People at Work

Imagine you’re a craftsperson who loses the one tool needed to excel at your profession. It’d be potentially devastating and you’d be forced to adapt or quit. That’s what happened to Kevin Hancock. Except he lost his ability to speak, his most powerful tool as CEO of his company.

This set in motion a series of events that caused Kevin to pause and reflect. He became acutely aware of how it literally feels to lose one’s voice. He began to think about what that might feel like figuratively for many who don’t have a voice in society or at work.

Kevin decided he could have a positive impact in two areas: changing his own business to respect and honour all the voices there; and bring his story and ideas to a broader audience capable of shifting business to a higher purpose.

He shares how he has pursued this in our podcast interview for People at Work. For his own business, the benefits have been felt in tremendous levels of employee engagement and satisfaction, not to mention profits. On the grander scale, he’s quietly yet forcefully showing how to be a voice for good.

About our guest:

Kevin Hancock is an award-winning author, speaker, and CEO. His business operates retail stores, grows trees, and has received many accolades including six “Best Places to Work in Maine” awards. Outside of business, Kevin has published two books and is a frequent visitor to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He lives in Maine with his wife Alison.

You can connect with Kevin on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/kevin-hancock-6bb0501a1 or visit his website, thebusinessofsharedleadership.com.

Resources:

Not For Sale

Amazon

The Seventh Power

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Amazon.ca

After years of being a coach, Victor Mcguire saw first-hand the positive impact that coaching could have on individuals. But he also saw an opportunity gap and wondered how the lives of those from traditionally under-resourced communities would be affected if they received the same type of coaching as some of the top employees in Fortune 100 companies. That’s what led Victor to create Coaching for Everyone.

Coaching for Everyone is on a mission to offer complimentary coaching and leadership support to traditionally underserved and under-resourced Black, Latinx, and Indigenous populations. They’re also striving to offer coaching fellowships to working BIPOC professionals interested in becoming a certified coach.

I had the opportunity to chat with Victor about this mission and he also shared some great coaching tips along the way.

About our guest:

Dr. Victor McGuire has 30 years of leadership development experience within a variety of sectors and age groups. He is a Certified Professional Coach and Certified Strengths Coach, a facilitator, and speaker. Victor has a proven record of inspiring and transforming individuals and teams, tangibly impacting the overall workplace culture for multiple organizations. When he’s not activating the potential of others, he enjoys a great meal with his wife and chasing that little white ball around on the golf course.

You can connect with Victor on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/coaching-for-everyone or on Facebook at facebook.com/Coaching-For-Everyone-102940201486197.

Traditional thinking about job roles, career paths, and measures of success is quickly changing. People are taking greater ownership of their careers and defining how they want to spend their time. For the most part, organizations are no longer in charge of how and when someone progresses.

This is good news to Dr. Benjamin Ritter. But more change can’t come fast enough in his opinion. Benjamin believes that although the career landscape is changing, we need a new way forward. What’s really needed for this transformation is job crafting.

Job crafting is the process of shaping whichever job you’re in to fit your personal values, your professional aspirations, and the path you want to take for your career.

What this means is that every individual is empowered like never before to make choices about any moment in time in their working life. But, it’s more than just flexible work hours and choosing to live far away from head office because remote work is now a thing.

It’s about actively picking types of projects that interest you, choosing to work on different teams, or saying no to work that doesn’t fit your short-term goals. It’s about anything and everything that can be shaped to suit you as an individual, not the other way around.

In our podcast interview, Benjamin shares more about his ideas and experience on this topic. He also talks about what this shift means for organizations and the types of work environments that employees will gravitate towards, in order to job craft.

If you’re thinking about retention, employee experience, evolving leadership, psychological safety, and maybe even your own career path, this is a fascinating conversation and the right fit for you.

About our guest:

Dr. Benjamin Ritter, is a leadership and career coach, regional learning manager for YPO, national speaker, podcaster, author, mentor, and passionate about guiding others in finding, creating, and sustaining a career they love. It helps that he’s worked a wide range of jobs from being a live cast model for mannequins to a healthcare executive.

You can connect with Benjamin on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/ritterbenj, on YouTube at youtube.com/c/benjaminritter, and on Instagram @Ritterbenj.

Resources:

Download your free e-book on creating a career you love

Afraid of public speaking? You’re definitely not alone. Apparently 73% of people suffer from glossophobia. That’s a staggering number of people who shy away from presenting their ideas and sharing their voice.

Billie Shepard is an actor turned coach. She’s found a way to help business people use the benefits of actor training to banish fear and increase their presence.

According to Billie, it starts with setting a clear intention. This helps you ignore the fear and stay focused on the task at hand.

