Stay ConnectedIn difficult times, it’s easy to despair.
But all around us are experts who have proven tactics and strategies to stay strong: for ourselves, for our teams and for our organizations. This is a podcast asking the very best in the world how to stay resilient.
This is a podcast that shows us We Will Get Through This.
Copyright: © MBS.works @2020
Ric Leahy, my guest in this episode, was almost responsible for a career choice of mine that would have been disastrous, both for me and my country. Ric and I went to high school together. When we hit our final year, Ric had a plan: “I'm going to win a scholarship and join the navy." And I thought … well, why not. I'm going to join the air force.
Ric wins his scholarship and begins a career in the navy. I failed every test they had, didn't begin a career in the air force, and eventually found my own path.
During his naval career, Ric served on the staff of the Chief of the Australian Navy, on multiple ships, and was deployed on the ground on operations to Cambodia, Timor-Leste, and Iraq. He was awarded a Queen's Gold Medal, and later in his career the Conspicuous Service Cross.
He now leads a number of leadership programs for Australia’s top business schools, has become a “neuro nerd” with an Executive Masters degree on neuroscience and leadership, and is an endurance athlete. In our conversation we talk about where we do our best thinking--and why--and three powerful mindsets: the Sensei, the Scientist and the Socializer.
This show is brought to you by The Advice Trap, Michael Bungay Stanier’s latest book. You can access a wide range of tools to help #TameYourAdviceMonster at www.TheAdviceTrap.com
If you’d like to spend more time with Michael and people he admires, sign up for The Year of Living Brilliantly. 52 teachers over 52 weeks, each teaching one brilliant insight. Absolutely free.
Now I'm not going to name names but, oh, you need to know I have them in my head right now. I can see them, I can hear them, I can feel my breath getting a little faster, my shoulders going up around my ears, my spine stiffening, my jaw clenching a bit.
Equally, and I hope this is true for you as well, there are some people who calm me down. People who make me smile, help me breathe, let my shoulders drop, let my heart open. Eric Klein is one of those people. He is a great calming influence in my life and a deep and precious friend.
He is one of the few people on the planet to be both a best-selling leadership author and a lineage holder and teacher in a 3,000 year yoga tradition. He leads Wisdom Heart, a global online meditation community, and serves organizations at the Mindfulteam.com
In our conversation we dig into the neuroscience of calmness, the power of making a prenuptial contract with your own brain, where is the most useful place to start to settle yourself down, and (as strange as this might sound) just what it takes to breathe.
You can meet Eric at www.Wisdomheart.com.
This show is brought to you by The Advice Trap, Michael Bungay Stanier’s latest book. You can access a wide range of tools to help #TameYourAdviceMonster at www.TheAdviceTrap.com
If you’d like to spend more time with Michael and people he admires, sign up for The Year of Living Brilliantly. 52 teachers over 52 weeks, each teaching one brilliant insight. Absolutely free.
One of the few people in my life who was a great boss to me was Kate Lye. One of the reasons I truly love Kate, and this will sound a bit odd, is her intolerance. Intolerance not of people so much, but of shonky, flabby thinking. She has an ability to stick a finger at the kind of weak thinking that often shows up in the world of leadership and resilience and whatever else and saying, "Well that's not really good enough is it? Somebody's just made that up." That quest for rigor in thinking is something that I try and hold onto myself and I see all the time in Kate.
Kate is a leadership specialist based in London and who works with clients worldwide. For over 20 years, ever since I’ve known her, she has been fascinated by how deep change happens for both individuals and organizations. And her work with CEOs and executive teams is focused on equipping them to hardwire tough changes and be clear-sighted about what or who gets in the way. She is a confidant and a coach to many leaders as they transform their businesses.
In our conversation, we sweep aside the platitudes and empty generalities that plague any discussion about resilience, and uncover the process by which we need to construct our own, personalized, RMO: Resilience Modus Operandi.
You can meet Kate at www.KLIconsult.com or on LinkedIn to say hello.
This show is brought to you by The Advice Trap, Michael Bungay Stanier’s latest book. You can access a wide range of tools to help #TameYourAdviceMonster at www.TheAdviceTrap.com
If you’d like to spend more time with Michael and people he admires, sign up for The Year of Living Brilliantly. 52 teachers over 52 weeks, each teaching one brilliant insight. Absolutely free.
The poet Muriel Rukeyser wrote, “The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.” I think, actually, it’s likely made of both … and while I can’t really claim any deep expertise in physics, I do know a little bit about the power of story-telling.
