Send us a text

💡 SPOTLIGHTED BOOK : Wild Mind by Bill Plotkin

📚 GUEST READER : Andrei Stoicescu

💬 CONVERATION HIGHLIGHTS:

• growing from a place of unknowing
• not knowing where/when you will learn - it can happen at any time
• we often forget that we are a part of nature
• eco-psychology lens
• we live in an ecosystem and don't recognize our interdependence
• eco-centric -- start from the place of recognizing the nature and niche around us
• you can work with metaphor without understanding it
• you can live beyond knowledge and understanding
• you don't know what "cold" is before you experience it
• we communicate through our energy, not just our words
• Four facets of the self - Interpersonal View of the Self
  • Feeling Things
  • Using your Senses
  • Using our Intellect
  • Using our Imagination
• What happens if these facets are mature/immature?
• Many of us are stuck in perpetual adolescence
• We often develop our facets based on what the world needs of us at the time
• Knowing your mature facet, and look toward the other facets to help you grow
• Miscommunication can occur when our strong facets collide with other facets
• What happens on your team when it's dominated by certain archetypes/facets?
• Dysfunction on teams occurs when we don't understand ourselves more deeply, and those of our colleagues
• Meet yourself from the different facets and treat yourself with compassion
• Shifting our strategies that worked in childhood that don't work as adults
• Improve your leadership not through tactical ways, but through self-exploration
• Beginner's mind and humility in leadership
• Look for the patterns in your life
• Seeing the gift in the other facets of of self
• All of us have a "wounded self" - can we have compassion for our self and that of others
• Turn a sacred wound into a sacred scar
• Break the promises you made to yourself when you were young
• When we choose not to do the work, we pay in non-financial ways, so why not pay someone to help you do the work.

📚 OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED:

• Soul Craft, also by Bill Plotkin

ℹ GUEST BIO AND LINKS:

Born in an industrial town of a soon to come out of communism Romania, I fell in love with books and stories in primary school. I have loved music and singing for as long as I can remember and I dabbled with acting until I went to university. I left Architecture after 4 years of studies (out of 6) and quit working in Architecture and Design (after 5 years), started doing odd jobs until, at 25, I ended up in a (then) more than 100.000 employee corporation where I received an Employee of the Year award (in my service center) after my first year for opening a new business line. I joined a (then) small ESG Research provider as an Engineer and worked my way up to Director of Engineering in 4 years. Even before the pandemic came I felt that I need a shift in how I approach things in life so I quit climbing the corporate ladder and started studying Philosophy and Psychology. I hold the same position with my employer and do my best to be there with my team, colleagues and friends. I continued to make music throughout my life and am now working to create my own music-oriented company that will hopefully launch next year.

LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrei-stoicescu/

More yummy content on leaderlearner.fm

Send us a text

LIVRE: Les structures fondamentales des sociétés humaines de Bernard Lahire
INVITÉ : Aïda Koné

Resumé:

• Comprendre les groupes humains
• Psychologie - focus sur l'individuel
• Sociologie - focus sur le groupe
• Racines communes entre les groupes
• Identifiez les différentes strates -- dimensions biologiques, sociales et culturelles
• Pour un facilitateur ou coach d'équipe, c'est bien de savoir où tu vas réagir le groupe -- par quelle couche
• Les couches sont bien mélanges
• Comment on est élevé, c'est la couche culturelle
• Métaphore utilisée -- le barba papa - le bâton, c'est la biologie, les aspects sociaux et culturels se tournent autour du bâton
• On a plusieurs dimensions dedans nous - empathique/coopératif et compétitif/dominant - l'un ET l'autre, pas l'un OU l'autre
• On se ressemble fort quand on a un grand danger - catastrophe naturelle
• Les liens de forces sociologue -- il y a 10 dans le livre -- un est le rapport de domination
• Les humaines sont l'animal qui reste dépendant sur nos parents le plus longs possible
• La hiérarchie est naturelle pour nous, donc il faut qu'on prenne attention quand on crée une culture
• Connaissance de soi -- c'est quoi ma culture personnelle et ma response de domination/contrôle?
• Pas tout le monde préfère une entreprise avec le management horizontale
• Le conflit a un aspect positif -- les gens son engagée
• Les valeurs sont exprimées dans le conflit
• Pas tous les conflits ont besoin d'un modérateur/trice
• On s'adapte à la culture ou on est
• Voit l'aspect positif dont on ne perd pas l'espoir
• Les femmes a le rôle de porter les bébés, donc ça donner le rôle d'hommes plus tôt à l'extérieur
• On est dans une transition vers l'égalité entre hommes et femmes
• Petites étapes pour garder l'espoir
• Il n'y a pas une hiérarchie entre biologie et culture

