0:00:00.5 Speaker 1: Welcome to the ET project, a podcast for those executive talents determined to release their true potential and create an impact. Join our veteran coach and mentor, Wayne Brown, as we unpack an exciting future together.

0:00:14.6 Wayne Brown: Hello, I’m your host, Wayne Brown, and welcome to the ET Project. So for one of the first times you can actually hear me and see me say this introduction, we’re delighted to be delivering this podcast for executive talent all over the world, whom we’re affectionately referring to as Team ET. Today, I’m flying solo. Why? Well, it normally means one thing. It indicates that we’re going to be wrapping up our quarter, and in this case, that’s quarter three for 2023, and therefore today, I’m not traveling. Instead, I’m sitting here in my office in Shanghai. So, wow, it has been an incredible quarter, hasn’t it? I’m not sure about you, but the weeks, the months, in this year, they just seem to be accelerating that little bit faster than usual is my feeling. My wife very unkindly says, “It’s probably just an age thing.”

0:01:17.2 WB: All right, so with that, let’s have a look at our guest lineup this quarter. And as we’ve done previously, we’re going to chunk it down into four blocks of three weeks. That means we’re going to cover three guests each block. So we can give you some chunking. If you haven’t heard me talking about chunking in the past, then now you’ve heard the word. All right. Unlike what we’ve done in the past. However, this time we’re going to be incorporating the promotion video trailer or teaser that we did with each guest just to save you listening to my wonderfully monotone voice the entire time. And I can hear a collective signs of, “Amen to that.” All right, so our first three guests, Ms. Sharon Rolph, Mr. Eric Girard, and Ms. Joy Meserve.

0:02:16.6 WB: If you recall, we go all the way back to July. July, 2023, where we first met Sharon. Sharon is our 75-year-old budding entrepreneur. And bless her heart, she’s decided to help others through her coaching and community. And in fact, the people that she’s targeting or focusing on are those people that are heading into retirement. So Sharon’s well placed to speak about this. Have a listen to her response to one of my questions. You’ve provided a nice segue into the new community and the program that you’re setting up, from loneliness to resilience. So what’s it about, what’s the purpose behind this community?

0:03:05.9 Sharon Rolph: I got inspired by reading last month our surgeon general’s book, “Together” was the name of the book. And he gave lots of examples how there’s various times in our life, being preschoolers and primary grades and getting your first job or getting college. How you gotta find yourself kind of thing in college. And he moved to… He was from India and he moved to Boston. I think he was first in… Oh, His parents moved to Florida and then in his career, he moved to Boston ’cause that’s where one of his first jobs was. All of the different ways that either bullying showed up or that loss feeling or, “Where do I belong? And I’m different, I don’t fit in here maybe.” And it really tugged at my heart because I felt like I solved that problem. And when I was about 22, I was crocheting an Afghan, Ripple Afghans were in then. It was a Friday night and I was crocheting on my Afghan and this critical voice came and said, “Well, Sharon you’re a young lady, you should be out there, socializing. You should go to the bars or whatever, be active with other people.” And I said, “Wait a minute, I chose to be here. I kind of like my own company and I’m doing what I wanna do here tonight.” So I’m kind of like, “Go talk to somebody else. Scoop.”

0:04:58.2 WB: Alright, so let’s keep rolling. And next up is Mr. Eric Girard. So if you recall, Eric is an L&D expert and is focused on helping young managers become more effective. And we chat about a whole raft of different interesting topics, including his guide for managing, where he outlines a number of the actions that new managers in particular can start the practice. Now, he’s also right at this moment in time as we release this episode, is also releasing his first book, which is called, “Lead Like A Pro,” right? So keep an eye out for him. I’m sure it’s gonna be a bestseller. Have a listen to what Eric shares during our conversation.

0:05:45.9 WB: The transition for many leaders today to conducting Zoom meetings like we’re on now, to being able to connect in our case. Talking about facilitation. What have you found is the greatest challenge from a virtual perspective in trying to facilitate learning?

0:06:07.3 Eric Girard: The first thing that pops into my head is the technology. There’s of course the fact that I’m trying to connect with you from a distance over a camera, over the internet.

