Better At Work with Cathal Quinlan

In episode 7 of this Better@Work episode, we have an engaging chat on better leadership with the super smart and warm Amy Jen Su. We work through the five essential principles for bringing out your best-self every day. Amy understands busy leaders and entrepreneurs want to improve, however they don’t want to be overwhelmed at the prospect of doing more in order to be a successful and effective leader. We love Amy’s book, The Leader You Want to Be: Five Essential Principles to Bringing Out Your Best Self – Every Day (2019). The book reveals five key leadership elements – Purpose, Process, People, Presence, and Peace – we can use to increase our capacity, energy, and impact, with less stress and more calm. In our chat, Amy unpack all the principles and shares how we can tap into and expand our leadership capacity in order to be at our best. Amy is managing partner and co-founder of Paravis Partners, an executive training and coaching firm. She is a frequently sought-after executive coach and speaker on issues of leadership presence, communications excellence, and executive endurance--factors critical to a leader's performance success. She has a proven track record helping senior leaders clearly articulate their personal and organisational vision, maintain their personal best amid change and complexity, and be a compelling communicator with all stakeholders. This chat with Amy is fun and full of practical tips which will teach you how to tap into and expand your leadership capacity so that you can be your best, sustain yourself, and thrive as a leader. Quick episode breakdown: We learn the difference between leader A and leader B mode Discuss “The Pitfalls of Doing”  Amy talks about her five leadership elements - purpose, process, people, presence and peace We discuss if leadership is learned or innate Amy shares her best tip for listeners to have a better day at work Let’s Take This offline In our “Let’s take this offline” segment I debrief on Amy’s key insights with my friend Annette and answer a question from our listener Amanda, who is having trouble with her boss in a new role. Get in touch: Cathal@betteratwork.com.au or betteratwork.net Get in touch on Instagram: @betteratwork_ Get in touch on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathal-quinlan/ Send us a question or leave us a voicemail: betteratwork.net/contact-us/ Get the newsletter: betteratwork.net About Amy Learn more about Amy on her website https://paravispartners.com/our-team/amy-jen-su/ Her book, The Leader You Want to Be: Five Essential Principles to Bringing Out Your Best Self – Every Day https://store.hbr.org/product/the-leader-you-want-to-be-five-essential-principles-for-bringing-out-your-best-self-every-day/10197 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In episode six of this Better@Work episode, we have an informative chat on burnout with our first Canadian guest, Jennifer Moss. Since early 2020, many of us have been operating in crisis mode; responding to the expanding demands of work, working from home while juggling family priorities all under the mental fog of chronic stress. Burnout is real and it has increased significantly since the pandemic struck. Jennifer believes organizations need to design burnout strategies that move beyond apps, wellness programs and perks. Instead, she makes the case for a systematic and preventative approach to building an anti-burnout strategy.  In our chat, Jennifer explores the causes and implications of burnout, the responsibilities of both the employee and the employer in identifying and preventing burnout, and tangible solutions to combat it — helping leaders to distinguish between good intentions and effective policies. Jennifer Moss is an award-winning author, speaker, and radio columnist, reporting on topics related to happiness and workplace well-being. Her articles have appeared in Forbes, the Society of Human Resource Management, Fortune, and Harvard Business Review. Her first book, “Unlocking Happiness at Work,” received the distinguished UK Business Book of the Year Award. Jennifer has been named a Canadian Innovator of the Year, an International Female Entrepreneur of the Year, and was a recipient of the Public Service Award from the Office of President Obama. Jennifer’s new book, The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How We Can Fix It, attempts to explain burnout and provide the strategies to navigate these challenging times. Jennifer is a great guest and provides super practical solutions to burnout, we hope you enjoy the episode.    Quick episode breakdown: Jennifer and I discuss how she went from being the happiness expert to an unhappiness expert We learn how the World Health Organisation identified burnout as a workplace phenomenon We talk about what research shows are the triggers for burnout; Workload, Perceived lack of control, Lack of reward or recognition, Poor relationships, Lack of fairness, Values mismatch How having a best friend at work can reduce burnout and even help you get a promotion! Why some personalities are more at risk of burnout over others How companies can build an antiburnout strategy based on prevention, not perks What leaders can do to develop a healthier culture by leading with curiosity and becoming more empathetic.   Let’s Take This offline In our “Let’s take this offline” segment I debrief on Jennifer’s key insights with my friend Annette and answer a question from our listener Louise, who has a team member experiencing the loss of a close family member. Louise is keen for some guidance on managing this difficult time for her team member.     