Life Beyond The Numbers

#118 Happiness with Sashenka Milston

"Happiness is enjoying that journey. Carving out that 15 minutes of pleasure. Happiness then increases our performance and our achievement and makes it easier to achieve success." Sashenka Milston
 
Sashenka Milston and I discuss happiness and how we can achieve it. She explains that the research shows that it's not actually how much time you have it's what you do with it that matters to your happiness. What counts is whether we spend the time passively or on personally enriching experiences. Can we be happy at work? And what about stress? Sash talks about different types of stress. We explore the benefits of immersing ourselves in nature and Sash offers insightful tips on how to connect with nature, even without leaving the office, as well as practical exercises to ground yourself and reduce stress. 
 
Sashenka Milston helps leaders and their teams gain a greater sense of purpose and control over their lives and workflow. Sashenka has a PhD in Psychology (Social Neuroscience) and her work is grounded in evidence-based, practical techniques. Outcomes include increased happiness and well-being, productivity, and customer happiness, whilst reducing stress and employee turnover. She guest lectures at the Oxford Brookes Business School. She is a published author and  Happiness Through Goal Setting is short, practical, and based on empirical evidence. 
 
Connect with Sashenka:
On LinkedIn and Twitter
Through her website
 
Resources Mentioned:
Kelly McGonigal "Make Stress Your Friend" TED talk 
Happiness Through Goal Setting: A Practical Guide to Reflect on and Change the Reasons Why You Pursue Your Most Important Goals in Life by Christian Ehrlich and Sashenka Milston 

#117 Your Career - Javed Bobat

"There's always merit and value in being proactive when it comes to making changes within your career and not sleepwalking into a situation where your career's flatlining or you’re not achieving and getting the satisfaction and the enjoyment that you want within a particular job." Javed Bobat
 
Javed and I talk about the importance of taking a proactive approach when it comes to making changes within your career. He encourages regular reflection on what you are looking for within your career and working life as it stands at the moment? And to think through what is important to you? Are you clear on the motivation and purpose behind it? Do you understand and are you prioritising your needs and non-negotiables. We chat job-searching and what to do if your receive a rejection. We discuss leaving a job without another one to go to. We also cover what line-mangers can do to retain staff, like taking responsibility for the people side of their job, and understanding that employees need both their professional and emotional needs met. 
 
Javed Bobat launched Fide Careers in 2019 as an ethical, new benchmark in agency recruitment. He is on a mission to prioritise people over profit and Fide is purpose-driven and socially motivated. They take a percentage of every recruitment fee and reinvest it directly back into the team, candidate and business they recruit for. He also set up a community interest company F=@#! Mental Health for mental health and well-being of the finance and accounting industry.  
 
Connect with Javed:
On LinkedIn
Through his recruitment website
And F=@#! Mental Health website
 
Resources Mentioned:
Episode 12, Building Communities

#116 Challenges - Diego Adame

"One of the challenges this year that I loved was one of my friends created a book and she had 40 questions and I had to answer each question with a picture. And really good questions about reflecting about life, about my past, about my present, about where I want to go." Diego Adame
 
Diego Adame turned 40 during 2022 and decided to take on 40 challenges with friends and family as a way of celebrating the year. This included a variety of physical, fun and creative challenges, like skydiving, trying 40 different types of cheese, dressing up as an ant in Mexico City with friends and swimming 40km during the year with his siblings. Some of the challenges led him to reflect on his life and even revise some of his long-held beliefs about his childhood. Diego works at The Lego Foundation and we talk about our experiences with play in the workplace, and how it helps to create a psychologically safe environment, build relationships, and increase creativity. We conclude this episode with a reflection on how we can always find the time for things that are important to us.
 
Diego Adame, at 28, was scared of becoming old and turning 30. He thought adulthood started at 30 (now he knows it starts at 50). Whenever he approaches an age with a multiple of 10, he feels the need to question his life. He climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro on July 2012 and, without planning it, started a tradition of celebrating birthdays with challenges. Diego has worked in the development sector for almost 15 years and is currently based in Denmark with The Lego Foundation as Senior Director Team Lead of Inclusive Learning. 
 
Connect with Diego
Read his blog "This is (not) a midlife crisis"
 
Resources Mentioned
The Lego Foundation 
 

#115 Work-Life Highlights with Previous Guests

Seven work-life snippets from 2022 guests make up this compilation episode. 
 