0:06:20.5 WB: Right. Yeah.

0:06:20.6 EG: And you’re in a different country. So there’s all of that. But first principles, the technology I think is still glitchy. So I was just recording a podcast this morning with a woman who is in Mexico City, and we had to start and stop eight times because she kept freezing, she kept freezing and who knows where the problem was, whether it was in the software we were using, whether it was my end or her end, or something in between. So I think that the technology still creates a bottleneck and those glitches, those hangups differences in audio quality, differences in visual quality cause issues that then take away from learning and take away from bonding.

0:07:05.1 WB: Our third guest is Ms. Joy Meserve. Sorry, Joy. A seasoned leader with a great track record for creating workplaces where people really want to be and work so much. So that she’s now branched out on her own to spread the word to all leaders about ways to make the workplace a joyful experience. And no surprise that her business is called Leading with Joy. So check out the insights that she shares in this short clip. It’s never as simple as it may appear in the conversation. There is a lot of work that needs to happen in the background to make this something that is sustainable. Have you had similar experience or what’s your feeling?

0:07:52.4 Joy Meserve.: Yeah, I think, there’s a couple of things that can help increase sustainability. And that’s part of what I bring in in my programs. But so it’s really important, I think that when leaders see that someone is in that flow state and doing a fantastic job, that they intentionally slow down to recognize that individual.

0:08:14.1 WB: Right.

0:08:15.0 JM: And I said, slow down. So that’s where it takes extra time on that leader’s behalf. I think so much of the time we can be like in our heads, sort of like what I call next thing as leaders. “What’s next? What’s next? Okay, yeah. Thanks for doing that. Thanks for doing that.” And what you end up with is a bunch of empty praise for people. They’re like, “No, no, no. I said, thank you. I was appreciative. I said, thank you,” but thank you is not enough. It’s empty because it can come across as very patronizing. If that’s all you’re going to say about this months of work. Somebody doesn’t have anything tangible to take away from that. They don’t truly feel appreciated. And at our core, we all wanna be seen and heard and valued, right? So leaders do need to slow down and take the time to intentionally pinpoint what it is that they’re appreciative of and why.

0:09:12.5 JM: And that helps sustain that culture. And once you teach everybody to speak that language, which is fairly simple to grasp, easy to practice, but once you teach everybody to speak that language, it’s self-fulfilling. Everybody starts to do it with one another. And so peers are recognizing peers and managers are managing up and managers are managing across and down and all around. And so this sort of… Then you sort of have this culture that says, “We appreciate everybody who works here.” And that is part of that fulfilling environment and culture, will help you even though yes, it is hard to keep drive and motivation going, it will help that.

0:10:02.4 WB: Right. So that rounds out our first trio up next, the next three guests commencing towards the end of July, 2023. The first guest was Mr. Steve Farrell followed by Ms. Minette Norman and then Mr. Mark Hodgson. So let’s have a look starting with Steve Farrell. And it’s not every day that I get the opportunity to speak with a successful Silicon Valley startup founder, a two-time startup founder in fact, Steve’s got a really interesting story that he shares about that period in his life, and an equally interesting one with his decision to walk away entirely from Silicon Valley and start a not-for-profit organization called Humanities Team. We did this episode 57, I think it was about… Oh, there it is. The date is on the screen, the 25th of July. So great conversation. Do yourself a favor, check it out. Understand what Steve’s up to today. Was there a specific trigger that said, “You know, the pursuit of wealth is not something that I’m now interested in. I’m more interested in the pursuit of humanity and helping humanity.” Was there a finite time or was this a progression?

0:11:24.7 Steve Farrell: So this, there was a progression and that was, it was very much of a calling. Let me share too, just so listeners and those watching this really kind of see the truth of what happened. It was not like I had to go live in a cave with a loincloth or something. This is the thing is, especially for those that are currently have a conscious organization or they’re transitioning into a conscious organization. There’s enormous potential to create organizations that are gonna grow into massive influences in their community and out in the world where real financial wealth is generated. But even more importantly from my perspective, that we’re a positive influence in the community, in the world where we wouldn’t think of starting a GMO company or some media company that is creating trouble in the particular country that we’re in, that may be going against democracy, for example.

