All leaders need to be able to refill their cups in order to pour for others - this is an anaolgy that has made the rounds and become a familiar way of expressing the importance of taking time out to recharge, build new skills, reflect and think. Welcome to Episode 3 of the Discomfort Zone Podcast, where we will speak with women leaders from all ages and corners of the world about how they refill their cups, how they use their hobbies to recharge and to safly explore their discomfort zones in different ways, and the leadership skills like resilience, emotional intelligence, empathy and courage that recharging and refilling our cups can afford us.
For many of us, the ability to engage in our hobbies and interests changes over time – sometimes due to changes in the way we live and the time available to us because of family or children, sometimes due to socio-economic position, sometimes as a result of health factors, and many more reasons. Over time, and as we move through our lives, our interests evolve, as do the things we crave from our hobbies – at times, it is more important that they provide us with a refuge, a safe place to re-energise and destress, such as enjoying time in nature or with family and friends, dancing or jogging, cooking, or reading a book. At other times, they can afford us the opportunity to develop our self-discipline, set ambitious goals and stretch ourselves to reach them, such as running a marathon. And yet at other times, they offer us the chance to expand our perspectives with new points of view, reaching into the experiences of others to develop empathy, such as delving into art through poetry, movies or theatre.
Today, we were joined by Carol Silberberg (a psychiatrist living in Sydney), Charlotte (a researcher studying migratory birds in France), Jodi (a marine scientist from the Gold Coast, Australia), Judit (a research scientist and molecular biologist from Yale Medical School who explores female cancers and how to treat and prevent them), Paula (a hydraulic engineer from the United States, originally from Mexico), Nancy (a Professor of remote sensing of the environment from Sydney, Australia), Nirvani (an information technology specialist from Cape Town, South Africa), Rachel (a wetlands scientist from Baton Rouge, Louisiana), Reina (an experimental particle physicist working in France, originally from Venezuela) and Roshni (a spatial scientist from Sydney, Australia).
Join us next time as we take this further, speaking about failure and vulnerability and how to reclaim them as positive forces for development in our leadership journeys and lives.
