Stepsero

Systemic coaching for companies: Episode Notes

Can we create a healthy work environment through systemic coaching?

 Systemic coaching aims at aligning individual and team goals with company goals. In order to do that, it is important to visualize employees in relation to the system they operate in, rather than treating them as individual contributors.

Doris Friedl is a systemic coaching expert who is intrigued by all aspects of someone’s life. In this interview, she walks us through the relationship between our personal and professional lives, and the importance of prioritizing our values across their whole spectrum.

Whether we care about respect, creativity, consistency, or any other value, we need to find ways to fit within a larger environment, in a way that we can thrive harmoniously with all the other elements involved.

For this to happen, both employers and their employees need to commit to a change. On one hand, employers need to be willing to question existing structures. Should that not be the case, the chances for it to work are exponentially lower. On top of that, leaders need to understand that such a process may require a long time, although in the long run it will greatly pay off.

On the other hand, employees need to be willing to proactively work on their own values and needs, by first identifying them and then asking for what they need. As a matter of fact, being aware of their own priorities is not enough, unless they are brave enough to share them with their managers and colleagues.

What to do with those employers who are resistant to change?While there is no standard recipe for it,  it is a personal approach as it has a lot to do with the personality and stance of the founder and the company as a whole.

Overall, bringing a change through systemic coaching implies creating a new vision, driven by a shift in individuals’ mindset.

Our Guest: Doris Friedl

Doris Friedl is an Austrian-born People Manager and Systemic Coach, she has over twenty years of work experience and has lived in Brussels, Barcelona and since 2006 in Berlin. She has specialized in the creative sector and start-ups as well as in intercultural environments.

The new awareness of values is the reason why employers and employees are increasingly questioning old structures. More than ever before, they are intervening themselves to adapt the time and space of their work to their own ideas. This is not always successful and sometimes leads to frustration and excessive demands. Doris supports in professionally accompanying changes, so that motivation arises from excessive demands and personal growth from frustration.

Doris supports leaders and teams on deploying their full potential, creating a respectful work environment by improving transparency and implementing good communication.

Doris has extensive business organizational and human resources experience and dedicates her profession to being a “good leader” as interim HR professional. Additionally, as a certified career and life coach, Doris accompanies people through personal and professional changes, helping them to identify their goals, overcome blocks and to adopt new perspectives.

Doris loves to travel cycle and hike and she spends most weekends in the nature.

References:

Doris Friedl Linkedin profile

Doris Friedl - website

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Why cognitive diversity matters: Episode Notes

Leaders need to know why cognitive diversity matters, in order to apply an individualized approach to their work processes.

But first things first: what is cognitive diversity? 

Sarah Allali, co-Founder of Think Confluent, explains that cognitive diversity refers to the inclusion of individuals who follow different thinking patterns, including the ones related to attention, memorization, learning and execution.

As humans, we all think in different ways, and therefore have different cognitive profiles. This happens even among people who work in the same department or belong to a similar social environment.

However, since employees are often conditioned to follow standardized processes at work, people leaders are usually unaware of these substantial cognitive differences. When this happens, managers can only try and make global assumptions about organizations, departments or teams as a whole, and apply a one-size-fits-all solution, at best.

But what if they had access to specific data about individuals and their own preferences?

Think Confluent is a Saas company that wants to apply neuroscience for better people management processes at work.

The company founders, Sarah Allali and Nicolas Cabrignac, created a software that aims at providing a personalized work experience in three main steps:

Employees express their preferences at work by filling in their own cognitive profile.

The current workplace gets assessed according to the above, to see whether it satisfies employees’ preferences.

Training is provided in order to narrow the gap between company processes and employees’ preferences.

All in all, ThinkConfluent offers a way for professionals to come together and address cognitive diversity, in a way that people can finally be themselves at work.

Because of this, companies could finally have the chance to focus on people first, as they build their processes based on unique individualities.

Our Guest: Sarah Allali

Sarah is the co-founder and CEO of Think Confluent.