Autres livres mentionnée:

• Humankind by Rutger Bergman

BIOGRAPHIE D'AÏDA:
J'accompagne les dynamiques collectives en contexte de transformation avec les postures de coach d'équipes, facilitatrice, designer et formatrice.
Je suis particulièrement sensible aux enjeux de la transition écologique qui nous invitent à questionner nos interactions entre humains et avec le vivant dans son ensemble.

J'ai 48 ans, j'ai fait des études d'arts appliqués et ai travaillé dans la communication et le marketing avant de m'orienter vers l'accompagnement

LIEN LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aida-kone

More yummy content on leaderlearner.fm

Send us a text

Spotlight Book: That's What She Said by Joanne Lipman
Guest : Dominique Ara

Conversation Highlights:

• soft skills are people to people
• transgender experiences can give a peak into how our gender biases show up
• hard to recognize that we live in a man's world
• not only men interrupt women - women do it too
• we're not dreaming - the experience of the world is different if you are a man or a woman
• need more sponsors versus mentors
• mentors - give us advice, been there before, tactical approaches
• sponsor - pave the way for us, put our name forward for
• mentorship can create more women acting like men
• the way we are conditioned can set up how we see the gender differences
• how to integrate when you are the "only"
• when you're trained to look at the differences in order to better integrate
• women have learned to talk "men"
• empowerment - the permission to not "act as if" but to act as I am
• team up with the people who think like me
• 20% of the people can change a system
• the power of getting together with others to change the system
• men are not the "bad guys" - they are shamed for being a man
• men are good people who have been conditioned into this system
• when courtesy becomes condescending
• when men don't say anything when they could/should
• the risk of speaking up that men feel -- they may disagree, but they don't speak up because they don't want to lose power/rank among the men
• coming in new to an organization where there is already a hierarchy - create a shared community and purpose that flattens the hierarchy
• when bad habits come back under pressure/stress
• understanding when/how I feel threatened, and what behaviors come up when under threat
• until proven otherwise, men are seen as competent -- until proven otherwise, women are seen as Incompetent
• what if women don't have imposter syndrome or confidence issues - it's just that the system forces women to prove ourselves more
• blind auditions in symphonies/orchestras - erases some of the bias
• Iceland as the number 1 ranked country for gender equity -- and it's not the women involved, it's the men
• the action men take need to NOT discredit themselves
• alliances between men/women to amplify one another's voices
• educate our boys differently

12 TIPS from the book:

1. Interrupt Interrupters
2. Use Amplification and Brag Buddies
3. Diversify interviewers, not just the applicants
4. She'll help your bottom line
5. She's not sorry, she's not lucky, and she's not asking you a question
6. Yay, that's not a compliment
7. She's pretty sure you don't respect her
8. Don't decide for her
9. Don't be afraid of tears
10. She's ready for a raise, but she won't ask for her
11. Hire women your mom's age
12. She deserves a promotion, she just doesn't know it yet.

Other Books Mentioned:

• Belonging by Owen Eastwood

GUEST BIO:
Dominique provides teams and organizations with the best appropriate medicine to heal interpersonal communication diseases. She aims to energize and empower people to transform their future by expressing their full potential today. Dominique helps corporation executives to align their core values into everyday life. She is a senior-certified coach in Conversational Intelligence (C-IQ).