0:12:29.5 WB: Ms. Minette Norman. And Minette, during her career, she’s managed teams right around the world and helped them to achieve success through what she defines as a highly collaborative and inclusive environment. So Minette has also just released her second book, which is fantastic read. It’s called, “Boldly Inclusive Leadership.” If you want some good reading about how to become a better leader, grab that book. Here’s what Minette had to say when we spoke. Okay. And rounding out our second group of three as well as taking the halfway mark, I guess. So we’re now up to guest number six. So this is our halfway mark is Mr. Mark Hodgson. And Mark’s a marketing expert based in Sydney, originating or hailing from the UK. His business focuses on clients who are looking to create their personal brand, but their personal brand as they become that second half hero, I.e. Meaning they move into their second half of their career and they’re looking to become more marketable as the individual and start their own business perhaps. So together with his book called, “Time to Shive,” I’ll say that again. I think I got it wrong in the actual episode as well. Together with his book called, “Time to Shine,” he has some interesting advice to share. So please have a listen.

0:14:09.9 WB: How do we create our brand? How do we really make such a difference and stand out when it’s such a crowded world and what’s your thoughts on that?

0:14:20.7 Mark Hodgson: I do a lot of work in this area of personal branding and thought leadership. And I know, because we’ve been doing it for a long time that a lot of people find it very daunting and scary, and therefore they never start. And they think, “Oh, I’m not smart enough, or I’ll run out of stuff to say, or if I try to put my head up in my marketplace, hundreds of people will jump on me and say, who are you to say that? What do you know? I know more than you.” And there’s a whole load of sort of self-talk, usually uninformed self-talk that’s going on in our heads that we’ve got to just kind of put to one side.

0:14:56.3 MH: And they… Yeah, because what the reality is people overthink this massively. They really overthink this. And like most things professionally and in life, the essence of doing this well is to be is simplicity. And simple, it’s easy and like most simple things, it’s hard to do. Simple done well, it’s hard to do. But the essence of it is just to show up as who you really are, which is about being authentic. But it’s also about just being you. So you don’t, I mean, I think, again, this idea of a personal brand, and everyone thinks, “I’ve got to create content, I’ve got to be a massive thought leader, I’ve got to be really smart, I’ve got to be groundbreaking, I’ve got to be kind of splitting the atom. Every time I post something, it’s got to be amazing.” And that’s completely not true. It’s the wrong way to think about it.

0:15:49.8 WB: Welcome back. And for the second half commencement, we have three more very interesting guests to join us. As you can see on the screen, we have Ms. Brandie Deignan, we have Mr. Luke Worsfold, and we have Ms. Claire Chandler. So let’s start with Brandie. So Brandie describes herself as an industry agnostic. Now, I’d not heard this term before I spoke with her, but it makes total sense. And based on her career, we have to agree. Not only does Brandie jump across industries, as she progresses throughout her career, but she manages to stretch herself further each time and reach successively higher appointments. She’s currently CEO of one of the health organizations in the UK. And in her wake, in her legacy, she leaves a wonderfully strong group of teams behind her. Here’s what Brandie had to say to one of my questions. So how do you encourage as a leader, as a CEO of a large organization, how do you personally go about seeking feedback on your own performance?

0:17:06.3 Brandie Deignan: So I’m quite an open book. And so for myself, it’s really important to just keep asking. But I think more importantly, you might not… When you ask, you might not hear the right thing. So it’s about the culture that you build around you. I do share power a lot, because I’m aware of the advantages and the privileges that senior leaders have or others due to just their social status within organizations have. And that can lead to an equal power share. So it’s really important when I go into organizations or even in my own private life, meeting young people or whatever, to drop egos. And again, that’s A new age of leadership, isn’t it?