Get in touch: Cathal@betteratwork.com.au or betteratwork.net Get in touch on Instagram: @betteratwork_ Get in touch on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathal-quinlan/ Send us a question or leave us a voicemail: betteratwork.net/contact-us/ Get the newsletter: betteratwork.net   About Jennifer Jennifer Moss is a syndicated radio columnist, and a workplace well-being expert. She was on the Global Happiness Council—a small group of leading scientists and economists that support the UN’s goals related to global well-being. Website https://www.jennifer-moss.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In episode five of this Better@Work episode, we have a fun and super insightful chat about emotions at work with Mollie West Duffy. Molly and her co-collaborator Liz Fosslien are two of my favourite people to follow for their nuggets of wisdoms and illustrations. Mollie believes most of us shy away from sharing what we're feeling with colleagues and bosses. She shares her insights and ideas about the new rules of emotions at work including: be less passionate about your job and why your feelings aren't facts. Mollie and I discuss how we can use our emotions at work positively and the benefits it will bring for us and our colleagues. Mollie is an expert in organizational design, development, and leadership coaching. She previously was an organizational design lead at global innovation firm IDEO. She’s helped advise and coach leaders and founders at companies including Google and LinkedIn. She’s experienced in designing talent processes and systems, as well as organizational structures and behaviours, cultural values, and learning and development programs. She is the co-author with Liz Fosslien of the Wall Street Journal bestseller No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work and now their second book Big Feelings: How To Be Okay When Things Are Not Okay. This chat with Mollie is great fun, with some amazing thought-provoking takeaways on emotions at work. Quick episode breakdown: - Mollie and I discuss treating your emotions as data - We talk about how we compare ourselves to others, Mollie highlight some of the key ways that comparison can help us increase our happiness and development - The importance of psychological safety in teams and study from Google which looked at successful teams, with teams that had the highest level of psychological safety being less likely to leave their jobs - Mollie shared the amazing insight “no one is going to draw your boundaries for you” - We learn about Cal Newport’s technique “schedule shutdown complete” - Plus, Mollie and I chat about everything from Elon Musk emotions to the lack of a safety net in the US. Let’s Take This offline In our “Let’s take this offline” segment I debrief on Mollie’s key insights with my friend Annette and answer a question from our listener Daniel, who loves his work but is concerned the company’s brand is lacklustre and wont succeed. Get in touch: Cathal@betteratwork.com.au or betteratwork.net Get in touch on Instagram: @betteratwork_ Get in touch on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathal-quinlan/ Send us a question or leave us a voicemail: betteratwork.net/contact-us/ Get the newsletter: betteratwork.net About Mollie Mollie is an expert in organisational design, development and leadership coaching, having coached leaders at companies such as Google and LinkedIn. Mollie helps organisations become more adaptive, creative, and effective by intentionally designing all aspects of their organisational structures. She is the co-author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling book about emotions at work: No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work, and Big Feelings: How To Be Okay When Things Are Not Okay Website https://molliewestduffy.com/about Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In episode four of this Better@Work episode, we welcome the inspiring Floyd Woodrow. I love Floyd’s story and his amazing Compass for Life framework.  A few years ago, I was looking for some inspiration to help me find my Super North Star and came across Floyd Woodrow DCM MBE. Floyd is Managing Director and founder of Chrysalis Worldwide, a world-leading values-based organisation and owner of Quantum group. Floyd spent his formative years first in the UK Parachute Regiment before joining the Special Air Service at the age of 22, where he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his work in Iraq and an MBE for his work in Afghanistan. Floyd is now a renowned speaker on leadership and performance coaching world-wide and has established an international reputation for designing and running leadership and elite performance training in sports, business, government, police, not for profit organisations and education. Floyd is known to be challenging, supportive and totally committed to developing elite teams and individuals as well as offering practical and commercial value in strategic planning and execution. Floyd has also written several books including Learning to Learn, and more recently, The Warrior, The Strategist and You in which he outlines the “Compass for Life model for leadership and life”. This is a fantastic conversation with Floyd, I hope you enjoy it as much as I (and my producer Darcy ) did.     Quick episode breakdown: Floyd and I discuss the fact that life is a journey and how paying attention to what lights you up on your journey in work and life is so important Developing your Super North Star and how his compass for life provides the framework you need to achieve balance and point towards your Super North Star Floyd talks about the importance of mindset, and shares his amazing leadership and elite team’s performance insights Plus, Floyd shares his passion and approach for helping inspire kids in schools   Let’s Take This offline In our “Let’s take this offline” segment I debrief on Floyd’s key insights with my friend Annette and answer a question from a listener who is feeling really stuck in their job and exhausted as a result.   