The Knowing Self Knowing Others Podcast
In May, I was joined by Niamh Hannan and Perry Timms. I had a great conversation with Niamh in Episode #20 of The Knowing Self Knowing Others #Podcast. We talked about how some people have an imbalance between expressing emotions and awareness of impact, how it’s difficult to received feedback from above when you’re at the top of the organisational tree, the benefit of group learning and how some women feel excluded from leadership opportunities. Take a listen to the episode on your favourite player.I was delighted that Perry Timms was able to join me for the second episode released in May. Perry was ranked as the No. 1 HR Most Influential Thinker for 2022. He told me how proud he was of this accolade. It’s a wholly peer voted raking, meaning that his peers had chosen him for the top spot. Congratulations Perry! Perry described 3 buckets of self-awareness that people fall in to: a little, some and a lot. Perry also talked about leaders’ insecurities and fears forming barriers to awareness of themselves and others, how dispersed power generates insightful inputs, self-awareness is not the same as self-confidence, how we need Earth-Wires, people that help root us in reality, how self-awareness helps us understand other people’s drivers and priorities, and more! When you’ve taken a listen to the episode, please make sure you rate and review because a little word from you means a big deal to me!
The Transcripts for episodes 1-10 are now live!
Top Takeaways
After every episode, I do a Top Takeaways review of the things I’ve learned from my guests. Every Top Takeaway is available on my LinkedIn profile as an article and my website here. You can also find Top Takeaways shorts on my YouTube, TikTok and Instagram channels.
On the Other Side of the Mic
I joined Tom Desch on Conversations on Leadership in the middle of May for his first anniversary episode. We talked about my journey to leadership, cognitive diversity, self-aware leadership and lots more. If you haven’t already, take a listen via the link below.
I also joined Sarah McEntee on The Leader Connect podcast talking about emotional intelligence, self-awareness, leader effectiveness, ways to increase your self-awareness and the emotional impact of negative feedback. Take a listen here
Values Masterclass with Niamh Hannan
I was able to join Niamh for a Values Masterclass over lunch at the end of May and it was a very helpful, reflective pause to think about the values which resound and the values that are at your core. Niamh’s approach is based on her Chartered Psychologist training and many years of practicing as a therapist. This means she guides you to really get to the heart of the matter. The value that I explored and set down in 2021 are quite different to those I settled on this month. Maybe I hadn’t really worked out what my values were then? Maybe they were just priorities at the time? Come back to me in 2025 to see if the values of quiet, learning and awareness still hold true…
May Book Reviews
I read two great books in May: You Me We by Morag Barrett, Eric Spencer and Ruby Vesely and Begin With WE by Kyle McDowell.
You Me We talks about the ally mindset: the ‘show up as a good colleague whenever you possibly can’ mindset. If you’re a manager of people or a leader of any kind, I would recommend this book as it will shed a light on the fundamentally important things that move work relationships from task sharing to work-life sharing. I learned so much and I made a pact with myself to people better from this moment on.
Begin with WE is a big book with big principles and stories from big corporations. It sets out the 10 WEs: 10 principles on which all organisations should base their behaviour, to drive their operations, and ultimately build their culture of excellent. The WEs are 10 clear and unambiguous statements that are described in actionable terms, exemplified by stories and are simply irrefutable. As you know, my interest is self-aware leadership and this book is about WE-aware leadership. Take a read if you’re a change maker in your organisation.
Daring to Write
In the UK we had 3 extended weekends thanks to 3 bank holidays which gave me some extra time to work on my book. At the moment, my book is structured into 3 parts: defining and describing, the self-aware leader, and the journey to self-awareness. My job between now and the end of the summer is to put down all of the words, not necessarily in the right order and not necessarily in the right place, but down they need to go. It’s at about 31,500 words right now. Landing the words is crucial, making sense is what I’ll worry about between September and Christmas. As yet, the book doesn’t have a name. Well, it has 10 names, but being that ‘less is more’ in the book title stakes, I’m not convinced I’ve found ‘the one’ yet. I’m sure it’ll make itself known when it’s ready!! So, I’ll keep on with my SFD (you’ll have to ask Steph Caswell what that means, or just read about it in her book) and I’ll update you next month.
Forward View
Coming up in June will be the next podcast episodes with Dr. Gerrit Pelzer and Asst Chief Fire Officer Chad Costa, CFO, BA. Looking forward to sharing those with the world!
I’ll also be sharing my book review of Selfless Leadership by Katryn (Katrijn van Oudheusden), telling you about my experience of a sound bath, sharing my latest ‘on the other side of the mic’ interview, and updating you on progress with The Book With No Name Yet. See you in June!