. He is the author of two popular business books (Global Dexterity and Reach)and was recently chosen as one of Marshall Goldsmith’s Top 50 World Leaders in Coaching. He has two different coaching and training certification programs based on his books. Check out his website - www.andymolinsky.com.

#97 The Ingredients of a Successful Transformation with Reshma Ramachandran

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 28 Dec 2020 03:00:00 +0100

What is needed to make a transformation in your organization? What’s the difference between working with individuals and groups when trying to make a successful change? What is easy to forget when working with organizations and change?

Join Reshma Ramachandran and I as we discuss transformation - what is hard about it, how it changes from individual to a group and what are the key ingredients to make it successful.

Key Points from this Episode:

Human beings naturally do not like change.
Change requires us to get out of our comfort zone.
Every change makes you a better person.
Organizations are not inanimate objects. Organizations are like humans- they have emotions, egos, ambitions and desires.
You don’t try to change individuals; you create change agents.
When making change, it is most important for the leader to change first. Walk the talk from the top down.
Build trust by giving trust
Speed is never at the cost of trust.
There is no finishing line for transformation.
Change has to become part of the DNA of the company.
Change cannot be at the cost of the team.
Challenge your thoughts and bring out your biases, then put the facts next to your biases.
Life is what you make of it. We all have choices but we must be willing to accept the consequences of the choice. Change the narrative - can I accept this consequence?

About Reshma

Reshma Ramachandran is the Vice President of Hitachi ABB Power Grids. She grew up in rural India without access to reliable power, clean drinking water and other basic needs, her purpose to empower people to believe they have the power to choose and to enable people to go beyond their self-limiting beliefs has shaped Reshma's journey as a business leader over the last two decades.

I hope you liked this episode! Please rate and leave a comment on the podcast. If you’d like to dig more into transformation and how to make the sustainable change you need to become the leader you desire to be, come watch my masterclass! You can find it here.

#96 Rethink Leadership with Deepa

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 03:00:00 +0100

Did you know that most people fail at making change in their life? Even when told that the change will save their life, a majority of people still do not effectively make the change they want. So how does effective and sustainable change happen? What do we need to pay attention to in order to make the change and have it stick? Listen as I dive into how we all need to rethink leadership.

Key Points from this Episode:

Don’t fall into the common mistake of thinking you can make change just by setting up a task list to get it done.
Making change is about you! Sit with yourself and figure out what your personality is telling you about how you can effectively make change
Highly driven people are action-biased, a perfectionist, a problem solver, self-sufficient or future-focused.
Oftentimes, we repeat our patterns of success. What trait has helped you achieve success in your life so far?
Now, It’s time to look at what the negative effects are of these traits. Because we repeat these patterns of success, we often overuse the trait. This leads to negative effects. So, if you are so focused on everything being perfect, what have you lost? If you are always looking at the future, what are you missing in the present? These are some good reflection questions to ask yourself as we close out the year.
Complexity asks us to slow down to sense what’s happening while speeding up to test quickly.
If mindset and personality were the biggest factors in thriving in complex times, which one of the opposing traits do you need the most? Stillness, cyclic nature, more presence, more co-creation, or more co-responsibility? Take some time to think and journal about what you are looking for more of in 2021.
Would you like a thought partner with you on this reflection? Book a strategy call with me and we can walk through what traits are making you successful and what they may be holding you back from. Book a call with me here!

If this episode piqued your interest about how you can rethink leadership and make sustainable change in your life, please come watch my masterclass! You can find it here.

I would appreciate it if you posted a review of the show! And leave a comment, what does rethink leadership mean to you? What highly driven trait do you most identify with?

#95 Embrace Ambiguity with Dave Snowden

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 03:00:00 +0100

We live in a complex world and as humans, our brains often try to find ways to break complex things down into simple, manageable tasks. But what if instead we embraced the complexity and the chaos around us? What would happen if we let go of needing to know every answer to every question?

Today I’m speaking with Dave Snowden, Founder of Cognitive Edge. Dave has been a pioneer of complexity and encourages us to let go of some of the ideas we may think are serving us and our brains. Get ready to be challenged!

Key Points from this Episode:

Cynefin Framework - there are five different domains where five different types of Leadership are needed.
Good leaders take those with them that compliment their weaknesses.
Complexity is the new simplicity.
You won’t know what you need to change, you need to have a team around you to see where you are intentionally blind.
Collective leadership is necessary in complex adaptive environments.
Hear about small experiments you can implement at your company.
Consciousness is a distributed function in the body, it’s not just in the brain.
There’s a difference between giving people direction and having goals.
Hierarchy does not help in complexity.
Leaders need diversity around them. Remember, cynics are the ones who care- keep them around.
Be more connected and engaged in the world.
Accept things as they are, don’t fight against them.

About Dave

Dave Snowden is Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Cognitive Edge. Dave is currently working on the application of natural sciences to social systems through the development of a range of methods and the SenseMaker® software suite. Cognitive Edge is the pioneer of the field of complexity, charting the way before complexity became “mainstream”.

#94 A Wider Perspective of Inclusion with Aron Le Fevre

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 03:00:00 +0100

This Thursday (10 December) is Human Rights Day. We are celebrating this year by speaking with Aron Le Fevre, the Director of Human Rights at Copenhagen 2021. He has a profound range of international politics and a solid knowledge of inclusion and equality with focus on the LGTBQ+ community. Take a listen and hear how you might be able to widen your perspective of inclusion.

Key Points from this Episode:

Inclusion means that every person can be him/her/themselves and not have to live in fear about being accepted. It is very broad.
Many times, we hide certain parts of ourselves because we are afraid of having this difference from our colleagues.
Diversity needs to be embraced.
If you accept yourself, it will be easier to accept others.
Systemic change is needed. Everything starts with the individual though.
There is a need for shared responsibility and to be in service of others.
Visibility is key to inclusion.
Get out of your comfort zone and experience the world. Go see how other parts of the world live.
We need to move faster to this place of inclusion. We all need to be more curious to always be challenging our own biases.
Change can only be made when we look at ourselves.

About Aron Le Fevre

Aron is a passionate and multilingual champion of human rights, with experience in international politics and the global LGBTI+ and Pride community. He is leading the Copenhagen 2021 Human Rights Forum with the goal to elevate the international LGBTI+ agenda, working together with a multitude of governments, civil society and non-governmental organizations both in Denmark and abroad. Check out Copenhagen 2021 on their website.

#93 Why You Need to Rethink Leadership with Deepa and Suzie Lewis

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 03:00:00 +0100

On this week’s episode I am honored to share with you a recent interview I had with Suzie Lewis on the Let’s Talk podcast. It was a pleasure to speak with Suzie and speak about why I created MeetMyPotential and the need to rethink leadership. I hope you enjoy this episode and after you listen, go take a look at Suzie’s podcast, Let’s talk. She has some great interviews so that you can stay connected to the changing digital world.

Key Points from this Episode:

Find out why I started MeetMyPotential
Find out who I work with
Technical challenges are easy to solve with your expertise, time and/or money.
Challenges with other human beings take more work to solve.
Highly Driven people usually can identify as a perfectionist, a problem-solver, being action-oriented, being future-focused, and/or being self-sufficient. These are the exact reasons why they have been promoted.
All of these highly driven traits can be taken too far, it’s important to balance them with their duality.
Listen to my example of balancing between being a problem-solver and having co-responsibility. This is what I mean when I say we need to rethink leadership.
Hear my definition of balance
Ask yourself: Is the way I’m functioning sustainable?

I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek into MeetMyPotential and my journey to create the Rethink Leadership program. Please reach out if you’d like to learn more about what your highly driven traits are and what gaps you may have!

Find out how to listen to Let’s talk here.

#92 The Inadequacies of the Rational Mind with Joel Monk

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 03:00:00 +0100

Are you always on the move? Running to the next meeting or get the next project done? Do you find yourself relying on your logical, problem-solving mind? So many of us do! And to be honest, the world and society has rewarded this behavior for too long.

Today I’m joined by Joel Monk, co-Founder of Coaches Rising, to discuss the inadequacies of our rational minds. Take this time for yourself, maybe go out for a walk or find a place to sit and take in Joel’s words of wisdom. It is so important to not only take time for ourselves, but also listen to our bodies and make sure we connect so we can use the intelligences of our emotions and bodies. Let this podcast be a gift to you today.

Key Points from this Episode:

The rational mind brings many gifts to us, we need to use it. Over the years though, we have placed too much emphasis on our rational minds. There are limits of the rational mind, we cannot depend on it for everything. There needs to be a balance.
We need to develop emotional intelligence, body intelligence, and cultivate presence. This can open creativity and new solutions to problems you were encountering when you were stuck in your rational thoughts and ways.
We get socialized in a certain way - performance and achievement are defined based on our upbringing. It’s so important once we are grown to take time to stop and get curious about what we as our own person define success as and what we need physically, mentally, and spiritually in order to feel our best.
Our world is so prone to action and doing instead of stillness and silence. We need to slow down and give space to feeling into nonverbal cues. Naming what is the feeling of the room or a meeting is a valuable leadership skill. And yes, you can do this without using your sight!
Cognitive overload surrounds us; look for ways to bring simplicity into your life and work.
Expand your window of tolerance with practices like going out in nature, breathing exercises, meditation, or any activity that slows you down and takes you out of your rational intelligence.
Once we are open to sensing, we will be more open to welcome uncertainty and the unknown. This is truly how we live in complexity.
Welcome all emotions. They are all valid.
Take a pause, breathe and feel into your body. Notice what shows up without judgement. Remember to take moments of stillness throughout your day.

Let us know what you felt from this conversation. What are you recognizing? What is stirring inside of you? Thank you so much for listening!

About Joel Monk

Joel Monk is a leadership coach, educator, facilitator and entrepreneur. You can get in touch with Joel by emailing him, joelmonk@coachesrising.com.

He co-founded Coaches Rising, a company on the cutting edge of online coach training with a community of nearly 50,000 coaches. Coaches Rising programs regularly include participants from every continent on the planet and they have collaborated with some of the leading minds in the field of human development and coaching.

#91 How to Become Aware of Your Influence and Make it Intentional with Jayson Krause

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 03:00:00 +0100

Did you know every time you speak you are having influence on those around you? Did you know that your behaviors can unconsciously be picked up by your colleagues, friends and family? How much are you aware of your influence? Are you being intentional?

Join Jayson Krause and me as we look at the places where we are having influence and how we can become more aware of what impact we are creating on our environments. Make sure you listen to the end to hear 3 important questions we should all be asking ourselves to deepen this practice of intentional influence!

Key Points from this Episode:

Learn about behavioral viruses and become aware of them
You are responsible for everything in your environment either by the actions you have taken or the actions you have not taken.
You are always having an impact, you just need to become intentional about it
As a leader, you are a walking advertisement. Be careful what message you are spreading!
Every behavioral virus you spread is your legacy.
The biggest challenge to being the best version of yourself is giving the time to being intentional.
Get clear about your brand - yes, you have a brand whether you like it or not. Once you know the qualities that make you you, that’s when you can dive in and start being intentional about how you show up.

About Jayson Krause

Jayson is a leadership strategist who specializes in helping organizations develop high-performance leaders and grow strong leadership pipelines. His experience spans from tech startups to Fortune 500 companies. Check out his company, Level 52, here.

#90 There is No Compromise in Commitment with Angela Philp

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 03:00:00 +0100

What is your biggest commitment for this year? Do you ever feel like you are slipping away from this commitment? Can there be any compromise in commitment? If so, what is the impact of making compromises in your commitments?

Join Angela Philp and I as we discuss these questions and give simple tools to help you navigate your commitments through the rest of this year.

Key Points from this Episode:

Making very clear definitions of commitment and compromise
Learn if you are committed to pleasing or serving.
Examples of having commitment with no compromise
How to make a commitment
Commitment comes from something bigger than you
Easy tips for reminding you of your commitment - get your sticky notes out!
Stay inspired by others around you! And surround yourself by a community, virtual and in person.
Courage is a muscle that needs to be worked on
Voice, write down and be your commitment! And don’t compromise.

About Angela Philp

Angela is an Executive Leadership Coach. She supports women who’ve created millions in revenue for their organisations through their deep commitment, devotion and brilliance, to also get more REAL, lean more fully into their edge – and own their power. Visit her website to learn more about her and her company, Queen of Possible.

#89 Internal or External Validation – What to Look For Part II with Mark Metry

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 03:00:00 +0100

What kind of internal and external validations are we looking for? What serves us and what holds us back from living from a true, authentic place?

Join Mark Metry and I as we discuss what validation is helpful and what validation is not helpful. We had such a great conversation, I’ve split this episode into two parts. Make sure you’ve listened to Part I from last week first.

Part II

Key Points from this Episode:

How building good habits adds up
Be yourself.
Get into meaningful discomfort.
What you want to hide from the world, that is actually the thing you need to pursue and put out into the world. This is how you step into your life.
Be aware of the small things.

About Mark Metry

Mark is a Forbes Featured TEDx keynote speaker, on Amazon Prime's Docuseries the Social Movement & podcast host interviewing Billionaires, New York Times Bestselling Authors and World-Class human beings on his Global Top 100 Humans 2.0 podcast.

#88 Internal or External Validation – What to Look For Part I with Mark Metry

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 03:00:00 +0100

What kind of internal and external validations are we looking for? What serves us and what holds us back from living from a true, authentic place?

Part I

Key Points from this Episode:

In order to feel the high points, you have to feel the low points.
You cannot live by logic alone. Don’t be afraid to step into your emotions.
Don’t overlook the small things!
Be yourself.
You can be successful and vulnerable.

About Mark Metry

#87 How to Overcome Fatigue and Achieve with Ease with Deepa

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 03:00:00 +0100

High Achievers set a goal, they go all in and give 100%. They don’t stop until it is achieved. Then, they move on to the next goal in a heartbeat. Do they achieve high amounts of success? Of course, yes. There is no doubt of that. But what is the cost?

Join me as I give 3 simple ways to break out of this pattern of constantly moving and focusing on the future!

Key Points from this Episode:

High Achievers love goals and being constantly challenged
What is the cost of always driving and pushing to the next goal?
How can High Achievers be challenged and be present in the moment to appreciate the here and now
Be present with ‘what is’.
Emotions are often underrated in the business world, but all decisions include emotions as well as data so make sure you are checking in with how you are feeling daily.
Look how far you have come and how much you have achieved.
Remember, the present moment is all we have.
You are enough as you are!

I hope you liked this episode! Please leave a review and let me know - do you consider yourself a High Achiever? Do you give yourself all the credit you deserve for everything you achieve?

Would you like to know how you can rethink leadership to achieve success in harmony? Come attend my free masterclass to learn more! www.meetmypotential.com/webinar

#86 Design Systems for Inclusion with Suzie Lewis

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 03:00:00 +0100

How do you design systems for inclusion? We all want inclusion and want to work for a system that is inclusive, but in the workplace we are run by policies and procedures. These systems may have thought they were inclusive but what is the reality? Do you feel empowered at your job? Do you feel that you are involved in decision making?

Today I’m joined with Suzie Lewis and we are diving into how to build systems for inclusion. Come hear how you can be part of the change your workplace culture may need.

Key Points from this Episode:

Design for Inclusion approach that Suzie has created and a brand new program you can join soon
How to incentivize involvement on your team and in your organization
Four Founding Elements of Designing Inclusion - Empathy, Psychological Safety, Collective Intent and Vision, and Co-Responsibility
Empathy is the starting point of Inclusion and Design Thinking
How to start making change around you - visualize, understand, define, act and pilot small changes, and realize this is primarily about transforming people, it will not happen overnight.
Before transitioning to “We”, you have to understand “I”.
How to do a diagnostic to see how inclusive is your organization.

About Suzie Lewis

Suzie is a global business leader and executive coach with extensive experience of international transformation projects and preparing business leaders and employees for change. Visit her website to learn more - www.transformforvalue.com.

#85 My Top 3 Reasons Why We Give Up On Change with Deepa

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 03:00:00 +0100

Have you ever tried to make a change in your life? Maybe a habit, how you disagree, your morning routine, the way you communicate, what your eating looks like or the way you lead? We all want to make changes in our lives. The big question is, how easy was it to make that change? Did you have the impact you wanted?

Change is hard and can be a long journey. Sometimes we even dissuade ourselves from making a change because of how difficult we think it will be. Take a listen to this episode to hear how we most often self-sabotage ourselves on the way to making change.

Key Points from this Episode:

Hear my top 3 reasons why we give up on change
Understanding change
Why it is worth it to make a change, even when it is hard

I hope you liked the show! Make sure you are subscribed to the show so that you can hear more about change in the coming weeks. And tell us what change, big or small, you want to make below!

#84 Get Comfortable with Curiosity with Simon Brown and Garrick Jones

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 03:00:00 +0100

Curiosity may seem like a very basic skill. You might be thinking, “I know how to be curious, why would I need to listen to this episode?”. Well, take a listen and get ready to dive further into this skill of curiosity than you ever have before. Are you ready to hear about the ‘7 C’s of Curiosity’ model? Are you ready to take a look at yourself and your team to actually see how curious you are being? Are you ready to get uncomfortable and take your curiosity to a new level?

Simon Brown and Garrick Jones join me to discuss how critical curiosity is to you, your own leadership, your team and your business.

Key Points from this Episode:

Hear from the authors of “The Curious Advantage” about their process and research
Why curiosity is at the heart of how we navigate and make sense of the digital world
Why faster is not always better
How to reveal our unconscious biases and get uncomfortable by staying in the question
How important it is to create a culture of curiosity and experimentation within your organisation, otherwise innovation will die
The 7 C’s of Curiosity model - Context, Community, Curation, Creativity, Construction, Criticality, and Confidence
What gets in the way of you being curious
Curiosity has its place everywhere, even in safety or security situations

About Simon Brown and Garrick Jones

Simon is Chief Learning Officer at Novartis, a focused medicines company, and one of the leading companies in the world. He is a commercially-minded learning leader with experience across a range of the World’s top organisations.

Garrick is an entrepreneur, academic and musician based in London. Co-Founder and Partner of The Ludic Group (founded in 2004), a pioneering consultancy, transforming the way people live, work and learn across time and distance. He is a renowned expert in Digital Transformation, Digital Learning and Engagement.

Please visit their website for their book, which they co-authored with Paul Ashcroft, and podcast - https://curiousadvantage.com/

#83 What if Perfectionism was Dead with Deepa

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 03:00:00 +0100

What if perfectionism was dead? What would that give you? What would be present for you? What would society and organisations look like if perfectionism didn’t exist?

In recent months, we have had to change so much and pivot in ways we may not have known were options. Have we let go of our perfectionist ways? I don’t know for sure, but let’s take a moment to ask ourselves what our perfectionism may be holding us back from. Ask yourself - What else is needed from me at this time and am I too caught up in getting it perfect?

Key Points from this Episode:

It is common for High Achievers to be perfectionists! We want to get it right all the time.
We can be so forgiving of others’ errors. It is time to start being more accepting of our own errors.
One of the consequences of perfectionism is that it slows everything down.
Listen to a real life example of how one company was able to see how their products were working for their customers and hear the question they took back to their CEO to implement in future product releases.
Get ready to be honest with yourself about your work and ask “What is the minimal viable product?”
Our world is always changing. If you want to stay innovative and be a shape shifter, you need to let go of your perfectionism.

I hope you liked this show! Here is another show where I go more into the limits of perfectionism. Please leave the show a review and comment how you are letting go of perfectionism.

#82 How You Can Continually Learn Without Costing Your Business Time and Energy with Wendy Tansey

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 03:00:00 +0100

Do you feel like there is so much to learn with technology while also learning about all of your employees too? Where do you begin if you want to learn about relationships and how best to interact with other human beings?

Wendy Tansey joins me to discuss how to best answer these questions and how you can save your business time and energy through continual learning.

Key Points from this Episode:

In order to adapt to changes well, you must continuously learn especially about your coworkers and employees. If you stop learning, you will get left behind.
Every person is unique, so be curious about each person. Take the time to communicate and understand how best they work. For example, do they prefer a phone call or a text?
As a leader, be willing to set the right expectations for your employees. This may be different for different employees!
It is critical for Leaders and Managers to put time into learning about their employees, otherwise it will cost you and your business.
There are a number of resources for you to learn, don’t limit yourself! (Hint: You could subscribe to a podcast)
Learn Wendy’s top 3 areas to pay attention to in order to be successful in your workplace and leading others.
Don’t get stagnant in your leadership! Hear easy ways to start your learning journey.
Instead of staying in your own perspective, get curious and listen to others’ perspectives. This will help you upscale your leadership and your business.

About Wendy Tansey

Wendy Tansey is an expert at Microlearning, giving leaders the ability to lead with Confidence. She simplifies the complexities of managing people. She has over 20 years’ experience with working with leaders. Visit her website to learn more - https://wendytansey.com/.

#81 3 ways to stop self-sabotaging your business performance with Deepa

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 03:00:00 +0100

Did you know there is only one person getting in the way of you reaching your potential? Yes, only one! And it is you. There are 3 ways you could be self-sabotaging yourself and your potential. Let’s explore them so you can allow your potential to shine and allow your business to perform.

Key Points from this Episode:

You may be spending too much time with your self-doubt. The more you step outside your comfort zone, the bigger the self-sabotaging voices get. Learn how to move past these thoughts to return quickly to your high performance.
Saying no to others is critical for high performers. Learn a quick exercise to give yourself full permission and say yes to you and your projects more!
Do you find yourself getting paralyzed by the opinions and advice from other people? Listen to hear how you can focus on one thing and move forward with clarity.
It is easy to let fears hold you back from pursuing your big goals. Instead of sitting with them, connect with others to gain new perspective on your situation. Don't wait!

Remember, the more you can quickly recover from these self-sabotaging ways, the more your potential will shine, and your business will perform better.

Please let me know how the tips I shared to work through your self-sabotage worked for you! Are there other ways you are self-sabotaging? Leave a comment!

#80 Unconscious biases around women of color with Advita Patel

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 03:00:00 +0100

Have you asked yourself why despite great HR Diversity and Inclusion practices, workplaces look alike and senior management positions are not very diverse. Or have you ever wondered - How unconscious biases are dampening the spirit of diversity?

Insights you will get from the episode:

What are unconscious biases?
What are some typical unconscious biases around women of color?
What challenges exist as a result of unconscious biases around women of color and how can one overcome them?
1 Key advice for women of color, what can they do in situations of discrimination?
What can people around do to build more inclusive cultures? How can you be a lever for change?

About Advita Patel

Advita Patel is the co-founder of A Leader Like Me, a global platform that helps women of colour progress further into leadership roles. She is a specialist in internal communications, and Chartered PR practitioner. In 2018 the Northern Power Women movement named her as one of their future leaders.

Website: https://www.commsrebel.com

A community to help women of colour: https://aleaderlikeme.com

#79 An important pitfall to watch out if you pivot in the pandemic with Deepa Natarajan

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 03:00:00 +0100

Is your organisation pivoting in this time of social, economic and health crisis. While this might be strategic for your company, you definitely don’t want to make this particular mistake.

Key points from this episode:

With the increase in competition, pivoting your business as become if not essential quite essential to the survival of many companies.
Technically pivoting requires investments in information technology, marketing, and logistics but as as much as this is needed, Mindset has been the biggest game changer.
People who allow fear to run them find themselves freezing unable to respond to the needs of the crisis.
While people are reinventing themselves and their organisations are gaining momentum in a new direction, so the question is what do they do differently ?

Listen to this short episode to find out what are those simple things you can do and the 1 biggest mistake to avoid.

#78 Leadership in times social economic and health crisis Valerie Rocoplan

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 03:00:00 +0100

It is sometimes hard to know how to lead in tough times. What should my leadership look like? What are some simple things I can do during the social, economic and health crisis that we are going through with COVID 19. Valerie Rocoplan CEO & Founder of Talentis gives us insights on what leadership can look like in changing times.

What insights you will get from this episode:

If leadership is not about status, knowledge and hierarchy anymore and if leadership is about helping people to decide, then what must be done to build that environment?
What challenges do leaders face in complex times?
The 5 key elements that can help you as a leader wade through times of social, economic and health crisis.
How to best manage your energy energy?
How expressing emotions moves you into action?
What is the one thing you can do to feel less fear and more connected to people?

About Valerie Rocoplan

Valérie Rocoplan founded Talentis in 2003. Talentis is an international company, specialised in executive coaching and leadership development. Valérie Rocoplan is on a mission to develop leaders and optimise collective intelligence. She manages a team of 85 coaches as partners in more than 23 different countries worldwide.

