Lessons for Leaders

For November stress awareness week I'm sharing simple and easy top tips to overcome work related stress.  I'm sharing:

• Why you need to put a start and end to your day
• The reason you need to prioritise
• Why you should not take breathing for granted
• The important of making sure you get moving
• The reasons you need to be speaking to people

Whatever your job role, stress is something many of us contend with. I think we can all agree that the last 18 months have brought new stresses to our lives, that certainly weren’t in our job description.  Whether you’re working from home, working hybrid or fully back into the office, this episode will be relevant to you.

With stress awareness week throughout November, organisations are using this as a focus for a boost to wellbeing workshops to support their people, reduce stress and improve performance and raise awareness.

So the good news is that you don’t have to have a stressed out workplace, so helping yourself, or encouraging implementation of these tips will enhance the support you give your people so that they can cope with these challenging times.

Listen in to this episode for top tips on easy ways to overcome work related stress.

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If you want to be increasing your performance so that you’re more resilient in these current times, so that you can focus easily, use tools and techniques to deal with all the current and unknown challenges then make sure that you either drop me an email to [email protected] or head over to my website at http://www.emmalangton.com 

Nicola is a coach and neuroscience expert who helps leaders to ‘find their fire’ and lead with passion.  She joins me to talk about why leading with passion is so important.  We discuss:

• Why passion matters with leaders?
• What is going to help you be passionate outside of work for those energising energies?
• Passion is not necessarily all about work
• How you can make Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs work for you.
• Why Nicola is passionate about people taking real ownership of their diary.

Listen for ways to spot when you’ve lost your passion.

We dive straight into discussions about how we revert to patterns of behaviours and how the brain works to stop us seeing the good things in life and the achievements we have made.

Nicola shares an exercise she does with her clients to help them recognise the wins and reignite the passion within us.

Could you write 50 reasons why you’re great at what you do?  This is something Emma has her clients do. 

Nicola shares her experience of corporate career and how she grew through the years and wanted more in life and ending up struggling with severe anxiety and depression.  It was her learning in neuroscience that really made a difference to her.

Listen in for her explanation of her journey and what helped to bring her where she is today and how she has fallen in love with coaching and what her mission is for the next 10 years.

13.00 Nicola shares why she thinks passion matters for leaders.

15.45 Emma shares her tips for people who feel exhausted and overloaded so that they can get their passion and energy back.

18.00 Hear Nicola’s tips for finding your fire and passion and how you can create your own version of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

21.00 Nicola and Emma talk about boundaries and how important they are and the decisions you can make and how to identify if they are not working for you.

24.00 Listen to ways you can look for clues that show you’re not feeling passion.

Your passion lies in your purpose.

Connect with Nicola on Linked in 

Find Nicola's website HERE

Please do make sure you hit ‘subscribe’ so that don’t miss an episode.  

If you haven’t yet  left a review, please do go and find the little button to leave a review and let me know your thoughts, key take-aways and what you value from the podcast.

Join my corporate leadership and wellbeing newsletter HERE 

If you want to be increasing your performance so that you’re more resilient in these current times, so that you can focus easily, use tools and techniques to deal with all the current and unknown challenges then make sure that you either drop me an email to [email protected] .   Or head over to my website at http://www.emmalangton.com 

This week I'm sharing Why Your Support Network is Essential for Wellbeing

• Why a strong support network will help you through stressful times
• We break it down to look at professional and social networks
• What steps you can take to improve your professional network
• How your social network is also great for boosting your wellbeing
• Why it’s never too soon to cultivate these important relationships.

A strong support network can be essential to help you through the stress of tough times. 

Studies have shown that isolation and loneliness are associated with a greater risk of poor mental health and other health problems.

There can be a number of signs of struggling with wellbeing and these can be found on other episodes in more detail.  As a brief overview this might be:

Tired, exhausted, not sleeping, are possibly commonly known ones.

Worries, anxiety, being tense, irritable, on edge, short tempered.

Difficulty concentrating, struggling to make decisions, being forgetful – these all indicate that your head is full up!