After studying Cognitive Sciences and particularly Neurosciences, she made a clear observation: the lack of information and knowledge on brain functioning induces unadapted managerial practices, not focused on employees' expectations and personalities. And yet, today, more than ever, we need to put the human being back at the center of the company.

She wants to show that by putting an end to one-size-fits-all HR and management strategy, each team member can finally be fulfilled at work. Thanks to Think Confluent, she can help business leaders to offer a work experience adapted to the needs of all employees in their teams.

References:

Sarah Allali Linkedin profile

Think Confluent website

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Guiding future leaders at work: Episode Notes

The way we work has changed significantly, and so is the way we educate the future generation of leaders. 

Processes have become much faster, and data gets shared in bigger amounts than ever. While In the past we searched for the right information, today we need to be able to filter the right knowledge and documentation out. 

Organizations know this and need to adapt their education methods if they want to form the next generation of leaders. Guiding people nowadays includes keeping your workforce healthy, productive and happy.

As a matter of fact, only a well-balanced organization can hope to keep their talents in the long term. You need to invest and educate people in order to grant an organization with a so-called “multiplier effect” and create an effective machine. 

It is no secret that leaders usually hold the key to people’s success. Individuals who want to develop as modern leaders need to ask themselves questions like: 

What is expected of me?

How do I provide feedback, and how do I receive it?

How do I listen?

How do I take care of people?

Ultimately, what does leadership mean? 

Answering the above in the right way can be very challenging, especially for younger managers who have not received any strong guidance. 

The second part of the interview focuses on the right behavior to adopt when professionals outgrow their company and become unhappy with their role.

Some best practices include: 

Working out together with your colleague what the reasons are and whether there are alternative options within the organization

Listen rather than speak

Be patient

Offer to help them find other roles in different organizations

Help them review their Linkedin profile and CV

Connect them with the right contacts in your network

Realize that it is not about what is best for you, but it is about what is best for them

Should there be no alternative, be happy to let them go

Our Guest: Romy von Roeder

People Team Leader with experience in both, corporate and start up environments of more than 15 years. The people focused career started with responsibilities for People & Leadership Development and Global Diversity Management at Vattenfall and continued with building People Teams from scratch at Wire and Casper or rebuilding at Applift. 

Today Romy is heading the People & Culture Team at TIER Mobility, one of the leading micro mobility providers with the vision to change mobility for good.

References:

Romy von Roeder Linkedin profile

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Wellness for women: Episode Notes

Sanctuary Wellness Collective provides a coaching and community framework for women to reach their full potential.

Lissette Gole, their founder, knows all too well what it means to cope with ever growing demands both on a personal and a professional level, as she struggled with chronic stress and anxiety for a long time.

During our conversation, Lissette stresses the importance for women to turn to a place where they can have a safe and open conversation about their own journey.

Specifically, women often experience a high degree of loneliness while approaching maximum psychophysical capacity, and for this very reason they often seek a consolidated approach that can help them reach for wellness.

While there are a lot of resources out there for women to get support from, it usually takes a lot of time and energy to find one that is truly life changing.

The Sanctuary Wellness Collective wants women to become their higher selves by transforming mind and body, and is based on three core pillars:

Growth Mindset

Equanimity

Nutrition

Getting these three different  aspects to work in harmony is what will ultimately allow women to strike a healthy balance in life, therefore preventing them from being forced to make a hard choice between career, family, and extracurricular activities.

Ultimately, Lissette’s hope is that these coaching practices get applied more and more within corporations, as it is well-known that retaining employees has a much more positive ROI than hiring them over and over again.

We conclude our conversation with two practical pieces of advice for everyone to work on their own wellness:

Spend 5 minutes of your day in silence and allow your body to settle in and regroup and move into rest and repair (and away from fight or flight).

Focus on your breathing, no matter where you are at any particular moment. It helps regulate your body and it is a great way to combat stress.

Our Guest: Lissette Gole

Lissette Gole is a holistic health coach and women’s empowerment advocate. She is focused on helping women achieve their highest potential through alignment of mind+body connection and using their voice to advocate for their own balanced lifestyle.