Website: https://www.talentis-coach.com

Valérie Rocoplan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/talentis/

#77 How can you take ownership of your career with Andy Storch

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 03:00:00 +0100

Are you fatigued by your job and want to make a change in your career and just don’t know how.

Andy Storch is a talent development specialist and if you wanna to know how to make that shift listen in. It is time to S.T.O.P drifting along in your career, especially if you don’t find meaning and purpose in what you do.

Is your job supporting the greater vision of where you want to get to in your life?

Does it get you excited to get to work?

Is your job connected with your purpose?

You get the picture it is important to own your career and own your life.

What insights you will get from this episode:

What does it mean to take ownership of your career?
How do you take ownership?
Taking ownership might look scary, but there are ways to not let norms of society run you and take away what you truly want to do.
Ideas to get started on how you can shift your career.
How to let go of the fear of judgement from others?
What are those tough conversations you need to have?
What kind of support can help you move ahead?

About Andy Storch

Andy Storch is a talent development specialist. He is the host of 2 podcasts. Author of the forthcoming book Own Your Career Own Your Life.

Website: https://andystorch.com

Top 5 common mistakes people make in the career world: http://ownyourcareerownyourlife.com/mistakes

#76 How do we make decisions in complex times with Keith Johnston

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 03:00:00 +0100

We all make sense of the world differently and make meaning differently. As we move into complexity that becomes a greater challenge.

Do you question the way decisions are taken in complex times? What might be going wrong in the way decisions are made in meetings?

I have been observing senior executive meetings and providing feedback and I found Keith Johnston from Cultivating Leadership has some great insights on this topic.

What insights you will get from this episode:

Typical mistakes executives make in meetings.
How early convergence and polite agreements get in the way of solving problems in complex times?
Why letting go of – “holding on to rightness” – is so important?
What assumptions get in the way of running a great meeting?
Key ingredients of running meetings in complex times.

About Keith Johnston

Keith Johnston co-authored with Jennifer Garvey Berger Simple Habits for Complex Times. Leadership development was the focus of his PhD. He has explored the capability for complexity required of senior leaders and how this might be enabled.

Email: keith@cultivatingleadership.co.nz

Website: https://www.cultivatingleadership.com

#75 How does your confidence steal your potential with Bob Gentle

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 03:00:00 +0100

Are you a shy introvert? Are you struggling to get your voice out there and be heard?

Bob tells us we often see mediocre people standing up and taking all the attention and amazing people hiding their light and it is completely irrational. So how do you get yourself out there and not let your shy nature limit you?

"We don't change being shy and or being an introvert, but we can learn to get our of our comfort zone and not let that limit our potential." - Bob Gentle

Insights you will get from this episode: 20"

What is it to be shy and how does it steal your potential?
How can you break down the barriers of being shy and or being an introvert and get out of your comfort zone?
How does comparing yourself with others help or hinder you?
How can you change the way you are so that you can stand in the spotlight?

#74 How to get rid of imposter syndrome with Clare Josa

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 25 May 2020 03:00:00 +0100

Do you wake at 3am and worry what if they find out that "I'm a fraud" or "I am not as good as people think?"

Then maybe it is imposter syndrome that you are suffering from. You don't have to pretend anymore to be someone. You can end imposter syndrome and be yourself.

The four signs of Imposter Syndrome for Clare are:

Perfectionism
Procrastination
Project Paralysis
People pleasing

We can’t rationalize with our logical mind, coz if you do that you will only end of wresting with those thoughts giving it more attention and you will end up making it worse. One can’t use mindset level tools to deal with identity level issues.

What Insights you will get from this episode:

What is imposter syndrome?
How does it manifest in the workplace?
How can you identify if someone at work is suffering from imposter syndrome?
How to men and women cope with it? What’s the difference?
Why does changing negative self-talk with positive ones does not work?
How do develop natural resilience?
What can you do in 60sec to turn them over?

About Clare Jose

Clare Josa is a professional speaker and the author of seven books.She has specialized in helping business leaders and high achievers to clear the self-sabotaging thoughts and change behaviors caused by Imposter Syndrome. The stuff that goes deeper than mindset or confidence, but which gets in the way of you making the difference you really want to make in the world.

She is the author of eight books. Her latest book: Ditching Imposter Syndromewas published in 2019.

Get your ABC technique:http://www.clarejosa.com/meetmypotential/

# 73 Getting out from hard failures with Dr. Tamer Shahin

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 11 May 2020 03:00:00 +0100

This is a true story of an entrepreneur who set up his business and made millions in a short time, got published in Forbes as a digital health thought leader, owned a Ferrari, and then everything came tumbling down the point that his business partner went to prison and he had 2M in personal debt.

One of the most painful moments for Dr. Tamer Shahin was to call his business partner’s pregnant wife and tell her that her husband won’t be home for the delivery.

Tamer then rebuilt success in digital health, won a UK national innovation award, and gave a TEDx talk. He has learnt from extraordinary success and catastrophic adversity! Today, he is on a mission to help business owners and entrepreneurs learn those precious lessons.

What insights you will get from this episode:

What failure feels like? How to break out of your cocoon and not be a hermit when failure hits you.
How can we embrace failure and move forward?
How can we as leaders, bear responsibility for ourselves, as well as others during times of failure?
We can’t engineer our way out of failure, but we can talk about how we feel when things don’t work out.
What is needed for “Rising Strong”? How do we turn the page and become resilient?
Simple tips to raise up again with resilience after a failure.

About Dr. Tamer Shahin

Dr. Tamer Shahin went from academia, to advising country ministers on national policy and multi-billion-dollar productivity programs, founding and growing multi-seven figure businesses, living large (then not so large) in Dubai, and taking a global health start up stratospheric. He’s advised corporate titans, authored several textbooks, taught at universities around the world, spoken at TEDx, and published in Forbes as a digital health thought leader.

Tamer has gone through rags to riches and (seriously) back again. He’s designed learning at every level — and learned the hard way that capacity often starts with belief, and that success often starts with failure.

Tamer now enjoys being a serial entrepreneur, investor, business coach and mentor. Currently the founder and CEO of CEO Entrepreneur, he transforms entrepreneurs into CEO’s and small businesses into global companies; without stress or overwhelm. CEO Entrepreneur: https://ceoentrepreneur.com

Take the 3-min super intelligent business clarity quiz and get a free customised report on your single biggest business challenge: https://ceoentrepreneur.com/quiz

#72 Women in leadership: How to be heard with Virginie Boucinha

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 03:00:00 +0100

Top Insights from this episode:

Success is not just about achieving goals at work, it’s important to be fulfilled, which comes from inspiring others and creating impact around you.
Find one person who supports your cause and helps you in the organization. One sponsor is enough to help you embark on your path.
If you struggle to get heard in a meeting, here are 4 tips that Virginie share:
Use humor to shift the energy of the meeting.
Talk about the elephants in the room.
Put the hard topics on the table
Build alliances with people you work with.
To create gender balance in your teams, set clear rules and boundaries on the values that are important. Every time it is violated, speak about it until becomes a practice. Say it in a non-blaming non-judging way, and don’t be silent about it.
To ensure you are involved in decision making ensure
You are building the necessary and right bilateral relationships.
Don’t be shy!
Don’t care much how others perceive you.
Having an executive presence is about the ability to
Have the real quality conversations.
Make quality decisions.
Give space to people to move forward with autonomy.
To grow stronger with debates.
How do we manage time as an individual, mother, wife and businesswomen?
Accept all the different part of you.
It may not be possible to have a 24hr period where you are efficient in all areas of your life. Accept that there will be periods where you will be more at work and then there will be time for kids and other things.
Being just in one area of life can be boring.
Final Advice:
Surround yourself with people who can give you candid feedback, i.e. give you both the tough and good feedback.
Connections: Build true meaningful relationships and stay connected.

About Virginie Boucinha

Virginie Boucinha works at the headquarters of Sanofi,Paris, as the Global Head of Transformation. At Sanofi, she was previously the Chief of staff CEO Office. She is mother of 4 children. Virginie Boucinha is icon of intelligence, strength and humbleness. A strong women leader from whom we can learn a lot. She has also lived abroad in Morocco and India.

#71 Reputation Branding: How Do You Want To Be Perceived with Mary Henderson

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 03:00:00 +0100

What insights will you get from this episode ?

If you are an executive and wondering how to setup your brand image in the industry, do not miss this episode.

Decide how you want to be perceived and remembered.
In a world of competition where business cards and job titles are not sufficient currencies, building a reputation brand is becoming critical for most executives.
Learn what is reputation branding? How can you create this currency for yourself both internally in your organization and outside?
How can your reputation brand be aligned with that of your company?

Mary Henderson shares valuable content here. Don’t miss this episode!

About Mary Henderson

Mary Henderson Coaches, Consultants & Corporate Professionals commercialise their PersonalBrand to stand out, become an authority in their niche or industry and build a sustainable & profitable digital business.

Links:

Apply for a free consultation with her: https://www.maryhendersoncoaching.com/apply

Her website: www.maryhendersoncoaching.com

#70 Covid-19 Part 5 – One Simple strategy for challenging times with Deepa Natarajan

Deepa Natarajan — Fri, 10 Apr 2020 07:50:00 +0100

What insights you will get from this episode?

Empathy drives connection. At a time like this, with social distancing and virtual working, connection is essential. So, what exactly is empathy? What are the components of empathy? How can leaders demonstrate empathy when announcing decisions. Today more than before people in positions of power and authority are being more critically looked at for protection as our sense of security is triggered.

Listen time: 5 min

#69 Covid-19 Part 4 – One Simple strategy for challenging times with Deepa & Suzie

Deepa Natarajan — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 06:15:00 +0100

What insights you will get from this episode?

What opportunities are present for us at an individual level, at an organisational level and at the ecosystem?
How is this impacting business, how are businesses rethinking they way they work?
How is mortality shaping us today ?
How do we capture the lessons learnt for a better future.
How can organisations carry the learnings forward with them?

#68 Covid-19 Part 3 – One Simple strategy for challenging times with Deepa & Suzie

Deepa Natarajan — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 03:00:00 +0100

What insight you will get from this episode?

How are teams impacted by COVID-19 in organizations?

How does changing decisions impact you and your teams?

What are some of the common challenges teams are facing right now?

What opportunities are present for teams?

Listen to this insightful episode by Suzie Lewis and Deepa Natarajan, Time 8min.

#67 COVID-19 Part 2 – One Simple strategy for challenging times with Deepa Natarajan

Deepa Natarajan — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 03:00:00 +0100

What insights you will get from this episode?

How do you cope with prolonged periods of stress? When we experience stress we sometimes turn to an auto response to avoid the painful things. i.e. we numb our pain by either watching t.v. or browsing social media or excessively practicing sports, eating at odd hours...etc..

None of these is inherently a bad things, but when used to escape from feeling a hard emotion they can become real issues.

In 5min, Deepa shares 2 simple ways to cope with stress in challenging times.

#66 Covid-19 Part 1 – One Simple strategy for challenging times with Deepa Natarajan

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 03:00:00 +0100

What insights you will get from this episode?

Where do you want life to grow in these challenging times? In this episode Deepa Natarajan shares one simple strategy to gain control of our lives in difficult times.

Part of being proactive is focusing our attention on our circle of influence rather than our circle of concern.

There's a saying, that goes like:

When attention goes there life grows

Episode time: 5min

#65 What is the challenge of Distributed Leadership with David Costa

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 03:00:00 +0100

About David Costa

David Costa is the CEO of Everis UK. He has a passion for people and enjoys inspiring teams; instilling that success comes from determination and hard work. At Everis he is committed to improve clients’ business performance, through transformation, technology and business consulting.

In his personal life, while trying to find the family-work-personal balance, David works with start-ups, universities and charities as an advisor and investor, to support expansion and increase productivity.

What insights you will get from this episode?

In this episode we look at how Distributed Leadership (DL) can become a multiplayer effect? How does it allow people to be proactive? Why does creating connections become important? What are the side effects of Distributed leadership?

David talks about some of the key ingredients to put in place Distributed Leadership like: Taking decisions, finding the right talents, who can quickly decide, challenge and influence decisions, know what's urgent and what is important. Choosing the right people with high emotional intelligence who embrace diversity has been a key factor for David. He addresses questions like: What is it to be genuinely generous? What is it to not trust people?

His key message:

Think big and make the purpose belong to the organisation.

#64 What is Return to Wholeness with Peggy McAllister

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 03:00:00 +0100

Do you ever feel as though you are doing all the right things but still feel like something is missing? When we are small children, we focus on ourselves and embrace our unique personality. As we get older, we start to focus on others and how they expect us to behave. We start comparing ourselves to those around us and start putting ourselves into categories, like smart or athletic. For some time, this is a useful tool for us as we are growing up. But at a certain time in life, there is a need to return back to our unique, true self. This is Return to Wholeness.

Peggy McAllister joins Deepa on this episode to discuss what is Return to Wholeness and how we can start taking small steps to find who we have always been. This includes three pillars - Presence, Purpose and Partnerships.

Peggy’s Tips on Wholeness:

Return to wholeness is about returning to who you have always been.
We as humans focus more on becoming than returning.
Our identities are formed while we grow up. As identities are formed, we move into a stage of separation between yourself and everybody else.
The mechanisms that come up when trying to return to wholeness are beliefs, feelings, behaviors.
To return to who you are, start first by becoming conscious of your actions and then take observations of how you act. Then you can take small steps to return to wholeness.
There is power in journaling and being able to see progress over time. Remember to include what the voice in my head is telling me. When you start writing down your story, you can start owning and changing that story.
We tap into our wholeness by getting present in the here and now.
Another step to access your wholeness is to know your purpose - which comes from within you and is an expression of who you are.
Being in a community is important to wholeness as well. We are not supposed to go through life on our own, we need each other.

We hope you enjoyed this episode! Come continue the conversation with us on LinkedIn. Let us know - what is one way you will start returning to your true self?

About Peggy

Peggy McAllister is an Executive Coach and Catalyst. Peggy has offered hundreds of leaders across Europe, Asia, and the Americas simple yet profound tools for achieving radical new insights; enabling them to create sustainable breakthroughs in leadership, team functioning, innovation, and business results. Peggy’s work is deeply rooted in the sacred, weaving together her graduate training in psychology / counseling and 25 years of executive coaching, with 40 years of yoga, QiGong, tai chi, meditation, and other body-mind practices.

#63 What is distributed Leadership with Peter Pluim

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 03:00:00 +0100

About Peter Pluim

Peter is the Executive Vice President, Global Head of Enterprise Cloud Services at SAP. Before joining SAP Peter was the Executive Vice President of the Infrastructure & Data Management Services at Atos. Peter is one of those very high paced and highly driven leaders in the space of digital transformation. He has over 20+ years of experience across a multitude of functions and he has lived and worked across several countries. He has a proven track record to transform, build and drive complex high value multi Billion Euro organisations.

What insights you will get from this episode?

What are the limits of implementing Distributed Leadership (DL)? Why trusting the strategic vision is key in Distributed Leadership? Peter shares one simple and effective TIP to reduce politics. He talks in depth on the difference between delegation and distributed leadership and why giving autonomy and authority are key.

How do leaders get in the way of giving autonomy and authority to the next level? Get 4 tips from the episode to not react in crisis.

Key points from this episode.

Don't confuse delegation with distributed leadership.
Distributed Leadership is a must for high paced global organisations.
Giving Autonomy and Authority are key to make Distributed Leadership work.
Trust in strategy and trust in people is critical for Distributed Leadership to function.

#62 Why is it important to Dare To Lead?

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 03:00:00 +0100

What will you get from listening to this episode?

Why is vulnerability important? What does it mean to dare to lead? When we choose comfort over courage, we avoid difficult conversations, we don't give feedback and still hold the expectations over people. So, then why do we choose comfort over courage?

Kathy and Deepa discuss why courageous conversations are important for relationships?

Kathy shares the formula on how we can raise back from failure. Listen to the episode to know more.

Wanna know more about Kathy and Deepa:

Check out their LinkedIn profile KathyBall-Toncic and Deepa Natarajan

Kathy and Deepa will hold the "Dare To Lead" program of Brené Brown in near Toulouse, France. Checkout: www.meetmypotential.com/daretolead

#61 Why everyone needs a purpose? with Mark Leruste

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 20 Jan 2020 03:00:00 +0100

About Mark Leruste

Mark Leruste is someone who inspires me. He has an ability to connect with people through simple annecdotes and stories. He is the found of the podcast "The Unconventionalists". He calls himself the Chief Purpose Office of the Ministry of Purpose whose mission is to help organisations and business leaders clarify their purpose to better lead and inspire their life.

What insights you will get from this episode?

Why everyone needs to have a purpose? What happens when we don't have a purpose? Coz, Clearly organisations that are not purpose driven struggle to attract and retain millennials. Purpose is something that helps you wake up and face a frosty Monday morning.

Learn 2 simple techniques in this episode from Mark on how you can set your own Purpose and that of your organisation. Get inspired and ignited!

Connect with Mark:

https://www.markleruste.com

https://theunconventionalists.com

#60 How to reduce internal negative voices? with Deepa Natarajan

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 03:00:00 +0100

In this episode Deepa shares her 3 ways to reduce internal negative voices. A very simple and holistic approach that involves the Body, Mind and Soul.

In just 14mins you will learn 3 simple techniques to reduce the percentage of time your negative voices run you.

Meet your potential by reducing the percentage of time the limiting voices are active.

#59 What is the cost of being action biased?

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 07:00:00 +0100

What is the cost of being Action Biased? What is the impact of being in action all the time.

The #1 trait of a high Achiever is to be action oriented. In this episode Deepa shares four counter intuitive moves to being action biased.

If you want to know the 5 other traits of a High Achiever check out the ebook: www.meetmypotential.com/ebook to learn about strengths and liabilities of each of the 6 traits of a High Achiever.

Here's a video on this episode: https://youtu.be/lkD8FxLm0Dw

#58 What is the culture that inspires people across generations with Matthieu Stefani

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 03:00:00 +0100

Matthieu a serial entrepreneur talks about the importance of values in an organisation. What do you do when employees are brilliant and don’t adhere to key values? What happens when you put results on top of values?

Points covered in this episode

Matthieu's proverb: "Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee". Why is it important to take time to think, analyse and then act quickly
What is the culture that inspires people across generations?
Why are values important to a company? How do they help make decisions?
What do you do when employees are brilliant and don’t adhere to key values?
What happens when you put results on top of values?
Matthieu shares the importance of well being at work.

About Matthieu Stefani

Matthieu is an serial entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of CosaVostra. An agency that provides consulting in innovation and digital strategy.

Matthieu has a french podcast, Generation: Do it yourself. https://www.gdiy.fr

In Generation Do It Yourself, Matthieu shares in-depth stories and lessons on entrepreneurship, success factors and failure stories.

Contact Matthieu at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefani/

#57 Mindtraps and how to thrive in complexity by Jennifer Garvey Berger

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 03:00:00 +0100

What will you learn in this episode:

What are the 5 mindtraps that detail us in complex times?
An in-depth overview of the "control" mind trap.
What happens when we control too much in complexity. How do we get into a negative spiral with control and how that impacts the culture at work.
Jennifer Garvey Berger shares one simple tip on how we can let go a bit and start to influence our systems more?

About Jennifer Garvey Berger:

Jennifer Garvey Berger has a masters and a doctorate from Harvard University. She coaches some of the world leaders and teaches and runs leadership programs. She has written 3 books. The last one being Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps: How to Thrive in Complexity

Resources: Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps: How to Thrive in Complexity

Jennifer's website: https://www.cultivatingleadership.co.nz

#56 One simple way to deal with blame

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 03:00:00 +0100

In this episode Deepa share’s with you: ONE simple way to deal with blame. How most people respond when they feel blamed. How can we stop the conversation from becoming toxic and going downhill?

Learn one simple and powerful tip to deal with blame. Based on the research of Dr. John Gottman.

What will you get from this episode:

Blame can make us feel that we are not good enough. Here you will learn ONE simple way to deal with blame.
What is the most common response when people feel blamed?
How can we stop the conversation from becoming toxic and going downhill?

#55 What is the origin of Organisational Politics by Lori Shook

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 02:00:00 +0100

Why do people play organisational Politics? In simple terms how does our brain work? Understand some simple things that explains the human behaviour. Why to people allow others to fail in an organisation? Why do people hold grudges and take revenge? How can you tap into the wisdom and the sage in you with your prefrontal cortex? Lori shares one TIP to have more peace and convergence in organisation.

Insights you will get from listening to Lori (21min)

What is politics? Is it something negative / pejorative?
What is the origin of organisational politics?
How does the survival brain get in the way of us responding from a rational creative way?
What does our emotional limbic brain do when threatened?
How can we activate more of our reasoning : prefrontal cortex?
A lot of times we think we are logical when in fact we are driven by the emotional brain. This happens subconsciously or unconsciously.
What triggers our limbic brain that makes us take revenge, hold grudges?

“No one person can hold the complexity of everything. The minute you think that things are simple, that’s an indication that your limbic system is in charge of you.”

About Lori Shook

Lori Shook has more than 20 years of experience in creating experimental learning. her programs are based on neuroscience and she is passionate about making learning stick. She loves to bring science, people development into organisations and societies.

Website: https://shooksvensen.com

#54 What do you need to see to be an Agile Organisation by Peter Stoppelenburg

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 02:00:00 +0100

What is an Agile Organisation? Why is it important to reinvent your organisation? What is the ONE Big challenge organisations face to become more agile? What behaviours do we see in a Agile organisation? Learn ONE simple TIP that will take you a step closer to becoming more agile.

About Peter Stoppelenburg

Peter Stoppelenburg is the founder of House of transformation with 25 years of experience in Business and transforming organisations. He helps teams become high performing teams.

Insights you will get from listening to Peter (27min)

What does an Agile Organisation look like?
What is the biggest challenge that gets in the way of becoming an Agile organisation?
How does too much Control, over perfection, pleasing and distancing take people from an Agile organisation.
70% of the ingredients needed for an Agile Organisation is: Culture, Mindset and Attitude.
Why is it hard to enrol people in a transformation?
The importance of Kindness and Support in organisations.
What’s fundamentally needed to build trust.

Learn more about Peter at: http://houseoftransformation.nl

#53 When do you know you are successful? by Anya Romanova

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 30 Sep 2019 02:00:00 +0100

When do you know you are successful? Who is a successful person for you? What is it about them that makes them successful? What gets in the way of us feeling like we are successful? Anya answers some of these questions from a very simple and different perspective. Listen 18min on how you can feel successful.

What you will get from this episode

When will you know you are successful? What does that look like? What are those metrics?
Anya answers how she measures success and shares her perspective on “When is it enough?” “When do you know that you have arrived?”
What is the feeling and emotion you are desiring about success?
What’s important about Presence. Authority. Confidence.
What comes in the way of feeling successful?

What is the measure of success for you?

About Anya Romanova:

Anya Romanova is a certified coach, and facilitator who specialises in Diversity and Inclusion. She has build her own community of 700 women member and has now created an online program and teaches other coaches to build their communities through life workshop.

She is the co-founder of Modern Love Project , where she runs events for conscious singles in Toronto. She has spearheaded a women’s leadership group “Spark Your Life Sisterhood” with over 700 members. Has designed and lead over 60 workshops in the last 3 years.

Website: https://www.anyaromanova.com

#52 What is the link between Organisational Politics and Blame? with Deepa

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 02:00:00 +0100

In 7 min you get key answers to some of these questions. Why is blame so easy? How to reduce blame in the midst of organisation politics? How do you diffuse the blame you receive?

Blame is easy.

Engaging in a real dialogue and leaning into ambiguity of what you will hear is hard.

It is easier to stay with blame. Blame allows one to look good. Looking good unfortunately can equate to self-promotion, leading to carrier advancement, recognition and potentially monetary benefits.

From various interviews I found that:

In a politically charged environment, BLAME is always present.

I have blamed people. 

When I blame, I have a feeling of being in control. 

I behave from a place of I know what is wrong. 

I talk as if I know how things should actually be done.

Blame helps us to keep control.

Although I have reduced the percentage of time I blame, I cannot say I am Non-Blamer. The question for me is:

Can we reduce percentage of time we end up blaming and allow blame to become a toxic culture?

2 ways to reduce blame

1. Have a real conversation.

Step 1:

If you are receiving blame, normalise the situation to stop the blaming process by: Accepting your part of the problem: Start by looking at the 2% truth in what’s being said. OR. Look for the intension behind the blame.

