Better Work

New podcast starting in March 2022!

“The 50:30:20 approach changed my life. Understanding that you're not always going to be looking for a job that's gonna 100% satisfy you. I don't think it exists. Even entrepreneurs say this is not going to be all glitz and glamour 100%. Understanding that you need to enjoy your job and extremely enjoy your job to 50% of the time. Be okay, 30% of the time, and 20% of the time… that 20% is the part that's going to be a challenge and it has to be there. Otherwise, you're not challenging yourself to just enjoy and coast.”Our guest today is Dr Damilola Fajuyigbe, a scientist by training, by nature and by passion. She did her PhD in molecular biology in London and then moved on very quickly from the world of academia to join the corporate world. Damilola now works in the field of medical lobbying, medical direction, and scientific direction for a big company.Links:Dr Damilola Fajuyigbe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damilola-fajuyigbe/ Nicole on the web: www.nicoletschierske.com  Connect with Nicole on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/drnicoletschierske/Download: “The No Fluff Immediately Applicable Guide to Reduce Stress & Burnout in Your Team“ https://nicoletschierske.com/stress 

“Start taking those little steps towards speaking up more in any situation. And even if you don't feel confident about doing it, it will build your confidence because you will start to get positive responses. It's one of those things that when you start doing it, you get immediate results, even if you mess up a little. You still have the chance to go back and remediate it, fix it. But if you don't speak up, you never get the chance to fix anything. And you're gonna be stuck in the same frustrations and problems and resentment that are only going to grow. This has nothing to do with shyness. This has nothing to do with introversion. Anybody can do this, we're born assertive. So let's get back to our normal state. So we can enjoy life and get people to treat us that we want to you want to be treated and get taken seriously and be respected and have some self-respect as well.”Our guest today is Ivna Curi who studied electrical engineering but ended up working with analytics, most of her career in different areas. And one of the things that she soon came to realize was that she had no issues with logic and numbers and calculations, but struggled with the fact that she wasn't speaking up enough and in the right way. Luckily, in her first position as a people manager, she had a mentor who coached her on how to have these hard conversations. Ivna started to teach what she learned to her team and today she's helping her clients speak up more assertively.Links:Ivna Curi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivna-curi-mba-67083b2/ Work with Ivna: https://assertiveway.com/ Nicole on the web: www.nicoletschierske.com  Connect with Nicole on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/drnicoletschierske/Download: “The No Fluff Immediately Applicable Guide to Reduce Stress & Burnout in Your Team“ https://nicoletschierske.com/stress 

“For me, maybe the thing that I learned that had the deepest influence on me was that when you respect the people you work with, and when you make it very explicit that respect, it comes back to you a hundredfold. And it's really this magic of what happens when people are doing their best together. That makes any work or any career really worth it.”Our guest today is Dr. Gwenaëlle Lefeuvre an experimental particle physicist by training. But she didn't necessarily want to be an academic physicist. So she spent about half of her career in a very traditional setting in academia. Gwenaelle completed her PhD thesis and a couple of postdoc contracts in different countries, working in international collaborations. In the second half of her career (so far) she moved to industrial research and development. She also hosts The Diffracted Word, a side project she started to look for interesting scientific SMEs in the UK and in the EU. Links:Dr. Gwenaëlle Lefeuvre on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gwenaellelefeuvre/ The Diffracted Word https://thediffractedword.org/ Nicole on the web: www.nicoletschierske.com  Connect with Nicole on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/drnicoletschierske/Download: “The No Fluff Immediately Applicable Guide to Reduce Stress & Burnout in Your Team“ https://nicoletschierske.com/stress 