Although Billie’s presentation method was initially designed to help executives and keynote speakers overcome their fear, it’s equally useful in other leadership and interpersonal settings.

In this delightful podcast episode, Billie shares her key tips for banishing fear and improving the quality of communication and relationships. After all, as Billie says, being afraid is just stupid!

About our guest:

Billie is a professional actor and acting coach, leveraging her acting experience and unique training and coaching methods into the business arena; transforming corporate speakers into influential leaders. Her clients include Facebook, Uber, Intuit, Rackspace, Lockheed Martin, as  well as many financial and medical research companies. To encourage others, Billie earned her BA at 50, Masters Degree at 60, and published her first book at 70.

You can connect with Billie on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/billie-shepard-and-associates-59b3534.

Resources

The Billie Shepard Presentation Method

Paperback | eBook

Negotiation gets a bad rap. The word often brings to mind people haggling over a price, or someone trying to selfishly get everything they want. And sure, that happens sometimes. But you negotiate every single day, whether you know it or not. Whether it’s with employees, loved ones, or your kids, all of us are constantly negotiating.

Mark Raffan from Negotiations Ninja joined me on this episode and we chatted about the skill of negotiation, how it shares a lot of common ground with leadership skills, and how when you boil it all down it really comes down to communication. Mark gave some tips on tone and language you can use, as well as how to prep for a negotiation. Negotiation is a skill that most of us could get better at. So give this episode a listen and let me know what you think.

About our guest:

Mark is a serial entrepreneur and lover of marketing and thought leadership. Markis an expert in negotiation, influence, and persuasion. He has coached executives and teams in some of the largest companies in the world. He has been referenced in Entrepreneur, Forbes, Thrive Global, Supply and Demand Chain Executive Magazine (as a 2019 pro-to-know), and has appeared on dozens of podcasts, including Make it Happen Mondays with John Barrows, The Brutal Truth About Sales with Brian Burns, and The Insider’s Guide to Finance with Cory Cleveland. Mark loves to talk about all things procurement, negotiations, leadership, and marketing.

You can connect with Mark on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/markraffan, on Twitter @MarkRaffan, and on Instagram @negotiationpod

Resources

Find Negotiations Ninja wherever you get your podcasts.

Heard of VUCA environments? They’re ones with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. So pretty much every single organization and system in our unstable world right now.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and unprepared in the face of this. But according to Ebony Smith, there’s an antidote to these stressful environments. If we choose to think about VUCA as vision, understanding, clarity, and agility, we can take control.

In this latest episode of People at Work, Ebony explains what VUCA environments feel like and explores what the antidote looks like in practice. She also has suggestions for individual actions needed to thrive.

By using technology to cleverly engage and mobilize, practicing individual self-care that keeps you sharp and engaged, and finding undervalued surge capacity in your team, leaders can proceed sure-footed even when things feel shaky.

About our guest:

Ebony Smith is a leadership development expert with a passion for creating forward-thinking leaders. After 20 years of risk-management experience in the Fortune 100, her full-spectrum-lens view of leadership has empowered her to help individuals hone their goals and reach their full potential. She pushes individuals to leave their “Subject Matter Expert” mindset behind and become relationship-oriented leaders that drive their organizations into the future. Ebony loves cooking, self-care, and exploring cultures.

You can connect with Ebony on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/ebony-smith-coach and on Instagram @ebenumequationcoaching.

Resources:

Join her LinkedIn group: Leaders Thriving in a VUCA World

Power is everywhere in organizations. When building trust, collaborating, negotiating, and more. It’s there whether it’s explicit or not.

That’s what has Kit Krugman intrigued. She’s also interested in understanding why power is so often negatively portrayed, when there’s a lot of good to come from using power to drive things like innovation, change, and purpose.

In this conversation, I appreciate the way that Kit explains the difference between power and authority, helping me understand my own relationship and experience with power (not to mention the power privileges I have, whether I realize it or not).

She also explores how power systems exist in organizations, and what we can do to better understand where power lies and how to leverage it, for good.

In a world where power appears to be held by a few, Kit suggests that every individual has the power to influence and change. It’s just a matter of understanding where that power lies.

This fascinating discussion made me think about power more clearly and positively. It’s a conversation worth continuing as it impacts every aspect of society, not least of which how it makes people feel at work.

About our guest:

Kit Krugman has designed and grown team cultures for over 10 years. She has worked with technology giants, non-profits, and most recently built and leads the Organization & Culture Design at co:collective. Kit’s writing on organization design and transformation has been published in Quartz, INC, and The Huffington Post. She has spoken at DisruptHR, Talent2030, and Adobe’s 99U on women in leadership, innovation, and workplace diversity. Kit holds an M.A. in Organizational Psychology & Change Leadership from Columbia University, a B.A. in Literature and Studio Art from Yale University, and is a certified yoga teacher.