0:17:49.4 BD: So that it’s power sharing, so that people can feel that they can give you the feedback that you need. And that can be quite hard to do, because as a well known way, you know, you sit in boardrooms a long time. And if you’re not… If you don’t give yourself, and I don’t know how celebrities do it, because it’s really hard for them, isn’t it? When you’re on the pedestal every time, and then you’ve got to just bring yourself down, you’ve just got to have conversations with yourself to give yourself the space to discuss the need that you just need to almost have a reflection of dialing yourself down and sharing the power around you for others also to be able to have a voice. And it’s a skill that I’m still learning. I’ve not mastered it quite well, but still learning. And hopefully that helps from a step forward perspective in terms of feedback.

0:18:36.0 WB: Next up is Mr. Luke Worsfold. If you’re looking for a case study where somebody has succeeded against all odds, then Luke is probably the person that you’re after. So coming to a hostile addiction filled home and school environment, Luke has somehow managed to overcome incredible challenges. And now not only overcome them himself, but he serves as a counsellor and he is certified as a counsellor for other addicts suffering through their own nightmares. And he speaks regularly about the importance of self-awareness, emotional healing, and the power of choice. So please have a listen to what Luke has to say.

0:19:20.5 WB: I’m imagining mental health in general, but I’m imagining substance abuse or addiction is very closely tied to this. It’s still Not an accepted norm in society. So it’s something that we try to and hide from other people I presume. And therefore I’m wondering what are the consequences when we try and internalize or we hide the addiction, and we’re not able to share it with anyone else. What are some of the effects that that triggers?

0:20:00.9 Luke Worsfold: Yeah. So when it comes to that internal pressure building up, I think a lot of it is about not having the self-awareness to understand it’s happening. It kind of happens in the background. Like me, when I was running my company, I wasn’t really consciously aware of the stress. I just had bills to pay, a team to manage. I had the office to sort out, I had clients who were calling me. I had my business partner. And our relationship to manage and lots of things going on. And you don’t really have time to sort of stop and think. One of the big things that goes is self-care. So we don’t have time to really take care of ourself ’cause we are running on this fight or flight at a million miles an hour with lots of high anxiety in terms of our mental health.

0:20:44.4 LW: And anxiety is a big emotion and also sadness or isolation. But those emotions are building in the background. They’re just building up because of all these decisions we have to make. We don’t really have time to stop and kind of think things through in terms of our feelings. It’s like demands meet, need to be met. There is a coronavirus or a recession on the horizon that’s happening and we need to make those decisions under the gun. There’s not really much time to think about how we are feeling. And like I said, so not culturally acceptable to say necessarily in a meeting. Let me just go and check my feelings and then I’ll get back to you on this decision.

0:21:18.1 WB: And that brings us to our final guest in this block of three, the third block to speak with a lady in… I believe she’s in New York. I’d have to go back and listen to it myself now, but Ms. Claire Chandler, Claire specializes in leadership and business value creation. And she does this by tapping into nearly 30 years of experience in people, leadership, human resources, as well as her own business ownership. And during our conversation, we explored some really interesting challenges that’s faced by HR in connecting with, the operational side of the business. And we delve into some of the potential reasons that this may be occurring. Great conversation. And we’ve already agreed that we’re gonna continue into quarter four with this conversation. So keep an eye out for that. Here’s a portion of the discussion we had together with Claire.

0:22:12.5 WB: I’m wondering where self-regulation fits in to this equation. So when none of us that I know anyway, myself, definitely we’re not perfect. And even though we may have a self-awareness, we may have an awareness around some of our, shortcomings. And I’m wondering how do we incorporate self-regulation in those areas? Or should we?

0:22:38.9 Claire Chandler: Yeah, I love that. So, I happen to, as part of my work and part of working with leaders and with teams on this notion of raising their self-awareness. I used a suite of tools that were actually pioneered by Jay Niblick, and were inspired by Dr. Steven Hartman. And part of what that helps an individual measure is not only their fast lanes, right? What they’re uniquely talented at, but to your point, it also uncovers for them what’s known as their blind spot. What are the areas that don’t come as naturally to them that in theory they could do, they could learn how to become a little bit more proficient, but it’s always going to be something that requires them to slow down and give more conscious thought and kind of causes a drag on their productivity. And so your point about self-regulation, I think that is the other side of that self-awareness point.