Step 2:

Ask to have a dialogue where you can curiously explore how things were setup for failure.

Bréne Brown says:

Blame is simply the discharge of discomfort, pain and anger.

When something goes wrong, we’re too busy making connections as quickly as we can about whose fault it is, instead of slowing down, listening, and leaving enough space for empathy to arise.
Bravery is about engaging in a conversation that can take surprising directions and the outcomes of which can impact the way you do things.

We are all collectively co-responsible for any failure in a system. When we adopt this mindset, teams and organizations can quickly jump into a real conversation.

2. Bring more clarity

Talk about what success looks like.

Paint a clear picture. We so baldly want to go fast and want people to do things just like how we imagine. Bringing clarity means taking time to make others successful.

If you do find yourself blaming, remember it’s good you caught yourself being there.

Forgive yourself and take a deep breath the next time, blame slips in. We have all been blamers. What we want to do is reduce the percentage of time that we go around blaming and eventually create co-responsibility.

Read also:

About the author:

Deepa has been helping organisations make change happen through mindset change programs. She was intrigued by the power of politics. So she interviewed 20 people in 4 different organisations and they shared numerous stories with her. Many managers feel alone and want to talk about this subject and reduce the inefficiency it creates. Deepa is currently building a program on brave leadership to free the mind of politics.

To know more about the pilot program, please write to her at: Deepa@meetmypotential.com

#51 What is the impact of organisational politics on the mind? with Deepa

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 02 Sep 2019 02:00:00 +0100

What is Politics? What is organisational Politics? What words come to your mind when you hear politics? How does that impact your mind? What is one thing you can do to create more clear spaces and free your mind.

Key Points discussed in the Podcast

Aristotle’s definition of Politics: Politics is a “practical science” because it deals with making citizens happy.
Michael Jarrett, Prof from INSEAD Singapore describes Organisational Politics as:

” Organisational politics refers to a variety of activities associated with the use of

influence tactics to improve personal or organisational interests.”

Politics makes people Hyper vigilant.
Hyper Vigilant is an intense anxiety that gets created about all the things that can go wrong. Its a sense of Vigilance that is too alert and doesn’t rest.
3 Main Impacts of being Hyper vigilant: Becoming Self-protective
Becoming Paranoid
Feeling Lonely
One TIPBring more clarity by courageously sharing the story you are making
e.g. The story I am making is that ______(story: you are waiting for me to fail) and that makes me ________(feeling: not trust you), I need _________(your need: you to share the more information with my team).
You have the choice to switch off that TV channel in your brain that makes stories i.e. you have the choice to believe every thought you have.

Remember:

CLARITY means peace of mind.

CLARITY means efficiency.

I hope you will take one step forward to creating a clear space around you.

Questions, suggestions, want to share your story with me…I would love to hear from you.

About my work on Organisational Politics:

I have been helping organisations make change happen through mindset change programs. I was intrigued by the power of politics. So I interviewed about 20 people in 4 different organisations and they shared numerous stories with me. Some of the managers spoke to me for almost 1,5 hrs when we had only 45 min schedule. There is a strong need for manager in organisations to talk about this subject and reduce the inefficiency it creates. I am currently building a program on brave leadership to free the mind of politics.

To know more about the pilot program, please write to me at: Deepa@meetmypotential.com

#50 Assumptions – Why they get in the way of good relationships? with Deepa

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 01:00:00 +0100

Why do our assumptions get in the way of our relationships? How do they impact our relationships? How do assumptions impact the decisions we take? When did these assumptions get created? Are we aware of our assumptions?

In 10min Deepa shares her perspective on how assumptions get in the way of good relationships.

Key Insights from this episode

We are constantly making assumptions in our life in work and in our out of work-life too and this impact the actions we take.
Our assumptions get formed through our education and cultural upbringing.
The brain is designed to make assumptions, these are called mental models. Once we know what we are assuming we then have the power to change these.
How assumptions impact our relationships with people at work?

Remember

The more you know what you are assuming, the more you have the power to change those assumptions which are leading to certain perspectives.

About my uncovering your hidden assumptions:

May 2018, Boston, I got certified in Immunity to Change Process. Ever since I use this technique to uncover hidden assumptions. This process creates a higher level of conscious awareness that helps you to achieve your goals with less struggle. If you have heard this episode and want to discover your hidden assumption that is stopping you from achieving your goals with ease, write to me and I will be happy to offer you 1 free coaching session. In just 1 session you will gain awareness that will trigger your growth.

Write to me at: Deepa@meetmypotential.com

Announcement

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 02:00:00 +0100

Podcast’s will be launched once in 2 weeks, i.e. every alternate Monday.

We have come to realise that at times: “Less is More”.

So, we are in the process of improving the quality of episodes. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to the show. See you next Monday

#49 What does meeting my potential look like ? with Deepa

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 05 Aug 2019 02:00:00 +0100

What is MeetMyPotential? What does it mean to meet your potential? What does your life look like when you have met your potential? What comes in the way of us living our full potential. In this episode Deepa shares her perceptions on this topic in just 10 min.

Key Insights from this episode

I believe there is a huge potential that lives inside us.
We form assumptions and believes through life events, childhood experiences, and events. We get domesticated, conditioned by society and told how we need to be. Through these experiences we form our inner self talk which could be negative or positive affirmations. We unknowingly move away from our essence.
Meeting potential for me is about being clear about your PASSION and PURPOSE and living from that.
Its about making life choices and decisions based on your essence and
Not based on pleasing others
Not based on insecurity of failing
Not based on a feeling of inadequacy
Not based on a rebellious need to appear strong and in control
Meeting your potential is about making choices based on your values, based on the true expression of your creativity.
Meeting your potential is about following your passion and doing things you love or moving towards it.
It about not living a life of circumstances – rather a life filled with CHOICE.
Your potential is not a destination to reach / attain. Its there within you. Its a inward journey.
Its about you seeing your brilliance. Meeting your potential. Living your full life.

Remember

Potential exists in every human soul like the seed in the soil by meeting it the potential becomes actual.

If you were living with Passion and Purpose what does your life look like? What are you doing differently than today? What would a full life look like? What would having ease of being look like to you?

Write to me, I would like to hear about you.

#48 Why is your mental health important? with James Routledge

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 02:00:00 +0100

James Routledge, founder of Sanctus showed up on MeetMyPotential podcast. The mission of Sanctus is to change the perception of mental health, and James is here to talk about this mission. He shares his experiences with mental health and how Sanctus has improved workplaces.

What is mental health?

It’s your state of being; not just your state of well-being. Your emotions, feelings, thoughts, and identity are all wrapped up in mental health.

People’s perceived definition of mental health is that it just means mental illness or mental health issues, and I don’t believe that’s the case. Mental health is all-encompassing the full range of mental health, just like physical health isn’t about disease and illness, it’s about fitness and strength.

There is a stigma in talking about Mental Health at work, what challenges do you face when talking about mental health in organizations?

Stigma in Latin means scars. The stigma around mental health is people’s individual fear, reticence and uncertainty of talking about it. This culture is changing, but it’s still the case in many workplaces.

A healthy, functional workplace isn’t created by oversharing. However, trust in functional teams is created by a certain level of vulnerability.

What made you personally interested in this space?

Five years ago, James never really used the words “trust,” or “vulnerability,” or “connection.” James left university and went directly into the high-pressure world of start-ups, which caused him to feel anxiety towards all the uncertainty in the business. James thought that as a leader, you shouldn’t show any emotion and you are a rock for everybody else.

Eventually, the business shut down. He felt lost, and this was when he was hit by all the feelings that he had suppressed for a long time.

Eventually, James ended up coming out about his anxiety. He wrote a blog post and shared it with the world. This was the start of a period of change and transformation. It gave birth to Sanctus.

What has been the highest point for you at Sanctus and having mental health conversations in organizations?

Sanctus coaches are placed into the workplace to create a safe space where employees can talk to someone impartial and confidential about mental health. In many businesses that Sanctus has worked with, the perception of mental health has changed. The conversation around mental health has become normalized.

The highlight is seeing the change in the perception of mental health. I feel like we’re at the forefront of that and we’re one of the protagonists leading it.

Can you give an example of what mental health conversations brings to people at work?

In one technology business Sanctus worked with, one of their senior engineers came to HR and said that he had planned to leave, and if it wasn’t for his Sanctus sessions at work, he probably would have.

The value to the business is creating an environment where people feel like they can be their whole self. Then, they will feel:

Like they belong
That they want to work
Cared for
Less likely to leave
Motivated
More trust and connections within teams

One of the biggest challenges I’ve seen with my customers is that “We don’t have any time.” How have you managed to get around that?

The most important set of people to make any change in an organization is the leadership team. If the leadership team have bought in the idea and they want to make something happen, they will find the time. It has to start at the top; they will set the tone.

What’s one TIP that people can implement to feel healthier and have more healthy conversations?

The best advice is to start where you are. Just follow your intuition. That’s quite vague, but three practical things that people can do are:

Have an open conversation with someone about your mental health
Meditating – it’s a way to raise your own awareness of how you feel.
Journaling – taking the time to connect with your thoughts and feelings by writing them down.

Every single one of us has mental health, and that is the perception that needs to change.

#47 How to go over your inner limitations? with Cecile Randoing

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 02:00:00 +0100

What are inner limitations? How do they limit us? How can we transform them? Cecile share one simple and easy TIP on how you can become a conscious person taking responsibility for your life.

About Cecile Randoing

Cecile Randoing, MSc, CPCC, ORSCC, PCC, MBTI I & II practitioner, Akashic Records practitioner and healer, Council Guide. She brings an unparalleled +20 years experience mixing spiritual counselling, coaching, consulting and managing business. Cecile likes to call herself a “fire keeper” as she is dedicated to support her clients to reconnect them with their inner fire, their own wisdom and dreams. Her approach is systemic, highly intuitive and self-authoring. She engages leaders who are committed to positively impacting their organizations and communities, and who are willing to play at the edge.

More about Cecile Randoing on http://www.foreseeyou.com

Key Message from the episode:

Our inner limitations are constructed from the time we are born, through our believes.
They become our operating system which is in content evolution.
The problem happens when we are not conscious of our inner operating system or our inner believes.
Becoming aware of our believes and accepting them, not judging them as good or bad allows us to gain more consciousness.
Taking Action, even a small one to transform our old believes helps us to transform.
Transforming old limiting believes helps us to:
gain more confidence
become more creative
get more present
flow easily from idea to action.

Remember:

“You are not controlled by your genes, you are controlled by your beliefs”

– Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D

#46 What does conscious leadership look like?

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 04:32:00 +0100

What is conscious leadership? How can one build a more conscious style of leadership? Bob Anderson a true pioneer in the field of leadership development and research answers some of these questions.

What is Conscious Leadership?

Conscious leadership is only a matter of degree. Someone we call unconscious is operating at an early level of consciousness or a less mature level of consciousness. We are all conscious and the question is to what degree.

Bob has been researching for the last 20 years the intersection between the inner maturity and how that translates into leadership effectiveness. He mentions there are three levels of leadership:

Reactive level
Creative level
Integral level

80% of leaders are running at Reactive Levels of Leadership!

A reactive leader operates from a mental conditioning formed by believes and assumptions that we accumulated in our early days. We have been doing it our whole lives; so, it is automatic.

For instance, a reactive leader may not speak their mind in order to be seen as a friendly person, or a reactive leader may be highly driven with a strong need to get it right that they become autocratic and critical. The reactive style of leadership always wants to play it safe.

The reactive style of leadership only gets us so far and they are outmatched by the complexities of challenges we face in adult life: families, marriages, leadership, and so on, that we need do to work to upgrade our operating system from reactive to creative. This is significant work!

This move from reactive to creative is what psychologist Dr. Robert Kegan from Harvard calls Self-Authoring i.e. we move from being authored by others to authored by self.

“In Creative Leadership we are less focused on all the messages of how I am supposed to be from how past and current environment and much more focused on creating a vision that I believe in and create an organization that matters with outcomes worthy of our deepest commitments”

It is not feasible to create an organization that is innovative and provides solutions to world problems under the reactive leadership style. Organizations need a minimum of creative level of leadership in order to perform in the face of complexities.

What is the main difference between the reactive style and creative leadership style?

Listen to the podcast where Bob shares his own story about a conflict he had with his partner while writing the book “Scaling Leadership”.

In the reactive style, when you are less conscious your automatic patterns reach limits and you hit against a wall.

Self-authoring perspective is: 

How do I embody a vision of myself asa leader?

How do I embody the kind of culture we are trying to create?

How do I embody the relationships I want?

You ask yourself: How do I become that? In Self Authoring mode we develop the ability to see into our own operating system and examine how it supports our vision and we get to redesign it. For instance, I don’t have to be so threatened when my ideas are criticised because my ideas are not me.

How do you move from the reactive to the creative level?

Identify what is the one thing that will take me / my organization to the next level. Take steps to redesign the way you are working. Holding questions like:

What is the vision?
How am I operating?
How do I want to show up?
How do I interrupt the vision and cancel myself out?

Holding all these will help you move from reactive to creative.

Get Feedback. Years of research has been published in “Scaling Leadership”, indicates that people see you. People see you with more precision than we ever knew and if you can get feedback and harvest that and build trust to create a learning-rich environment, you can shift pretty fast.

People can serve as your mirror. Their views about you are more precise than you see yourself. While getting feedback from people ensure that is a constructive one.

You bring the weather as a leader into the team, into the organization, and what is happening around you is a reflection of you.

There is a powerful poem by a Zen master:

The hand moves, and the fire’s whirling takes different shapes,
The hand moves, and the fire’s whirling takes different shapes,
All things change when we do.

It’s a universal principle – Start with yourself and take responsibility for the development effort, then the culture will shift.

What are the things one should watch out for when moving from reactive to creative style of leadership?

As leaders’ step into higher leadership positions

You cannot not be in over your head

As organizations decide to grow 2x times, you put yourself in a development gap and that’s normal for everyone:

You cannot not be in a gap.

The Development gap is the mismatch between the complexity of the business context and the complexity of my mind and heart to meet that challenge. Its normal to be in a gap even when your business is flourishing. We all need to work on the gap.

How do you see the difference between Creative and Integral Leadership?

Time scales expand:

Reactive is weeks to months, fighting fire, short term problem fix
Creative is 10 -15 years, long term vision and strategy, self–authored vision and strategy
Integral is decades if not centuries.

Integral Leadership shifts the perspective from being the author of my business to taking responsibility for the welfare of the whole system and becoming an architect of the bigger system. Integral Leadership includes all the stakeholders like welfare, environment, etc.

How can one move from creative to integral?

Only 5 % of leaders are operating here. The 1st step is to upgrade to Creative Leadership before moving to Integral.

Start to learn about Projection: When you are making someone your enemy, think about how does that live in you? Take the log off your own eye so you can see more clearly. When you start to hold inner tensions of the brighter and darker sides of you; you are better placed to hold the outer tensions. The more you can see your own complexity the more you can hold and heal the outer tensions.

All things change with the leader. All things about an organization change when you as a leader change. Be the change that you want to see in the world, because all things change when we do.

Want to know more how you can scale your leadership, reach out to Bob Anderson or write to us!

#45 How does organizational politics impact stress by Deepa Natarajan

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 02:00:00 +0100

How does organizational politics impact stress? What are numbing disorders? One simple technique to not let the stress of politics impact your personal life?

Main insights from this podcast

3 key impacts of organizational politics on stress
Waking up at 3am
Getting irritated at home
Holding on to numbing disorders
1 simple technique to bring joy in the midst of politics

Remember:

Roosevelt’s Quote:

If you are brave enough often enough we will fall. Daring is not saying “I am willing to risk failure.” Daring is saying “I know I will eventually fail and I’m still all in.”

I’ve never met a great person who hasn’t known disappointment, failure even heartbreak.

#44 What is vulnerability with Gareth Davies

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 02:00:00 +0100

What is vulnerability? What is not vulnerability? What challenges do people face to be more vulnerable? One TIP that will help you take a step closer to be vulnerable?

Gareth Davies’s Key Insights on Vulnerability

Understand what is Vulnerability?
The common myth revolving Vulnerability and Trust. How can trust be build if it doesn’t exist.
How much do we share with vulnerability on the table?
Learn about the ONE key element that is needed in organisations for people to be vulnerable.
The best insight on why people “Blame” and how they can go past that culture.

About Gareth Davies

Gareth Davies is from The Bravest Path. He works with individuals, teams, and organisations to develop courage, compassion and connection through psycho-educational workshops and coaching. The bravest path is one of 1^storganisations in Europe to offer the “Dare to Lead” program from the research of Brene Brown. Brene Brown has done over 20 yrs of research with 400,000 pieces of data and interviewed 150 Global’s C-Suite leaders.

In short Gareth is an expert on Vulnerability.

To know more head over to: https://thebravestpath.com/who-we-are/

Remember:

“DARING GREATLY MEANS THE COURAGE TO BE VULNERABLE

it means to show up and be seen.

To ask for what you NEED.

to talk about how you are feeling.

to have the HARD conversations”

Brene Brown

#43 How can organisations swim in deeper waters with Faith Fuller

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 24 Jun 2019 02:00:00 +0100

How can organisations think more deeper and bigger? What is ONE simple step that you can take to get your teams to think bigger? What stops us from thinking bigger? 4 simple questions that you can use in your team meetings to ignite this process.

About Faith Fuller

Faith Fuller is co-owner and President of CRR Global. She is a psychologist and experienced trainer and coach, with over 15 years of experience in working with organizations, couples and communities.

Faith takes a systems approach to coaching, namely that all aspects of the system need to be addressed in order for effective change to occur.

Faith Fuller’s Key Insights on How to swim deeper waters in an organisation

What are stages of evolution of an organisation?
How can people start to think more wider, deeper and bigger than just focus on the products we are producing.
She share 1 Extremely simple way for people to think deeper and bigger.
She talks about the importance of Reflection Time and how that can be done in teams.
Faith share’s the Biggest Challenge that blocks people from thinking deeper and bigger.

Remember: If you are feeling something needs to change, your voice matters, you are the voice of the system. So, take the first step to listen to Faith’s simple and effective insights.

#42 Wisdom of our body with Susan Fisher

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 02:00:00 +0100

What do you miss when you don’t keep eye contact? What’s important about that? How can you activate your body’s natural energy? Different people have different energy types, learn one simple trick to active your body energy.

About Susan Fisher

Susan Fisher is the co-founder of 9energies and the most specialised person in identifying people’s natural energies and how they show up in their body and in their interaction with others.

Susan Fisher’s insights on the wisdom present in our body

There are 9 physiologically different kinds of people. Each of us is born with one of nine body types, that we call Natural Energy. We have a simple physical process to determine which physiology is yours. Everyone has a Natural Energy – a way of being that comes with the body we are living in.

She talks about they different types of people and how their type impacts the way they create relationships
Depending on your natural energy you make decisions differently through head, emotions, body etc.
Her insights bring awareness of how we unknowing interpret signals in the way we make judgements.
She talks about how you can use your body to receive more information.

Approach life as if the person in front of you is not like you, and then be curious.

More about 9energies:

Visit: www.9energies.com

#41 Engaging on a journey of Cultural Transformation with Thomas Bourlon

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 10 Jun 2019 02:00:00 +0100

Does having enough material success mean you cannot feel disconnected, empty and alone? How can you successfully lead a transformation and feel fulfilled at work?

About Thomas Bourlon

Thomas Bourlon works for a big European company, he moved out of a senior management position to lead the human aspect of Change Transformation Programs.

Thomas Bourlon’s Key Insights to Engage on a journey of Cultural Transformation

“If you want to change your outside world you have to Change your inner world.”

[0:57] Thomas starts by sharing his own story. How he was feeling disconnected, frustrated and alone with all the success and how he changed that to be more alive at work and feel more fulfilled.
If you want to inspire people around you need to feel greater than the environment.
If you want to feel more JOY, then one must also feel the pain, its the other side of the coin.
3 Key elements to engage on a Cultural Transformation:

Feel your emotions:

He says,

The way we feel influences the way we think
The way we think influences the results we achieve.
Create Physiological Safety:

He says, When Managers share their failure, people feel permitted to do the same.

Challenge the rules

Some rules were good at one point of time, look into the processes and tools. Because when you change the rules, the behaviour will change.
What gets in the way of Cultural Transformation:Becoming too attachement to the process, tools and people you work with.

“What was right yesterday may not be right for today and tomorrow.”

Using Fear and Frustration to make change is a short term approach and not a best practice in the medium and long term.
[14:28] Criticism and Judgement, does not help us. Its just mirroring who we are. People who criticise us have a gift for us. Look into the greatness of others.

Remember:

[15:38] If you want to change your outside world you have to Change your inner world. So slow down, take time for yourself to feel more creative and feel more alive. Listen to your feeling to accelerate things happening around you.

#40 Dont tell me to relax by Sophie Riegel

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 02:00:00 +0100

When we are anxious, the last thing we want is for others to point that out to us. Sophie Riegel, 18 years old has written a book: Dont tell me to relax. The stigma to be perceived as imperfect keeps us away from talking about our mental health issues. Listen to this young women’s journey on how she turned her weakness into a strength.

About Sophie Riegel

Sophie Riegel, 18, a senior in high school, author of the book “Dont tell me to relax“, One Teen’s Journey to Survive Anxiety and How You Can Too!

Sophie Riegal speaks all over the country. She lives in New York with her parents, twin brother, and rescue dog, and she plans on writing a second book in the near future. She is going to Duke University in Fall. Sophie is a passionate mental health advocate and strives to make a difference in the lives of those around her.

Sophie has 4 different anxiety disorders. She has suffered a lot in the past and because of that she is now a strong mental health advocate.

Sophie shares….

In her younger days she was bullied a lot, so she decided to educate others about her anxiety disorders, first by giving a talk in her class, then talking to more people and finally wrote a book.
Educating others stopped the bullying at school and people became much more understanding.
She says, We all can have different mental health issues in different stages of our life, her advice:
Take the first step to talk to someone. There is a lot of stigma of being perceived as imperfect or having problems or of being unstable. That fear leads people to curl up in their ball and be isolated from everyone else, which is a huge problem. And thats why its important to talk about mental health. So people know its okay to struggle. No one’s perfect.
The more you share with others, more others will open up to you. In the podcast, she talks about how she has inspired many people reach out to her.
Mental illness is not something to to be ashamed of.
Everyone has something going on and its time we start turning our weakness into strength.
She turned her weakness into a strength. i.e. she turned her mental illness into a book. That’s healing others and that process has healed her too.

To know more about Sophie: http://donttellmetorelaxbook.com

#39 Your Inside Team by Cynthia Loy Darst

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 27 May 2019 02:00:00 +0100

What is our Inside team? What are the different conversations in our head? How do we listen to the different parts of us? How can I be in charge and be my adult self that makes conscious choices?

About Cynthia Loy Darst

Cynthia Loy Darst has been a Professional Co-Active Coach for the past 22 years and is a faculty member of both The Coaches Training Institute and CRR Global. She is the author of the book: Meet your inside team. In this episode she explains what your inside team is, how to harness its power, and challenges people face in doing so.

Cynthia Loy Darst’s Key Insights to understanding the different parts of us

During the conversation Cynthia shares:

The different conversations we have inside our head and how we chose or not chose and listen to only some of them.
Driven people have a high value of accomplishment. And sometimes that drives us so much that we dont allow other parts of us.
What are the different aspects of our personality and tips on how to honour our values.
What are our sub-personalities, how can we get to know them.
How to overcome the challenges of feeling an imbalance in the way we live.

Remember:

“Every part of you is trying to contribute to you. Every single player of your inside team has at least 2% of positive intent if not more. So, slow down and get curious about whats going on inside your head. ”

Slow down and listen to the different conversations inside your head. Coz every voice represents a different player, a different value. Dont dismiss them, because they allow you to be whole.

To know more about Cynthia: https://teamdarst.com

#38 Loneliness in systems by Marita Fridjhon

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 20 May 2019 02:00:00 +0100

What is loneliness in systems? How does it get created? What are the challenges of relationships in systems? How can we overcome them? How can we talk about failure together in a team? What is needed to be able to hold that conversation?

About Marita Fridjhon

Marita Fridjhon, is the co-owner and CEO of CRR Global. She is a consultant to several large organizations and mentors a large number of practitioners in the field of Relationship Systems Intelligence. In addition, she designs curriculum and operates training programs for coaches, executives, and teams. She came to this work from an extensive background of Clinical Social Work, Community Development, and Process Work.