“The most important thing to remember is to own your calendar. Because we're all in an environment where we're suddenly at the behest of calendars. Because no one can see each other. So everyone's booking everyone else in. So you do need to learn to give yourself permission to book yourself in. And to take that time to ourselves to re-energize.”Our guest today is Michele Ong, a programmer by trade. Michele is a computer scientist and makes software for people. Throughout her career, she's been building and developing solutions to help people meet their objectives and reach their goals. But lately, she's also been doing a lot of creating and started her own podcast called STEAM Powered, where she talks to women in STEM fields, about their journeys.Links:Michele Ong on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/micheleong/ Nicole on the web: www.nicoletschierske.com  Connect with Nicole on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/drnicoletschierske/Download: “The No Fluff Immediately Applicable Guide to Reduce Stress & Burnout in Your Team“ https://nicoletschierske.com/stress 

How well do you take care of continuous learning? And are you making sure that you not only develop your technical skills but also your human skills? Nina advocates for balancing a well-rounded set of technical and human skills. That is something she learned on the way as she progressed through her career. It wasn't part of her university studies. But next to growing and learning, there are other important things we should make time for at work.In this episode of the Better Work podcast you'll learn:✅ continuous learning for yourself and your team✅ valuable meetings for knowledge sharing or learning from failure✅ stakeholder engagement for more realistic deadlines✅ what pay, the working conditions, and trust have to do with excellence✅ how task-sharing helps a team to get organisedOur guest today is Nina Dedic, an IT professional who studied Computer Science. She started as a software developer in 2004. From there, after several years, she began to work as a project leader (back when the waterfall model was in trend). Another few years later, she switched to the role of product owner (now Scrum was something that was popular). And in 2021, she switched to a new position as a development lead and heads the core development department.Links:Nina Dedic on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ninadedic/ Nicole on the web: www.nicoletschierske.com  Connect with Nicole on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/drnicoletschierske/Download: “The No Fluff Immediately Applicable Guide to Reduce Stress & Burnout in Your Team“ https://nicoletschierske.com/stress 

It's never too late to make a change in your career. And it's really important to know exactly what it is that you love to do. You may need to take yourself away from your normal environment to figure that out: What is the stuff that you really love? What is it that you really enjoy doing? What's the stuff you would do for free? Figure out what that is and then make sure you're doing that in more of your life.In this episode of the Better Work podcast you'll learn:✅ To understand when it might be time for a career change✅ How to uncover what you want to do next✅ Why leaders should consider helping their team members move on✅ What questions leaders can ask (and how)✅ How organisations can get better at matching people to jobsDr Sian Rowsell PhD is an award-winning coach, helping women who are leaders in science forge ahead in their careers, realise their full potential and achieve the perfect work/life balance. Following a PhD at Imperial College, and a post-doc at the University of Leeds, Sian enjoyed a very successful and varied career in pharmaceuticals at AstraZeneca. After 16 years in a corporate role, she began asking herself the question: “What next?” - ever since then, she's been coaching and facilitating others to find their passion and direction.For more information, please email sian@sianrowsell.co.uk, connect with Sian on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sianrowsell/ or visit www.sianrowsell.co.ukMore Links:Nicole on the web: www.nicoletschierske.com  Connect with Nicole on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/drnicoletschierske/Download: “The No Fluff Immediately Applicable Guide to Reduce Stress & Burnout in Your Team“ https://nicoletschierske.com/stress 

Being an employer, or being a worker, is not just about being a checker on a chessboard. Only if a leader is mindful of the team can the team bring value to the companies and to the work environment. In this episode of the Better Work podcast Luisa Flechas and I explore how motivation and stellar results are interconnected:✅ what helps to feel motivated and engaged✅ what team support looks like✅ how to connect the company vision to the team goals✅ the elements that fuel excellence at work✅ why you should structure workflows✅ what to consider for communication and feedbackOur guest today is Luisa Flechas, a chemical engineer who studied sustainable energy systems. She's originally from Colombia and has lived and worked in the United States for over 12 years. After a long time working in the oil and gas industry, Luisa felt that she wanted to immerse herself in renewable energy technologies. She's currently working as a business developer in the Netherlands. Links:Luisa Flechas on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lflechas/ Nicole on the web: www.nicoletschierske.com  Connect with Nicole on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/drnicoletschierske/ Download: “The No Fluff Immediately Applicable Guide to Reduce Stress & Burnout in Your Team“ https://nicoletschierske.com/stress 