Physical symptoms might be there but not as noticeable as burn out signs.

IBS and gastrointestinal disorders, headaches, problems with immune system and even just getting ill really frequently – more frequently than the next person.

There are a couple of significant areas that you can look at improving your support.

Professional and personal.

Lets take professional first.

These might be support from your boss, a coach, a mentor, your co-workers and also others in your industry.

So how do you improve these areas?

Look at who you have or what support you have in these areas.

What is missing?

What do you need more of?

Then you make a plan to fill those gaps.

Listen in where I explain more about how you can do that.

Friends, family members, co-workers, and can all be potential sources of social connectivity.

You might be wondering – really Emma.  I want to progress professionally what does family and friends have to do with it?

Often these people are your biggest cheerleaders.  Even if they don’t understand your job, or your pressures, explain to them too what support you need from them. 

I share how you can improve your social network and why it's important that you make the effort once in a while to do that.

Finally I share about the benefits of being with people has on your wellbeing so that you can ensure that you get the most from the time spent in your networks.

Please do make sure you hit ‘subscribe’ so that don’t miss an episode.  

If you haven’t yet  left a review, please do go and find the little button to leave a review and let me know your thoughts, key take-aways and what you value from the podcast.

Join my corporate leadership and wellbeing newsletter HERE

If you want to be increasing your performance so that you’re more resilient in these current times, so that you can focus easily, use tools and techniques to deal with all the current and unknown challenges then make sure that you either drop me an email to [email protected] .   Or head over to my website at http://www.emmalangton.com 

This week I'm in conversation with  Jacqui Jagger who is a leadership and mindset coach.

She shares the reasons why she’s passionate about supporting newly promoted managers.

Why we need to ensure these people do not get their confidence knocked, rather than built up

the difference between a people focussed organisation and a performance focussed organisation

What is needed for people who are newly promoted?

The one question Jacqui asks all the people she works with.

Jacqui’s tells us a little about being promoted in her first director role and having the benefit of being supported by a coach.  She shares how she loved to opportunity to lead, how she felt supported and was loving life.  Later she recognised that for a lot of newly promoted leaders the reality can be different if people don’t get the support for what they need.

People who are great at what they do and get promoted can have their confidence knocked (rather than built) because of the expectations of leadership.  All too often they can be knocked off their pedestal and talent is wasted as a result.  For businesses and individuals Jacqui’s passion is to help them understand the practical steps they can take to embrace the leadership and be confident.

Emma talks about her frequently used phrase of “there’s no middle management manual” and that often people get promoted.

What is it that makes Jacqui really passionate about supported newly promoted leaders?

For so many they get promoted relatively young or for a lot of the organisations I work with might be SMEs or founder led so that the person leading the organisation may not have had that support themselves. What that lead to is that they know what they don’t want to be like as a leader.  They don't always start from “what do I want to be like”.  If they don't build those relationships and that network early in their leadership then it can be hard to go back and redo.  It’s much easier if you can get off the blocks running.  Having a role model and being able to ask key questions right at the beginning of their leadership is great.  I love seeing times when people start to make that shift and ask themselves those questions rather than trying to be someone that they’re not.

Emma talks about how leading with authenticity is helpful to ensure there is less stress and anxiety and that we sometimes have pre-conceived ideas of needing to be a certain way as a leader.  She shares a story about the British Army changing the way they lead and that it’s good for businesses everywhere.

Jacqui shares a conversation about the difference between a people focussed organisation and a performance focussed organisation.  The difference is not that they don’t care about performance, it’s that they recognise that performance comes from stretching people and by providing resources and ways of working that don’t add to chronic stress and promoting burn out.  The old model of leadership that looks at results only, promotes a sense of fear that means people end up with a lack of confidence but struggle to put their hand up and say they need some help.

Listen in where we talk about how praise and encouragement is one of the undervalued skills of leadership.   It can often feel soft and fluffy and in Jacqui’s experience, when people are encouragers rather than critics the impact is enormous.  Jacqui shares a story of her brother’s achievement and how big the impact was when he was sent a thank you email from the CEO.