You can connect with Kit on Twitter @KitKrugman and on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/kit-krugman-7b22a8b.

Resources:

Covid-19 and the welcome collapse of “professionalism”

Do you use the word “love” at work? Not in the romantic sense, but to express yourself to coworkers, support them, and show that you care. Maybe you feel uncomfortable with this idea.

According to Dr. Bruno Cignacco, the humanistic connotation of love, which includes compassion, empathy, support, generosity, and gratitude, is critical for leadership and business success.

In this latest episode of People at Work, Bruno reflects on why we should bring love into business, and what this means for the experience that people have at work. It extends to everything we do, how we speak, how we lead, and what we focus on.

Human beings are the life force of any organization. Much like water and sunshine to plants, love is what helps humans thrive. We must find a way to make love more present at work. Our profits and our purpose depend on it.

About our guest:

Dr. Bruno Roque Cignacco (PhD) has advised and trained hundreds of companies on international trade activities and international marketing for over 20 years. He’s a university lecturer, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and an author of books on business and personal development. His new book is titled “The Art of Compassionate Business: Main Principles for the Human-Oriented Enterprise.” When he isn’t thinking about business, Bruno likes to scuba dive in the deep sea waters all over the world.

You can connect with Bruno on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/dr-bruno-roque-cignacco-sfhea-0609317.

Resources:

Bruno’s Personal website

Human Oriented Enterprise website

The Art of Compassionate Business: Main Principles for the Human Oriented Enterprise

Stress is part of daily life, even more so with the ripple effects of the global pandemic, social injustice, and political unrest. While there’s a lot swirling around all of us, shaking us to the core some days, we can manage this stress.

Nicole Mixdorf has experienced the damaging effects of stress firsthand. She left her corporate career that was literally making her sick from stress, and started a wellness business to help busy professionals take care of themselves.

Nicole helps her clients understand their own stress response, and then teaches them how to take control of it. Whatever the cause of the stress, the first step to getting in the driver’s seat usually involves taking a deep breath.

Doing this not only gives us space between stimulus and response, it helps introduce more oxygen to the brain (70% in fact!) and that opens us up to be more calm, receptive, creative, and in control of our own emotions and physical state.

In this episode of People at Work, Nicole talks about a few simple tools that she uses to control stress, and turn each chronic stress state into an opportunity. Nicole leads us through a breathing exercise (bonus content!) and her key tips on how to change your mindset to “what can I do?” versus “what can’t I do?” when faced with stressful situations.

If you’re listening for yourself, Nicole’s simple approach will help you immediately. If you’re listening as a leader trying to help your team cope with stress, Nicole’s here for you too with thoughts on how best to support your people. Either way, just breathe.

About our guest: 

Nicole spent over a decade working her way up the corporate ladder in a global firm until she began experiencing the health consequences of the stressful environment; after healing, she launched Balance by Nature to inspire busy professionals to create more balance and thrive. She believes that success is measured in how much fun she has every day, so you can often find her practising yoga, dancing, kayaking or playing with her two young kids.

You can connect with Nicole on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/nicolemixdorf/, Facebook at facebook.com/balance.by.nature.wellness, and Instagram @nicolemixdorf

Resources: 

Finding Balance membership (buy one, get one offer!)

Do you have a habit of jumping in to find the answer for someone or solve their problem before they’ve had a chance? Well, stop it!

According to Corry Robertson, it’s your job as a leader to help people find and express the answers that lie within them. Not give them the solution you’d prefer.

In her opinion, if you’re being coachlike, then you should shift from giving advice to being of service, through conversation. Corry says coaching conversations are leadership in action, and we can all learn to be a coach—and a more effective leader.

In this episode of People at Work, Corry highlights how to coach through conversation, so that every interaction is future-focused and results-driven. We also talk about how to create a coaching culture in an organization and what this means for leaders at work.

So, if you’re thinking about what to brush up on as we take on a fresh new year, think about the character of your conversations. Who are you helping when you speak? Can you make a shift to become more coachlike, and be a leader in action? Bring it on, 2021!

About our guest:

Corry is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with a background in change management, reinvention, personality assessment, conflict resolution, conscious leadership, and performance improvement training as well as holistic methodologies including Reiki and Naturopathic Medicine. She lives in Saint-Lazare, Quebec with her husband, two teenage sons, their beloved dog and two cats, and she can often be found at the barn with her horses.

You can connect with her on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/corryrobertson/, Facebook facebook.com/AliveFrom9to5/, and YouTube.

Resources:

Lumina Spark Personality Assessment

Improve your virtual team meetings

7 hidden pitfalls in your leadership development program

The Coaching Academy for Leaders brochure