0:23:37.5 WB: Right.

0:23:38.5 CC: Because it’s not only important to to know what you’re good at, but to your point, it’s also to know where you have… I don’t wanna say weaknesses, but areas that are non-strengths. And if you spend more time in those areas, you’re going to become less engaged, you’re going to feel less productive, you’re going to feel less fulfilled. And all of that has a ripple effect. So yeah, I think your call out about self-regulation is a good one, and I think it’s spot on.

0:24:01.9 WB: And now to our final trio to round out quarter three, all three equally gifted, interesting and insightful. And I have to say it’s one of the greatest enjoyments for me that I have the opportunity to speak with such a diverse collection of leadership talent. I feel so much more knowledgeable and grown up. It’s been an exponential development process for me and one that I really hope to continue long into the future. So here’s our three in order of appearance on our show, starting with Mr. Christoffel Sneijders. Christoffel comes from, I believe the Netherlands, but sitting in Spain. Ms LynAnn Weaver, who’s over in Denver, Colorado. And we talk with a gentleman by the name of Mr. Mustafa Ammar. Mustafa is currently, I believe, in Italy, although his birthplace is Egypt. And, you’ll hear me say shortly that Mustafa carries the title of industry agnostic with one of our previous guests, Brandie Diegnan.

0:25:14.7 WB: So interesting lineup, great conversations with all three. Let’s get started by jumping across to Christoffel. And we speak about the three brains. Yes, in one person, three brains, they are the head, the heart, and the gut. And Christoffel provides classic examples to support how we use all three continuously throughout our day, whether in our own decision making, with our relations, partners, colleagues at work, or our engagement at the office, with our bosses, with our employees, with our direct reports, with our colleagues, suppliers, et cetera. I didn’t realize it was as obvious as it is until listening to Christoffel’s explanation. So have a listen yourself to our conversation. Gain a better understanding.

0:26:09.4 WB: Do you have a feeling about where we are heading as humans for the future with this new knowledge where we’ve got the three brains, we’re learning how they can align and work more harmoniously and the impact that can have, the question would be, is it all too little, too late as we head towards AI and singularity? Or is it just in time?

0:26:40.6 Christoffel Sneijders: I’m an extreme optimist. If you look at our 6, 7, 10,000 years on this earth as human beings, if I say more evolved, as you would say. We had a lot of ups and downs. We had in the middle ages in Europe, we had the dark age, right? And we really were not ass smart as in that moment. We, before they had the Roman Empire, we had the French Revolution. Now, I think we’re not too late. We… I would say we’re never too late. I love sports. You’re never too late until the referee whistle on this thing as game is over, game is not over.

0:27:19.5 CS: Artificial intelligence is freaking amazing that 30 years ago, the first chess computers were launched maybe 40 years ago. And they would say they will overtake the rules sooner or later. Chess computers are smarter than humans. Still, humans now can win from a chess computer 40 years onwards. Still AI is scary, but can be extremely useful if you use it the right way. And yes, jobs will get lost. ‘Cause if you would go… Say, just to mention, you have a… You had a trial, you would go to a lawyer. Your lawyer around the corner, did five years of law and is 10 years in business, read a lot of books. And you go to AI who read all the freaking books of all your country, saw all the law cases of all your country. And they give you actually, which law cases would be beneficial for you. To whom would you go? AI. Your research done, research works done by AI. But if you’re instead standing in front of the jury, would you like to have a computer there or a person who can smell the room?

0:28:27.0 WB: Our penultimate guest for this quarter, quarter three, is accident survivor, Ms. LynAnn Weaver. Now, when I say accident, imagine having a car roll over you over your legs, and you can imagine the result. Now, LynAnn, while lying in hospital, realized that she could make a choice. She could either resign herself to what the doctors were telling her about her future, or she could decide to reshape that future to the success that she has made it today.

0:29:02.1 WB: An incredibly powerful account of what your mind is capable of when you have that self-awareness and presence to understand what’s possible. And LynAnn as Lynn Ann says, just one more, it’s her mantra. It’s an inspiring story for all leaders that are working through their own struggles. I’d really highly recommend if you haven’t heard or listened to that episode, please tune in. It’s incredible how LynAnn has bounced back from such adversity, such self-doubting, to become the entrepreneurial speaker, coach, business lady that she is. Have a listen to the conversation.