Emma shares experience of recognition schemes in corporate environments and whether that’s about the team and their abilities or the manager who has taken time to use the recognition system and processes in place.  This is where a look at culture across an organisation is needed as well as support for leadership and management.

What is needed for people who are newly promoted?

Jacqui shares one of the things that doesn’t get done is the setting of expectation.

“You can’t beat someone up for failing to meet an expectation that you haven’t set”

So often there’s an assumption that a person understands what is expected of them.  If it’s not tested and checked that that is the source of frustration and disappointment and can stem from thinking you’ve been clear that they know what to expect.

Have I been clear?

Do they feel they have permission to take action or show initiative?

As a leader it’s so important to focus on the important and not get confused with urgent where a timeframe can move.

There’s one question that Jacqui asks all the people she works with:

“What do you want to be remembered for?”  and from that, will come out some of those behaviours and ways of being that will make it possible.

Connect with Jacqui on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqui-jagger/

On her website www.beyondboundariescoaching.co.uk

Please do make sure you hit ‘subscribe’ so that don’t miss an episode.  

If you haven’t yet  left a review, please do go and find the little button to leave a review and let me know your thoughts, key take-aways and what you value from the podcast.

Join my corporate leadership and wellbeing newsletter HERE

If you want to be increasing your performance so that you’re more resilient in these current times, so that you can focus easily, use tools and techniques to deal with all the current and unknown challenges then make sure that you either drop me an email to [email protected] or head over to my website at emmalangton.com

This week's episode is sharing Mental Health Awareness Tips so that you can:

Tracey Matthews joins me on the podcast to talk about authentic leadership.

How it can sometimes be a scary place to be but also the reasons why it’s so valuable to be that authentic leader

We share how authenticity can go beyond leadership in to other areas of lives

The lessons Tracey has learnt over the years

Where to start if you want to be an authentic leader too.

Tracey joins me on the podcast to talk about authentic leadership.

We talk about how we education needs to reflect that times have oved on and incorporate different skills, technology and environments.  It’s beyond education and a leader is about helping people to grow and develop to be the best that they can be.

Tracey shares what she thinks it takes to be an authentic leader.

It can sometimes be a scary place to be.  It means there’s a core set of values, principles and these are brought into our leadership and that you’re prepared to share and communicate those things that important and being strong enough for those to shape the way you are as a person.

We talk about some of the values that people have and thinking about having the resiience to be able to cope with people sometimes disagreeing with you.  If you are trying to be something that you’re not, then that lack of congruence becomes apparent.  Tracey the lack of congruence seeps out of every pore and people begin to get a sense that things are not right by recognising body language and tension.

Emma explain about some of the subconscious things that can happen when we are not true to ourselves and the reasons why we need to be authentic as leaders.

What made Tracey passionate about authenticity of leaders.  Tracey is passionate about education and how it can shape lives, through her own journey and also through learning and adapting throughout her own career, which she puts down to a variety of education.  This might have been through courses or networking and learning from people.

Part of Tracey’s MBA was studying on leadership with lots of models and authentic leadership has stuck with her, With the authentic leaders it’s about making sure that we reflect on previous experiences and understanding “what is it that makes me the best that I can be”.  For Tracey, she has been at her best when she has felt very aligned.  When she has left an organisation when she’s felt there’s a mismatch with values.

The human element of people being aligned to Tracey has shown and been rewarding when people have followed her through her career.  Those connections are exactly what we need as human beings and form the basis of what we need survival and then that builds trust and feel safe to be ourselves.

Emma explains about the feeling safety that runs through our core subconscious level.  When we have connection, trust and safety there’s so much more that can happen in a team and workplace that breeds amazing things through culture and growth and more.

Listen to Tracey’s explanation of someone anticipating going into a meeting and where we want our people to feel that they are the experts and are able to tell things as they are.

We talk about the correct use of power that enables people to be vulnerable and the positive and negative opportunities for using that power.  Authentic leadership means being able to use that power appropriately.