A little bit. But not as much as Bernadette Jiwa who amongst other things has teamed up with Seth Godin to create a fantastic workshop on storytelling as part of his Akimbo series.
Storytelling is the fabric that creates relationship and community and history. In creating history, it allows you to navigate where you are in the present, and also lay a path out to where you might be going in the future.
But it’s plenty easy to tell a story poorly. A boring start, a soggy middle, an end that trails off … we’ve all been on the receiving end of that non-epic. To get beyond that, to save your story, you need a Story Scaffold, which is just what Bernadette shares in this episode.
Bernadette helps people, organizations, and communities practice everyday storytelling to build resilience, trust, and connection … all critical skills to help us get through this.
You can meet Bernadette at her website www.thestoryoftelling.com
This show is brought to you by The Advice Trap, Michael Bungay Stanier’s latest book. You can access a wide range of tools to help #TameYourAdviceMonster at www.TheAdviceTrap.com
If you’d like to spend more time with Michael and people he admires, sign up for The Year of Living Brilliantly. 52 teachers over 52 weeks, each teaching one brilliant insight. Absolutely free.
I was introduced to the concept of projects and project management through a productivity guy: David Allen. In David’s book Getting Things Done, he says (and I paraphrase), "We get overwhelmed by all the stuff on our plates. Start thinking about almost everything you do as a project, and then you can start managing it as a project." David’s introducing a system, and in tough times, good systems are one of the things that help you live a better life, feel more in control, and get through this.
Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez is the world expert on projects and project management. He’s written books, Harvard Business Review articles and is named as one of the Thinkers 50, the so-called “Oscars of management”. He really has been a champion forever in the argument that projects are the lingua franca of the business and personal worlds.
In our conversation we talk about the power of focus; the necessity of courage; why saying No is perhaps the ultimate project management hack; and how to avoid the swamps of project management where so many of us can get bogged down.
You can meet Antonio at his website www.antonionietorodriguez.com and on Twitter at @AnietoRodriguez.
This show is brought to you by The Advice Trap, Michael Bungay Stanier’s latest book. You can access a wide range of tools to help #TameYourAdviceMonster at www.TheAdviceTrap.com
If you’d like to spend more time with Michael and people he admires, sign up for The Year of Living Brilliantly. 52 teachers over 52 weeks, each teaching one brilliant insight. Absolutely free.
Dorie Clark has been described by no less than the New York Times as an expert in self-reinvention and helping others make changes in their lives. That’s probably all you need to know. But in case you’re asking yourself, “yes, but what else?” know that she's a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review and is author of a number of books including Stand Out, which was named the number one leadership book of the year by Inc magazine.
I’ve known Dorie for quite a while, and part of her quiet genius is the disciplined rigour of her approach to anything she does. When she builds a brand, she does it methodically. When she creates a network, she does it methodically. When she builds her business … you get the idea.
If you’re known for something, you’re more likely to be valued; and if you’re valued, you’re more likely to get through whatever’s ahead. In our conversation we talk about why we shouldn’t get tripped up on the whole idea of “a personal brand”; why, if you build it, they won’t come; the necessity of creating content, and how to start even if you don’t know where to start; the power of social proof; and why networking really isn’t as bad as you probably think it is.
You can meet Dorie on her website and discover how far along the path you are to becoming a recognized expert at www.DorieClark.com/toolkit.
This show is brought to you by The Advice Trap, Michael Bungay Stanier’s latest book. You can access a wide range of tools to help #TameYourAdviceMonster at www.TheAdviceTrap.com
If you’d like to spend more time with Michael and people he admires, sign up for The Year of Living Brilliantly. 52 teachers over 52 weeks, each teaching one brilliant insight. Absolutely free.
Money is so often a source of anxiety … and that’s during the good times. When times are hard, money can prove to be an even more significant source of concern and stress.
That’s why I invited Bruce Sellery to be a guest on the podcast. I met him many years ago when he was a business journalist, and he’s gone on to be the host of the Million Dollar Neighborhood for the Oprah Winfrey Network and a money columnist for CBC Radio. He’s the author of Moolala: Why Smart People do Dumb Things with Their Money, and he also hosts Moolala: Money Made Simple, a weekly radio show on personal finance for SiriusXM.
You get a sense of Bruce in the name of his business: it’s pronounced M-oo-la-LA!. He’s about adding some flair and lightness to understanding money, while not diminishing its importance. In our conversation we dig deep into the four reasons why people do dumb things with money (“the C Factors); and then the five steps it takes to build out a robust money plan, in difficult times and in good times.