You can find out more at:
https://dominique-ara.com/en/about/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominique-ara/

More yummy content on leaderlearner.fm

Send us a text

SPOTLIGHTED BOOK: The Perfectionists Guide to Losing Control by Katherine Morgan Schafler
GUEST READER : Viktoriia Berezhna

CONVERSATION HIGHLIGHTS:

• Perfectionism evolves over time when we challenge our beliefs
• Preparing does help, but doesn't change perfectionism
• The 5 Kinds of Perfectionists : Classic, Intense, Messy, Procrastinator, Parisian
• Intense - really high expectations for self and others and get intense if expectations not met
• Procrastinator Perfectionist - wait until it's flawless before putting it out there
• Are there differences in how perfectionism shows up based on your age?
• Perfectionism being external - meeting invisible standards
• The role of social media on perfectionism
• When you're driven by what other people think
• Small towns, gossip, and the connection to perfectionism
• Living in integrity means letting go of perfectionism
• When you take something that's perfect in your head and move to create it in the real world
• Are we afraid of the reality not meeting our vision, or the feelings that come up
• Perfectionism connected to shame, regret, grief, etc.
• Not calling ourselves as a "Recovering Perfectionism"
• Can you see perfectionism as a super-power? Use perfectionism in an adaptive and maladaptive way.
• Positive sides of perfectionism
• When you work in a team and how perfectionism styles collide
• Perfectionism is not an illness
• Seeing the gifts in your individual perfectionism
• Power in the self-awareness of your perfectionism
• Purposely making mistakes to "cure" perfectionism
• Different contexts drive different perfectionist tendency
• How do we become a perfectionist? Conditioning from parents, society, etc.
• What we do to make our parents feel proud.
• Coping mechanisms vary depend on the type of perfectionist you are
• Knowing who you are as a way to help you cope
• Keep self moving and out of over-thinking - preparing to do the thing isn't doing the thing, making a list about what to do is also not doing the thing
• Repeated action - just start.
• Do something in which you never expect yourself to be perfect. Purposely be bad.
• Whose yardstick are you measuring yourself by?
• Whose rules are you living by? Can you break some of them?
• How do you know if you are striving in a healthy way or in a perfectionist way?

OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED:

• Playing Big by Tara Mohr
• The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

GUEST BIO:
Viktoriia is a product designer with a passion for creating impactful and user-friendly solutions. With over two years of experience at her current workplace as a Design Team Lead, she is exploring her path as a leader. Currently, she's building a startup called Bookclub VR, an Extended Reality app designed for reading and book clubs, alongside an incredible team of professionals.

Beyond her work, I’m passionate about reading fiction, playing all kinds of racket sports (with a special love for table tennis), and constantly surface-learning new and interesting things, all while still being deeply connected to her journey in design.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/viktoriiaberezhnaya/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bookclubvr/

More yummy content on leaderlearner.fm

Send us a text

SPOTLIGHTED BOOK: Moose Heads on the Table by Karin Tenelius and Lisa Gill
GUEST READER : Alejandro Garcia Machuca

CONVERSATION TOPICS:

• Leadership is something you step in and out of. It's too heavy to be a leadership all the time.
• Self managed organizations don't have managers - they distribute the power and authority among the employees
• When people take ownership for their work, they don't need managers
• Manager as the person who clears the way for others to do their work
• 3 Big Lessons From the Book - a coaching mindset and way of being, a focus on a working climate, a culture of mandate and involvement
• Having the power to give the power away
• Power will always emerge
• People require sensing and adapting
• Most of the underlying issues are unsaid
• Moose Heads on the Table = Elephant In the Room
• Advice being toxic as it disempowers employees
• Leaders NOT being the hero.
• Managing others means not doing the job
• When being "helpful" erodes trust with the team
• Legitimacy comes from trust.
• There is no such thing as objectivity. There is intersubjectivity and agreement.
• We all have blind spots. Be humble.
• Managing and leading aren't the same thing.
• The "Listening Gym" - If we honored listening most, there would be a listening gym on very corner
• Leaders are listeners
• Light fades away, but gravity holds it all together. We wouldn't have stars without gravity, but we only see the light.
• Be like gravity - hold it all together without being seen.
• People won't be silent if they feel empowered
• Passivity and patience aren't the same thing.
• There is a lot of activity in listening.
• Lau Tzu Quote: Go to the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. But with the best leaders, when the work is done, they task accomplished, the people will say, "We have done this ourselves."
• People gifted to speak and people gifted to listen.
• Leadership not as a ladder, but as pendulum.
• When the belief of arriving somewhere keeps us stuck.
• Can't have true power without listening
• Power is an emergent property of groups.
• You know when things are working when people are engaged - people taking charge of their meetings, claiming their own power, focus
• Information when shared regains its purpose - it's the same with power.
• Power is like fertilizer. Concentrated it poisons. Spread around it nourishes.