David Lee, Episode 102, Human Nature 
Kirsty Ritchie, Episode 91, Mental Fitness
Pete Bearder, Episode 109, Collective Joy
Natasha Tomlinson, Episode 103, Just Go For It
Kris Lantheaume, Episode 111, Success
Dougal Freeman, Episode 92, A Common Goal
Robyn Harris, Episode 108, The Answers Are Inside
 
Wishing all my listeners a joyful and fulfilling 2023
 
Resources Mentioned:
Episode 90 The Way You Make Me Feel 

#114 What’s Another Year? Susan Ní Chriodain

"How did you feel about this year as a whole? And if you were to title this past year as a chapter in your story, what would it be? So, I've put together some thoughts on this year." 
 
The years seems to go by so quickly and can seem like they all roll into one. It can be easy to think well 'what's another year'. In this episode I reflect on the year and explore 2022 around four main themes - self-expression, nature, community and the inner world. 
 
Connect with Susan
On LinkedIn
Through my website
 
Resources Mentioned
Caitlin Cockerton, episode 112 
Gib Bulloch, episode 28 and Craigberoch
Pete Bearder, episode 109
Helen Joy, episode 6 and episode 77
How to Think More Effectively, The School of Life 
Alison Jones, episode 58 and Exploratory Writing 
Rob Lawrence
Kerry Cullen
David Whyte
Seth Godin 
Greta Solomon, episode 80 and Heart, Sass and Soul

#113 Psychological Safety - Dr. Susanne Evans, David Lee & Me

"....isn't that true of so many issues in organisations that it's just because people don't speak to each other and they don't listen to the other side. And that for me is the root, if we're talking about psychological safety, that is at the root. It's the willingness on all sides to be open and to listen." Dr. Susanne Evans
 
Does psychological safety have an impact at work? In this episode Dr Susanne Evans, David Lee and I explore the concept of psychological safety and the impact it has on our working lives. We talk about the work environment, power dynamics, being open, listening and treating one another as humans. We wonder if the term gets interpreted at times as never having to feel uncomfortable. We all agree that feeling uncomfortable at work is inevitable at times but feeling unsafe isn't. And we talk about taking responsibility for our own behaviour. 
 
Dr Susanne Evans is an organisation change consultant, trainer, coach and researcher on a mission to change the way that transformations are managed in organisations. She founded Feldspar Consulting in 2007 to help her clients lead change in a more human, effective way. As well as writing and speaking about organisation change, Susanne hosts open storytelling workshops, supporting organisations and individuals in writing a compelling story for themselves, and she is the host of the popular ChangeStories podcast.
David Lee is a coach, consultant, workshop facilitator, keynote speaker, and author, who loves creating a win/win/win relationship between people and the organizations they work for. He helps leaders and leadership teams learn how to become "people whisperers", and by doing so, increase their ability to make their organization THE choice for "A List Talent" and inspire the best in their people.
 
Connect with Susanne
On LinkedIn
Through her website: Feldspar Consulting
Listen to Change Stories podcast
 
Connect with David
On LinkedIn 
Through his website Human Nature at Work
 
Resources Mentioned:
Amy Edmondson on Psychological Safety
Dealing with a Difficult Coworker by David Lee
Google & Project Aristotle 
 

#112 Go Outside - Caitlin Cockerton

"Keep it simple. It's free. Go outside. There are so many reasons to do it. It's so funny we love to complicate things. Our human brains are like, surely we should be paying for this meeting room and if only we could be doing some weird technical thing as part of our team bonding experience, then we'll be doing the right thing. But no, let's get back to basics".  Caitlin Cockerton
 
Caitlin Cockerton is an avid advocate for spending time, including work time, in nature. She explains that nature is a great metaphor for us and a mirror for what is happening inside. When we are outside we move into a state that enables us to tap into something deeper. We intuitively know the benefits and say things like "I need to go for a walk" or "I need to go and clear my head." But what about the benefits to teams and organisations? When we are caught in a cycle of back-to-back meetings and zoom calls are we really paying attention to what matters most? Slowing down and being in the best space, outdoors, can help us reconnect with ourselves and others, assess our priorities and have some deep and meaningful conversations about our people and our systems. Caitlin and I discuss some simple ways of taking work outside. And Caitlin tells us about her recent retreat in a Spanish desert. 
 