You can meet Bruce at his website www.Moolala.ca and follow him on Twitter at @brucesellery.
This show is brought to you by The Advice Trap, Michael Bungay Stanier’s latest book. You can access a wide range of tools to help #TameYourAdviceMonster at www.TheAdviceTrap.com
If you’d like to spend more time with Michael and people he admires, sign up for The Year of Living Brilliantly. 52 teachers over 52 weeks, each teaching one brilliant insight. Absolutely free.
Jen Louden is one of my most important friends. We met fifteen years ago (it might even be more), when a mutual friend suggested we be part of a mastermind group together. Honestly, I wasn’t sure it would last. She was the best-selling author of The Women’s Comfort Book, the first mega-selling book on self-care … and what I assumed was likely a whole bunch of touchy-feely, self-indulgent stuff that was not really my thing at all.
And yet, here we are. I love her and I admire her work, in particular her new book Why Bother? When times are hard, one reaction is often apathy. There are things to do … but why bother? Jen’s struggled with that, and has written a book that shares in a practical, compassionate and non-trite way how to find your way back to purpose, engagement and, ultimately, yourself.
In our conversation we talk about the myths of self-comfort, and how it’s often hard, not soft; how it’s possible to have self-compassionate grit; why you have to be alert for key moments of transition; the power of Conditions of Enoughness; and how (to everyone’s surprise) Jen ended up being a committed trail runner.
You can meet Jen at her website www.Jenniferlouden.com and follow her on Instagram at @JenLouden.
This show is brought to you by The Advice Trap, Michael Bungay Stanier’s latest book. You can access a wide range of tools to help #TameYourAdviceMonster at www.TheAdviceTrap.com
If you’d like to spend more time with Michael and people he admires, sign up for The Year of Living Brilliantly. 52 teachers over 52 weeks, each teaching one brilliant insight. Absolutely free.
The first time I saw Chester, he was wearing one of his trademark orange shirts and was surrounded by adoring fans at a learning and development conference. It was clear that people loved him. To be honest, I was irritated. I wanted some of that mojo for myself!
When I got to know him years later, I discovered that, well, I loved him too … the man combines a big heart and a big brain in a way that’s irresistible. He is the author of a number of books that combined have sold north of 1.5 million copies. On the back of that thought leadership, he has worked for more than two decades helping organizations engage their employees in organizational strategy, vision, and values.
In our conversation we dig into the wisdom of his latest book, Leading with Gratitude. We crush the misunderstanding that gratitude is somehow self-indulgence; talk about what it takes to build up the gratitude muscle; wrestle with the “Hand of God” from an atheist’s (mine) point of view; and share the ritual Chester instituted to help his kids embrace the power of gratitude.
You can meet Chester at www.LeadingWithGratitudeBook.com and www.TheCultureWorks.com, and follow him on LinkedIn.
This show is brought to you by The Advice Trap, Michael Bungay Stanier’s latest book. You can access a wide range of tools to help #TameYourAdviceMonster at www.TheAdviceTrap.com
If you’d like to spend more time with Michael and people he admires, sign up for The Year of Living Brilliantly. 52 teachers over 52 weeks, each teaching one brilliant insight. Absolutely free.
Confession: I’m not that great at conflict. For WAY too long my motto has been: Why have conflict when you can passively aggressively avoid it in some way? But the truth is, if we’re going to get through this, we need to manage conflict as best we can. Avoid the unnecessary fights; and fight well in the conflicts we have to have to move forward.
That’s why it’s so important to listen to Liane Davey. She is an organizational psychologist who advises leaders on both strategy and team effectiveness. She's distilled her 25 years of experience into her most recent book, The Good Fight: Use Productive Conflict to Get Your Team and Your Organization Back on Track.
In our conversation we talk about why we’re biologically wired to avoid conflict (see, it isn’t just me!); the price we pay for accumulating “conflict debt”; the delusion of “picking your battles”; when sweating palms can be helpful; and how to best harness the power of validation and reciprocity.
You can meet Liane at www.LianeDavey.com and follow her on LinkedIn.
This show is brought to you by The Advice Trap, Michael Bungay Stanier’s latest book. You can access a wide range of tools to help #TameYourAdviceMonster at www.TheAdviceTrap.com
If you’d like to spend more time with Michael and people he admires, sign up for The Year of Living Brilliantly. 52 teachers over 52 weeks, each teaching one brilliant insight. Absolutely free.
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