BOOKS MENTIONED/OTHER RESOURCES:

• The Advice Trap, by Michael Bungay Stanier
• No Rule Rules, Erin Meyer and Reed Hastings
• Unlearning Silence, by Elaine Lin Hering
• Good to Great, by Jim Collins
• The Power of Giving Away Power, by Matthew

GUEST BIO AND LINKS:
Alejandro is currently navigating the muddy waters of fully remote work environments and the ever constant shift of focus and responsibilities within his job as a Software Consultant.

In a nutshell, his responsibility is to design and deliver transformational programs aimed at improving collaboration, all of it underlining the wonders of visual collaboration technology.

Beyond all the above verbiage, he's passionate about anything that's deeply moving, highly thoughtful, and unmistakably authentic. He takes conversations, vulnerability and presence very seriously.

Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandrogarciamachuca/

More yummy content on leaderlearner.fm

Send us a text

SPOTLIGHTED BOOK : Images of Organization by Gareth Morgan
GUEST READER : Vincent Musolino

CONVERSATIONAL TOPICS :

• We talk of organizations as metaphors
• We speak in metaphors and stories
• Some metaphors are older than time
• Analysis of what we do, drawn from metaphors
• The 8 Metaphors - Orgs and Machines, Organisms Brains, Cultures, Political Systems, Psychic Prisons, Flux and Transformation, Instruments of Domination
• Metaphors drive our images and our language, and thus our structures and processes
• Humans driven from the outside (social) more than the inside (psychology)
• "Culture eats strategy for breakfast" ~Peter Drucker
• Recognize the dynamic nature of organizations - we are more than our org chart
• Could be a book that you don't have to read from start to finish
• Listen for the words/phrases that your clients or colleagues use and match it to the corresponding metaphor - read that part
• Good for better understanding your organization - better book for outside vendors
• What does understanding the metaphor change?
• Understanding the metaphors allows you to predict upcoming challenges
• Using one metaphor is dangerous - it's too reductive
• Multiple metaphors can shift perspectives and allow you to see new ways of working
• Play around with metaphors within meetings - create debate
• Not book circle specific

BOOKS/RESOURCES/PEOPLE :

• Peter Drucker
• Edward de Bono - Thinking Hats
• Clean Language - David Grove
• Book: Own Your Armor - Michelle Brody

GUEST INFO:

Vincent Musolino is the founder of COAPTA, where he works as a leadership coach and trainer. He works in both French and English.

Website: https://www.coapta.ch/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentmusolino/
Podcast (in French) : https://www.coapta.ch/category/podcast/

More yummy content on leaderlearner.fm

Send us a text

Check-In:

• What actor or actress would play you in the movie version of your life?

Episode 1:

• Power is for everyone
• Power is an expression of our relationships within groups
• Power over and power to are different
• How different types of power unconsciously drive us

Episode 2:

• Unleashing is allowing
• Who is doing the unleashing?
• Purpose is in relationship to others
• Purpose is temporary
• People can do the same job but find different meaning
• Purpose vs meaning

Episode 3:

• Belief that everyone is doing the best that they can - Is that true and does that set us up for failure
• Generous intent
• We can't fully understand people, and they may not even understand themselves
• Understanding as an illusion

Episode 4:

• The treadmill idea - what happens to people that they get matrixed into a corporate job?
• Multiple causes for treadmill - fulfilling expectations (society, family, etc.)
• HR looking for second generation immigrants due to high motivation
• When people tell you no, it can push you even more

Episode 5:

• Vulnerability as a strength even in
• Coming into leadership in a protective state versus an open state
• Power dynamics shift how vulnerable we can be

Episode 6:

• Being autonomous and interdependent
• Rugged individualism can hold us back when we don't ask for help

Episode 7:

• Gratitude coming from within
• Recognition coming from outside of us

Episode 8:

• Some people who don't want a voice
• When people aren't ready to be empowered?
• Stepping back and looking at the bigger picture and where an employee fits in

Episode 9:

• Is salary enough for engagement?
• Salary is not a driver for everyone
• Disparity between what society says we need and what we actually need
• Generational differences

Episode 10:

• "You don't have to ask, but you have to listen."
• Many of us know what listening is, but we don't know how to do it
• Poor listening as a way to sit with discomfort
• Asking questions not to know more, but to understand

Episode 11:

• Chess and checkers

Episode 12:

• Empowering people to grow - what if they don't want to grow?
• Rock starts versus Super stars - it's important to honor people where they are

Episode 13:

• The importance of stories
• If we don't hear other people's stories, we make up stories
• Brains liking closed loops
• If we have a shared sense of who we are below our roles
• Show don't tell

Episode 14:

• Is awareness enough to change behavior?
• Nothing new is created from self-awareness - self-awareness just the start
• Taking responsibility for your behavior

Episode 15:

• Being too passive in your relationship to your manager
• Imposter Syndrome gets in the way of asking manager for more

Episode 16:

• Do we have to let go of "When I was your age?"
• Not about what you said, but how you said it
• Creating connection through stories of our generation, not from a sense of our way was better
• Sharing perspective goes both ways across generations

Episode 17:

• Free added value - when corporations exploit employee generosity
• ERG - Employee Resources Groups - when organizations ask employees to volunteer their time to push DEI initiatives

Episode 18:

• Why don't peop

More yummy content on leaderlearner.fm

Send us a text

Check-In:

• What was your favorite job? And why?

Big Ideas:

• move from shallow questions to deep questions
• freedom, pace, connection
• autonomy and connectedness are part of the motivational factors of humans
• autonomy within a group, leaning into the group rather than isolation
• independence, dependence, and interdependence
• 3 types of conversations - the practical conversation (What's this really about?) , the emotional conversation (How do we feel?), the social conversation (Who are we?)
• context matters and appreciate what type of conversation to have
• when we are having different types of conversation with others, there is a mismatch and information doesn't get through
• meta-communication - talking about the type of communication
• we communicate through our emotions
• we aren't rational beings but emotional ones
• recognize the nuance of other people's communication, and ask questions about their emotions without becoming emotional myself
• exercise where Theresa shared something meaningful with another person, and that person was instructed to be completely indifferent - Theresa had a strong emotional reaction
• our bodies speak to us if we listen
• holding multiple emotions at the same time - even if they seem competing emotions
• the 3 types are all in a multidimensional space
• communicate about ourselves, about the relationship, and about what we want
• emotion comes from the relationship we have with ourselves and others
• communication is like an orchestra, and certain aspects of it play louder
• cognitive dissonance - when evidence goes against what we believe about ourselves
• confirmation bias - sort out information that doesn't vibe with who we think we are
• when social media feeds our biases
• learning about the full humanity of people, and seeing their values, beliefs, history, and let go of the data to reduce polarization
• people agree a lot more than we think
• when we can listen deeply in some contexts but not others
• teach people how to be curious and ask deep, profound questions
• political system is based on making arguments, not on asking questions
• how much our childhood plays a role in our communication skills
• how story-telling about what people say or don't say interferes with our relationships
• emotional expression in professional settings is not fully expressed
• if a lot of books have been written on listening, why do we still not listen well
• we fail to practice listening to the emotional and social aspects of conversation
• stereotype threat - prime yourself on your multi-dimensional roles to overcome the threat
• being a good talker doesn't make you a good leader
• the training and book doesn't do anything for you

Resources:

• Supercommunicators, by Charles Duhigg
• Friedemann Schulz von Thun, German Psychologist
• Nancy Kline's deep listening

More yummy content on leaderlearner.fm