Authenticity goes beyond leadership into being a good colleague and being a good customer.  Tracey talks about her listening to Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits book and the learning she took from that.

Listen for Tracey to share her one place to start to be an authentic leader and how that needs to be a journey of discovery and knowing your own values. 

Connect with Tracey:

The Career Colleges Trust  https://www.careercolleges.org.uk/

Tracey on Twitter: @TLMatthews

Tracey on Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/traceymatthews1/

This week on the podcast I'm sharing about Leadership Compassion and

• Why it’s important
• The reasons why it’s not being soft
• The small things you can do that have a big impact
• What to know so that you can guard against compassion fatigue too.

There’s always going to be differing views about leadership skills, compassion and whether it’s too soft.  I’m hoping this episode will get you thinking about things differently and enable you to support your teams and do your work better.

Being compassionate is not something we’re born with.  It comes from a considerate behaviour, kind gestures, generous actions here and there that can make someone’s day.  Even the smallest moments can have a big impact.

Kindness and compassion go hand in hand and enable you to be a leader that people feel that others can relate to, you’re accessible and approachable.

A lot of organisations have done work with their people to encourage their people to come forward and say if they’re struggling.  Some organisations are finding that middle managers don’t know how to deal with these things. 

Similarly there are people who are helping supporting, and often it can feel like they have become overloaded.  Compassion fatigue can affect those in the most dedicated of professions.

Why should we be compassionate?

When we’re compassionate it creates connections

You create stronger connections

Connections improve trust

Trust enhances loyalty so people feel they can come to you with issues.

Then you have collaboration regardless of levels of management.

Compassion is not the be-all and end-all – there needs to be leadership compassion with a whole other leadership skills.

Compassion can be being supportive with mentorship, guidance too. 

When we express appreciation for what people have done, recognise accomplishments, or difficult moments, pressurised meetings and share your appreciation for them doing what they do.

Listen to the story of Emma’s girls being confused with the recognition she was given and the discussion that took place.

Sharing compassion means people want to turn up for work, there’s a better workplace environment.  So compassion is often about making people feel comfortable around you, having positivity, flexibility and support.  That way people will come to you with concerns, issues and problem.  So people with come to you because of what you do, rather than just because you’re the boss.

The other side of this is compassion fatigue.

The condition is often described as ‘the cost of caring’ and can lead to a struggle to empathise or feel compassion for others.  Often there are people are in key areas of work who become the front line for others to offload their emotions or deal with emotive or traumatic situations.

It’s classed a a deep emotional and physical exhaustion. It’s also called secondary trauma and it’s something I’ve been talking about a lot through the pandemic because people are picking up cares, concerns, difficulties through out lockdown.

Therapists and counsellors are often trained to have key ways to be compassionate without absorbing all the feelings, being overloaded and carrying everyone else’s emotional feelings.  In HR, people professions, you’re not given this level of training.

It’s important to look for the clues and know if you recognise those feelings immediately.

So that you know if you’re feeling run down, worn out too often? 

Make sure you know you’ve got tools and skills to reduce those feelings and reduce the stress levels so that you’ve got quick and effective ways to keep yourself back at your best quite quickly. 

Remember it’s not your job to fix things.  Yes be compassionate, support and sign-post.

Talk to me if you want to know about my training on this subject of compassion fatigue.

In summary, it’s important to be compassionate, but ensure that it’s not detrimental to your own energy and wellbeing.

Any questions on this, drop me an email at [email protected]

For further information on 1:1, group coaching or training get in touch.

Please do make sure you hit ‘subscribe’ so that don’t miss an episode.  

If you haven’t yet  left a review, please do go and find the little button to leave a review and let me know your thoughts, key take-aways and what you value from the podcast.

Join my corporate leadership and wellbeing newsletter HERE

If you want to be increasing your performance so that you’re more resilient, less stressed in these current times, so that you can focus easily, use tools and techniques to deal with all the current and unknown challenges then make sure that you head over to my website at http://www.emmalangton.com 

Today I’m joined by Tina McDonald who is a workplace trainer for leadership and management apprentices.  She talking today about how leadership is not about you.

