It is 8.57 am, you are about to launch another daily stand-up.   

You look at yourself on the screen,  hover over the “connect” button and think to yourself.......... 

1. “It is a great day and I am ready to motivate my team,” 
2. “Does anyone else find these as de-motivational as me?” 
3. “I am not sure how much life-force I have left to be sucked out of me through the webcam” 
4. “I hate these, but I will fake it until I make it” 

The reality is that you have probably had all these thoughts over the last 12 months.  

You hope that a return to the office or a hybrid way of working will end your online meeting nightmare. 

But, deep down you know that virtual team meetings are here to stay.  

So how are you going to stay fresh, alert, upbeat when you feel very different.  

Enter stage right,  Chris Crimes, actor, comedian, leadership coach and wicked ping pong player 

In this podcast I will interview Chris about;

• How to create a positive aura to your team when you feel different inside 
• How to reduce the pressure on yourself running team meetings 
• How to help your own manager and colleagues out when they are running online meetings 

If you liked Chris and want to know more about his work you can find him on Linkedin or his website Second Curve  

Being a Leader in the past was so much easier.
    

All you had to do was say “do what I say, or you know where the door is?”    

You may have worked for a manager who even said those words.  

I have!   They even went so far as to offer people in the room to take one of the McDonald's application forms they had placed on the table.  

Fortunately, today's workplace is a little more collaborative and consensual where employees are given an opportunity to ask questions when they are being asked to do something new or change the way they work.  

For all the good this approach brings in terms of employees engagement and buy-in to the organisation, it puts a lot of extra pressure on the Manager.  

In fact, most leadership training focuses on the importance of a manager asking great questions and using models such as GROW coaching.  

However, there is little training to help Leaders know how to answer in a way that increases buy-in to what is being asked and results in behavioural change.  

This is why you will love Brian Glibkowski the author of Answer Intelligence.    

Brian is a pioneer in organisational communication who is focused on helping leaders improve how they answer questions to increase buy-in and behavioural change.   

In the podcast, we will be discussing 

• What is Answer Intelligence?
• What are the 6 ways you can answer any question?
• How to apply the framework to back to office conversations 
• Why building a portfolio of answers will reduce the pressure you feel when in challenging conversations.  

If you want to know more about AQ, then check out the Raise Your AQ website

I hope you enjoy the show and please remember to subscribe so you are notified when new episodes are released.  

Many founders set out to make the world a better place when they create start their companies.  However, when commercial realities hit it can become hard for a founder to stay true to their values. 

In this podcast, we interview Paul Hargreaves, B-Corp Ambassador, CEO of Cotswold Fayre and author of The Fourth Bottom Line -  50 Day Program for Leaders to think about different characteristics

Paul has made it his mission to grow a successful business whilst balancing the competing demands of his people, the needs of the planet and still making a profit.  

We discuss 

·         How he hires new team members based on values, not just skills

·         What inspired him to make Cotswold Fayre a b-corp

·         Why he believes a leaders values are key to an organisations success

·         Why he thinks self-awareness the most important leadership trait.  

·         How do you coach your employees to be more open to feedback from their teams