0:29:55.7 WB: You talk about habits which is foundational to a lot of our performance. To change a habit seems like such a daunting process. How do you work with your clients to be able to help them stay the course until they have enough momentum to make that change?

0:30:20.3 LynAnn Weaver: One of the biggest factors that helps in people actually creating that change is being able to determine why it’s necessary to change. And some of it is first, identifying their why. Second of all is, if and when you change, how is this going to help you? If you don’t change and you stay the same, how is it going to hurt you?

0:30:46.5 WB: Yes.

0:30:47.1 LW: And then one layer outside of that, who else will it help if you improve in this area? Will it help your team as a leader? Well, if your team’s performance improves because your performance improves, how does that impact your customer satisfaction? How does that improve your customer retention? How does it impact your revenue and creativity and ability to build your business in the way that you’re wanting? Or if you don’t and you choose to stay the same, what are you going to loose because you didn’t change? Are you going to start having more employee turnover? Are your team members going to become less engaged, not as attentive to customer needs or not as creative because now they’re fearful of your response and they’re not willing to take those risks to improve in the areas that you’re really wanting them to improve in, to change the business in the direction that you wanted to make it.

0:31:44.1 WB: And now to our final guest of quarter three, Mr. Mustafa Ammar. Mustafa and Brandie, as I mentioned already share this title of industry agnostic. But I didn’t tell you why. Have a listen. Mustafa has gone from his starting career, which was as a pharmacist to a diplomat where he worked in the UN, the United Nations to an investment banker, then a coach, and now an app developer. It’s such an insightful journey and conversation that Mustafa and I have, and he nicely articulates in his book that’s called, “Time to Move On,” the whole process about why it is possible to have such an incredibly diverse career by busting what he calls, “Seven myths.” So he’s a serial entrepreneur, he’s a serious serial entrepreneur that is probably only just getting started in building his empire. See what you believe after hearing out. If I look at the different industries that you move between them, they’re vastly different. So how much did that mindset that you had towards I guess, transparency or being willing to ask questions, how much did that help you to make that transition into those new industries?

0:33:25.1 Mustafa Ammar: Well, I think in the beginning when I was transitioning to diplomacy, I thought, “Okay, I’m doing diplomacy forever. It’s my dream career. I’m not enjoying pharmacy and this is where I wanna be. It’s a place where I serve my country, where I’m a civil servant, but at the same time, I’m doing an interesting job. Every single day is different.” And actually it’s a very great training for diplomat is like, you get to do different things every single day. We always have a definition of a good diplomat is like, you cannot say no for any task. You really have to figure out how to do it. So I learned a lot, “Okay, how to do it. I never done it in the past, but I have to learn how to do it.”

0:34:08.0 MA: So that mindset, really helped me a lot. I worked across different experiences like, from Malawi, doing different kind of nature of work, and then to China to the UN. One day you do political work. One day, a very high level visit. Two presidents are meeting and you are taking care of all the security, protocol issues and no one single mistake could be done. And then on the other side, another day, cultural events where I was lucky actually even in China, to use some of my artistic hobbies to train some kids, some teenagers, they were are deaf and mute, to dance on an Egyptian song.

0:34:51.3 WB: And with that Team ET, we’ve reached the end of this recap, episode 66. Hopefully, the short reviews triggered some fond memories of our presentations. Our ideas going back for a second listen might be well worth it. As we move into the final quarter of 2023, we’ve got another exciting 12 guests waiting to join us and share their stories, their insights, and their wisdom. So I’m really hoping that you are going to be there with us as we move through week on week. And we get started next week with Mr. Dave Goodall. He’s a consultant who helps small to medium sized businesses, scale and grow. So Team ET until then, stay safe and bye for now.

0:35:44.5 Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us on the ET project, a show for executive talent development. Until next time, check out our site for free videos, eBooks, webinars and blogs, @coachingforcompanies.com.