Key learning’s from the podcast:

Loneliness in systems occurs when we focus our attention too much on return on investments and too little on return on relationship.

The mental model where people on top of the organisations feel I need to have all answers, leads to disconnections.

Relationships become difficult when there is conflict and comparison. Team agreements need to be setup for teams to be efficient.

Team agreements are a living thing, that needs to be updated and talked about every now and then. As, humans are infinitely complex. Our relationships evolve and change over time. We are always work in progress.

Teams that harness the collective intelligence are the ones that go back to go back to the team agreements when things get difficult.
In relationships, it may seem at times that we are going slow if we go together but in the end we go faster.
One way for organizations to get innovative is to have a day to talk about “Failures”. Failures allow us to learn, grow and prototype differently.

Before you talk about your failures with others, it’s important to take time yourself to journal / log your failure and your learnings from it. And it’s your right to share what you want with others in the organization. So, STOP and talk about what didn’t work and what are we learning from it. It’s from these discoveries that innovation happens.

Safety is important in such conversations; this information should not be used for evaluations. These are prototyping conversations.
Have a “Gratitude journal”, write down what are you grateful for; share that with a colleague or co-worker. Gratitude journal helps build a healthy self-esteem. It then easier to look at the difficult things, like failure and learning that come along.

Remember

“If you want to go fast go alone, but if you want to go far go together.”

Togetherness is built through relationships and is the currency that runs organizations.

To know more about CRR Global: https://www.crrglobal.com

More about Marita: https://www.crrglobal.com/our-founders.html

#37 Are you yourself at work by Zach Reynolds

Deepa Natarajan — Sun, 12 May 2019 02:00:00 +0100

Zach Reynolds has been a property lawyer for the last 20 years. He is a partner in a central London Law firm. Zach leads a team of 20 property lawyers. A strong and successful lawyer with deep insights.

What is – Not being yourself?

[0:53] Zach says that happens when we are paying too much attention to

…..what we think ought to be done

…..the rules we have to abide by

And not enough attention to your intuition and what we feel and that takes us away from being ourself.

“Understand what the rule is and be prepared to explore close to the boundary.”

We can lose our sense of ourselves and it can be restricting when we dont bring our feelings, our emotions, our opinions and we get driven from outside expectations of how we ought to be perfect.

So, stepping outside the usual framework that lawyers are supposed to operate in and giving a bit of yourself brings added value to your clients.

Where does the need to be perfect come from?

[6:43] Zach says lawyers are instructed to get everything right by their clients and that becomes a benchmark for them. However, this can happen in so many other businesses, and we become attached to this idea of getting it right and we get attached to winning.

We are not going to get it right all the time, we don't do it in other areas of our life. This expectation to be perfect from clients puts a lot of pressure. And I'd like to take that pressure off in the law domain as it stifles away creativity and it causes procrastination and things take more time.

What is it to be yourself?

[10:15] Start with understanding what you stand for and what makes you tick. You can use this as a guiding principle and keep it as your light.

“I do a lot of interviews, and sometimes people tell me what I want to hear, and I feel like I’m not getting the real person.”

Understand what you are all about and understand what you fundementaly stand for

“BE YOU, and don’t do something that feels fundamentality out of style with who you are and what you’re about; because the world will then organise itself around you. Because the world that organises around you is the one that is sustainable”

Have Faith that:

Being who you are is enough
Being who you are will be enough

What was the worst moment for you when you weren’t being yourself?

[17:03] At the start of his career Zach had big dreams and ambitions about who he was going to be as a lawyer and then he got to a point in this career where what he was putting in became unsustainable and he came off the path of his dream.

Paying too much attention to numbers, paying too much attention on profits and not focusing on the purpose squeezes the dream out of the picture.

From the result of these two, Zach felt disconnected from himself and the people that were closest to him also felt disconnect from him.

“Once you’re there, you get feedback from people that tell you that you are off the track.”

At this point Zach had lost sight of his path and the worst part to him is that you don’t realize it.

The impact of not being yourself is:

[20:10]

Not being yourself is not sustainable in the long run.
You fall off the path of your own dream.
You get disconnected from yourself and others.

This impacts your family and business.

So, when you hear someone say:

“I see you, I don’t feel you”

“You are just not the same as you used to be.”

Those statements are critical signs that you are not being your true self in your essence.

What is one final message you’d like to say?

[22:30] Pay attention to what is going on inside you and honor that. It’s the key to connection, and as humans, we are driven by connection.

#36 The limits of being a perfectionist by Deepa Natarajan

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 06 May 2019 02:00:00 +0100

In this episode I share with you

My experience as a recovering perfectionist
How does perfectionism limit us
4 Tips to get on the path of Excellence

The number one thing that got in the way of me creating my podcasts was a need to create a perfect one. So, I kept postponing this incredible journey I wanted to get on. My inner critique was loud: I had dialogues like - How can I say all the things in just 15 min. What if I forget to say something important? What if its not well done?

The way perfectionism works is that it judges and points us out to our mistakes. It tells us we now have a change to go do it better.

I include myself in that equation when I say us/we.

Our perfectionism points us out to our mistakes and when that happens we go make corrections and then we are pointed out again, and we correct until there is something outstanding in our belief.

I remember times when I isolated myself when others pointed out my mistakes. I'd go into this rabbit hole of feeling miserable and disappointed with myself. And then I would criticise those who made me feel terrible. And my body would feel tired and sapped of energy. Because I felt that I was the mistake and not that I made a mistake.

The moment I realised that I'm human and not a perfectly constructed thing, it took away the power.

In perfectionism there is a feeling of having arrived in a static place. In that static place we accept ourselves when we meet high standards. We have a false belief that others need us to be perfect.

Our perfectionism has a tendency to:

1. Procrastinate and postpone

2. Over delivery high standards all the time

3. Judge our self and others.

4. Become proud of our perfectionism

5. Soothe our ego - Oh I did that well, there is a high ego in the world of perfectionism.

6. Look back into what we did wrong

I know what it feels like to constantly life up to high standards.

When I realised that my perfectionism is my #1 Joy killer! I decided to live differently.

I want to share with you what I'm learning in my journey as a recovering perfectionist.

I want you to experience more EASE of being. Because....

Perfectionism takes away the REAL YOU !

Perfectionism takes away the SPARKLES in you!

So I want to introduce you to Excellence!

Excellence is an ongoing state of being. It’s the hallmark of your qualities. It’s a hallmark of all the magnificent things you are.

In excellence there is

1. Appreciation

An ongoing appreciation for what you are attempting. Where failure indicates that you are growing. I want you to say:

"Wow. I'm so glad I tried something new, I did something different. Look, I have an opportunity to learn something."

Every failure yields more appreciation because it gives you information to go towards excellence.

2. Flow

You are not attachment to results. You don’t cling on to a thing in the past where you are miserable about not having done or gotten something. Your setbacks and mistakes are no more the lens through which you see the world. You flow with the river of life.

3. Influence

Not control. In influence we give it our best shot without the need to get on top of things and use our power and force to make change. Its about how can I help? How I can make the difference? How can I support and serve? How can I play in my circle of influence.

4. Magnificence

Remember there is magnificence in you. You see the light and the dark sides of you. As a first step on this journey, I want you to recognise all the magnificent things about you. If I tell you to write down 10 magnificent things about you, I know you won't do it. You have bought into the story that your perfectionism is here to protect you and make you achieve your targets. So, let that be an old story now.

Remember you are magnificent just as you are and you are becoming even more magnificent.

I want you to learn that all of life is perfect as it is and I want you to avoid being a perfectionist.

Thanks for reading and I'd love to hear your comments, and about your perfectionist side. Write to me: deepa@meetmypotential.com

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#35 Trapped by politics and yearning to show your potential at work

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 02:00:00 +0100

Are you trapped by Politics? Are you yearning to show your potential at work? Learn 3 key tips to survive politics in an organisation?

Michael Jarrett, Professor of Management Practice in Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD says that

“Organisational politics refers to a variety of activities associated with the use of influence tactics to improve personal or organisational interests.”

What I found from interviewing people in organisations is that the ones who succeed on organisational goals and personal goals are the ones who follow these 3 principles:

Principle 1: Accept that politics is normal

That’s right accept that Politics will exist – no matter the size of the organisation. Yes its hard to get rid of politics and to do that requires everyone in the organization to get on a development path. Work on their on their gaps in a systemic way exposing oneself in a vulnerable way.

What I noticed consistently is that when we don’t work on our insecurities and worry about playing safe and looking good, Politics finds it breeding ground.

Politics can be positive if used to get past complexity of structure and roles to meet organizational goals. At the end of the day an organization is present with people to produce results. How people are structured and how people co-ordinate in an organization to meet those goals are sometimes not simple.

So politics can help cut past complexity when used with a good intension.

Pitfall: Fighting hard to isolate oneself from Politics takes away career growth.

When there is politics at the top, and we try to fight hard to isolate ourselves from it; it impacts our career. This impact varies from choosing a technical path, deciding to play a small management role or come to terms with perineal work frustration. This isolation leads to a lack of confidence as high performers have insights and feel completely undervalued at work! It’s a paradoxical deadlock of feeling competent and yet under-valued!

Principle 2: Have a bit of Political skills

That is understand the landscape of players. There are many articles on the internet on identifying different political players and tactics to deal with them. I’m not going into those tactics in this article for the sake of playing a bigger game. A bigger game for me would be an ideal organization that Dr Robert Kegan Professor of Adult Learning and Professional Development at the Harvard University describes in his book Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization (DDO). In a DDO people are not paid to do a double job.

Kegan says most people are doing a second job no one is paying them for. Most people are spending time and energy covering up their weaknesses, managing other people’s impressions of them, showing themselves to their best advantage, playing politics, hiding their inadequacies, hiding their uncertainties and hiding their limitations.

When we are not in a DDO and political game are present we need to know how to wade through the storm of politics while remaining in INTEGRITY with ourselves.

The amount of energy is spent on – looking good, hiding mistakes means that we are not developing ourselves. Employers pay full time for a part time job. Kegan says it’s a ridiculous bargain.

When we are focused on covering up actual weakness we lose opportunities to grow and learn.

So, having political skills to survive means, knowing when to step back on the fight for power and position because the storm of politics is too strong. This might mean going away on a job that is not sought after by people who search for power, budget and money. Come back with a success story in 2 years. I.e. Go create a small viral change in new place.

Or standing strong with courage in the face of strong politics and calling forth people. Knowing that you are at a complete risk of getting a blame badge that might lead to you even getting fired!

Pitfall: Stepping into dirty games against our INTEGRITY takes away our mental and physical wellbeing.

Political stress is another form of stress. Stress impact of this varies from waking up at 3am running scenarios in our head, getting irritated at home to having stunts in the heart!

Speculating which television channel in our brain is understanding the political scenarios is loss of mental energy!

Step 3: Accept that you don’t master everything

The ability to give your best shot and let go of mastering the game is what allows successful individuals to better manage stress and the complexity of business. Learning to let go, learning that we can’t control the outcomes no matter how much we plan and how much we do is key to holding the goals lightly in pursuit of excellent. Goals and targets will happen automatically when we focus on playing our bigger purpose.

Pitfall:Our attachment to results leads us to act with more CONTROL and takes us away from our journey of excellence.

When we believe strongly that winning is important we become attached to results. When we have a hard focus on results, the impact of a small finger pointing can hurt our ego and lead us to raise the volume of our internal critique, blaming others, defending oneself and sometimes get into a rabbit hole!

In a organization which is not on the path of a deliberately development organization (DDO) my findings leads me to believe that the following 3 elements are key to finding peace in a political workplace!

Accept that politics is normal
Have a bit of Political skills
Accept that you don’t master everything

Politics, pressure and winning at all costs can lead us to become reactive and lead us to act from our insecurities and fear.

My 2 recommendations:

Connecting with our higher purpose and asking oneself constantly: What is my real purpose ? Allows us to dig deeper into our pursuit, our deep motivations and brings meaning into our actions.
Staying with our fear holds a magnificent gift for us. In the darkness of fear there is sadness, disappointment and in that darkness we can see the stars and find the key to get on the pursuit of our higher purpose. So, holding the question: Where am I wrong? Allows us to find the key to scale our leadership!

I’d love to hear your comments, your experiences and support you to go past turbulent political times.

#34 What is the Bigger Game by Rick Tamlyn

Deepa Natarajan — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 19:42:00 +0100

Rick Tamlyn inspires people to be their best. He is the author of Play Your Bigger Game, a coach, and a motivational speaker. Rick discusses his book, exercises he utilises at his workshops, and how we can overcome our avoidance of judgment.

What inspired you to write the book – The Bigger Game?

[1:01] Laura Whitworth, one of the co-founders of The Coaches Training Institute, was working on a philosophical context of helping people bring more to the world. She then asked Rick if he wanted to be a part of it.

“It came out of our own hunger to activates other peoples’ hunger.”

Can you give an example of what caused you to create and become who you are today?

[3:49] Rick was elected president of the youth group in his church when he was sixteen. He met with the minister at the beginning of the year and told him that he was not interested in doing the same old stuff in the youth group. The group took on a large project and dedicated their whole year to it, illustrating a clear example of a bigger game. Later, Rick was requested to give a sermon, during which he really learned what leadership is.

Can you say a little bit more about the Bigger Game model?

[6:53] It has nine elements and is laid out similar to a tic-tac-toe board. Some of them include compelling purpose, comfort zones, and bold action.

“The words on it are not new. The conversation it creates is new.”

It’s called bigger game, not bigger goal. Rick insists that he is not a goals coach and that he actually hates the word “goal.” When you focus on bigger game, your goals will happen organically.

Speaking from your heart is key.

[9:41] People have a fear of failure, or even a fear of success. With Rick’s gameboard, people talk to each other in his workshops about comfort zones. A comfort zone can be helped by having a compelling purpose that is bigger. The organizations that Rick sees talk blatantly about failure are the most successful.

What is the biggest challenge you see when working with people in organizations?

[15:58] Avoidance of judgment, which Rick admits he is also guilty of. Rick says that it’s very likely for the world to think we’re crazy if we have a bigger game. The paradox is that most of us wish that the world wasn’t judgmental. Knowing that you won’t be perfect at your bigger game can help. Rick believes we should dare to know things for our clients; don’t worry about being right. Be curious about the judgment that is coming at you.

What is a tip you can give to someone who fears being judged?

[22:00] Curiosity is the antidote to judgment. And again, dare to show up.

What is one final message you’d like to say?

[25:21] Don’t overthink it. Over-create it. Create something faster instead of trying to think about the creation.

Rick’s website: https://www.ricktamlyn.com/

#33 One critical element to make Change happen

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 02:00:00 +0100

In this episode, Deepa shares the key learnings she received from Dr. Paul Lawrence.

He previously appeared on the podcast and shared lots of insights which Deepa later noticed in her

workshops. Deepa talks about the significance of dialogue before we listen in on her interview

with Dr. Paul Lawrence.

What is this critical element?

[0:59] Dialogue. It’s essential when you want to embark people on a new vision.

However, when managers want to do this, they often think about how to get people aligned. This

approach actually takes away creativity, and Deepa explains that what we should be aiming for

is coherence that allows us to make the change happen together.

Dialogue is critical because the time when the decision is made and the time when the organization starts the action is usually very short. The number one reason why change initiatives do not happen on time is because of the lack of dialogue and shared understanding of where the everyone is going and how they will get there.

The two main reasons that dialogue doesn’t happen are:

1. We don’t take time for dialogue.

2. We don’t know how to dialogue.

Three key messages that Deepa took away from her interview with Dr. Lawrence.

1.[4:01]”] We really need to prepare for dialogue. It’s not about convincing people; that’s a good way to fail. Create time in your agenda because dialogue can take a lot of it. Also, identify which people are critical influences to ensure they are included in the dialogue.

2. [6:49]Make sure the dialogue session is very different from a traditional question-and-answer session. People want to engage in dialogue and not just ask questions which get answered by the manager. The responsibility of the manager in a dialogue is to

understand the frame of mind of the person asking the question.

3. [11:17] Allow people to enrich you. Allow people to point to you and explain why the new vision or change is hard to achieve. Have a conversation about exactly why it is so hard. We need to take two steps backward if we want people to take eight steps

forward.

“Unless you deeply listen, unless you actually see the negative sides along with the people and acknowledge that, they are not going to see the benefits of change.’’

#32 Promise of Agile with Paige Sellers

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 02:00:00 +0100

Paige Sellers is talks about the promise of Agile Leadership. She has worked in the industry for about twenty years and is an Agile and Leadership coach. Paige explains what agile means, barriers that get in the way of becoming agile, and how we can be more agile in our organizations.

There is a lot of promise of what agile brings to us, What your view on this?

[0:49] Paige says – What people want when they bring agile into an organisation is faster and cheaper. This means they want everyone to work faster and cheaper, along with their products and services being this way. They look at it as a way of being more efficient.

One of the promises of Agile is that you will eliminate waste. Organizations also believe that everyone will be happier doing it the agile way. That can happen, but what Paige sees happening is that they bring it in and focus so much on the process that they lose touch of the original intention.

“The leadership in an organization wants all of the people below them to change; they don’t want to do it themselves and they don’t think they need to.”

What gets in the way of transforming into agile?

[2:32] Paige sees leaders that fail to have a compelling vision. She sees leaders who get where they are because they’re really good at what they do. Either super delegate and don’t want to know what’s going on or they want to keep control of everything because of their attitude that they can do it better than anyone else. These leaders don’t let go and don’t allow people below them to make decisions.

So, decisions are not pushed down, and this is a primary concept of Agile that the people who do the work make decisions.

They fear that they will no longer be a leader if they don’t make decisions, but it actually frees up these leaders to be a visionary. That can be a scary proposition because it means changing what worked for you and what kept you safe as a leader.

Can you link transparency with a principle of Agile?

[5:21] Part of what’s happening in agile is instead of asking the customer what they want and going away to build it, they constantly are given small pieces and asked if it looks good. There’s an iterative effect.

Big changes happen in incremental shifts, and this process also exposes errors across different levels and departments. People who don’t normally talk to each other now do, and that requires growth from everyone. A classic example is engineers who are traditionally given a written document to go away and work on, then deliver code.

The beauty of agile is that the engineer can now go talk to the customer and understand why they’re doing what they’re doing.

“The person who’s doing the work is closer to who’s asking for the work, and therefore there will be a better understanding of what’s needed.

The longer the engineers communicate to their customers, they will find a way to communicate with each other, even if they don’t speak the same language.

Agile exposes problems and pushes you to be more transparent. Aren’t these scary things?

[10:48]

As we avoid holding these direct links between developers and customers, we bring in a multi-layered hierarchical organisation as opposed to something flatter.

It allows you to see the patterns of behavior in your organization. We can see where there’s a lack of communication and which people take too much or too little responsibility. It helps us identify how to grow people in a way that they know they won’t be chastised for taking a risk and failing.

“I see a lot of talk about ‘Yes, we embrace failure,’ but then the actions don’t match.”

We need to create a more experimental environment to make it safe for people to fail. So, we can all learn and when there is learning there is gold!

That’s why Agile coaching needs to be done all the way up and down in an organisation, so we can help all levels see failure differently and create an organisation that is having a specific learning track.

What is the mindset shift that’s needed for agile?

[14:03] Look at what behaviour and patterns you want to change in your organisation and then ask yourself, “What am I doing to change how I engage to model that behaviour?” Be honest about it.

When you work with teams as an agile coach, what are main blockers you have seen?

[15:06] Paige thinks that it is key to accept a shared sense of responsibility in organizations. The reason she thinks it’s challenging is because we are so compensated as individuals. There is a fear of being judged, and that can come out in behaviors such as not saying exactly how complex a task is. With the way things are set up in agile, everyone knows what’s going on.

It’s not a negative that problems are exposed through agile, because this way they can be corrected. It also reveals positive things that can be capitalized on. Full transparency is very scary to people.

Does worrying about how you look as an individual get in the way of becoming agile?

[19:46] It can get in the way and at the same time, individual creativity and people excelling definitely should not be squashed. Everyone shouldn’t become the same. If the top of the organisation is not behaving in a growth mindset, the rest of the organization will mimic their managers.

“People need to give themselves permission to push up against their own barriers.”

#31 Impact of Organisational Politics on people

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 17:12:00 +0100

So many people suffer from organisational politics, so I decided to pursue this topic by recently interviewing about 15 managers. In this episode, I share some of my findings from this study. Here you will find an overview of what is dirty politics, and what is the cost people at work.

What is politics?

[1:41] Politics is way of meeting goals. The question is: whose goals? When politics is used to get past management inefficiency to reach organizational goals, they are more along the lines of good politics.

Take the case of a small company where the Director of Operations was completely mismanaging the executive team. He was leading teams into conflict and complete inefficiency between the sales and execution. The VP of Strategy planned to overthrow the director and takeover the company, leading it to a much better level of execution. Of course, it was sad to see the Director go, but was this move good for the company? Clearly, it was. Political games played with a good intension can be advantageous.

“When personal ambition is not detrimental to that of the organization, that kind of politics is very well supported by the people.”

There is nothing wrong in including one's self ambition with that of the organization, but that's not always the case. When politics comes with a good intension to bring meaning to people and take the company to the next level, that kind of politics requires courage which comes only from the bravest of hearts. This requires you to put yourself in the line of fire for the sake of a better future both for yourself and the organization.

What is bad politics? When does politics get dirty?

[4:43] Often, politics holds a pejorative connotation where people influence using their soft skills to gain more power, recognition, and move ahead in their career; things are done with one’s end goals in mind and not that of the organisation. Decisions are manipulated for self-interest. There are so many tactics involved in these kinds of moves.

Imagine the amount of time people spend on hiding mistakes, trying to look good, trying to make colleagues look bad, strategising to secure the biggest budget for the next five years, and so on. What a waste of effort for the organisations!!!!

“When actions come from the intension of self-interest, then it becomes manipulation and it just gets dirty.”

Intensions determine if politics is about influencing for a good cause or for manipulation.

What is the cost of dirty politics in organizations?

[5:56] From the survey I did where I interviewed managers from various organisations, one thing was clear: the bigger the organisation, the bigger the political games to privilege the self over the organisation. I’d like to share traits from three different kinds of people that I met and how dirty politics impacted them:

Hyper-vigilance

Politics adds to the complexity of decision making. Managers recall that you would be naïve to think that you can do it without politics. Everyone plays politics, but what changes is the degree to which they play. Several of them mentioned that they play scenarios in their head, doubting the intensions of people without knowing if the proposal is genuine or intended to make them fail.

Running through different scenarios in your head on the intensions of different stakeholders is like having several television channels switched on in your brain and trying to figure out which one is the right channel.

When people become hyper-vigilant we lose creativity in the organisation.

Political stress

[7:54] Operational issues and thriving in international matrix organisations is a challenge and has its own stress. Politics adds another layer to this stress, and how we deal with it depends on our composure. 95% of the people I interviewed mentioned that it affected them in the following ways:

Political stress affects sleep: becoming vigilant and paranoid on other peoples intensions and sincerity.
Political stress increased feeling of loneliness: as you dont trust your colleagues easily.
Political stress increases irritation at home: as people tried to keep a calm demure at work. The smallest of things at home annoyed them.

This made them emotionally numb at work as a way to protect themselves with peers. So at a peer level, keeping a certain distance and playing political games have become a norm.

As a leader of a team, being empathetic building relationships means ones needs to switch on the emotional channel. This can be a stretch to switch on and off the channel the emotional connection and made people feel less authentic. As on one side you need to shut down your emotional channel, and on the other side you need to connect through data and emotions to motivate and work with teams.

The “blame badge.”

[10:40] When people fail in an organisations, they don’t fail alone. Other people fail to become successful because in an organization, we’re working in a chain and depending on the work of each other. This can lead to collective finger pointing that makes the person feel terrible; it destroys the foundation of their personality. Think about the consequences: how much anger will this person have towards his colleagues? What is the level of trust between their teams?

“When two managers are in conflict, it’s absolutely no surprise that their teams are also in conflict. Managers set the weather of their teams. Blame Badge has lots of consequences.”

When a child falls from a bicycle in a park, and you dont see parents around, you help the child dust off the mud and help them get back on the wheels. In an organisation your failure becomes an opportunity for people to walk over you.

What if next time when someone fails unintensionally, you could go ask: Does it hurt? How are you? How are you really doing? How can I help you?