• Listen for some fabulous info about how Tina trains our leaders of the future.
• A great example of influence, empowerment and changing culture
• What common themes does Tina see with Leadership?

I think you’re going to love this episode

Tina works at Milton Keynes college with apprentice managers at Level 3 who are on a journey of improving themselves as managers or potential managers across the course of a year.

It’s quite gruelling for them and Tina spends 12 months highlighting all the great things about leadership and turning them into leaders she would want her children to work for.

Emma shares a popular phrase of her about there is no ‘management manual’ because people get promotions because they’re good at what they do but then they don’t have the additional skills to lead and manage people. 

Tina shares that it’s not about ticking boxes but understanding what the boxes are there for so that you’re doing 70% of the job really well and 30% is the leadership stuff that no-one understands until they actually do a qualification.

She shares an example of aligning a SMART Goal around making a cup a tea.  And the conversation flows about knowing where to improve, to increase performance, carry out good evaluation, reviewing goals, looking at targets and seeing if things are fit for purpose.

Tina talks about the value of leadership models on such as evaluating and giving feedback but following a model so that it’s done well. 

The lessons learnt are always “I won’t do that again” and it might be simple but without the training and support they will end up with no-one who wants to work for them.

What common themes does Tina see with Leadership?

In operational management they look at operational strategy and look up.  Where do they want to be, how do they know when they’ve arrived.  You can see the fear come in because they know there’s a task to do at the end of every learning.  They realise quite often that some of the senior managers don’t always have a clue what they’re doing.

We also look at culture in the workplace.  She uses Charles Handy’s model because it’s simple.  They get to start to see how cultures become a concrete thing that they think they cannot change.  It can be damaging if it’s not the right fit for the organisation

Tina shares a fabulous example of how one of her apprentices made a change in the workplace as a result of a talk that happened on her course. 

The reason Tina is passionate about ‘it’s not about you’ is because these are the leaders of the future.  If they’re not passionate about that, they don’t start the course because they don’t like the work that has to going into it right from the beginning.  Those that do get to the end, realise they’ve learnt so much about themselves, they’re doing for everyone else, not just themselves.

Leadership allows people the self confidence to do things, try things and not carry guilt or shame around the decision and actions that they take or the things that don’t go well.

Connect on LinkedIn with Tina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tina-leigh-mcdonald/

Please do make sure you hit ‘subscribe’ so that don’t miss an episode.  

If you haven’t yet  left a review, please do go and find the little button to leave a review and let me know your thoughts, key take-aways and what you value from the podcast.

Join my corporate leadership and wellbeing newsletter HERE

https://emmalangton.activehosted.com/f/20

If you want to be increasing your performance so that you’re more resilient in these current times, so that you can focus easily, use tools and techniques to deal with all the current and unknown challenges then visit emmalangton.com

Common topics / situations and requirements for leadership in post covid world.

• Common leadership qualities that people are looking for and are needed to support your business and your people
• Why culture is important and how you might re-look at that
• How great communication brings people into the fold
• What you can do to build trust
• Why burnout is such a big thing to watch out for alongside your other mental wellbeing plans
• The common options people are using to develop this leadership in a post covid world.

These are some of the things I’m seeing in organisations – and of course, some of the things I’m being asked to supply too.

Now, if you’re thinking as you listen to this that you might as well switch off now, well,  I’m not high enough up to influence this – wait.  There’s some podcasts coming that will help change your mind about this, so listen on here and get the full picture.

Leadership skills

Obviously, having great leadership skills is a given.  But what does good leadership look like?

With the continuing of remote working, hybrid working – whatever type of working format is happening, it has become imperative for managers to develop strong leadership qualities to manage teams remotely, inspire and bring out the best in them.

Culture

Build a culture that people want to be part of.

Lots of people have been telling me they’re feeling flat, low, fed up … a common phrase was “lost their mojo”.  Part of this is because of lockdown and the covid situation – there’s no connection, working all the time, lost enthusiasm etc.

Listen in to why building culture is important in helping this and what you can do.