She is the founder of Sanctuary Wellness Collective, a holistic health and wellness empowerment community for high-achieving women looking to align with their highest and healthiest selves. We simplify the path through tools, expert resources, community and coaching.  The Collective is anchored the importance of the mind+body connection as guided by yoga, meditation, mindfulness, food as medicine, and positive psychology.

Lissette holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, is a Certified Meditation Instructor and a member of Google’s leadership team. She has nearly a decade of experience hosting multiple speaking engagements and workshops on the topics of self-empowerment, holistic health, mindfulness and business success frameworks.

When Lissette isn’t focused on Sanctuary Wellness Collective and Google initiatives, you will find her with her husband, two boys and two Golden Retrievers. The entire family loves the water so in summer months, you will find them on the lake.

References:

Lissette Gole Linkedin profile

Sanctuary Wellness Collective

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Managing people in the modern workplace: Episode Notes

Managing people requires a wide set of skills, including the ability to be vulnerable in front of others. 

Scott Leese and Richard Harris are two well-known sales leaders who have shared their personal and professional struggles on several occasions.

Despite adopting different management styles, they both advocate for mental health awareness, and are strongly in favour of a work culture based on authenticity.

In this episode of the Stepsero podcast, Scott and Richard open up once more about their experience with mental health, and share some invaluable advice on effective communication at work. 

With Richard, we touch on the importance of surrounding ourselves with the right people. Especially when experiencing some level of mental stress and discomfort, it might be a good idea to approach things gradually and consider the following steps: 

Accept that you want to explore your own feelings.

Have an honest discussion with your closest peers and friends outside of work.

Open up with your co-workers, then your manager. 

With Scott, we discuss the value of owning our narrative, and the importance of being proactive rather than reactive.

Specifically, we examine the power of authenticity, and its pivotal role in creating trust within the team. When leaders are open about their flaws, they automatically create stronger bonds, which might even transcend the specific work environment they originate from. 

On top of that, we talk about the power of creating communities where people find voices that they can resonate with. 

All in all, both Scott and Richard agree on the necessity for leaders to constantly evolve, as sticking to old-school management strategies could lead to inevitable failure.

Our Guests: Scott Leese & Richard Harris

Scott Leese is a 3x American Association of Inside Sales Professionals Top 25 Award Winner, and one of the top startup sales leaders in the country. Through domestic and international consulting, he has trained an army of salespeople thousands strong.

Leese puts his nearly two decades of sales and leadership experience to use as the CEO & Founder of both Scott Leese Consulting, LLC; and Surf & Sales. A highly sought-after consultant, advisor, leader, and sales trainer, Leese has a proven record of success building and scaling businesses from the ground up.

Richard Harris brings 20+ years of sales and Saas experience working with companies like Google, Zoom, Pandora, Visa, Pager Duty, Gainsight, and others to the table when teaching about sales.

His passion is helping companies close the gap between the old school feature and benefits approach to focus on earning the right to ask questions, which questions to ask and when to do it. Richard believes success comes when people stop talking about what they do and get them to start talking about the pains they solve. He ties all this together by focusing on a more relaxed conversational selling style that helps people go from strangers to acquaintances to trusted business allies.

Richard has been named a Top 25 Inside Sales Professional by the American Association of Inside Sales for the last 4 years. As well as a Top 10 Sales Development Leader as voted by Inside Sales and Sales Hacker. Published in Huffington Post, Inc, and most recently NBCNews.

Richard lives in Northern California with a wife, Cathy, 2 boys, Riley (9) and Bodhi (7), and their dog Lola

References:

Scott Leese Linkedin profile

Richard Harris Linkedin profile

Surf & Sales

The Surf & Sales Podcast

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Creating a culture of impact: Episode Notes

Many workplaces are still focused on performance while they really should be working on creating a culture of impact.

Professionals at every stage of their careers are evaluated exclusively on immediate profit and revenue growth despite little attention being paid to the impact that they bring over the long-term.