What are 2 tips we can take away?

[13:53] When you see someone fail, take the first step to bring more humanity into the organization by helping them. Ask them how they are so they don’t feel labelled or isolated.

Take a ten-minute walk in nature before you go home so you can let go of the stress that you’ve accumulated in your work day by workplace politics.

#30 What engages people with Kathy Ball-Toncic

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 25 Mar 2019 02:00:00 +0100

Kathy Ball-Toncic, worked in financial services for 18 years, now works full-time to inspire people to truly live their lives. Kathy talks about what engages people, provides several examples of creating connection, and gives reasons why we should encourage emotions in the workplace.

What engages people?

[1:49] When we speak authentically from passion, and not from ego but rather from our unique selves, our unique view of the world then we’re begin to create engagement. What we’re not doing in those times is trying to win or prove something or be better or smarter or brighter. We are not comparing ourselves to someone else or even to ourselves or to some standard we've set out there.

“I can’t engage with others until I feel fully engaged with myself.”

Does engagement come from a very clean space?

[3:08] It’s actually a very messy space, and our goal is to stay connected and feel the messiness of this space. We can feel nervous, angry, or tense, then we have to commit to return to that clean space. We can’t get there unless we acknowledge our feelings.

Can you give an example of how we create separation?

[4:49]

I believe that none of us are out there to create separation. Maybe on a bad day, but genuinely, we are wired to create connections with each other. We are tribal beings. We survive through connection.

An example is if you’re sitting in a meeting talking about what you read and not connected to how you perceived the article, or don't include your point of view then you are not talking about what you have learnt, but talking about what you have read. And when you keep them separate them from yourself, then its tricky to connect with others.

When we try to be better, faster, smarter than the other we don't connect.

If I keep my learnings separate from me, then I am separate from me, and therefore it’s difficult to connect with other people.

On the surface, these conversations look like they’re going somewhere because there’s so much information exchanged. At the same time, there’s no connection between the people.

[7:47] It’s because we’re not connecting with the people, we’re connecting with a thing. We are stuck in our ego and comparing ourselves to others.

How do we create a connection?

[8:29] It’s one of those things that is common sense but not common practice. In the real workplace, we often are measured by what we do. We have things like KPIs and need to prove our worth not only to keep our jobs but maybe also to get a promotion.

“It’s not about overcoming our feelings, it’s about integrating them. I am a whole person. I'm not perfect and the day I can be okay about that with myself that I can make mistakes and that I need help we start to create connection. If we come in with a shield, we’re not only creating separation, we’re sending a message to people that we don’t need them."

We need cracks to allow light to come in.

We need cracks to allow other people to come in.

We accept those cracks in us with compassion for ourselves, compassion for the other person, full acceptance, and even joy that we can’t do this alone.

Very often in this world, we believe that if we allow emotions to come in, we won’t make the right choices. We shut off the emotional channel and stop feeling in the workplace.

[11:27] We even get told not to be emotional. Kathy is a very emotional person, and says it took her a long time to sit in a tough meeting and not show emotion. That whole time, she would be completely separate from everything that was going on. There would be whole conversations that she would miss because she was so focused on not feeling her feelings.

The assumption is often that if we get into emotional discussions, we’re not going to get anything done. Kathy asserts that it’s the exact opposite. When there’s tension in the room and we don’t talk about it, so many of us resort to blame because that feels like our way out. Even if we blame other people internally, we are still building such separation.

Three key points from Kathy

[18:47]

Recognise the feelings that we have inside of us. Label them for yourself and for others.
If you have assumptions about emotions in the workplace, go test it out.
Take responsibility for whatever part you’re playing, and check what feelings are there before getting into blame.

If we don’t see ourselves as part of the problem, we cannot see ourselves as part of the solution.

Can you give one concrete tip of how we can create connection?

[19:57] We should all signal connection, i.e. give a little nod or smile or raise your eyebrows or say tell me more any micro queues through spoken words or body language to indicate connection is important.

It’s actually as simple as tapping into our childlike curiosity. It’s not about interrogating, it’s about keeping in mind how you want other to feel.

#29 Correcting things that go wrong with Yann Kunkel

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 02:00:00 +0100

Yann Kunkel Senior Manager at Deloitte Consulting and I went to the same leadership course. We decided to co-create this episode to talk about how we can sometimes be too focused on ourselves, causing us to be trapped in a metaphorical box.

What is correcting what’s going wrong?

[1:12] Let’s take an example from Yann. You have a piece of information and you realize a co-worker doesn’t. Your thoughts are “Well, that person should have this information” for whichever reason, such as it already being common knowledge. Instead of sharing that information, you withhold it because you think “I have it, I had to find it, so this person can do that work too. It’s not always me who has to do the work.”

Another example is from when I was asked to do a small project with a group of people and, for some reason, I felt like I was the leader. The group had to go talk to different people to get things done and there was one girl, let’s call her Chloe, who kept nudging me and giving me ideas that didn’t make any sense. I was wondering “How do I correct her? How do I tell her that she is so wrong?” I noticed my inner monologue of “If we follow her ideas, we will fail. This is completely impractical”. Because of this monologue, I ignored Chloe and would sometimes tell her to stay focused and even be quite.

“When we’re trapped with our inner monologue to correct stuff around us and make things right, we start building a justified reality that makes our behaviour the right thing. When in fact we’re actually making up a story so that we somehow feel good about what we do.”

I created an image of myself being somehow better than Chloe. I felt that I was superior. When we’re in a self-justification mode, we are looking at ourselves and not at the other person.

Let’s talk about the theory of boxes from the Arbinger Institute.

[7:02] The Better-Than Box. This is feeling superior and perhaps feeling that others are not up to the mark. You feel that others are incapable or wrong and that you must prove to them that you’re right. It leaves us with a feeling of frustration because we can’t be everywhere and we’re not patient enough.
The Worse-Than Box. This is when you feel that you’re worse than everyone else in the world. You feel that everyone has more privileges and just received their accomplishments without working for them.
The I Deserve Box. This is feeling that you deserve to be recognized as the hero that you are, and others don’t deserve that attention. You feel that you’ve waited long enough and now it’s your turn, so you won’t think about the others.
The Must Be Seen as Box. This is how you want to be seen by the world, such as righteous or a strong leader.

What happens in all these boxes is that your view is turned towards yourself, and you’re justifying your world so that your behaviour is acceptable. It’s okay to be focused on yourself, but we’re always in interaction with others. Sometimes we focus so much on ourselves that we fail to see what is going on with other people. This can create us to act in ways that create conflict.

“When you’re in a box, you’re not seeing people as people. You’re seeing others as objects; as things that you can move around and that are here to serve you.”

Being in a box won’t solve anything. You’ll just continue to make things worse.

Few TIP’s from Yann and Deepa to get out of the box?

[14:24] The first thing is to realise you’re in a box. Realize that the others are not the issue. It can be a challenging exercise when you realize that you are seeing others as objects.

In Yann’s example about withholding information, sharing that information would be the right thing to do to get out of the box. The logical and human thing to; realize that the person needs the information that you have and give it to them.

“It’s listening to the voice of my own humanity and the humanity of this other person and that they need something. This person is as important as I am. He’s got fears, hopes, needs, and they’re just as important as mine.”

My tip regarding my own example is that rather than coming from a place of trying to fight something in your organization, come from a place of inviting people. Inviting people and inviting things to go right comes from a place of compassion for self and for others. I should have helped Chloe learn and develop instead of telling her that she was wrong.

Whenever you see someone that you think is in a box, start with yourself. Before you start to correct others just start with yourself and make sure that you stay out of the box. It’s contagious.

#28 Courage of failure with Eric Cluzel

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 02:00:00 +0100

Eric Cluzel, manager and friend works in a large corporation, talks about what the courage of failure means to him. He shares a story about when he had to deal with failure at work, and provides tips for using failure as motivation to become even better at work.The show notes do no justice to the wisdom of the podcast, we hope you will listen.

What is courage of failure for you?

[0:39] If you don’t have the courage to take risks, if you stay in your comfort zone, if you don’t innovate or try to, you will not have the satisfaction of developing yourself. The majority of innovation starts with several attempts. The courage of failure is to try.

“Go out there and give it your best. It’s okay if you fail. It’s okay if you don’t succeed.”

Can you share a personal story about how you have encountered failure at work?

[3:21] A few months ago, Eric had to go in front of some executives. He had to do exercises in an attempt to obtain a promotion within the company. Though he was already performing well in that position in the company, this was a mandatory step in the process with a yes/no decision. He had twenty minutes to convince people of his capabilities. It was important for Eric because it was a recognition of where he is today and his capacity to do the job.

He prepared for this assessment as you would prepare for a competition. He read books, discussed with colleagues, did some business analysis, and so on. On the day of the assessment, he was confident because of the preparation he had done but also had some fear.

“You can prepare as much as possible, but perhaps on the decision day, your body, or your material, or your feelings will put you in a situation you cannot prepare for.”

Two or three exercises went well for Eric, but in the end, the result was that he failed. He was put in a situation that did not align with his expectations.

What were some of the negative dialogues that you were having?

[6:31] Eric was thinking about the different results; if he succeeded or failed. He says that he’s a positive person, so he thought he was prepared to have a negative result, but that perhaps he wasn’t. Eric tried to not move the fault onto any other people or processes. He quickly moved from frustration to resilience.

What helped you in moving on from frustration to resilience?

[7:25] Eric got the result early in the morning. Because of the result, the temptation was to take the day off. However, he decided to go to work as usual to face his colleagues. Of course, they all came to him and asked Eric what the results were. He decided to have the courage to express to his colleague that he failed, and a lot of people were more frustrated than him.

Even with Eric’s failure, it was an incredible time for him because he received so much nice and empathetic feedback. Because it was an emotional time, people expressed to Eric their views on him. They would not have done this otherwise.

How did this impact your relationship with the process?

[11:15] Eric thinks that there is no impact today. He is still continuing on in his professional life with the same confidence he had before. Eric feels that his relationship with his team has improved because of the whole experience.

How did this impact your credibility?

[12:40] Eric knows his credibility is still there because of the feedback he receives from his management and customers. In his personal life, his family is even more proud of him than before.

“We do need to give our best, but we don’t need to push ourselves all the time. We’re good enough as we are.”

What tips can you give people for when they fail?

[14:27] If you fail at something, it’s because you tried something. You need to be proud. People who don’t try will never fail.
Do not let the failure decrease your credibility. Reflect, learn, and continue with even more energy.

#27 Why listening feel painful at times

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 01:18:00 +0100

Why listening is sometimes thought to be painful. Reasons why at times listening does not get any deeper and two tips that we can use to become better listeners both at work and at home.

The situation that inspired me to talk about this subject.

[0:32] I was observing a negotiation between two different departments in an organisation. Let’s call one of the person I was observing, Bob.

On the surface, Bob was an extremely inspiring person who was very captivating in his speech. He came into the meeting, gave context, spoke about the big picture, and was really engaging the other person with his talk. He also said a lot of inclusive things like “I really want us to solve this.” However, Bob kept talking and gave no space to the other person. He asked questions in a way that implied it was a no-brainer that everything would happen on time.

When we ask questions from a place of only what we want to hear, then we will only hear what we want to hear. Bob wasn’t connected with the reality, and the reality was that the project was going to be delayed by two years. Until the end of the meeting, Bob didn’t even hear that.

“We miss information, and suddenly it comes back to us at a time when we’re absolutely taken by surprise. The disconnection happens because we only allow information that we want to seek.”

If you have someone who is pretty compliant on the other side, they don’t want to give you bad news. Especially if it is someone who reports to you, you’re not going to hear some things.

The two main reasons why the listening did not get any deeper in Bob’s case.

[4:42] Bob is someone who is a little bit impatient. He just wanted to go faster in his goals and was very narrowly focused. Therefore, he asked questions like “Is this done?” and “Where are we on this?” These questions are open yet closed to his own goals. Sometimes, things are not just a straight path in an organization, and we need to deviate into something else. However, we think that if we listen to something completely different, then we’re wasting our time.
He had the assumption that if he opened his door and stepped out of his room, he would be stepping out of his territory and into the other person’s shoes. He thought that if he experienced what the other person was, he might lose his perspective and goals.

“The painful part of listening is that we have to change the way we have been built; we have to change the way we have been listening. If we truly listen to the other person, then we start to create a new reality that becomes a reality for both of us. We start to create a new perspective which includes different perspectives.”

Listening can be painful because:

Sometimes we can’t go as fast as we wish to.
We have to, at times, change our ideas, beliefs, and the way we are doing things.

There is a false assumption that listening at a deeper level is painful, but actually, it’s not painful: it’s pure joy. We start to co-create with the other person and discover new things.

We won’t lose our assertive position just because we are opening our hearts and listening to the other person.

“If you can trust yourself that you are capable of handling your emotions and, at the same time, making the right choices, then listening empathetically can truly build much more co-creativity and expand our minds.”

Two tips to help you listen more deeply

[8:31] Remembering that: Slow is fast. Bob had the assumption that if he took time to listen, he wouldn’t get everything done in his day. Actually, knowing that the project was going to be delayed would have helped him organize, plan, and support his partner.
Use a lot more silence than you think you do in meetings. We are often uncomfortable with silence, so we try to fill the spaces. Silence allows the other person to break bad news and encourages other people to speak up.

#26 Why do we work with Suzie Lewis

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 02:00:00 +0100

Suzie Lewis has worked in large organizations for a long time and has run international transformation programs. She talks to us about: Why do we go to work? How does organisational code get in the way of a meaningful purpose? How can you have a sense of purpose at work?

Why do we go to work?

[0:51] Too often, the answer to this question is to make money or to be able to live. People with this mindset go because they are motivated to get paid. There’s no sense of engagement, purpose, or meaningfulness of why they’re at work. When work becomes a means to an end, motivation and engagement are low. There’s a scale of answers to this question and this is one end of the scale.

The other end of the scale has people who love what they do and want to make a difference. Suzie’s mother was a successful surgeon and for 40 years she said everyday:

“I wonder what I will find at work today!”

When Suzie wakes up she has thoughts like: I wonder what change I will make today. I wonder who I’ll meet today. I’m going to meet loads of different people and situations and I love that.

What gets in the way of having a purpose when we go to work?

[4:02] Usually, organizational culture can get in the way. This includes the codes of the culture, how the system recognizes people, and how the system works. You can very easily have a purpose statement and values that are built within an organization, but organizational culture can cause people to work in silos.

Organisational culture can make people feel that they cannot fulfil their purpose.

What are some of the codes of the organizational culture that get in the way?

[4:58] The top level of Edgar Schein’s model, what he calls Artifacts is essentially the dress code and “How things are done around here.”

It’s things like where you go for lunch, what time you go for lunch, with who you go for lunch, who you are seen with, how busy you are, whether you an assistant and everything has to go through the assistant because you are too busy, whether you have a company car, etc. There are lots of different definitions of codes of culture.

“Culture is the way you think, act and interact. They become implicit codes in the organization that indicate what level you are and, therefore, what freedom you have and the way you can influence within the organisation This in itself can squash purpose and creativity.”

Forbes has a program on top people under 30 in business. That demographics is massively linked to purpose. They want to make a bigger impact, want to give back to the society, and want to do something more meaningful for themselves and for the society.

They get demotivated by organisational SILO’s and when good ideas cannot be taken further due to things not related to the purpose, like organisational codes of culture that get in the way. i.e. that level where you are and who you can communicate to.

Sometimes, people who are extremely experienced can get quite cynical with people who are under thirty and come in fresh with lots of ideas. What do you think about that?

[7:32] We need to be careful not to get stuck in generational stereotypes. However, it is about age because they’ve been in that organization longer, and however much we like to think that we stay out of the mold of an organization, we do get conditioned by our place of work.

“The real difference is this generation will not spend a long time in an organization if they don’t feel it fits.”

I had three people yesterday tell me that the biggest challenge within their organization to reach the vision is organization politics.

[10:58] That links very much back to the two discussions we’re having: one is about purpose and one is about the way the system operates. I think that those two ideas need to work together for organizations to be able to transform sustainably.

The younger generations DARE more because for them it’s their way of thinking, so why should they not bring that to work.

When you get grassroots momentum like that then you get a mix of ages. Grassroots momentum is great for viral change. That can create sustainable change up to a certain level.

People who have a purpose will push away the normal, standard way of doing things and get them to evolve.

What’s one piece of advice you would give to people who want to come from a sense of purpose to work?

[12:44] There is fear in organisations and there is more courage than fear. So,

Dare. Dare to do what you want to do and dare to suggest things that are outside of what exists today. Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do it.

#25 Being proactive for the sake of Health

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 18 Feb 2019 02:00:00 +0100

A case of applying the Immunity to Change for a team

Have you ever planned to do something the next day and then you wake up feeling exhausted with no energy to follow your planned work?

The point it we so often tend to dismiss how we are feeling mentally, how we are feeling physically, and we push ourselves constantly to move forward. While it’s good to get moving, we often tend to push ourselves way too much to stick to our commitments.

Last week I had the opportunity to support a team that wanted to be proactive for the sake of health! That was the objective of the team. My colleague Xavier Weibel and I used the Immunity to change process to accompany this team.

What is immunity to change?

Lisa Lahey says on episode #12 if we don’t see our immunity, we will continue to be stuck. An immunity is when there’s a part of us that wants to move in one direction, towards an important goal and at the exact same time, there is a part of us that is unconsciously driven to actually accomplish a goal that is in tension with the very important goal we want to accomplish.

What was happening to this team that was working in a reactive way?

This was an IT services teams, that had to respond to critical events and that was their primary objective apart from taking care of the future technology.

They were like a hamster on a wheel, continuously chasing backlog of items, rushing because critical incidents were falling on their plate, they were constantly trying to solve problems and their agendas were running full. In short, they were playing a catch-up game.

And they were recognized as a capable team because they were extremely committed to high levels of quality all the time. They were committed to not letting emotions get in the way of making clear, rational decisions. The team was extremely committed to being professional and to be responsible. One might say well the team is performing well.

Being action focused and solving problems is great, and yet too much of it takes away our mental health.

What is Mental Health? In episode #14, James Routledge defines mental health as your state; not just well-being, your state of emotions, feeling, thoughts, identity and that’s kind of all wrapped up in mental health.

When we work in a very reactive way, we:

1. Get exhausted

2. Get Cynical

And that’s a sign of burnout. Monique Valcour on episode #19 says:

Exhaustion: feeling that you just don’t have any more to give and drained.

AND

Cynicism: a loss of meaning that shows up as a negative attitude towards work, the workplace and the people you are working with.

So, burnout is not an on off state. There is a lot of grey zone before you actually hit burnout. In the grey zone lies cynicism and exhaustion. We keep moving in and out of that grey zone, which is close to burnout. This team was not clearly in burnout.

Their resilience was consuming their zest and the force for life. And that was taking away all their creativity.

What was their goal?

Their goal was to be proactive and bring Health to the forefront of business!

3 Raisons to bring Health to the forefront of business.

1. Physical and mentally health

Many people on the team were affected by stress physically. They wanted to not have ulcers.

2. Better working relationships

You are simply less irritated, less cynical, less negative and one has time to engage in a meaningful dialogue.

3. More creativity

You set the right foundation to focus on continuous improvement rather than make short term fixes and patches

What hindered this team from focusing on health?

One of the main hindering factors for high achievers is that they like to get things done, which is a good thing and at the same time it’s this very thing of being too action focused, and constantly solving problems that was coming in the way.

High achievers don’t see the benefit of rest.

They don’t see the benefit of stepping back and looking at what’s going on, looking at the bigger picture of how they’re playing the game.

Stillness allows you to move forward in a much healthier way. Stillness in itself is not going to change the problems that you face today. And yet stillness allows you to create a certain inner energy, an inner space that allows you to move forward with much more ease and allows you to bring joy at work.

What is the TIP if you work with a team like this?

The problem is the people surrounding around these kinds of teams are also impacted because they are solicited in the last minute.

You need compassion when interacting with such a team.

1. Compassion for the team.

Compassion allows you to to not judge, not criticize, not point fingers at the team. Because criticism is the last thing this team needs.

2. Compassion for yourself

Compassion allows to not collapse into the reactive energy of the team. It’s so easy to start working like them when you receive things in the last minute.

Compassion allows you to take distance and act in a more responsible way. Because you risk reproducing what they’re going through and that will take away your mental health.

#24 To meditate is to rebel with Betsy Parayil-Pezard

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 08:03:00 +0100

I’m so privileged to have Betsy Parayil-Pezard on this episode to discuss meditation. She was born in the USA to Indian parents and has been living in France for the past eighteen years. She has practiced different forms of mindfulness since 1998 and shares her vision of mindfulness in prisons, homeless shelters, and with CEOs.

You’ve recently written a book on “To meditate is to Rebel.” What inspired you to write this book?

[0:53] Meditation has helped Betsy in so many ways, so that was her first motivation. She wanted to write a book about mindfulness for French people because, having been living in France for so long, she began seeing the obstacles that French people have to mindfulness. Betsy says that the French often describe themselves as very rational, causing them to not be attracted to meditation. Betsy wanted to invite people to explore what meditation is from a rational perspective.

“I believe that there’s this awareness that we develop when we meditate that allows us to see our connection to other people and to the problems in society.”

Mindfulness has led Betsy to observe how we are all connected to each other. It sounds very cliché, but it’s actually very rational when you consider the idea that we are actually interconnected and, in a false way, our society separates us.

How does mindfulness make us more interconnected?

[3:58] Betsy sees that not knowing how other people are experiencing life keeps us from experiencing a part of ourselves. Betsy has brought people who are at the top of companies to a mindful-conscious dialogue with people who are in distress, and a lot of great awareness arises in both parties. In one party, there’s the feeling that “This person, who has everything that I would like to have in life, is not different from me.” On the side of the leader in a privileged situations, the person will often think “What do I need to be doing in my life that will serve other parts of the society?”

Mindfulness has a series of 4 steps:

Place your attention on your breadth
You are distracted by something e.g. a though, a feeling or a sound
You become aware of that distraction
Place your attention on your breadth

This is just a training or workout that brings a greater knowledge of how your mind works. Its actually a simple process.

What challenges do people face in practicing mindfulness?

[5:47] Some of the most prominent reasons are:

People often feel that this is not for them because they have a busy mind, they can’t sit still, they have too much stress, etc. That often comes from a misunderstanding of what mindfulness is. You don’t have to be less stressed to meditate.
The performance culture of leaders makes sitting down difficult. It feels like sitting to meditate is something that takes us outside of our lives or outside our efforts to get results.

Why is mindfulness becoming such a basic leadership skill today?

[12:03] Betsy believes that the world is getting safer in some ways, but that there’s an atmosphere of fear and anxiety. There’s a feeling that there is no meaning. In Betsy’s vision, we will be more attracted to leaders who help us experience something other than fear. Leaders today will need to work on their own fear first.

Mindfulness is a way of confronting difficult emotions. When practicing mindfulness, Betsy learns to see the composition of her mind and then learns to operate from a place of stillness within herself as a leader.

“Mindfulness helps people to connect on a different level, Mindfulness creates meaning that people are looking for, and finally mindfulness creates an experience that people are looking for!”

Mindfulness helps you to listen better to yourself and others. It helps you to connect in a more profound way to yourself and others. This helps you connect with your purpose and give meaning to the mission both for yourself and to those you are leading.

What happens when we act from a place of fear?

[15:50] The other day, Betsy was listening to a discussion with a presidential candidate from one of the last elections. He talked about a moment where he came to a debate, was less prepared than previously, and his popularity started to slide immediately after. Watching his numbers slide was very difficult, and this caused him to operate from a place of fear; he started to panic. He did not use his full capacities to make decisions from that moment on. That’s one example of how fear can get the best of you.

What is important about leading from a place of stillness?

[18:33] Stillness is so uncommon in our society that when you bring stillness to a group, it’s very disruptive. Coming into the room and taking your time influences everyone. It gives them space to access their own resources, and it gets them to bring their best resources to the team. Stillness connects us to our intuition and connects us to indicators that are intangible.

Can you give one TIP that will help people to meditate?

[21:30] Start small. As people are starting off, I would recommend doing two or five minutes. What’s important is to do this regularly; not necessarily for long periods of time. Betsy also encourages using an app called Petit BamBou, and she is even the English voice artist on the app.

“Stillness is a resource, and you always have it with you.”