Communication

Communicating in a way that engages people, draws them in, takes them with you and means they want to share information with you – good, bad and ugly – also means you’re ahead of the game with situations in the workplace.

Good communication creates trust.

Listen for more on this.

Burnout

This is important to listen to.  If you've got people saying they're feeling low, fed up then grab the other podcast on burnout and make sure you're implementing things that help prevent burnout.

How do we lead in a post covid world?

I share the common development and leadership plans I'm seeing and working on with organisations so that you can get an idea of what's topical and working at the moment.

If you want to talk to me about any of this, get in touch at [email protected]

Please do make sure you hit ‘subscribe’ so that don’t miss an episode.  

If you haven’t yet  left a review, please do go and find the little button to leave a review and let me know your thoughts, key take-aways and what you value from the podcast.

Join my corporate leadership and wellbeing newsletter HERE

https://emmalangton.activehosted.com/f/20

If you want to be increasing your performance so that you’re more resilient in these current times, so that you can focus easily, use tools and techniques to deal with all the current and unknown challenges then make sure that you either drop me an email to [email protected] .   Or head over to my  contact page and either send me a email from there or book an appointment straight into my diary – saving all that to-ing and fro-ing that you get when we try to get space in people’s diary.

This week I'm talking about leading with empathy.  I share with you

• The reasons why empathy is really important, and now more so than ever before.
• The benefits for your people and your organisation
• The one misunderstanding about empathy
• The three types of empathy and the benefits and pitfalls of each of these.
• Is it possible to have too much empathy?

It’s never been more important to lead with your teams with empathy.  Our people have been going through huge challenges – as indeed have you  - let's not forget that – you’re included in this.  The challenges at work, at home, with family, friends.  People are dealing with overwhelm, burn-out, illness, loss, uncertainty and anxiety about the future and what that looks like – the list goes on.

When you’ve got all that to deal with why on earth am I talking about empathy? 

Empathic leaders bring huge benefits to a team. By showing understanding and sharing empathy it means

• The team perform better
• They can be honest and open at work
• More likely to embrace new situations and new ways of working
• More gets done

What do I actually mean by empathy?

It’s the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

Yes Emma, well, I’m nice to people isn’t that enough?

Often people think being nice to someone is being empathic but in reality is so much more than that.  Yep, being nice is important but true empathy requires greater depth.

When you lead with empathy you consistently demonstrate an awareness of that persons feelings and emotions.  It’s as if you step into that persons’ shoes, you feel it yourself (almost) I’ll explain more on that in a moment.

Psychologists identified 3 types of empathy and I share what this means, the benefits and pitfalls of each AND how you can enhance each of these empathic skills.

Cognitive Empathy

This is about understanding thoughts and emotions in a rational rather than emotional sense.

Listen in for an explanation and example.

Emotional Empathy

This is about really getting to know someone as a whole person.

Listen in for an explanation and example.

Compassionate Empathy

This is where there is a combination of cognitive and emotional empathy.  However, compassionate empathy motivates us to take action to help the person or situation.

Can We Have Too Much Empathy?

In short, yes we can.  Listen in for the explanation around this and what to look out for to guard against this.

It's often called compassion fatigue and I talk more about how I'm providing training and workshops on this for many organisations I'm working with.

To summarise, incorporating empathy and emotional intelligence into your management style is a skill that can be learned just like any other.

Talk to me if you want to know more about how I can help you and your organisation with this.

Please do make sure you hit ‘subscribe’ so that don’t miss an episode.  

If you haven’t yet  left a review, please do go and find the little button to leave a review and let me know your thoughts, key take-aways and what you value from the podcast.

Join my corporate leadership and wellbeing newsletter HERE 

If you want to be increasing your performance so that you’re more resilient in these current times, so that you can focus easily, use tools and techniques to deal with all the current and unknown challenges then make sure that you either drop me an email to [email protected] .   Or head over to my website   and you can find the contact page and either send me a email from there or book an appointment straight into my diary – saving all that to-ing and fro-ing that you get when we try to get space in people’s diary.