To make a team in consumer goods innovation work (to make any team work), you have to take care of the people and take care of relationships. You can gather any knowledge and learn any technical skill. You can train people to do almost any task. But relationships are the one important thing that carries the whole rest of capability.In this episode of the Better Work podcast you'll learn about the 7 key ingredients for dream teams in product innovation:✅ Accountability and responsibility✅ Balancing obligation vs. freestyle✅ Knowing when YOU'RE accountable. (And when to get out of the way.)✅ Inspiring your team.✅ Giving room for learning and focusing on what's working.✅ Creating a positive team climate.✅ Using processes as means to an endOur guest today is Dr. Stefan Biel. He's a natural scientist by education: Stefan studied biotechnology and worked on viruses for his PhD thesis. He joined the cosmetics industry as the lab leader for analytics doing electron microscopy. From there, he developed into someone who's interested in understanding why people do stuff. Consumers in particular. That's why he's interested in innovation. Doing something that makes life easier for people no matter how big or small the step might be. Links:Stefan Biel on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefanbiel/ Nicole on the web: www.nicoletschierske.com  Connect with Nicole on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/drnicoletschierske/ Download: “The No Fluff Immediately Applicable Guide to Reduce Stress & Burnout in Your Team“ https://nicoletschierske.com/stress 

Software engineers are not the stereotype that they may be perceived as. “People know straight away that I work in IT, I mean, look at me.” is what Nick Proud says in this interview. But, the stereotype is diminishing. Anyone who has a passion for solving problems, logic, likes puzzles can become a software developer and it's a very rewarding career. If you have tinkered with the idea of becoming a software engineer, this episode will show you that it's a lot more fun and rewarding than it might seem in the stereotypes that you see in the movies.In this episode of the Better Work podcast you'll learn about all the joys of being a software developer - and how to be a good one:✅ The many great challenges in software development✅ Paths to becoming a software developer✅ How collaboration and the Agile framework support✅ What single points of failures are✅ Strategies to exchange knowledge✅ How to fail quickly at low costOur guest today is Nick Proud. Nick is a software developer and lead software developer. He has the responsibility of looking after a team of software developers as well as doing his own work. Nick's main area of focus is in robotics automation.Links:Nick Proud on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickproud/ Nicole on the web: www.nicoletschierske.com  Connect with https://www.linkedin.com/in/drnicoletschierske/ Shownotes in your inbox: https://nicoletschierske.com/letters 

KPI stands for Key Performance Indicators and is the language of business. It's the measurement tool used to evaluate performance. When I recently interviewed Mark Graban for the Better Work podcast, we explored how to use KPIs and metrics in a meaningful way. In this episode of the Better Work podcast you'll learn six principles to make the most out of KPIs and metrics:✅ Create an environment where people want to be part of improvement initiatives.✅ Don't obsess about metrics and KPIs, but focus on processes and results.✅ Use data wisely to make decisions.✅ Once you've identified a statistically meaningful signal, ask "What has changed?".✅ Don't seek to optimise, but pursue the ideal.✅ Measure as much as possible, but don't overreact to what you see.Main Takeaway:There's a common theme in this episode: Understand the difference between assumptions and knowledge.Do you know performance has gotten worse? Or do you think it has gotten worse?Do you know there's a trend in the data? Or do you think there's a trend in the data?Do you know the root cause? Or do you have a hypothesis about the root cause?How do we test our assumptions? If we have a hypothesis, are we open to disproving it? That's what scientists would try to do.It's not about proving ourselves, but see if we can learn and close the gap between our assumption and reality.Mark Graban is the author of many books, including Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More. He's also the host of many podcasts, including “My Favorite Mistake. Mark earned a BS in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University, an MS in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from MIT.Links:Mark Graban on the web: www.markgraban.comMark Graban on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mgraban/ Nicole on the web: www.nicoletschierske.com  Connect with Nicole on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drnicoletschierske/