Her book in French: Méditer c’est se rebeller

#23 How to increase the chances of success of your Change Program with Giovanna Manto

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 02:00:00 +0100

In this episode, I welcome Giovanna Manto to discuss ways of increasing the chance of success for your organisation’s change program. Giovanna is a co-founder of Healthy Change Partners and a leadership coach with Healthy Organizational Change. She brings key insights from a recent study she performed at INSEAD where she analysed resistance to change in an organisation that she was coaching.

Why is increasing the chances of success for your change program interest you?

[0:40] Giovanna’s research highlights the key challenges experienced by field practitioners in delivering change programs. She wants to make the programs more sustainable and effective in the long run.

Giovanna observed congruence coming from the leadership of an organisation that had asked her and her partner to assign and deliver a change program for them. This program aimed at shifting the way people trust each other. The objectives of this project were large, and the amount the company was willing to invest was considerable. What struck her curiosity were inconsistent messages coming from diagnosis interviews. Giovanna felt resistance and strong doubts, which were indicators that the people who had hired her were not supporting the change. The top executives had the attitude of “go out, change this organization, but please leave me alone.”

What are some of the main reasons that organizations fail to make change happen?

There are four major factors that she saw during her interviews:

[2:35]The inconsistency of the top leadership. They saw change as something what involves others but not themselves. Really, the change process starts from the top. They need to be the change that they want to see.
[6:35]The lack of synchronicity. In the less effective programs, leaders failed to deliver actions and messages at the same time with he same pace and weight. Paying attention to the specific culture and needs is important for multinational companies. Everyone should be told what is happening at the same time.
[8:58]The use of psychodynamics gets misunderstood. Change programs go deep into people’s essence of being, which can be quite intimidating for most people. When psychodynamics is well understood and used properly, people gain more awareness on how they can influence others. They will become better listeners and feel more empathetic towards others.
[13:46] The lack of dedicated time for reflection. This means making time to ask ourselves the tricky questions about how effectively we are doing our work. This is a concept that agile organizations have become accustomed to in retrospective meetings they do. Teams working on a project regularly take time to gather and reflect on what went well and the areas that need improvement. Organizations that neglect to do properly do these meetings have an outcome that is difficult to measure. The organizations that thrive are the ones that intentionally make time in their busy schedule to offer their people a space where they can feel free to learn from their success and failures without shame.

“Most of these people are high-achievers who are very action-biased, who have worked very hard, and gotten their way. What’s gotten them here by working hard, by getting things done, being self-sufficient, and being strong is not actually getting them to the next level”

What are some of the solutions your research suggests?

[18:30]The solution that the study suggests is to get thoroughly prepared as much as possible and minimise the ignorance factors. Prepare yourself by hiring a triumvirate of key organizational members who know the space and contain the overall change. This triumvirate rests on three pillars:

The strengths of business executives.
The strengths of HR professionals.
The strengths of external coaches and consultants.

This model is in its first stages and needs to be tested further, but what can be argued at this point is that organizational transformations need to be sustained all the way.

“My research finds that business executives and promotors and inspirers, whereas the HR professionals are the catalyzers, and the coaches and consultants are the facilitators; they bring in the expertise.”

It is important that the three have an overview of the change programs and support the top leadership that sponsors this program in synchronicity. They also must be synchronized when paying attention to the psychodynamics and in truly believing in what the change program can bring.

What is one last message you have for the audience?

Ultimately, changing an organization is a marathon, not a sprint. We need to prepare ourselves carefully if we want to lead the process effectively. Once we have experienced the change, we’ll know what it takes and, depending on the role we have in an organization, we’ll be ready to join forces.

“Only when you know what it takes to make change happen for oneself can you make it happen for your team, for the organization, and in the society at large.”

#22 Terrified of vulnerability and starved for connection with Ken Mossman

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 02:00:00 +0100

Ken Mossman, who has specialised in coaching men for the past two decades, joins us this show. He is here to provide his knowledge on vulnerability and why men do not generally like being open. Ken also gives advice for building stronger connections.

Why are men terrified of vulnerability?

[0:50] The main reason is because vulnerability has gotten a bad name. It’s been associated with weakness and helplessness, and men don’t want to appear that way. The challenge is when men think it’s not okay to ask for help, as if they are supposed to know all the answers.

“There is this pressure to perform and provide. Is it a bad thing? No. Does it mean that there’s some sort of way in which men come into the world automatically equipped to do those things? The answer to that is also no.”

What is an example of how this plays out at work?

[5:09] One person cannot hold the entire big picture of an immensely complex system, and this example is seen in organizations such as government or large companies.

If someone is running a small business with very few employees, maybe that one person does know more than anyone else about the business. When the system becomes larger, there’s no single person who can know everything that’s going on.

Why are men being starved for vulnerability?

[7:44] We are all social creatures and Ken believes what men are really starved for is deep connection. Vulnerability is a key piece of openness and willingness to engage. Many men have been socialized to stay away from those things. It can be a frightening step.

What challenges do men face to be more vulnerable?

[9:27] Everything starts with awareness. The first piece is to notice that there is something you are hungry for….like making deeper connections. Like making connections that matter and having conversations that go beyond sports, beyond business. Nothing wrong with sports or business, but notice there is a huger for beyond.

“I may be in a great relationship with my wife or life partner, but that one relationship can’t hold all of my needs and wants in that hunger for connection with other men.”

In the desire of true connection with vulnerability, there is nothing to prove and there is no competition. So how does one measure the connection. So it becomes dicey how does one see the connection.

What are some examples of these conversations that build connections?

[11:47] There are two aspects:

Opening the door into yourself. Asking “How well do I actually know myself?”
Opening to the unknown. This comes back to vulnerability. “If I sit down with you and have a coffee or a beer with no agenda, I really don’t know where this conversation is going to go.”

Its about – How are you REALLY doing?

What tips can Ken give for men to be less terrified?

[13:24] Ask “How are you doing? and How are you you really doing?”, Be willing to go first and be willing to be a little bit frightened. That’s a big ask because men usually don’t like to do that. On the flip side, be willing to have the same questions asked of yourself and be willing to share what comes up in the moment.

https://www.cirruscoaching.com/index.html

#21 Limits of a Leader on top with Henry Kimsey-House

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 02:00:00 +0100

Henry Kimsey-House today discusses Leader on top vs Leader in front. Henry co-founded the world-renowned Coaches Training Institute (CTI) which has trained more than 50,000 people. He is also the lead designer of the thought-provoking Co-Active Leadership Model. Henry shares what a leader on top is, how to stop being one, and how to become a leader in front.

What is Henry’s definition of leader on top?

[1:09] Leader on top is the command-and-control, traditional, hierarchical leader. When most people think of a leader, they think of someone who is separated from everybody else and, once they’re in that position, must continuously show up as the one in control. It’s where most of our leaders are these days.

The paradigm shift that we’re moving towards is moving leaders on top to leaders in front. Leaders in front learn how to hold a vision, see the distance between themselves and the vision, see the chaos that is in the way, and find a pattern through that chaos.

“It’s not about commanding and controlling, it’s about holding a powerful vision and being connected to the people that you are moving towards that vision.”

Once you start trying to control something, it becomes more ego-related than purpose-related; you have to play it safe, which causes you to avoid risks. Playing it safe and not stating what we think may be good for the organization will cost a lot of time, energy, and money.

What are some other limitations that Henry sees with a leader on top?

[5:27] Usually there are personal, internal limitations. They start not knowing who they are or what they’re about anymore. They’re going after something that is no longer related to themselves.

Another limitation is that they live their life in reaction. They control or manage things based on what they already know, and they’re not able to access the part of them that allows them to step into the unknown with courage.

“If we are living soullessly at work, it’s going to show up in other areas of our lives. Who are we if we’re not living our life on our own edges, and looking off those edges to the next place?”

What do people need to do to start leading from the front?

[8:37] The two things that Henry would want any leader to start working on are:

Having a really clear vision based on your purpose and who you are. Not just a goal, but something that’s coming from your heart.
Bringing the people to the vision. In order to bring those people to the vision, you need to connect with them through your heart as opposed to just managing them.

What’s your take on vulnerability and opening up?

[11:57] Vulnerability means exposing the truth of yourself and your emotions.

A lot of the time, people think vulnerability means crying but it doesn’t. It’s about letting people in. You are more powerful the more you can expose the truth of yourself.

The first moment of vulnerability feels very unsafe. After you revel the truth of yourself to others, what inevitably happens is that such a powerful connection occurs that they pay attention to you in a way that they never have before.

“We build walls between ourselves and others. The more walls we build, the more alone we are.”

How do you allow light to come into this dark place?

[14:55] Henry says people need to ask for help. When you’re in a place of feeling like you have to be perfect, the last thing you think you can do is ask for help. You view it as a sign of weakness. But rather, it’s more like opening a door and saying, “come in, join me, let’s connect.”

You need to be open to different kinds of help. Don’t create an expectation that it has to be an exact kind of help. That will prevent you from receiving any help at all.

I have learnt that I have been wrong in not asking for help sometimes and I have learned to both show the way and connect with people.

[19:50] Henry says that doing both is the courage of leading from the front. The word “courage” really relates to leader in front. The definition of “courage” that Henry loves is “throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow.” You need to “throw your heart over the fence” in the name of connection and vision.

The bizarre paradox of it all is that leaders have no idea how to get to their vision, yet they must courageously tell people that they will all get to that vision with passion and clarity. The people also might now know if the leader knows how to get to that vision, but they are along for the ride; they are so excited to see if the leader and them can make it all happen.

Henry, What is the best tip you can give to help people become a leader in front?

[23:52] Open your heart and connect with people and get a crystal-clear vision. Don’t worry about the plan, just figure out where you’re headed. Keep growing your consciousness and stay awake to the wold.

#20 You are a conditional decision maker, how to break free with Robin Coghlan

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 02:00:00 +0100

In this episode we welcome Robin Coghlan, Head of Operations at Coaches Training Institute. He loves helping people in making better decisions and is here today to talk about conditional decision making. Robin also tells us about the system he uses to determine his clients’ conditions and how we can utilize it ourselves.

What is a conditioned decision maker?

It’s based on the idea that human beings are highly susceptible to influences from our environment and, therefore, the decisions we make are not always in alignment with what’s correct for us.

Some people are more susceptible to certain condition than others. Every human that is interested in self-development wants to understand this about themselves because we are that conditioning force. We can put more attention on areas that we are more susceptible to.

Robin works with clients on determining their susceptibility to certain conditions. He then explores those conditions with the client to see how they show up in the client’s life.

“Just because of one conditioning factor, you could end up somewhere thinking ‘I’m not happy where I am.’”

What is an example that someone can face due to their conditioning?

Two behavioral tendencies of Robin are:

Not knowing when enough is enough.
Always rushing to free oneself of pressure.

Those two things are separate, but you can see how they play together. The pressure Robin feels from his environment is immense, and that is fundamentally hardwired into his design. Because he is aware of this, he can feel it happening day-to-day and then gets to choose. He can recognize it and then tell himself that he doesn’t have to rush, but rather pause and let the pressure rub off him. He can also form agreements with friends, family, and colleagues that help him validate when enough is enough.

“If you do not face this and understand it, where this leads eventually is burnout.”

You may think this is common for everyone, and while that is a huge conditioning factor in our world, some people are better adept to working to that pressure than others.

‘We’re not yet fully aware of the intriguing uniqueness of individuals, and this is what I love about the system that I work with. It really points, in such detail, to the uniqueness of the individual.”

How do you know what people are conditioned to?

Over Robin’s years of experience doing many versions of personality tests, he has begun to see issues with any system that asks him to answer questions to be able to tell him who he is. He does not trust that he is always connected with what is most correct for him.

“If I have a conditioning element, the answers I’m giving in to any system are going to mirror back a report of my conditioning.”

The system Robin prefers is called Human Design. It’s based on birth data (specifically time of birth) and is a science of differentiation. What Robin has come to appreciate, through years of skepticism, is that he doesn’t get to choose what happened at his time of birth. There are energetic systems in our world, and this system speaks to that. Humans are complex, and this system has revealed things that Robin has not come across anywhere else.

How did Robin choose a path of less resistance and what does he suggest for our listeners?

If the resistance is so strong, then you’re going to be striving so hard for an outcome that is just not correct for you. To live a life of less resistance:

Become deeply self-aware.
Develop a community of friends and colleagues to support you on your journey.
Design into your life the discipline and courage to say “no, that’s not correct for me.”

For example, Robin believes based on everything he has learned that he does not belong in a typical two-person relationship for life. He has had to accept that he can’t be in one. This doesn’t mean he needs some crazy open relationship, but his complex knowledge has shown him that relationships are not for him.

“People who want to talk to me about it come with this conditioned script about ‘what’s wrong with you that you can’t hold a relationship? It’s not right. You’re going to be alone. You need someone in your life.’ That is the most common conditioning in our world. That’s just so not true for me. It takes courage to stand up to that, take action, and design your life appropriately.”

What’s a tip Robin can give to help people break free from conditioning?

Find out your birth time, that’s usually the most difficult thing to find. Then, you can go to https://www.humandesign.info/and receive your chart for free. Regardless of what impact this has had on you, just be curious. We need to devote curiosity and self-compassion to look at the patterns in our lives to transcend them.

#19 Preventing burnout and Reengaging with Monique Valcour

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 02:32:00 +0100

Monique Valcour joins us for this episode. She is an executive coach, a management professor, and a frequent contributor of Harvard Business Review. Monique discusses what burnout is, the symptoms it brings, the effects it has on an organization, and how to prevent it.

What is burnout and how does it manifest itself?

Burnout is an occupational stress syndrome that consists of three primary categories of symptoms:

Exhaustion: feeling that you just don’t have any more to give and drained.
Cynicism: a loss of meaning that was previously felt now showing up as a negative attitude towards your workplace.
A sense of reduced personal efficacy: struggling to do the core elements of your job which used to be relatively simple.

How can you tell when a person is in real danger of burnout?

It’s important to think to yourself about how you are feeling and what you are excited about in the upcoming week. If you feel like there are dreadful feelings or a lack of excitement, that’s a good sign that you have burnout. If you’re finding that you’re always tired, that may be another sign.

“One way to think about burnout is that your demands are outstripping the resources you have to meet those demands.”

What are some of the consequences for an organization when people face burnout?

At the organizational level, we see:

Lower levels of employee engagement.
Lower levels of retention.
Higher turnover.
Higher manifestations of stress.
More absenteeism.
Lower commitment.
A negative impact on performance.

How can you prevent burnout?

Monique often does an audit that asks questions of an individual’s energy resources and makes changes accordingly. These questions include:

How well are you taking care of yourself physically, including your mental resources?
What is the quality of your interpersonal relationships within the team or organization?
What is the sense of purpose that you are enjoying in your work?

As an individual, it’s crucial to regularly ask yourself:

“What are the things I’ve accomplished?”
“What are the key objectives that will help move my work forward?”
“Do I have people I collaborate with who are energizing for me?”
“Are there some relationships I should reduce my exposure to?”

The most common ineffective strategy is spending more time working to get ahead in order to not fall behind on work.

What’s one message Monique would like to share?

Although careers are long, life is short. It’s always good to be able to step back and ask yourself “If the amount of time I had on this earth was suddenly much more limited than I anticipated, is this what I would be wanting to do with my time?"

#18 PART 3 – Why Change is Hard?

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 31 Dec 2018 02:00:00 +0100

In this final segment of a three-part series, I talk about the 7th and 8th reasons why change is hard for organisations. I share real-life examples from organisations who face these problems and provide advice to overcome these obstacles.

The 7th reason why change is hard:

It’s hard to deal with negative comments

Let’s say you make a suggestion and people say “that’s too risky,” “we don’t have the resources to do that,” or “That’s completely unrealistic.” “Have you thought about the consequences?” You would probably react thinking “not again… Why do I have to deal with this?”

I spoke to a manager a few weeks back, lets call him “Tom.” He said that his company had a very inspiring and great product that’s losing money in the market every year. Every time he proposed a new idea, the team just talks about how the idea will not work.

“If you apply the same recipe, you’re going to get the same results. If you want a new result, you need to apply a new recipe.”

Every time his team mentioned that this was not a good idea, Tom was providing counterarguments of why his idea was a good one. He was looking at the positive aspects of the change, but his team was looking at the negative ones. Additionally, Tom was looking at the negative aspects of the old way while his team was looking at the positive aspects of it.

Tom and his team were having a completely tangential dialogue. When people have a tangential dialogue, it creates a conversational deadlock. Ideas don’t go further, and business results stay the same.

The first thing to do is to learn how to have conversations that focus on the same aspect rather than having a tangential dialogue. Barry Johnson talks about this aspect in his book Polarity Management. And before we apply the concepts of Barry Johnson we need to shift the mindset to keep a soft focus on the results.

TIP: Keep a soft focus on results. Tom was focused on moving forward and achieving goals. Having a conversation about the negative aspects of his idea was completely draining for him. He avoided exploring this, and this caused him to also avoid the positive aspects of the current recipe.

“When you get too narrowly focused on the results, you fail to see what’s in the periphery.When you have a soft focus on the goal, you start to see people as people and you start to build from WHAT IS present rather than from how people SHOULD BE.”

The 8th reason why change is hard:

People are doing a 2nd job at work

A second job is when people are covering up their mistakes, covering up their weaknesses, and spending a lot of time and energy managing how other people see them. They may do presentations just to make an impression on other people, show only their good side, or filter information flow so that they have control over the situation.

Very clearly, we can see that employees are paid to do a second job. People who do the second job do not evolve because when you don’t look at your mistakes, you don’t grow.

“When we allow people to have a 2nd job, we somehow create a culture that is working around in circles, spending a whole lot of time and money not meeting goals.”

There are certain industries where, of course, we can’t afford failure such as when it comes to safety and the lives of people. Let’s say we’re not looking at those black-and-white cases; there are many grey areas where safety is not an issue.

Lets talk about Digital Transformation where Agile principles are used so that, we can :

☞Learn from failure soon to reduce time to customer

☞ Bring learning early in the cycle to reduce costs of big failures

☞ Try more new things as more failures mean more learning to steer the project in the right direction.

A senior manager in that organisation mentioned to me, “I have no idea how a small failure will affect my career. I’m not willing to jump off the cliff”.

Are organisations creating career/job for people to be more agile?

“We need to take care of people in the organization if we want them to take risks, fail, and reap the benefits of early failure.”

Two tips so that people don’t spend too much time and energy doing a second job are:

Create a culture where it is completely unacceptable to not analyze and learn from mistakes. The more painful the mistake, the more we need to love them. When you don’t love the most painful mistakes, that is when you lose the big learning experience that can help you move ahead faster and better.
If the organisation provides safety for its employees and encourages failure, be sure to receive feedback.

#17 Part 2 – Why Change is hard?

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 24 Dec 2018 02:00:00 +0100

This is the second of this three-part series on why change is hard. I talk about three more reasons why change is hard. Providing meaningful ways to overcome these challenges and with examples I came across with my coaching clients.

The 4th reason why change is hard:

Change management bodies fail to engage in a deeper dialogue

Management has a very clear vision. They have the right analytical data in front of them, they see the capabilities, they see the future and make decisions based on these. This might be the same kind of change that the people want, but when it’s comes forced top-down, there is a resistance. This happens because the people are not treated like adults; their opinions are not sought after, and they are not engaged in a dialogue.

Imagine yourself with your fist closed and having all your ideas within it. Very often in conversation, we hold onto our ideas and opinions with our fists closed. We are afraid to open our palm to allow new ideas or opinions to come in in fear of not going in the direction that one would like to go. It holds us back from having richer, deeper conversations.

Recommendations:

Question the mental model that you’re coming from.
Be curious about opinions and judgements of other people.
Remember that the dialogue is always an infinite loop between the self and the other.

The 5th reason why change is hard:

We don’t seek feedback

As we saw in Part 1, adaptive processes are a necessary part of your change timeline. Mindsets need to shift in order for a technical change to happen. For a person’s mind to shift, we often come with a strong conviction that we know exactly what we need to change. People can see us with more precision than we ever knew. If you can get feedback, harvest it, and build trust, you can shift pretty fast.

Use feedback mechanisms like The Leadership Culture surveys or an ASK questionnaire. In the ASK questionnaire, you can have 3 simple questions:

What do you think is my greatest single challenge to achieve this goal? (Where “this” is the goal that you want to achieve.)
What is the one behaviour that you think I need to change?
If there’s one area that you’d think I should focus on, what would that be?

Fill this questionnaire by getting feedback from at least ten people. This will be much more precise than you deciding for yourself the one thing that you need to change.

The 6th reason why change is hard:

We reject the feedback that we receive

I often hears statements like “you don’t understand me,” “I used to be that way, but that’s not me anymore,” or “these respondents don’t like me, and that’s why they responded in this way.”

“If only we can think of feedback as a gift. As a gift that is going to enhance our leadership ability; as a gift that is going to grow us; and as a gift that is going to help us to achieve and be more peaceful, we can grow faster than we imagine.”

#16 PART 1 – Why Change is Hard?

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 05:37:00 +0100

Host Deepa Natarajan is solo in this episode to talk about why change is hard. In this first part of a three-part series, Deepa presents the three biggest reasons why change is hard, provides examples that she has witnessed, and shares how to overcome these obstacles.

The 1st reason why change is hard:

We have an Immunity towards change.

Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey from Harvard University have done a large amount of research on this. An immunity is when there is a part of us that moves towards a certain goal, and at the very same time, we are unconsciously driven to go in the opposite direction.

The first example from their study is with heart patients. They found that when heart patients were told that their lives were at risk if they didn’t change their lifestyle, only one in seven made the changes they needed. The other six patients had an immunity towards change. Some felt that if they took medication then it means that they are old; they wanted to deny that fact.

A coaching client, lets call him Pascal, had the goal to ask open questions and be more receptive with his team members. What came in the way was a very deep assumption that because he came from a modest family and didn’t go to a great school, he needed to prove himself. His mental model was that in order to show that he was a strong, capable leader, he needed to have answers, opinions, and speak about those in meetings. These things got in the way of him asking open questions and being more receptive with his team members.

You might say that if he understood and discovered his immunity, that knowledge alone may be sufficient. Sometimes just knowing is sufficient, but a lot of times we’re so committed to our old beliefs that it requires time, compassion, and patience to test out those assumptions. Pascal was so focused on his own opinions and was holding on strongly to them.

Immunity is something we can reason out with our rationale, but at the very same time, we are unconsciously so committed to that goal that it comes in the way.

The 2nd reason why change is hard:

Motivation and determination are not sufficient to make change happen.

Looking back at the heart patient example, we can see that of course they were motivated and determined to live longer. Yet, they weren’t able to make the changes needed.

The very same thing happens in organizations. When people aren’t able to make change happen, they start blaming each other for not being motivated and determined. People start pointing fingers, because when one fails to make the change happen in their organization, it is a cumulative effect on other people who are waiting on this person’s success to actually do their job.

This collective finger pointing makes the one who is trying to make the change happen feel so low that they start having mental conversations like: “Am I capable? Am I not capable? What’s right with me?” They then start resisting the people who are doing the finger pointing. This causes a snowball effect of people who are blaming this person.

“Blame does not help the person to grow, and it also makes the person resist the change even more because they have anger towards people who are blaming them.”

The 3rd reason why change is so hard:

We treat adaptive challenges as technical challenges.

A technical challenge, for example, is that your car is broken, you need to fix it, so you call an expert and ask them to fix it. You need to find the expert, you need time to take the car to the garage, and you need money to fix the car. A technical challenge is when the challenge can be solved by technical means:

Expertise
Money
Time

On the other hand, an adaptive challenge is something that requires mindset shift and can’t be changed with just technical expertise.

Deepa was once observing a team meeting with sixteen people and noticed that in the first thirty minutes of the meeting, only three people spoke. The question was, “Are the other people required in the meeting? If only three are speaking, what’s going on?” When Deepa asked them this question, the first answer they came up with was:

“We don’t talk to each other much because we talk to people locally. Maybe we can have a chat system, so we can communicate more with each other.”

That was a technical solution to an adaptive challenge. When Deepa looked deeply and what was happening, she found that people didn’t feel co-responsible for each other’s goals. They didn’t speak up because they felt it wasn’t their job. They have valuable opinions and input they can give, but they didn’t do that.

Here’s an adaptive solution: they need to work on feeling more co-responsible with each other. Therefore, having a technical solution such as putting in a chat system is not going to help them. They need to work on the mindset shift of being co-responsible for each other.

“Look deeper at what is happening and pay attention to patterns in the system. When you question the patterns at play, that will reveal to you something deeper of what needs to really be addressed.”