Caitlin Cockerton (PhD, MSc, CPCC) is a Life and Leadership Coach – Canadian roots, with years of experience in fast-paced London business consulting, and now based in the French Alps. Her work focuses on reconnecting people to themselves, one another and the world around us, in service of creating more meaning in the work we do and lives we lead. She does 1:1 coaching, team building and leadership retreats, and facilitates one-of-a-kind seasonal mountain retreats.
 
Connect with Caitlin:
Through her website Great Heights Pathways
 
Resources Mentioned:
Trail Haven Retreats

#111 Success - Kris Lantheaume

"Success for me now is trusting myself and being patient enough to see what emerges rather than rushing to create some version of success that makes sense to other people." Kris Lantheaume
 
Kris Lantheaume learned to find safety in success from a young age. After years of being "successful" at work she found that there was this internal restlessness that would come and go and a voice saying is this really where you wanna be putting all your time? Always focusing on accolades and the next promotion became a habit but knowing she was meant for something else led to an existential career "crisis". We talk about how Kris transitioned to being more in the driver's seat of her life and her work. We talk about how the path to success is different for everyone and as we follow our paths, the most important part, is making sure that it's our path that we're following. And we spend time talking about workplaces and ask the question what can be done to make work a more engaging and meaningful experience?
 
Kris Lantheaume is a business coach and operations strategist helping heart-centered business owners launch and grow their businesses. Sounding board, business advisor, coach, accountability partner and cheerleader, Kris brings decades of high level thinking, deep empathy, and proven problem solving to help her clients navigate the emotional and logistical complexities of business ownership. Given that we all have unique strengths and gifts, Kris is committed to helping people find their own path to doing business in a way that is both financially sustaining and personally fulfilling.
 
Connect with Kris
Through her website 
On LinkedIn and Twitter
 
Resources Mentioned:
Author Sue Monk Kidd
Fear-Setting with Tim Ferris

#110 Four-Week Streaks - Susan Ni C

"So instead I thought, well, what about four weeks? What if I do it in four weeks? And actually that works out perfectly because there. 13 sets of four ... 13 fours is 52." Susan
 
I turned 49 a couple of weeks ago and so began my 50th year on this planet. This led to some reflections on the last 49 years as well as thinking about the future and setting an intention for the next year. I wanted a system that might work for me so rather than thinking for the whole year I broke my year into streaks - and came up with a plan for 13 four-week streaks. Will this work? As the Irish would say 'go mbeirmid beo ag an t-am seo aris' or 'may we be alive at this time again' and if we are we'll find out! 
 
Connect with me:
Send me a message on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Twitter
Or go ahead and send me an email - I'd love to hear from you
 
Resources Mentioned:
Seth Godin Akimbo
Alison Jones: Practical Inspiration Publishing and The Thousand Days Lesson, Episode 276, of Extraordinary Business Book Club Podcast
Inc Magazine Article - 13 Hard to Learn Skills
Atomic Habits by James Clear
 

#109 Collective Joy - Pete Bearder

"If you consider we're living through a mental health epidemic, there is an urgent need for us to pioneer new ways to create collective joy and collective ecstasy, the very things which are an antidote to loneliness." Pete “the Temp” Bearder
 
Pete “the Temp” and I begin our conversation talking about laughter and the role of laughter in our lives: as a healing modality, as a way to release tension, the giggles and the practice of laughter yoga and meditation. We delve into the culture that gave birth to the modern work environment and one that suppresses creativity and art in the name of profit and efficiency. Pete shares how he came to dedicate his life to the spoken word. We talk about the involvement of our bodies in speech and how class, gender and power all play a role in how we interact. And we discuss the differences between the spoken word and the written word. 
 
Pete “the Temp” Bearder is an award-winning spoken word poet, author, comic and laughter yoga instructor. He has toured around the world as a performer, delivered workshops with organisations such as The British Council and featured on BBC national and international radio and television. Pete has worked extensively as a spoken word educator through the Spoken Word Education Programme in collaboration with Goldsmiths University and cultural institutions. In 2019 he released a book about performance poetry called Stage Invasion: Poetry, Renewal and the Spoken Word Renaissance.
 
Connect with Pete:
Through his website
On YouTube, on Instagram and Facebook
 
Resources Mentioned:
Stage Invasion: Poetry & The Spoken Word Renaissance by Pete Bearder
Dancing in the Streets by Barbara Ehrenreich
Emmy the Harp