Get in touch: Cathal@betteratwork.com.au or betteratwork.net Get in touch on Instagram: @betteratwork_ Get in touch on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathal-quinlan/ Send us a question or leave us a voicemail: betteratwork.net/contact-us/ Get the newsletter: betteratwork.net   About Floyd Floyd is a former Special Forces Soldier and was one of the youngest soldiers ever to have been selected for the elite SAS, in fact he was graded in the top 1% of SAS officers. He has an MBE for his work in Afghanistan. Floyd is a renowned speaker on leadership and performance coaching world-wide and has established an international reputation for designing and running leadership and elite performance training in sports, business, government, police, not for profit organisations and education. Floyd is known to be challenging, supportive and totally committed to developing elite teams and individuals as well as offering practical and commercial value in strategic planning and execution. Floyd’s third book is called The Warrior, The Strategist and You and outlines the “Compass for Life model for leadership and life”    Book: The Warrior, The Strategist And You: How To Find Your Purpose And Realise Your Potential https://compassforlife.co.uk/book-shop/ Book: Elite!: The Secret To Exceptional Leadership And Performance website: https://floydwoodrow.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In episode three of this Better@Work episode, we’re excited to welcome the amazing Tessa West for a high energy, fun and insightful chat. I came across Tessa in the last year through her amazing book, Jerks at Work: Toxic Coworkers and What to do About Them. Social psychologist Tessa has spent years leveraging science to help people solve interpersonal conflicts in the workplace. What she discovered is that most of our go-to tactics don’t work because they fail to address the specific motivations that drive bad behaviour. In the book, she deep dives the seven jerks you’re most likely to encounter in the workplace, drawing on decades of original research to expose their inner workings and weak points — and ultimately deliver an effective game plan for stopping each type before they take you down with them. It’s a book I wish I had many years ago.  Quick episode breakdown: I chat with Tessa around what her inspired to work in the area of interpersonal interaction and communication, and why she wrote her book Jerks at Work: Toxic Coworkers and What to do About Them  Tessa talks about the seven types (archetypes) of jerks at work; kiss-up/kick-downer, credit stealer, bulldozer, free-rider, micromanager, neglectful boss and the gaslighter We agree there are always jerks at work, however you can deal with them by understanding how they tick, and using tactics to understand their motivations and restore your emotional wellbeing I share my challenges with a gaslighter and micromanager and we talk through the types of conflicts you're likely to encounter in the workplace and evidence-based approaches for dealing with toxic bosses, annoying coworkers, and difficult people at work. While dealing with challenging people is not easy, we also have some fun talking through some of personal examples of toxic individuals (sometimes you have to laugh are their brazen approach, humour helps too!!).  Tessa talks to me about her quiz we can take to make sure we are not the jerk at work Finally, Tessa shares an amazing tip on some advice she received which makes her better at work Let’s Take This offline In our “Let’s take this offline” segment I debrief on Tessa’s key insights with my friend Annette and answer a question from Emma about dealing with a difficult manager.  Get in touch: Cathal@betteratwork.com.au or betteratwork.net Get in touch on Instagram: @betteratwork_ Get in touch on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathal-quinlan/ Send us a question or leave us a voicemail: betteratwork.net/contact-us/ Get the newsletter: betteratwork.net About Tessa Tessa West is an Associate Professor of Psychology at New York University. A leading expert on interpersonal interaction and communication, and quantitative analysis and statistics, her work has been covered in the New York Times, The Guardian, the WSJ, TIME, the Huffington Post and The Globe and Mail. Her experiences as a rising leader in the world of academia - often as the only woman, and youngest person in the role by a magnitude of decades - have given her a unique perspective on jerks at work. She regularly gives talks to global organisations including Capital One, KPMG, Gilead and Pfizer, to help employees improve their relationships.   Book: Jerks at Work: Toxic Coworkers and What to do About Them Quiz: “Am I a Jerk at Work?” Website: TessaWestAuthor.com  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In episode 2 of Better at Work, the secrets of better workplace cultures - simple everyday practices to improve how we all work together, which will lead to greater team and individual happiness and performance. In episode two of Better@Work, we welcome Bruce Daisley as our second guest for a super informative and wide-ranging chat. I am a big big fan of Bruce, and his podcast Eat Sleep Work Repeat.  Bruce is a best-selling author who spent 12 years running Twitter in Europe and was at YouTube before that. Bruce is a respected thought leader on what makes works good and what makes work matter, and his book The Joy of Work has been bible for me.  