This month, Cara McCarthy explores what reflective leadership is all about and offers ideas for regular habits you can use to enhance your leadership impact and improve your overall wellbeing.
This builds on her article last month: How to lead in a world that’s gone beyond VUCA to BANI.
This month’s article is written by a special guest author – Cara McCarthy. We met about four years ago when we were both certified to use the Leadership Circle profiling tool, and have collaborated several times since then. Like me, Cara is a coach and facilitator who helps organisations develop, leaders grow, and teams be more effective.
The subject of ‘moving on from VUCA’ arose in a recent conversation, (and was very well received in a talk we prepared for a network of senior Executives), so I have invited her to share her thoughts in this area. I think this is a fascinating read! As usual, they are mixed with practical ideas you can implement in your working life, and link to related reading on the topic.
I’m sure you’ll find this information useful and look forward to your comments.
We all need to feel loved and accepted, however, this is exaggerated in someone who’s a people-pleaser, and they may avoid circumstances that cause them to feel conflict with others. Because they’re worried about being rejected, they generally seek approval to reassure themselves.
This isn’t the most constructive way to be, so this month’s article is about people-pleasing and how to escape it.
Anxiety is something we’ve all experienced to a greater or lesser extent. Through the pandemic, it’s probably touched everyone.
This article contains advice on how to deal with anxiety on both a practical and a mindset level.
Disclaimer: I’m talking here about general feelings of anxiety. This is different to having an anxiety disorder, which is outside the scope of this article.
“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was ending, he turned into a butterfly.”`
Anonymous
This month’s article is inspired by the book Attached: The new science of adult attachment and how it can help you find – and keep – love.
This topic might seem as though it’s not strictly work-related because it deals with romantic relationships. However, as well as giving you insights that might be useful for your personal life, it also covers behaviours you might recognise from the work setting.
When you have someone you attach to, they become the anchor on which you can build your life. You can be vulnerable with them. Without attachment, you only have yourself to rely on – this might seem the safer option, but it may also mean you miss out having someone to lean on and share life with – the joy, the sadness and the journey.
This analogy could also be stretched somewhat, to apply at work – relying on colleagues helps you learn, feel good and create something better than if you went alone (as an old African proverb offers: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”).
When you understand the traits you see in yourself and your colleagues, you will have more compassion for yourself and others, and can adapt the way you work so that you, and they, feel more secure and can thrive.
Failing to focus on employee wellbeing can cost your business dearly:
Source: Gallup
It has been shown that how you engage employees has a powerful influence on their wellbeing.
When you make an emotional connection with them, you will get to know them and understand what motivates them. Then you can create the correct climate for them to thrive – one that’s linked to their values and purpose. That way, they can be themselves, minimise their stress levels, and are more likely to do their best work.
This builds on my recent articles Skills and mindset for the future world of work and How is your self-motivation and wellness?
As the pandemic becomes endemic, self-motivation and wellness has emerged as a key leadership trend for 2022 – for us as individuals, and as leaders. This topic is linked to last month’s article: Skills and mindset for the future world of work.
For this month, we focus on what you can do about your own self-motivation and wellness. Next month, we’ll revisit the topic through the lens of a leader.
What skills and mindset will you and your people need for the future world of work?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is likely to replace many basic cognitive skills, while the need for other skills will grow, such as those relating to technology, social and emotional intelligence, and higher cognitive abilities – this is what separates us from the robots.
McKinsey did a survey last year to explore this topic. They studied 18,000 people in 15 countries to help governments around the world identify what skills would ensure their citizens become employable, and remain that way.
This article covers what you can learn from their findings so you know what to focus on, both for you as an individual and as the leader of a team or organisation.
Imagine you’re at the start of your career and you make a big mistake in your first role. You will probably lose your job.
Now imagine you’re the CEO of a large organisation and you make a big mistake. Chances are, everyone loses their job.
When you’re a leader, your actions have high impact. There can be a lot at stake when things go wrong.
Having said that, we’re all human. We all have our own strengths and flaws. By raising our awareness and working on ourselves, we can make a choice about how we want to show up in the organisation, and optimise our positive impact.
This newsletter explores how flaws are made, three common flaws, and how to address them. It’s just one way of looking at this topic, and I hope it gives you food for thought.
With advances in medicine and technology, we are typically living longer than we did 100 years ago. Even as recently as 1960, the average life expectancy in the UK was 71; today it is 81. That’s a lot of life to live and make the most of, and around half of those years may involve being in work.
When we reach our 50s and 60s, we might have made some choices about the work we do. We may be considering retirement, or planning for it. We still have a lot of energy, but also have wisdom and maturity. We may be more comfortable in our skin than we were in our 20s and 30s. Any children may have left home, and we may be more financially stable, giving us more freedom.
I have a lot of clients in this age group. Some are wondering if they want to ‘keep playing the game’, particularly if they are going through yet another round of reorganisation. Yet, those who can afford to give up work might not want to. They still want to use their brain, play a part in society and be part of social networks – work is one way of doing this (and our identity is often closely linked to our work).
“Age only matters if you are a cheese”
We can’t prevent aging, so how do we age well? This article looks at how to make the most of the age we are and the body we’re in.