Squeeze

It's no ones favourite subject on the podcast today... meetings. Not many people love them, but most of us spend a good deal of our lives in them, so listen for top tips on how to make meetings matter.

It's been a little while since our last episode, so it's time we had a catch up! We talk about the break from squeeze, whats changed for us at iManage, and what's coming next.

Its been a while since our last episode, but today we are bringing you something a little different… and if you’re a fan of motor sport like bob and I, something a little bit special… We're talking to Operations Director of the McLaren Racing team, Piers Thynne.

What if self control was our super power. So finally tuned that we knew exactly when to exercise it, but also when to go with instinct and impulse. That would be pretty useful. For most of us self control is something we could do with developing. Today we talk about four strategies for improving your self control.

What is your relationship with risk? Are you somebody who values the chance to make a bold decision and put something on the line, or do you operate exclusively in the realm of near certainty, finding your comfort in knowing. Today we explore these ideas and the upsides and downsides to both ends of the spectrum. Enjoy the podcast, I’ll catch you on the other side.

Many of us have areas of our lives that we are dissatisfied in, but many times we don’t move from that space of dissatisfaction into action. Why not? Today we explore the idea of executing and making things happen in your life.

As the second national lockdown begins Will and Bob talk to us about resilience. The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties has to be one of the most valuable traits in the current climate, both professionally and personally. So today we draw from the example of Lucy Hone to draw out three critical elements of resilience.

We’ve avoided talking too much about COVID on this podcast although it’s impossible to ignore the business and behavioural implications of COVID as we talk about other things, but given our most recent Boris speech which seemed to increase the duration of covid related limitations, today we talk about the new normal, how we are all coping with it, and what we have learned 6 months into these huge changes.

Well we are back after our summer pause, I hope you were all able to have some kind of break over the summer despite all of the limitations. In this episode we are talking about what it means to be an intreprenuer, that is an entrepreneur within an organisation.

“There is a way to do it better, find it.” So said Thomas Edison, potentially the greatest American inventor of all time. Innovation is the secret sauce for most organisations doing business today, and failure to innovate is demonstrably linked to failure to grow, and even to the death of some companies altogether. So how well is your organisation supporting innovation from the inside?

The patterns of behaviour and habits that you have tell stories about you. Are you aware of the things you unconsciously do, the attitudes and presuppositions you bring to the table in your relationships and communications. Are you in control of your habits, or do they control you? Is it time to develop new patterns and habits to help you develop and move forward?

Have you reached your potential? It’s a hard question to answer isn’t it? Most of us would probably want to say no, not just out of a sense of British humility, but also in acknowledgement that there is more in store for us, we haven’t reached our peak yet. You might find your own potential is hard to define, it has an intangible, transitory quality to it, but perhaps given the shake up that the world has been going through, now is a great time to reimagine, refocus, and recommit to personal progression.

Being a leader means being flexible. Being a leader means understanding those you are leading. The danger of simply having one or two modes when it comes to leading your teams is that you approach issues from entirely the wrong perspective, and either fail to develop somebody or worse still, do damage to someones motivation or potential skill set. So today we look at a tried and tested leadership model which will help you be a dynamic and attentive leader.

We sometimes think that if we haven’t learned, then we haven't been taught well… its easy to blame the teacher, but what does it take to be a good learner? Surely that has a big part to play in the equation. The same is true when it comes to a coaching relationship, so what kind of attitudes and perspectives are present in a good coachee?

Interviewing online is a new and challenging proposition. When you are not present in person you loose out on so many of the subtleties of communication and the social and aesthetic clues about a companies culture. We have to work even harder to make great first impressions online, today Bob and Will give advise on how you can stand out from the rest.

Malcolm Gladwell famously theorised that to become an expert in any task or action you must perform it for 10,000 hours. This was in his book Outliers. Whether you think 10,000 is the magic number or not, practice certainly is the key to progression, this is true in musicianship and sportsmanship, and almost every other pursuit including business. So how often are you practicing your skills?

From the moment we are born, we are told stories. Stories about hungry caterpillars, Gruffalos, lions witches and wardrobes. But it doesn’t stop when we leave primary school. It doesn’t even stop when we leave education all together, because storytelling is part of the fabric of effective communication, any communication no matter the topic.

Inspiration, we all need a bit every now and then don't we. A spark to light the match that sets the fire, something to remind us why we do what we do, something to motivate us to keep pushing forward. It’s no different in our organisations, if we want our people to be motivated, we need to keep inspiring them, so how do we do that? I know who we can ask…

Evolution is the change in the characteristics of a species over several generations and relies on the process of natural selection. Why do species change and adapt? Because of environmental pressures and competition. Our 21st century environment has just undergone a dramatic change, and it hasn’t taken millions of years, the changes literally happened over night. So how is this new environment forcing us to change, to adapt, to evolve? How might we have to redefine ourselves in this new and unfamiliar world.

We are getting super practical this week with a podcast all about presentation skills. Some people love to present and some people avoid it at all costs, but with some help from bob and will today we think you can go out and deliver an engaging and effective presentation no matter the industry, no matter the topic. So grab a notepad (unless you’re driving), and enjoy the podcast