I chat with Bruce about how to keep our audiences engaged with crafting presentations that are attention grabbing, fresh, new, and current and realising that no-one cares anywhere as much of you, and how bringing entertainment to an audience is a must!!! Bruce and I unpack his fascination with what makes work good, touching on anti-work movement sub-cultures.  Bruce shares the secrets of good workplace culture and how making many small shifts creates a momentum of change. He cautions not to presume that just because you can understand it, you can do it. And brings to life how he and his teams tackled burnout culture and weekend emails habits. We laugh about the common act of ego when we know the science of the diminishing returns of long work hours, but delude ourselves that those rules don’t apply to us   We marvel at how only 13% of Australian workers are engaged with their jobs, while the US is at 30% and for French workers it’s only 3%! We then discuss the biggest determinant of being engaged at work is whether or not you have a friend at work, and how stress levels are lower in workplaces where a shared identity and a sense of belonging are strong. We cover research by Wharton’s Sigal Barsade, demonstrating “companionate love” in the workplace is vital to employee morale, teamwork and customer satisfaction, and is proven to make work better and also drive better results. Bruce makes a best book recommendation, The Good Jobs Strategy by Zeynep Ton. We laugh about the “Mill owner” trap we can fall into and the illusion that high productivity correlates to big hours, when focus on outputs is what really matters. We also cover Bruce’s Framework: Recharge  I  Sync  I  Buzz We wrap up on the power of humour to create togetherness, bonding and collective safety, “Crisp Thursday”, the Jewish concept of Simcha or Shared Joy. Also, that resilience is a toxic myth, Bruce’s new book Fortitude, Unlocking the Secrets of Inner Strength and Bruce’s best ever career advice on how not to overdo it. Let’s Take This offline In our “Let’s take this offline” segment I debrief on Bruce’s key insights with my friend Annette and answer a question from Sita about her demotivated team Get in touch: Cathal@betteratwork.com.au or betteratwork.net Get in touch on Instagram: @betteratwork_ Get in touch on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathal-quinlan/ Send us a question or leave us a voicemail: betteratwork.net/contact-us/ Get the newsletter: betteratwork.net About Bruce Daisley: Bruce Daisley is one of the world's leading experts on our evolving relationship with our jobs - published in the Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, The Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. His first book, The Joy of Work, was a Sunday Times bestseller and was translated into 15 different international editions. It was shortlisted for the CMI Business Book of the Year. Formerly Bruce was the European Vice-President for Twitter and is the host of the UK’s number one business podcast Eat Sleep Work Repeat.  https://eatsleepworkrepeat.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In episode one of this Better@Work series opener, we’re excited to welcome the amazing Caroline Webb as our first guest for a fun and insightful chat. I am a huge fan of Caroline, and I’ve loved and leveraged her teachings for many years. Caroline is an executive coach, author, speaker and senior advisor to McKinsey, who specializes in showing us how to use the insights from behavioural economics, psychology and neuroscience to transform our approach to everyday working life for the better.  In this episode we share practical evidence-based techniques to help you have more control of your daily working life. Quick episode breakdown: I chat with Caroline about her book “How to Have a Good Day” and what inspired her work on how to be at our best at work Caroline and I explore our understanding of what a good day looks like, the science, keeping our brains in discovery mode, and the mind body loop Caroline shares her seven tips for a good day – Priorities, Productivity, Relationships, Thinking, Influence, Resilience and Energy We have fun talking through the “When Then” technique, the multi-tasking myth, the “Positive No”, Brain-friendly feedback techniques, the “Peak-End” rule and even Donna Summer!! In our “Let’s take this offline” segment I debrief on Caroline’s key insights with my friend Annette and answer a listener’s question about turning around a very challenging regular meeting  Get in touch: Cathal@betteratwork.com.au or betteratwork.net Get in touch on Instagram: @betteratwork_ Get in touch on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathal-quinlan/ Send us a question or leave us a voicemail: betteratwork.net/contact-us/ Get the newsletter: betteratwork.net About Caroline Webb: Caroline is an executive coach, author, speaker and senior advisor to McKinsey. Caroline specialises in the use of insights from behavioural economics, psychology and neuroscience to transform our approach to working life.  Her book How to Have a Good Day has been published in 14 languages and more than 60 countries https://carolinewebb.co/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this Better@Work introduction episode, learn about the show, the host Cathal Quinlan and what inspired Cathal to create a podcast to help people be better at work. Cathal will also share his background, the guest line-up for series one and you will learn about the 'Lets Take This Offline' segment, where Cathal will be joined by Annette Sloan, his friend and long-time collaborator.  For more visit betteratwork.net Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.