My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in Business and Leadership Dr. Mira Brancu’s Long Email About an Ethics Situation Was Not Well Received
CEO of Brancu Associates
Episode page and links: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake145
My guest for Episode #145 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Dr. Mira Brancu. She is the Founder & CEO of Brancu Associates and is a Consulting Psychologist, Speaker, and Author.
Dr. Brancu helps leaders expertly navigate complexity in the workplace and help organizations make it easier for leaders to navigate. Dr. Brancu has 20+ years of experience in large, complex organizations, including federal government, academia, and healthcare.
She has a Psychology Today blog focused on women's leadership and is the author of Millennials Guide to Workplace Politics: What No One Ever Told You About Power and Influence. She received the 2020 Early Career Woman Psychologist in Management award and the 2021 Triangle Business Journal's Corporate Philanthropist Award.
Her background includes:
- PhD in clinical psychology
- M.Ed. and advanced certificate in counseling and supervision
- Certificates in: Business; Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in the Workplace; Lean Six Sigma Green Belt; Coaching
In today's episode, Mira shares her “favorite mistake” story about an early job as a school counselor and how she felt compelled to send a lengthy email about an ethics situation “straight to the top” and how that was “not well received.” What did she learn from that situation?
We also talk about questions and topics including:
- Saying things like “I have a concern”? “Help me understand”… (or tell me more)
- Approach took focus off of the core issue?
- They made it about you as a deflection?
- Helping leaders make space for reflection?
- Applications of clinical psychology to organizational settings?
- How do you define Emotional Intelligence?
- Systems thinking and understanding yourself in a system of people?
- Complex workplace systems – no simple root causes of conflict?
- “Organizational trauma”?? — betrayal, lack of trust
- Tell us about the book — Not just for millennials?
- What can one person do?
- When to better navigate the environment and when to move on?
- Don’t want to deal with politics?