#15 Role of Dialogue in Change with Paul Lawrence

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 02:00:00 +0100

Dr Paul Lawrence author of the book coaching in three dimension talks about the importance of dialogue in making change happen in organisations. He is an expert on coaching and making change in organizations

What is Dialogue?

Dialogue is very particular type of conversation. Dialogue happens when you suspend judgement and contributions build on contributions and new insights emerge in a diverging kind of conversation.

In a debate people toss opinions at each other. Skilled conversations are more difficult to differentiate from dialogue and that’s what we do most of the time. Two people come to a conversation very respectfully and respecting each other’s non-negotiables and the conversation might be really productive and useful. A full dialogue on the other hand very concise is defined by William Isaac as shared inquiry. It’s a way of thinking and reflecting together.

You often, make a choice before any conversation if you want to engage in a dialogue, or not. You choose to suspend judgement or defend, and if you choose to not protect and uphold a particular position or perspective, and if you choose to suspend then you are more open in dialogue.

What are the challenges to engage in a dialogue?

[3:46] Dialogue requires effort because we are programmed to make assumptions.

Few Mental Models of leadership that come in the way:

Over privileged positional power
Assumption that I as a leader say what happens
Assumption that I as a leader control outcome
Assumption that I as a leader knows all the answers
Assumption that it’s not my job to engage in dialogue with everybody

What is the role of Dialogue in Change?

[6:00] People don’t like to do what they are told to do. They like to make meaning by talking to other people. So if you give someone an instruction, they may or may not verbally agree to comply, but you can be absolutely sure that they will talk to someone that they trust to make meaning of what you just said and from that conversation emerges a new intention and it may or may not be what you as an authority figure intended. That is just how change happens and it’s very frustrating.

So, authority figures who believe in the sanctity of positional power express frustration by blaming other people using phrases like resistance to change. Actually, to get things done requires an understanding of how change happens, and how change emerges from dialogue.

To make change happen, dialogue is needed and what comes in the way is, the way positional power comes into form.

The capacity to step back and see who I need to engage with in dialogue because I can’t engage in dialogue with everyone, is important. And who else needs to engage in dialogue with who else and see systemically through the lens of patterns that are at play.

Dialogue require time.

Sometimes you have to go slowly to go quickly

Can you give a concrete example of what dialogue would look like in a change process between people?

[09:35] Facilipilation is an example of how dialogue does not happen. i.e. when the leaders have a predetermined direction and facilitate in the name of collaboration, workshops, that is actually manipulation. It’s never deliberate, but it’s that piece that says, if I’m the leader, so what extent am I really clear in my mind about what is open for invention and what is not.

For real dialogue to happen you have to be very honest and self-aware about your own intensions. That’s when you can create a safe space for people to dialogue. That is genuinely a space in which people can say whatever they need and it's a space in which everyone in the room is absolutely authentically curious about what everybody else thinks.

So, dialogue is about listening and seeking to really understand the other person and what it is they’re saying and it’s that feeling free to say that thing that needs to be said because I know when I say others are going to listen to me. You know, if we’re in a space where we don’t feel we’re going to be listened to, most of us don’t bother saying anything.

Why is Dialogue so important?

[14:13] The more complex the organization the more important is the role of dialogue.

It’s a fallacy nowadays that as the leader of an organization, I know everything that’s happening in my organization and the traditional strategy has been to rely on data.

Data won’t tell you everything you need to know about the experience of people in customer services to product division.

What is one advice you’d like to give leaders to support change through dialogue?

[15:16]

Go talk to people and genuinely listen. Listen, without an agenda, listen solely to understand.
Have the courage to say what needs to be said respectfully.
As a leader of an organization, look at what’s happening through that lens of dialogue, who needs to be talking to who, who is talking to who and how much of that is dialogue.

The fundamental driver of dialogue is curiosity.

Paul Laurence would love to connect and share loads of readings material, references and stories for those interested, so do connect!

#14 Mental Health with James Routledge

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 02:00:00 +0100

What is mental health?

It’s your state of being; not just your state of well-being. Your emotions, feelings, thoughts, and identity are all wrapped up in mental health.

People’s perceived definition of mental health is that it just means mental illness or mental health issues, and I don’t believe that’s the case. Mental health is all-encompassing the full range of mental health, just like physical health isn’t about disease and illness, it’s about fitness and strength.

There is a stigma in talking about Mental Health at work, what challenges do you face when talking about mental health in organizations?

A healthy, functional workplace isn’t created by oversharing. However, trust in functional teams is created by a certain level of vulnerability.

What made you personally interested in this space?

Eventually, the business shut down. He felt lost, and this was when he was hit by all the feelings that he had suppressed for a long time.

Eventually, James ended up coming out about his anxiety. He wrote a blog post and shared it with the world. This was the start of a period of change and transformation. It gave birth to Sanctus.

What has been the highest point for you at Sanctus and having mental health conversations in organizations?

The highlight is seeing the change in the perception of mental health. I feel like we’re at the forefront of that and we’re one of the protagonists leading it.

Can you give an example of what mental health conversations brings to people at work?

The value to the business is creating an environment where people feel like they can be their whole self. Then, they will feel:

Like they belong
That they want to work
Cared for
Less likely to leave
Motivated
More trust and connections within teams

One of the biggest challenges I’ve seen with my customers is that “We don’t have any time.” How have you managed to get around that?

What’s one TIP that people can implement to feel healthier and have more healthy conversations?

The best advice is to start where you are. Just follow your intuition. That’s quite vague, but three practical things that people can do are:

Have an open conversation with someone about your mental health
Meditating – it’s a way to raise your own awareness of how you feel.
Journaling – taking the time to connect with your thoughts and feelings by writing them down.

Every single one of us has mental health, and that is the perception that needs to change.

#13 What is Vitality in organisations with Liberto Pereda

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 02:00:00 +0100

Liberto Pereda has been the managing director in several big organizations. He has lead international teams successfully and recently made the shift in his carrier to bring collective effectiveness to all teams.

In simplicity lies the answers to all complexity and with that theme Liberto gives simple answers to bring vitality at work

What is Vitality in organizations?

Vitality is the capacity to have a meaningful and purposeful existence, of self and organisations.

In the complex world we cannot just depend on data and plans, we need to sense of what’s happening around us, in our markets and respond effectively in order to survive. Therefore, everyone in the organisation needs to feel vital to respond to complexity.
Profitability, the way people hold conversations, the way behave are some ways to identify the level of vitality in organisations.

However, if we look into the last hundred years, we see that we have been asked to be profitable in a hard way, in a very focused way. And that has in instances resulted in low vitality.

Why is Vitality important?

We need to move from organisational development to human development because humans develop organizations.

In order to develop our organisations, we need to focus on the development of people who make up part of the organisation. As Robert Kegan speaks in one of his books, creating organisations that are deliberately developmental helps people grow, change and improve and eventually help organisations thrive.

When organisations exist to develop humans and the human race, we come together to deliver a higher purpose through real cooperation and authentic relationships.

What does low vitality look like in a team?

Whenever there are conversations of US vs THEM in the organisation, it is a clear indicator of low vitality.

Whenever the profitability is down, despite chasing the markets for a while, or when performance over time has been flat, delivery, maybe between 2%-5%. 

The bottom line is holding the same results over a period of time, is most likely an indicator of low vitality and a lack of creativity in the company. So profitability can also be an indicator of low vitality.

What’s your secret to bringing more vitality in organizations?

[11:16] The answer is quite simple.

Listening to people. Gathering your people, having a conversation, listening to the questions people don’t bring to the main stream conversation.
Engage with people in the front line of business because they know what’s going on, they know the challenges and they may even have solutions and ideas on how to overcome challenges.

I realised in my role as a Managing Director I actually didn’t need to have all the answers. That’s a belief that was really limiting me.

What challenges do leaders face to engage in a real dialogue?

[13:35]

Leaders need to unlearn:

The belief that I have the right to speak first
The belief that I need to always be right and always have the right answers
The believe that I have to make the final decision
The belief that I need to control everything

That’s impossible for a human being and this is very limiting.

Leaders need to:

Develop others
Hold the purpose and vision of the organisation
Connect the organisation with the entire ecosystem
Keep questioning themselves, keep challenging status quo.
Be authentic and act with integrity

How can leaders engage in dialogue?

[16:24]

Before starting a meeting, take a minute of silence and don’t jump into the meeting. Allow people to check in and share how they feel. Especially when agenda’s are full, stress levels are high and many things need to get done. We need to create a space for what matters most.
Reconnect your purpose. Ask yourself the question repetitively: What am I doing this for?

Statistics shows that in the next 40 years we are going to spend about 10 years in front of a screen. What if we removed some of that time to sit with people, real people, actual meetings, face to face, where we can have conversations connecting with what matters most to us.

Can you give one TIP that brings more vitality at work?

[19:49]

Enter the office with an intension to LISTEN and OBSERVE
Think about how people FEEL in any given moment
Sit with your team and have a conversation about trust

Liberto believes that children have a lot of teach us, so whenever you face a challenge, step into the perspective of the grandfather or grandmother and ask yourself, what would a grandfather or grandmother do in this situation?

Then you will realise that it’s not about you or me and and that it is about about all of us being well.

#12 Immunity to Change with Lisa Lahey

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 02:00:00 +0100

Lisa Lahey, faculty of Harvard Graduate School and associate director of Change Leadership Group at Harvard talks about her book Immunity to change.

What is Immunity to Change?

Immunity is when there’s a part of us that wants to move in one direction e.g. towards an important goal and at the exact same time there is a part of us that is unconsciously driven to actually accomplish a goal that is in tension with the very important goal we want to accomplish.

If you don’t see your IMMUNITY you will continue to be stuck.

So what you have is a version of a foot on the gas pedal and a foot on the brake at the exact same time. Lots of energy going on in that system. Basically maintaining the status quo. That’s an immunity to change.

The good news is Immunities can be overcome.

Example: A person who wants to delegate better will have one foot on the gas and at the exact same time the person may have a commitment to, for example, not losing status or no longer being the “go to” person or not being the person to accomplish the goal. So it’s a perfect example of somebody who wants to definitely make headway by being a better delegator and at the exact same time not wanting to give up the self protection mechanisms that basically allows the person to feel good in their work setting.

How do teams develop immunity to change?

Teams have immunity just like individuals. You can have a highly motivated team wanting to shift how they are acting and despite their best intension it’s basically not shifting in any consistent and reliable way.

Example: One of the most common ones that teams face is to be able to be more collaborative and the energy on the brake is the team wanting to preserve all the goodies that come from operating in silos. On one hand, it’s the organisation’s best interest if the team can collaborate more and on the other hand, people are protecting what they already have, i.e. the goodies that come from them getting a high profile from their individual performances.

So those are in tension with each other and if people don’t see what’s going on, they will continue to put a lot of energy into trying to make the changes with technical adaptations that won’t really be able to stick.

The change we’re asking one another to make is actually not so straightforward. Will power and motivation are not enough.

The biggest lesson to me in all of the work that I’ve done over these years, is people often underestimate how much energy is unconsciously put into keeping things at status quo. Change is actually very challenging, especially when it involves losses of some sort, losses of the ways we’d like to see ourselves in our work setting.

Making an Immunity map of your team is important for teams to discover their immunity and bring them out in the open and discuss the un-discussable so they can see there is a way to move forward.

What happens when teams are challenged to change AND they don’t see there is an underlying IMMUNITY?

We get into very difficult self talk with ourselves like,

Oh, I’m a loser. I can’t do this.
We make attributions about others like – We can’t really count on them OR They didn’t mean it when they said they were going to do X….

Harsh judgements come from our misunderstanding about the dynamics of change. Change takes time because we’re disassembling the ways we protect ourselves. That’s a really hard thing to do. So that’s why they are so precious to us and, and we need to take care.

What challenges do organizations face when they are going through transformations?

Change has many different dimensions to it and all too often we tend to go to the easiest solution set. i.e. we move to technical solutions. While the technical dimension is very important, an adaptive timeline (look at Podcast on Adaptive Processes), is needed for people to discover their immunities, and make the mindset shift.

You can have a 3hr workshop on how to delegate and if teams don’t have an adaptive timeline to look at how people are afraid of losing their credibility if they delegate, organisations will end up spending a lot of energy on the brake.

I think one of the biggest errors that organisations make is just not making enough room for genuinely the human dimension of loss that is involved in change work.

What kind of room is required for organizations to pay more attention to the human dimension?

One change is for people to literally have more TIME
Pay more attention to the ADAPTIVE DIMENSION
Expand opportunities to do that inner work in real time on a ONGOING basis

How hard is it for people to share their development goals?

It can be hard for a manager, for example, to tell his team he’s working on being more transparent, and to share his belief that he’s going to damage relationships if he is honest. If we have a organization that has signed up for a strategy to be deliberately developmental then everyone is there to develop themselves and to keep developing others. Then every single person will know what others are working on.

PRACTICAL ADVICE: Leave time at the end of a meeting to do a different kind review.

How did this meeting go?
Did we accomplish what we set out to?
Where we did not accomplish it?
What contributed to that?
What was each one of our individual contributions to that?

Change is hard.The better we understand that it is hard for very good reasons and we understand those resons and we can embrase those reasons and really create conditions for people to take on that deeper level of change. We will all be feeling more alive ourselves and collectively and we are better able to deliver things we devote our lives to when we grow in these ways.

Deepa learnt about Immunity to Change with Lisa Lahey at Minds at Work in their fantastic 4 day program.

Lisa Lahey can be reached at: Minds at work

#11 Systemic Approach by Alain Cardon

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 02:00:00 +0100

Leaders in different organizations, schools, families and in the community at large encounter complex situations and so it is vital for leaders to understand patterns at work to make viral change.

In this episode Alan Cardon, shares his insights on what systemic approach means.

Here are the main points:

Systemic approach to change patterns enhances management efficiency rapidly
If you want change in organizations, you need to start locally
A successful change starts from the grassroots

What Is Systemic Approach Coaching?

Systemic Approach is the recognition of patterns and reproduction of new behavioral patterns to yield better results in large complex systems. Patterns enable one to understand how situations are handled and give us information on how challenging situations can be addressed in the future.

Look at the things in a holistic way to see what fractals repeat and make choices on how to evolve fractals. It is a less linear, less segmenting, with fewer expert orientation than what has been done in the past.

[4:34] "] Listen to the example Alain provides about patterns in organizations.

To make a viral change you need to start changing patterns locally. The real question is what kind of viral approach we can have that will spread throughout the organization in the shortest possible time. Catch patterns, extrapolate and see how you can inoculate viral change.To spread a systemic change, you can’t do something that has worked elsewhere, it won’t work. Look at patterns that most impact your organization.

How would you scale up Systemic Approach especially when strategy needs to be rolled out in the organization?

This can be done by working with the top 90 members of the organization in an offsite. This is where you can introduce patterns and disrupt patterns of how people behave and interact with each other. This has to be done repeatedly to get the new patterns registered in people’s minds, so they start to get a hold of it and see advantages of new ways of working. If you can change the top 90 in the organization that’s about 10 teams that manage other teams, you are massively inoculating a kind of virus that will spread down.

Sometimes, it’s best not to start from the top where its most resistant.

What challenges do people face in organizations when they are trying to make changes?

People don’t understand when they are told to behave as partners who have ownership and then in the very next sentence, they are told top-down. Discrepancy in the double language in centralized control systems is one of the biggest reasons for resistance to change.

The resistance is not to the quality of the change but to the way the change is pushed.

When people’s opinions and ideas are included then they are more likely to embrace the change.

What is ONE advice you would give organizations who are making big transformations?

Nice talks and roll outs are basically push downs where top management wants to be applauded for their intelligent ideas, this won’t work.

People applaud to new ideas and show business will not lead to cultural transformation.

For cultural transformation, start with small steps from the bottom, where people know exactly what’s going on. Real transformation needs to be grassroots with a vision.

What is ONE vitamin that will help Viral Solutions spread?

[20:17] "] Change management is looking at all the processes like decision making, information flow, etc. Centrally driven change won’t work. Examine local patterns in different processes, find local solutions, experiment, measure the results and communicate the results with everyone!

Change that brings excellent results excites people.

#10 Conscious Leadership by Bob Anderson

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 02:00:00 +0100

What is conscious leadership? How can one build a more conscious style of leadership? Bob Anderson a true pioneer in the field of leadership development and research answers some of these questions.

What is Conscious Leadership?

Conscious leadership is only a matter of degree. Someone we call unconscious is operating at an early level of consciousness or a less mature level of consciousness. We are all conscious and the question is to what degree.

Bob has been researching for the last 20 years the intersection between the inner maturity and how that translates into leadership effectiveness. He mentions there are three levels of leadership:

Reactive level
Creative level
Integral level

80% of leaders are running at Reactive Levels of Leadership!

A reactive leader operates from a mental conditioning formed by believes and assumptions that we accumulated in our early days. We have been doing it our whole lives; so, it is automatic.

The reactive style of leadership only gets us so far and they are outmatched by the complexities of challenges we face in adult life: families, marriages, leadership, and so on, that we need do to work to upgrade our operating system from reactive to creative. This is significant work!

This move from reactive to creative is what psychologist Dr. Robert Kegan from Harvard calls Self-Authoring i.e. we move from being authored by others to authored by self.

“In Creative Leadership we are less focused on all the messages of how I am supposed to be from how past and current environment and much more focused on creating a vision that I believe in and create an organization that matters with outcomes worthy of our deepest commitments”

What is the main difference between the reactive style and creative leadership style?

Listen to the podcast where Bob shares his own story about a conflict he had with his partner while writing the book “Scaling Leadership”.

In the reactive style, when you are less conscious your automatic patterns reach limits and you hit against a wall.

Self-authoring perspective is: 

How do I embody a vision of myself asa leader?

How do I embody the kind of culture we are trying to create?

How do I embody the relationships I want?

How do you move from the reactive to the creative level?

Identify what is the one thing that will take me / my organization to the next level. Take steps to redesign the way you are working. Holding questions like:

What is the vision?
How am I operating?
How do I want to show up?
How do I interrupt the vision and cancel myself out?

Holding all these will help you move from reactive to creative.

People can serve as your mirror. Their views about you are more precise than you see yourself. While getting feedback from people ensure that is a constructive one.

You bring the weather as a leader into the team, into the organization, and what is happening around you is a reflection of you.

There is a powerful poem by a Zen master:

The hand moves, and the fire’s whirling takes different shapes,
The hand moves, and the fire’s whirling takes different shapes,
All things change when we do.

It’s a universal principle – Start with yourself and take responsibility for the development effort, then the culture will shift.

What are the things one should watch out for when moving from reactive to creative style of leadership?

As leaders’ step into higher leadership positions

You cannot not be in over your head

As organizations decide to grow 2x times, you put yourself in a development gap and that’s normal for everyone:

You cannot not be in a gap.

How do you see the difference between Creative and Integral Leadership?

Time scales expand:

Reactive is weeks to months, fighting fire, short term problem fix
Creative is 10 -15 years, long term vision and strategy, self–authored vision and strategy
Integral is decades if not centuries.

How can one move from creative to integral?

Only 5 % of leaders are operating here. The 1st step is to upgrade to Creative Leadership before moving to Integral.

All things change with the leader. All things about an organization change when you as a leader change. Be the change that you want to see in the world, because all things change when we do.

Want to know more how you can scale your leadership, reach out to Bob or write to us!

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#9 The Impact of Stress in business with Steve Mitten

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 29 Oct 2018 02:00:00 +0100

What is stress? How does the stress level impact our businesses? When do you need to get proactive to keep stress levels at bay? What can you practically do to reduce stress?

Steve Mitten is a Master Certified Coach with years of experience in coaching business owners talks on MeetMyPotential.

There is a general feeling that a little bit of stress is good for you and there is strong scientific data to back that up. And according to medical surveys and documentation, the stress level is on the increase. This is mostly experienced and talked everyone at the workplace. Stress impacts work and relationships and one needs to proactively take steps to deal with this.

Here are some key notes that I deduced from the conversation.

If one neglects to recognize increased stress levels and take measures to minimize and manage, it can have an impact on:

Your relationship with your co-workers/employees/employer
Your Health
Your level of Intuition
Your Creativity
And finally, you get locked in circular thinking

When does one start to get proactive and stop denying the effects of stress?

If you do not deal proactively with your stress it is going to deal with you.

When you are busy running around, making plans and channeling efforts into your business and leading a family you are so close to the forest and you certainly don't see the trees and you get stuck in the boiling frog syndrome where everyday the water temperature increases and you find yourself getting boiled alive.

People usually do not realize the drastic effect the stress level is having on them until people point it out to them. The normal reaction is to keep on working and working even harder.

When the stress level increases, the stress hormone, Cortisol, increases and turns on the sympathetic nervous system. When you get older the body takes longer to process and it degenerates our productivity.

The problem is when something is not working people saw harder and harder instead what's needed is to STOP and SHARPEN the saw.

Worrying breathes air into stress accumulation

One of the contributing factors of increasing stress levels amongst business owners is to worry about the past and future. Most dwell in thoughts and regrets about the past and worries about the future. This goes further to stress accumulation in the body and the accompanying side effects.

How can one proactively reduce stress?

The good news is it doesn't take too much time to stop and dedicate 10 minute twice a day to any activity off forward thinking, working thoughts and focus on what's happening NOW and this will turn on the relaxation system in the body.

Here are few things you can do:

Go outside and pay attention to the nature
Take your dog for the way
Enjoy music or a cup of coffee
Meditation / yoga
Dancing
Walk around the office block

Most High Achievers have a lot of energy and for them its easier to do activities like running, yoga and Tai Chi, i.e. any activity that focus on the body rather than sitting and meditating.

Put your attention on your body, breadth and redirect your attention to whats here and now. When your mind's attention goes to planning or worrying just keep coming back to the present, its okay if thoughts come.

There are many practices - Try and see what works for you for 10min twice a day. Your energy and interpersonal skill set increases over time with practice.

How do you go from a state of I know this is good for me to doing something?

Unless there is 4/5 level of interest or motivation don't bother. The first step is to do whatever is needed to get interested or fired up. So picture a better life, for instance: what would it look like if you could sleep at night without waking up, what if you could go home earlier from work, what if you are more creative in problem solving.

Get a vision that is meaningful for you that you are prepare to work on and get company to work with you.

#8 Managing Brilliant Jerks with Katrina Burrus

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 02:00:00 +0100

In this podcast, Katrina Burrus explains: Who is a Brilliant Jerk? What are their destructive behaviours? How does it impact people, teams and organisations? What can you do if you report to a Brilliant Jerk?

Who’s a Brilliant Jerks?

A Brilliant Jerk is motivated to having outstanding results and is interpersonally blind. Take the metaphor of driving a car, a Brilliant Jerks has a very clear 2020 vision along with blind spots of their interpersonal behaviour which are very destructive. They are people who are very brilliant, sharp and they bring valuable competence to the organization.

What is the cost of such managers?

Individual level: People get less creative as they start reacting to the Brilliant Jerk’s mood instead of what’s best for the company as they are scared of their outburst. So, they become wary of what problems they can share with this manager based on the mood of the day. So as leaders brilliant jerks don’t know there is a problem before there is a crisis.

Team level: Especially junior people don’t dare to share new ideas as they are afraid to be humiliated, so ideas don’t surface in a team. Katrina has seen managers who bang on the table and say “They are not bringing any ideas”. Brilliant Jerks don’t realise that being aggressive is not going to help others express themselves to share ideas or problems.

Organizational Level: Often there is a higher turnover. Especially talented people who are not well utilised by such managers leave as they can be ostracized because the Brilliant Jerk see him/her as a competitor. So talented people who are unable to bring out their talent leave. Some others who are aggressed fall sick and there are absenteeism.

What are some behaviors of the Brilliant Jerk?

In the podcast Katrina shares very interesting scenarios and examples, do listen to them at [4:25] seconds.

In her 1^st example the Brilliant Manager made humiliating remarks and made others feel insignificant.
In the 2^ndexample the Manager was Micro Managing to the extent that it removed any kind of motivation and interest from the person to do a productive job.
In the 3^rdexample, the Manager humiliates other people in the meeting in front of the big leader to stand out as status is important.

They have a strong drive to perform and be recognized. Competence and Status are very important to them.

They cause stress to people.

The difference between misbehavior and a Brilliant Jerk is that their behavior is repetitive, over and over again and its not linear.

They can be absolutely charming with clients to get what they want and then all of a sudden they can did, dig and dig and this causes confusion.