Because of this, individuals are usually not always comfortable with being vulnerable around colleagues, as that may be associated with a weak professional profile.

In this episode of Stepsero, Noor brings our attention to the importance of institutionalizing micro-initiatives at work in order to build a more impactful culture.

Specifically, she offers a few practical suggestions that can be implemented within any company:

Introduce check-ins and check-outs.

A the beginning of every meeting, leaders should make it a habit to ask how everyone is feeling. People should be encouraged to be completely honest, to the point that meetings could be even rescheduled in case the conditions for it to happen are not right.

Avoid leaving the office being angry or worried.

It is quite common to drag our professional concerns over into our private lives. In some cases, we even spend our entire weekends being overly-stressed because of something that happened back in the office. In this regard, leaders should not only encourage employees to reach out, but proactively make sure that their colleagues have the chance to immediately address any issue they may have.

Leaders should regularly make themselves accessible by leaving free slots in their calendars. In this way, workers will know when they can book a time to have a transparent and private conversation.

Our Guest: Noor van Boven

Noor has over 15 years of experience in international Human Resources, specifically building, scaling and transforming organizations. Before joining N26, Noor was the VP People at SoundCloud; led the Recruiting, Talent and Organizational Development initiatives at TomTom and worked as a HR Business Partner for several international tech companies, including Dell. Noor is a Dutch native with a passion for travel. Work has given her the opportunity to live in New York, India and now Berlin.

References:

Noor van Boven Linkedin profile

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An interventional approach to burnout: Episode Notes

In this episode of the Stepsero podcast we dive deep into the complexities of of burnout.

Nowadays, many current approaches focus on preventing burnout from developing in the first place. To this purpose, working on one's resilience or practicing yoga and meditation can be very effective.

Some organizations however, focus primarily on interventional practices rather than preventative ones. Among these, The Burnout Clinic advocates an interventional approach which helps patients free themselves from any limiting beliefs and break unhealthy habits.

According to their co-founder Duncan So, it is in fact possible to address people's deep-rooted beliefs and counter them with alternative paths. By doing this, individuals manage to successfully shift their own thoughts and abandon certain negative behavioral patterns.

This is particularly important for companies at risk of developing a toxic culture. By spotting destructive habits and identifying pockets of toxic behavior across the organization, leaders are able to track most problems down to their root cause and start a precise intervention process based on behavioral change.

Along the conversation, Duncan guides us through 5 main paths directly associated with burnout:

Exhaustion path: people are overworked, tired, and therefore performing at a slow pace.

Anxiety path:  Panic settles in and individuals fear for their future.

Productivity or creativity block: People experience some sort of paralysis, usually due to missing clarity on things that were once natural to them. This can get pretty daunting when professionals hold a role of great responsibility within the organization and find themselves unable to make decisions.

Cynicism: People experience apathy, and generally see themselves as being simply realistic, which makes them hard to deal with.

Cynicism can lead to micro-aggressive behavior at work, and can lead to a very toxic environment.

Dark night of the soul:  Individuals lose grasp of themselves and their purpose in life, and feel completely stuck.

Our Guest: Duncan So

Duncan So is the Co-Founder & Executive Director at The Burnout Clinic. Duncan has been a child of corporate burnout that has led him professionally into the field of human flourishing for over a decade working on systemic social change projects.

He’s a social entrepreneur and change agent, on a mission to create a more passionate world building systems and programs for companies and communities on the path of making social good. 

Board Certified with the Association of Integrative Psychology. A Master Practitioner in Mental Emotional Release, NLP and Hypnosis.  He graduated with a degree in Applied Sciences specializing in Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto. 

At the Burnout Clinic, we help HR Leaders and Entrepreneurs develop and integrate burnout intervention programs within their organization.  Our flagship 2-day burnout intervention program stops the cycle of high anxiety, fatigue, creative slumps, and burnout, and rapidly returns leaders back happy, productive and creatively engaged at work.

References:

Ducan So Linkedin profile

theburnoutclinic.com

20-minute free therapeutic recording by The Burnout Clinic

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The importance of setting boundaries: Episode Notes

Setting boundaries is crucial to avoid stress. 

