Redesigning Post-Pandemic Work

Without notice, the coronavirus pandemic forced companies to radically change how their people worked.  Nearly 90% of businesses globally mandated or encouraged their employees to work from home, as the virus spread exponentially (Gartner, 2020).

Twelve months later, with vaccines being rolled out, organisations are developing return-to-work strategies.  Leaders have a unique opportunity to engineer smarter ways of working.  The research indicates that for many organisations working-life will look very different to pre-2020 norms.  A recent Gartner study reports that close to half of all employees will work remotely at least some of the time in the post-pandemic world., compared with 30% before Covid-19.  

A larger remote workforce will force leaders to rethink their approaches to leading teams. Many challenges surfaced last year including trust issues between remote managers and staff working from home. The cost of working...

Proven hacks to embed positive habits

Is there an aspect of your life that you would benefit from changing? For example; watching less Netflix, exercising more, checking your phone less, connecting with nature more. These changes involve dropping old habits or creating new ones. Unfortunately, our noble goals can be harder to realise than we would like. Many people struggle to covert positive change into lasting behaviours. If you’ve had this experience, you're far from alone.

Setbacks and the need to get back-on-track are part of the change process. However, when we fall back into old habits feelings of failure can arise, triggering self-criticism and self-doubt. Science tells us that this response trips us into a downward spiral of shame, pain or fear. Here’s the rub - when we are upset our brain is not good at making decisions and we seek instant relief, even if it means engaging in the habits we are trying to quit.

But there is hope; you can mentor yourself and...

Are you running on empty? I don't mean you just need a decent nights sleep or two, rather do you have a deeper sense of exhaustion or fatigue?  We are pre-occupied by your energy levels at Leadium and for good reason. Energy management and vitality are foundational to performance and life satisfaction. 

I was delighted to be interviewed by seasoned HR professional Melissa McGowan recently and we explored the science of stamina. Melissa has over twenty years of experience and cumulative wisdom leading People and Culture teams. She has recently launched her inspiring Go To Grow podcast featuring wide-reaching interviews spanning the growth offered by parenting, inclusive workplaces, living with breast cancer and the power of moving. Melissa and I had a highly relevant conversation on growing mental stamina at work and it's implications for every busy professional. Some of the topics we cover include: 

• Seeking out ease in our...

Exhausted by imagined threats

One aspect of the brain's negativity bias is that we tend to overestimate threats and over-learn from difficult experiences. Left unchecked, this default habit of mind can be highly corrosive and depleting. It also results in us regularly misperceiving reality, which is far from ideal. 

Rebalancing your brain

We explore this fascinating topic in our Expert Insight podcast with respected Neuro-psychologist Dr Rick Hanson. In this episode on Hardwiring Resilience, we decode why the brain is tilted to the negative and we explore simple yet very powerful strategies to rebalance the brain. We are huge fans of Rick's work (and his many books) and we encourage you to listen to his wisdom and insights.  

We should mention that you need to subscribe to Leadium to access our library of podcasts. It's well worth it! 

Tune in now. 

Beyond radical candour 

When we receive negative feedback at work the floor can shake beneath our feet and it is very hard not to take it personally. We can feel our job is at risk. We can feel diminished by the person pointing to our flaws. Sometimes we shut down and stop listening.

Most people would agree that giving and receiving feedback can be complex. That is why so many managers feel inhibited around these on-the-spot performance conversations.
However, feedback is a critical ingredient in creating an engaged and high-performing organisation. Therefore building a thriving, performance-based feedback culture needs to priority for every leader.

In this episode of the Leadium podcast, Sharon Longridge chats with Dr Anne Lytle.  Dr Lytle holds a BSc from Cornell University in Neuroscience and her MS and PhD in Organisational Behaviour from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University.  Anne has taught, presented, and consulted in...

The Eighth Sense and Leadership

Have you had a day recently where you skipped lunch or forgot to drink enough water? Perhaps you sat at your computer without stretching for far too long. For some of us when we feel under pressure, we ignore the signals from our body. But science tells us that acting on these cues really matters.

For thousands of years, ancient practices like yoga and Tai Chi, have recognised that the mind affects the body, and the body affects the mind. These complex systems are profoundly interconnected. By way of contrast, traditional theories in psychology place the responsibility for generating our behaviour in the brain.

Modern science is gradually reconnecting the body-mind. We know that 80% of the fibres in our sensory pathways travel from the body into the brain, while only 20% head the other way. Our experience of these sensations is the little-discussed, yet ever-present sense called interoception. As Sharon’s guest in this episode explains,...

You can rewire your brain!

If you’re like most of us, your internal panic button can be triggered far too easily, even on those days that are peppered with simple pleasant moments.

When we enter this 'red zone' fear, frustration or feelings of inadequacy can engulf us. This state of mind is exhausting and depleting. As you’ll hear we all have a hardwired negativity bias, largely due to the evolution of our brain. The welcomed news is that we can overwrite this outdated mental habit and the process is really enjoyable.

In this episode of the Leadium podcast, Sharon Longridge interviews Dr Rick Hanson, a psychologist and New York Times best-selling author. His books include Resilient, Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha’s Brain, Just One Thing, Mother Nurture, and the most recently published Neurodharma. He’s been an invited speaker at major universities including Oxford, Stanford and Harvard. His work has been widely featured across global media networks. Rick is a...