The question to really ask oneself is – How to you feel after the interaction?

What is the difference between a Brilliant Jerks and a Demanding manager?

When such managers feel that the other person hasn’t done the best they can or has not done well; they attack the person. In comparison to the animal world of  flight, fight or freeze reaction, the Brilliant Jerk's preferred reaction is the Fight strategy.

Because they are afraid that it will show badly in their results!

On the contrary the Demanding Manager analyses why the person is not performing. They analyse the performance – they check if it is a problem of motivation or skillset.

A Brilliant Manager attacks!

A Demanding Manager analyses!

A Demanding Manager demonstrates empathy and sees why the other person didn’t succeed. They provide support and mentoring and look for the success of the other.

How do you manage a Brilliant Jerk?

Animals see other animals as predator or prey. With a Brilliant Jerk you don’t want to be seen as a predator as they will get the fighting mode out. You don’t want to be perceived as a prey because they will start playing with you or attacking you. It’s a fine line.

Sometime you need to confront them and say: “Look I see you are not in the right mood to have this discussion I’ll come back at a later day.”

What’s important is not to be perceived as a prey. Come in as an equal.

If your customer is Brilliant Jerk, they need to be reassured that they are great, but don’t become prey. Don’t be frightened by them as they like to feel power over a person.

If your boss is Brilliant Jerk, you’ve got to be careful. Because it's like poison, if the poison stays at the top of your skin it's ok, if it starts to get into your system its going to make you weaker and weaker and weaker.

Stand up and try different strategies and if its really getting to you and affecting you physically, you get a specialist in the case or get out of the place.

Want further support – get in touch or read managing Brilliant Jerk – How organisations and coaches can transform Difficult Leaders into powerful Visionaries

#7 When Does Hard Work Not Work with Ben Dooley

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 02:00:00 +0100

How do we ensure that hard work is paying off in our lives? What impact will you make as a leader of a team to make sure that objectives are realized?

In this episode, we will be dissecting on the topic “When does hard work not work” with Ben Dooley. Ben is an amazing life coach.

Business vector created by Freepik

When Does Hard Work Not Work?

In life, more often than not, we reach the point where we find ourselves doing so much work and yet the desired outcome seems to continually elude us. And yet, there are some easy and practical ways of discovering when we are not making progress while working hard.

Hard work is not working when we are putting in so much effort and it feels as if things are not moving or you’re not getting the results you want.

When that happens, we often keep on doing what we’re doing and hope that something magically will change. This is not the best approach to take to ensure that our hard work yields a satisfying and accomplishing fruit.

We need to have a clear-cut and well-defined goal and pathway to how we are going to achieve it. Sometimes we may have a realistic goal but are unclear as to how we are going to achieve it.

Signs that show that Hard Work is NOT Working

The stress levels that we are subjected to when our hard work is not paying off keep us in survival, making us ignore the symptoms of hard work without fruition.
When we are in a survival mode, we are thrown into the panic state and every other thing becomes irrelevant. Our ability to become creative and notice whats not working becomes weak and our hard work goes unnoticed.

We can respond to situations by working from a calm state looking at the different layers of our needs. When you are in the state of fear, you cannot see this; you will end up doing the wrong things and hit the cul-de-sac trying to survive.

If we can get clear of our fears, then we are aware of values that are being compromised and that may give us a choice of how we want to respond.

In a team, every member has to come together, put on their thinking caps and conjure a strategy to make their hard work yield results. The blame games should be disposed and every member engaged and brought on board to the ideas and strategy. Every effort of the team players should be recognised and acknowledged. This is regardless of their attitude. The positive sides should be looked at and this is not possible when we are in the survival mode.

In Organisations How Should People Move Out Of the Survival Zone into Creating a Team Spirit?

The team members can come together and make agreements on how to handle conflicts and disagreements as a team and not as combatants. These agreements creates a spirit of love and trust in the organization and increases productivity. Every team should have team agreements.

We should not live our lives out of fear. We should live getting creative and enhancing the society and ourselves.

Create values, strategies and agreeements to make your hard work pay you.

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#6 How to Build a Co-constructed Conversation with Matthew Hill

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 08 Oct 2018 02:00:00 +0100

How can we enhance our conversational skill and relate better with other people? In this podcast of Meet My Potential, we will be discussing and provide deep insights into how to build a co-constructed conversation with Matthew Hill. Matthew is a renowned global coach, author, and public speaker. He talks on the benefits of a co-constructed, conversation and how to develop it.

What is a Co-constructed Conversation?

Co-constructed conversation according to Matthew takes three forms, namely;

This can be described as the identification of one’s preferences during a conversation.
During co-constructed conversations, parties involved attempt to identify with factors that they have long been associated with.
These values have been formed consciously and subconsciously over the years, right from infancy to the present stage.

Co-constructed conversation starts from knowing more about the other person.

Co-constructed conversation starts with who are you, who am I, where do we come from?

These values predict your actions, feelings, and behavior. When two different people meet for the first time, they look towards identifying their self-perception in the other. Mr. A may look to see if Mr. B looks like any of the people, he knows. It is about comparing our new encounter with what we already know and experience. Should I trust or should I not trust? Should I trust or should I not trust? It is about conscious and subconscious bias.

Through a million conversations and observations, conscious and unconscious we form mind values, preferences, the bias, the predilection, and we can actually predict your feelings, actions and behaviours.

Can Co-constructed Conversation Go Wrong? How?

Yes, this method of conversation can go wrong. Co-constructed conversation makes people leap into conclusion based on experiences latched onto their memory. It makes one dwell in the past experience while analyzing the present situation. This makes one to wrongly describe and conclude on the nature of the new event.

How Can One Make the Dream Come True?

One can start to build co-constructed conversation by not judging the other based on the conscious and subconscious bias. The KLT (knowing, Liking and Trusting) three pathway of finding real-time information about the other person can be used. Start from scratch to find out their stories.
How can I find out about their values? You can through listening and absorbing what describes them. Many people are engrossed with the values that they have acquired over the years that they fail to listen to the other person to absorb what makes them.
You can only learn about the other person if you actively listen to their stories. You can only know, like and trust them if you give them an undivided attention rather than jumping into conclusion based on your conscious and subconscious values.
Repeat their last word with a rising intonation. This will give them a feeling that you have been paying attention and they will speak more.
Ask them to speak more using paraphrase such as “please do speak more” and they will speak more.
Be curious, kind and loving with them and most especially, give them the room to open up themselves and you will know more about them.

Takeaway

People's actions are tied to their acquired values. Everything that they do is because of one value or the other that they believe in.

You can show empathy and respect their decisions if you should have this in the back of your mind. With empathy, the strongest communication, and learning tool, you will make progress in co-constructed conversation.

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#5 Adaptive Processes with Jolanda de Ridder

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 02:30:00 +0100

Our guest on this episode of the MeetMyPotential podcast is Jolanda de Ridder, a specialist and practitioner in the area of guiding people through organizational change.

Adaptive processes relate to changes in peoples behaviour that arises due to a technical change in the organization. For every technical change timeline there needs to be a timeline for adaptive processess that address behavioural change.

How are adaptive processes different than technical processes?

While technical processes follow established know-hows, procedures and timeframes under the constraints of the organization’s budget to reach specific goals. Technical processes solve technical problems. Adaptive processes are about the behavior of the people on the technical process. Adaptive processes lack structure and require the leader to be very engaged. Adaptive processes are crucial to the healthy functioning of the accompanying technical process, but they are often overlooked or postponed because of perceived time and budget constraints.

However, when organizations underestimate the guidance of behavioral change during a technical change process, they face what is called an Adaptive Challenge.

Adaptive Challenge is the gap between the behavior of the people of the old way of working to what is expected in the new situation of change.

Experience has shown that addressing these adaptive behavioral shifts during the time of the technical process shift is more effective and less costly than addressing these issues after the full implementation of the technical process, so it is counterproductive to wait too long.

An adaptive process follows a path of experimental learning. With every step of the technical process, the behavior of people is guided by the adaptive leader.

What does it look like to be an adaptive leader?

The implementation and practice of adaptive leadership is the only way that adaptive processes will be successful. An adaptive leader must be open and willing to experiment, understand the values of the organization and be able to mentor and coach their employees and colleagues, and know how to motivate those around them to change behaviors.

The keys to successfully maneuvering adaptive processes are:

Be open, able to manage and mentor people
Be an adaptive leader to guide your people
Allocate time and budget

Get proactive to envision the adaptive changes and challenges in the project from Day 1. Otherwise it is going to catch up with a huge budget later on.

What are benefits of adaptive leadership?

By employing adaptive leadership through adaptive processes, you avoid the unnecessary additional expenditures of having to start the process after the conclusion of the technical process. Also, the leader is able to establish personal and organizational vision and mission, which allows them to motivate the workers to succeed and alter their behavior as needed. A motivated and successful workforce will lead to a thriving and successful organization, which increases shareholder value, exceptional customer service, and high workforce morale, leading to positive social and environmental impacts.

What is Jolanda’s tip for us?

The successful and effective adaptive leader takes a step back to assess questions such as:

What was your roles?
What were other roles?
How did you interact with each other?
What was your goal? Did you reach it? Why or why not?
Are there things you want to change now for next time?
What is your gap between your current situation and the necessary change?
How do my changes fit in with the organization’s?

Jolanda highly recommends the book “The Practice of Adaptive Leadership” by Ronald Heifetz for those interested in further information.

#4 Aerodynamic Leadership with Dani Poch

Deepa Natarajan — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 01:30:00 +0100

In this episode of the Meet My Potential podcast, we are joined by Dani Poch Managing Director of AddVenture and a faculty at the Coaches Training Institute to discuss aerodynamic leadership. He shares with us his input based on his experience and that of his clients, providing us with valuable perspective in our professional and personal lives. Being an aerodynamic leader expands from individual impact to affecting everyone the leader comes in contact with, improving the overall well-being of their world.

Here’s a summary of the episode. Listen to the entire podcast at:

What does “aerodynamic leadership” mean?

Being an aerodynamic leader means managing your energy, being agile, passionately serving others, and genuinely enjoying the opportunity to lead.

When you are experiencing these feelings as a leader, you likely feel very light and empowered, easily handling any challenges that come your way and recovering when things might not go your way. This also means that you are leading from the lightness within you and are self-aware, managing your emotions to avoid being visibly angry or frustrated despite the circumstances.

How can we make daily choices to be aerodynamic?

5 Practices of an Aerodynamic Leader

Show passion in what you do by connecting to your true longings. Bring a sense of easiness, lightness and playfulnessin what you do, this is very critical in today’s environment.
Make choices based on what brings aliveness to you and others.
See yourself as providerse. Ask yourself the question: What is the contribution I need to do to create a better life for me and others?
Manage your emotions:That’s why leadership is very connected to mindfulness. Put your energy where needed and don’t get trapped negative feelings, anger or frustration that we can experience at work.
Recover Fast:by bring compassionate with yourself. Forgive yourself and forgive others.

Every day, an aerodynamic leader will spend some time in a mindfulness practice to remain self-aware and connected to their true values, focusing on the present moment. All of your choices will then be based on what will keep you in line with your true values, no matter what happens that might try to derail you.

Leaders are great in serving others and what they need more is to create space for themselves. Journaling is an important practice that gives you feedback and helps you to reflect. Journaling about your experience, where you succeed, where you fail creates space for greatness within.

Find your lightness and greatness inside to put it at service of others.

What are potential barriers to being aerodynamic?

It can sometimes be difficult to distinguish how to keep a healthy tension between your purpose or passion and the need for safety, which may lead you to not provide feedback when it is merited or hold back when the opportunity is presented to be vulnerable.

Questions you can ask yourself are:

How am I managing the dilemmas of purpose and safety in my everyday work?
How am I making choices between purpose and safety?

We face these challenges at work and at times at home.

A concrete example from Dani on the challenge’s leaders face.

Sometimes executives find it hard to give feedback to CEO’s when they feel the CEO is not doing the right thing. Giving feedback to the CEO is choosing authenticity and serving in a good way for themselves and for others. Sometimes executives are trapped in the “Move Up” the pyramid and so they choose to comply and not speak about that.

This damages the energy, the relationship and the organization in the long term. Executives usually have a high pressure on their back, their families, their people and it’s not easy to be authentic and open powerful conversations. Executives need to consider what is the cost of not being authentic. How does this impact their level of energy?

This can sometimes be related to fear of being misunderstood or overlooked for a promotion or fear of losing your job because you provided constructive criticism, but you must remember that being clear about your intension and being honest is always more aerodynamic than mincing words or not being authentic.

What is Dani’s tip for listeners?

4 Practices to develop Aerodynamic leader

Discern your purpose and values. Why are you here and what matters to you most? This is needed to resolve the dilemma between purpose and safety.
Use your purpose and values to create a complete and clear vision
Know your fears, shadows, and doubts.
Engage yourself in courageous conversations every week.

Make a list of pending conversations you know you need to have so it is easier to engage in a weekly conversation.

“We create our world together every day.” – CTI

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#3 Dirty Achievers with Jonathan Reams

Deepa Natarajan — Sun, 16 Sep 2018 11:58:00 +0100

Have you ever been a Dirty Achiever? What makes an achiever dirty? How can we come out clean?

In this podcast Jonathan Reams answers some of these and other questions.

What is a Dirty Achiever?

We all like to achieve things. As infants, we learn to control our body, crawl, walk etc., big achievements in our little worlds! This process of learning is driven by trial and error, experimentation and learning, and is linked to neuroscience, how dopamine makes us want to achieve a goal, and when we succeed, we get a rush of opioids that gives us pleasurable feelings. This is a natural brain chemistry cycle, so its natural to want to achieve.

This desire to achieve can get hijacked. For example, underneath our drive for achieving tasks, there can be another kind of drive, which is more of a need, unconsciously attaching itself to the success of our task accomplishment. It might be that somewhere in our childhood, rewards, love, positive parental inputs to our self-esteem and so on became conditional upon achieving certain things, like good grades, sporting achievements, etc.

In our adult work life, this pattern becomes unconscious and automatic. We’re internalizing the need to be in control of the outcomes in order to have self esteem.

This need to control outcomes – to win the contract, to get a promotion, to win the race, etc. controls us and distorts are natural drive to achieve. It makes it dirty. We became our achievements, instead of having them.

A very practical example of a Dirty Achiever

I remember one manager who always needed his team’s success to be about him. It is need for personal recognition to be seen as the one who made it happen. It was based on a deeper need, where he believed that he was not ok as a person if it was not his idea, his inspiration to the team, his ability to motivate the team that drove the achievement.

He described his inner world as having a bunch of flies buzzing around in his head so that he actually could not see what was going on outside of him and around him. Each fly was a feeling or thought that came in and distracted his attention.

There were flies like:

I good enough?

Will I come out looking good to the boss?

Who else might get recognition for this idea?

If I don’t win, I’ll be a loser.

This left little time for seeing the needs of his team members clearly. It also created an underlying anxiety that just made him push harder, and be more and more driven to achieve.

What is the impact of having Dirty Managers?

It is a big enough problem for ourselves to manage us and all these distractions. What is really hard for these dirty achievers, is to see the impact they have on others.

Because they are too occupied with all these flies distracting their attention. What they see is justifications for their opinions about others.

For example, with this manager, he was annoyed by his team members because they seemed to ignore his requests for action, didn’t take responsibility for outcomes, they were lying to cover up their incompetence and worst of all for him, didn’t seem to acknowledge his competence. So he interpreted their behaviors and formed the opinion that his team was useless, ignorant, incompetent cowards. And because he held these opinions about his team members, he would document everything they did or didn’t do, take his concerns to his boss or anyone else who would listen to him whine about his team.

Now, how do you think his team members interpreted his actions? They saw him as over dramatizing everything, nagging them too much and wasting their time, and that he was arrogant. Now each of these incidents might be very small, not enough in itself to be worth taking action on or even really being annoyed by. But each instance left a little mark, or put a stamp in their stamp collection book about this manager. And over time, this would accumulate a history of resentment towards this manager. And from that accumulated resentment, they would find themselves unwilling to take action on his requests, or take responsibility for outcomes and certainly filtered out any of their manager’s actual competences, preferring instead to focus on his shortcomings to reinforce the opinion they had now built up about him.

Achievement, or productivity was only coming at higher and higher costs to trust, motivation and goodwill.

What are some typical challenges that these managers face?

Learning to manage your own inner world is the first and most important challenge.

What is feeding those flies? What is their source of energy?

We all have blind spots. We all dont see the log in our own eye. Instead we try to take the splinter out of somebody else.

Instead we try to take the splinter out of somebody else.

The challenge for these type of managers is that they can’t see the source of all these distractions buzzing around in their head. They believe they are seeing those things in others, when really it is in themselves. This is called self-deception, and it affects all of us to one degree or another in some aspect of our life.

What is one TIP that will help Dirty Achievers become Clean achievers?

One thing to do is something called ‘humble inquiry,’which is where you actually make use of your ignorance about the source of this self-deception and humbly ask others to help you see what you can’t see yourself.

A simple way you can do is to notice when you have a strong opinion about something. Ask a colleague, especially one who sees things different than you do, but who has your best interest at heart, if they have another perspective on your opinion. Then listen to them without interrupting! Notice not only what they say, but also what automatic judgments come up in you as they talk. Do your best to put those judgments to one side.

If you do this in a genuine way, you will find that you gain some perspective on your opinions and end up with more options to consider using in making judgments and taking actions. You might even find that you can ‘clean up’ some opinions that had gotten ‘dirty,’ and see your team a bit clearer.

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#2 Leaders take responsibility for their world with Sam House

Deepa Natarajan — Sun, 02 Sep 2018 14:04:00 +0100

In this episode of Meet My Potential, we have an enlightening conversation with Sam House of the Coaches Training Institute about a leader taking responsibility for their world. Different industries may have different opinions about leaders’ areas of responsibility inside and outside their areas of authority, but Sam provides us with a practical way for all industries to think about this topic that can be beneficial across the board. A leader may also feel like they can segment their responsibilities to work responsibilities and family responsibilities, but Sam presents a compelling argument for viewing every single interaction as an opportunity to practice responsibility to all of mankind.

What Is Responsibility? What Isn’t It?

Taking responsibility means owning your part of the effort by co-creating to reach your common goal. On the other hand, neglecting to take responsibility for your world often manifests as finger-pointing or claiming of victimhood by those who have been wronged by others or blaming others for things not going as expected. Not taking responsibility is like blaming others for the state of your experience rather than steping forward and owning your part of the responsibility of your experience.

What would taking responsibility look like?

For instance when one walks through their world, they are more conscious of their thoughts, their way of expression, their actions and ultimately aware that they are having an impact on their world. So one takes a more conscientious approach to the expression of their behaviour. For example it can show up in practical ways like, when you checks out of a grocery store you might engage with the cashier in a way that you see the other person as a humans (someone who has important and valuable contribution) and not as an object.

What Does It Mean to Be Response-Able?

Being response-able means being conscious of others and able to provide a thoughtful response to their thoughts or behaviors. By being aware of the impact leaders and those around them can have on each other, both parties can create an appropriate response based on these ideals of consciousness and thoughtfulness. Engaging with your world in this way removes from you the feeling that you need to control your environment, which can feel burdensome and lead you down a path of overvaluing your own ego at the expense of your view of others.

What Is My “World”?

Sam spoke about a book by Lynne McTaggart entitled “The Field” in which he unpacks the concept that no matter how much quantum physicists study, they cannot understand the aspects of time and space. Simply, this means that everything in the physical world is immediately available and accessible to everyone and the thoughts and actions of leaders can have influences far beyond the “world” that they feel is theirs.

How Do We Differentiate Control from Responsibility?

We must come to understand that we can be responsible for our world while not thinking, acting, or feeling as if we must control it.

By accepting that you are able to control very little of your environment and removing control from your definition of responsibility, you are free to focus on caring and concern rather than feeling the pressure to bring about your desired outcome. In a sense, we are all co-creating the world that we are living in, so our responsibility to ourselves and others is to be self-aware and intentionally recognize others for their contribution to the world. A great way to be in touch with this self-awareness is through prayer or meditation, to be in touch with your true self and understand your ability to reach others.

Relevant links:

Being Fully Responsible but Not in Control

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#1 How hard are you on yourself with Valerie Teller

Deepa Natarajan — Sun, 02 Sep 2018 13:46:00 +0100

In this first episode we have Valerie Teller who switched carriers from being a lawyer to helping people be a fuller version of themselves. Valerie’s unique style is to walk with people in the nature to help them reflect on their life challenges. She talks about how we damage ourselves through the voice of our inner critic.

What is being hard on yourself?

It is the voice of the inner critic that goes on constantly in our head with a certain harshness and this can be quite limiting.

Can you give an example of this voice?

We can replay events in our head reviewing how things went. Reviewing in itself is not a bad thing as we learn from what we do. It is the quality of the review that is sometimes not necessarily kind. Just noticing that the voice of your inner critic is at play is key.

What is the impact of being hard on yourself?

The impact is perhaps feeling horrible about oneself, feeling incompetent or diminished by the voice of the inner critic. The biggest thing about it is that it can be debilitating, as it can send you to a state of being helpless as you can’t change the past.

The worst part of that is that we do this to ourselves. The other impact of the voice of the inner critic is to potentially create shame within ourselves and shame isolates us; as we think something is wrong with us. That’s when the inner critic starts controlling us.

What is ONE advice to get out of the suffering of the inner critic?

The first step is to notice how you speak to yourself, because if you don’t notice how you speak to yourself there is no chance of doing it differently. Otherwise you suffer the impact of the inner critic voice without having any control over it. So, pay attention and notice when the inner critic is at play.

The second stepis to ask yourself the question: If a dear friend who you cared about very much was experiencing what you are going through i.e. your dear friend is replaying the event and feeling horrible, would you treat them like this? Would you speak to them like the voice of your inner critic ?

Be kind to yourself as you don’t deserve the suffering that comes with being hard on yourself!

The third stepis to show yourself the compassion when you are learning by reviewing your past events. Be kind to yourself and know that in that moment being hard on yourself is not what you need.

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0: MeetMyPotential Introduction

Deepa Natarajan — Fri, 31 Aug 2018 13:47:00 +0100

Hello High Achievers,

I’m Deepa Natarajan, and I want to thank you for joining me for the very first episode of MeetMyPotential. The focus of MeetMyPotential are High Achievers. In this episode I’m going to tell you a little about MMP, a little about you and what you can expect from our show.

About me and why I created Meet My Potential

I created MMP because I often asked myself questions like: How do I manage conflicts? How can I live in integrity with my potential? How can I get others to collaborate? How can I make change happen? I went through several self-development courses spending a whole lot of time and money. The courses gave me immense learning and allowed me to create a lifestyle I wanted. Before going through the courses I worked in the IT industry for over a decade. I know the stress, the tensions, the politics and I know you don’t have numerous days to spend on long self-development courses. So, I decided to create podcasts that give insights on leadership, with no commercials, podcasts that are totally FREE, so that that you can get the most valuable leadership tips while you are driving to work, joggin or simply walking your dog.

About the show, format and what you can expect

Episodes are of 2 different styles.

One type of episode are interviews. Where I interview an experienced coach or guru, to share with us key insights on a topic. Each episode is no longer than 20 min.

The format of the interview episodes includes:

A brief description of the topic
The challenge people face with respect to the topic
With a concrete example
One TIP that you can practically implement yourself.
Every episode ends with a message to the audience.

The 2^ndtype of podcasts are podcasts where you will only hear me. I will share with you highly useful leadership topics with concrete examples and actions that you can take to grow yourself with ease.

Frequency: To begin, I will release 3 episodes at launch and then I will release 1 episode per week every Monday.

About you

I created this show for High Achievers. High Achievers because our society often tends to leave a lot on the shoulders of High Achievers. Most high achiever’s I have worked with in coaching sessions have pushed themselves very hard to get things done, be in action and shine. In working with High Achievers we noticed there is an easier way to succeed and one does not have to push themselves so hard.

If you are someone who is focused, likes to grow and lead a faces-paced life, you might have questions like:

How can I move forward with ease ?
How can I make the big shift ?
How can I make the change happen?

Our insights from the podcasts might help you answer some of these questions.

I’d really be happy to happy to have your feedback by sending me an email or simply rate the show on itunes if you like them.

For personal feedback, I’d appreciate if you can send me an email. My email address is: Deepa@MeetMyPotential.com

So if you are ready to get inspired and get ignite your potential – Subscribe to our podcasts.

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