The Curious Choice Leader Podcast

I think its safe to say 2020 hasn't been the year any of us planned, but it has given us many learning opportunities and there will be wins and things we can be proud of.
 
So, since this is the last episode of The Curious Choice Leader Podcast for 2020, I thought it would be a good opportunity to get curious about reviewing the year, about how we can celebrate our achievements, capture our lessons and make choices about how we apply them to our working worlds going forward.
 

We all doubt our abilities from time to time, and when it goes too far it can become an episode of Imposter Complex.  With the amount of change we have all been experiencing recently, it's been especially prevalent.

What if I was to tell you that experiencing Imposter Complex is a good thing and that it can make you a better leader?

In this episode, I explain why that is and how you can make friends with your Imposter Complex so it helps you become a better leader

Being a coach and using coaching skills are not the same thing - almost all of us can benefit from using coaching skills as part of our role and as leaders, we can use them to unlock the performance of our teams.

As we develop our skills to deliver work through and with others using the skills of coaching will, for example, allow you to understand other people's perspectives, open up other people's thinking so you come up with better solutions and support the decision-making process - something all teams benefit from whatever they do.

In this episode, I look at how using coaching fits with the other things leaders have to do and how leaders need to be able to apply different styles of coaching at different times.

The week this episode is published in the week the UK, like much of Europe, enters a second national lockdown and the week of the US Elections.  Not for the first time this year, it feels like everything around us is changing.

As leaders what are the first things we should do when we are in this situation?  How can we best help ourselves and our teams to deal with everything.

In this episode it's time to get curious about what our first priorities should be as leaders and make some choices about what we are going to do.

 With so much change going on around us both at work and in the world, in general, it's not surprising that more people are looking for answers and are looking for help with their work, their leadership and their business. 

And there is no shortage of people offering to help them, advisors, consultants and coaches. Some days it feels like everyone you meet or see in your inbox, on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and anywhere else you look is calling themselves a coach. 

In this episode, I share 7 questions you should ask yourself before you start looking for a coach and then discuss the different styles of coaches and how you can use that information to pick the right coach for you right now.

Working environments with a high level of trust between people makes everything else is easier, so naturally, as leaders, we want to cultivate more of it. Trust is a living organic thing that grows between people, and despite what I commonly see talked about you can't manufacture it and you can't force someone else to trust you. 

Instead, we need to show we are trustworthy and that's based on four foundational cores - integrity, intent, capability and results. 

In this episode, I explore how we as leaders can demonstrate those four foundational cores to the people around us.

Trust - we know teams and businesses where trust is high do better than those where trust is low, so it's no wonder that we hear a lot of people talking about creating or manufacturing trust.

And I have a problem with that.

In this episode, I explain why and what it is that bothers me about some of the conversations and advice about trust.

If you find yourself rolling your eyes at letting out an involuntary groan when someone suggests something new, or you spot your team doing it when you talk about a change you all need to make, the chances are change fatigue is setting in.

There is no doubt that too much change in too short a period of change is exhausting, but what can you do to combat change fatigue and keep your team productive?

In this episode Bekka shares some things you can do to manage the change fatigue in your team.

Working from home - do you love it or hate it?  With the latest UK government guidelines reverting to telling people to work from home where possible and that we should expect that advice to last for at least six months we are facing more changes in how our teams and the teams we interact with, work.  

How people react to even small changes can surprise us and in this episode, I talk about managing and leading these changes and being ready to be surprised. 

I also talk about managing the one thing that underpins all the changes we expect our team to make - the team energy level.  How we feel about working from home is often linked to how we get our energy and I share a fun way of understanding this and talking about it as a team.

In all my years leading change and working with leaders leading change I've never seen a leader get it 100% right 100% of the time - some have come close, and yet despite the very best intentions, many haven't.  In this episode, I pull together the 9 most common leadership traps I see leaders of change falling into when they are leading change.

So, are you ready to get curious about the things that leaders often get wrong when they are leading change and make some choices about how to avoid those mistakes yourself?

Check out thecuriouschoiceleader.com for a full transcript and links to any resources mentioned