Dott. Boettiger explains that stress occurs when there is a friction between our inner world and the outer world. Specifically, when we are stressed we usually experience an imbalance between the expectations that are set by the outer world and our inner selves. 

While some of us try and tackle this friction, others prefer to step back, therefore allowing this tension to persist. When we resolve to do something about it however, it is important that we become vocal about it, and share our concerns with people around us rather than hold them in. If we don’t do so, we maintain a system that is totally unhealthy. 

How can this be applied to the workspace? 

First of all, we need to reframe the feeling of shame and guilt that comes from expressing our boundaries. As a matter of fact, we all tend to fall into the trap of "this is what is expected of me, and if I don't do it I am a bad person".

By feeding such fear we are doing nothing but creating a toxic bottleneck for ourselves. By opening up about our internal struggles on the other hand, not only do we manage to depersonalize them, but we also allow other people into our own system, which is the starting point for a healthy conversation. 

Setting boundaries is a process that we learn by experiencing and learning about the outer world, which in this case could be represented by the set of beliefs of our colleagues or our boss.

For the same reasons, leaders should strive to create the right conditions for their colleagues to open up about their inner world. More specifically, leaders could create psychological safety by proactively addressing frictions within the organization.

Our Guest: Caroline Böttiger

Dr. Caroline Böttiger holds a PhD in Neuroscience and works as a psychotherapist and business coach in her office "Das Mitte Institut" in Berlin. She also runs the online platform "emotional-mind" for improving mental health through holistic approaches such as online courses and webinars.

In 2019 she published the book "Das Hungertier in Dir" about emotional eating and the connection between mental and physical health. 

Being an expert in mental health, burnout, leadership, team building and psychological safe communication skills, she provides workshops and coaching for multiple companies in Germany and Europe.

References:

www.mitte-institut.de

www.emotional-mind.com

Dr Caroline Böttiger Linkedin profile

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The influence of the environment on our mental health: Episode Notes

Many neuroscientific studies have addressed the influence of the environment on our mental health.

While it is true that the genetic factors we were born with could predispose us to develop mental issues later in our lives, it is also true that the environment can either accelerate, slow down, or even prevent the onset of these issues.

Our mental well-being is therefore determined by a combination of both biological and environmental elements.

Recent research looking at the effects of the environment on mental health has been focusing more on a few key areas, which will be discussed in this podcast episode:

nutrition

exercise

social interaction

Overall, differences in our environment can affect the levels of inflammation in the body, which can have a negative impact on our mental health  by reducing the blood flow to our brain cells.

When this happens, our brains receive less nutrients and are therefore less able to protect and repair themselves, leading to more neurological degeneration. 

On top of that, oxidative stress can be induced through a bad diet, which causes a build up of toxic chemicals in our body, and can also lead to more neuroinflammation.

Given the tight relation between our gut and our brain, nutrition plays a significant role in the development of neuroinflammation. Specifically, a bad diet can provoke an imbalance in our gut bacteria and consequently affect our mental well-being.

With this in mind, foods that are either high in sugar or heavily processed should be avoided as they have both been linked with oxidative stress and neuroinflammation. New research is showing that mental health can be improved with nutritional supplements (also known as “nutraceuticals”), such as magnesium, zinc and omega-3 for depression.

Physical activity is another key aspect of our mental health. Through exercise we increase blood flow, therefore also increasing the possibility of carrying nutrients to the brain. Research shows that ideally we should seek a combination of aerobic exercise, strength training  and meditative practice such as yoga.

The third and last factor that we discuss on this episode is social interaction. We know that social isolation can quickly and drastically degrade our mental well-being. A lack of social contact can even be as bad for your health as high blood pressure, smoking or obesity. Positive social contact and feedback directly increases our levels of oxytocin ("cuddling hormone") and helps regulate stress, therefore reducing inflammation in the body and the brain. Social interaction can also promote healthy behaviours through following social norms, like going to the gym or quitting smoking.

Because of these reasons, it can be healthy to change our belief system around social interactions in order to turn them into positive experiences whenever we can. A piece of practical advice would be to make the most of social interactions every time we have the opportunity, to connect with others, to experience empathy and to give and receive positive feedback in social situations, especially if we suffer from social anxiety.

Our Guest: Elliot Brown

Elliot is a neuroscientist and mental health advocate who has been doing clinical research in psychiatry for the last 12 years. He wants to get people talking openly about their own mental wellbeing, and to see mental health treated equally as general physical health.

Elliot has lived experience of mental health problems, spent lots of time with people suffering from serious mental illness, and has seen how mental health is tragically neglected on many different levels. He wants to change this.

One way he is making a change is by raising awareness about the brain and mental wellbeing, especially for academia and in the workplace.

References:

Elliot Brown Linkedin profile

Online screening tool by Mental Health America (Formerly known as the National Mental Health Association)

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The science behind depression: Episode Notes

Studies on depression have been changing their approach in recent years.

In the past, there was a tendency to categorize all people with depression under the same umbrella, without really distinguishing specific problems with functioning.

Nowadays however, neuroscientists have started to focus more on how differences in neural and psychological systems can lead to functional impairments in our daily lives, rather than focusing on typical symptoms. This approach can better help identify targets for treatment.

In people who are affected by depression, one key brain network that is found to be abnormal is the reward network, which includes the "pleasure center" of the brain.

In depressed individuals these reward centers in the brain tend to be under-active. Practically speaking, this means that people with such characteristics don't enjoy things as much as they would normally do, and they have much less drive to go out there and seek rewards.

The inactivity that often follows a drop in motivation normally generates negative thoughts, as well as a sense of guilt. This feeling is even stronger for highly ambitious people, as they realize that they are far from the way they should behave according to their own standards and expectations. 

How can we make things better? 

On an individual level, start talking openly about our mental health to break the stigma for ourselves, and for others. The first step could be to reach out to someone we trust, and would not judge us, so that we can begin to share our experiences and our feelings. Following this, we could then find others to open up to whom we might not be so close to. This process will allow for opportunities for positive reinforcement, giving us confidence to be more and more open about our own mental health.

On an organizational level, it would be best to first identify what policies and support systems are already in place, as these might not be properly advertised. Where there are not enough measures (or none at all), change would likely require big shifts in organizational culture, so it would make sense to start small, identify people who could be mental health ambassadors and help push initiatives forward. The ultimate goal would be to normalise mental health issues at work. 

What other knowledge from neuroscience could be helpful to us? 

People can experience depression in many different ways.

“Smiling depression” is a high functioning type of depression, where individuals can lead a seemingly normal life and even maintain a mostly healthy lifestyle. On the outside, many depressed people might look just fine. However, this could be a mask, or a coping strategy to hide their true feelings. Many high-performers experience this kind of depression, and it can be one of the hardest to treat as it often goes unnoticed until it is too late and people are already in crisis or commit suicide.

The negative thoughts associated with lack of motivation when experiencing depression are actually generated by biological changes in the brain, not just mere laziness.

For this reason, it is really important not to beat ourselves up or feel guilty for not fulfilling ambitious goals, or even being able to do basic activities when depressed.

In many cases, we can change our biology through professional psychotherapy or even using self-help tools, depending on how severe our depression might be.

People suffering from depression often have a very hard time to fight their condition on their own, and should seek professional help whenever necessary.

Our Guest: Elliot Brown

Elliot is a neuroscientist and mental health advocate who has been doing clinical research in psychiatry for the last 12 years. He wants to get people talking openly about their own mental wellbeing, and to see mental health treated equally as general physical health.

Elliot has lived experience of mental health problems, spent lots of time with people suffering from serious mental illness, and has seen how mental health is tragically neglected on many different levels. He wants to change this.

One way he is making a change is by raising awareness about the brain and mental wellbeing, especially for academia and in the workplace.

References:

Elliot Brown Linkedin profile

Online screening tool by Mental Health America (Formerly known as the National Mental Health Association)

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