Engaging People, Powering Companies - The Engagement Coach Leadership Podcast

Have you noticed how much easier it is to deal with the challenges of work when you come back from holiday as opposed to how you felt before you left? Nothing else changes except the mindset we bring to our work. When we get a chance to reflect and recuperate, it can have a massive impact on our outlook and our resilience. Mindset is the secret ingredient that allows us to make the most of opportunities and to help us be more optimistic. How do you develop your mindset to help you achieve more at work? Join Amrit for this week's episode of our podcast: The Power of Mindset.

We hear so often how the world is more VUCA/ BANI/TUNA/ RUPT - take your pick, but the point is that it's far more complicated to allow organisations to embrace a deliberate strategic approach, resulting in confusion over the long-term direction. It's now harder than ever to think beyond 12 months, with the changing environment around us. If established organisations are now having to go back to embracing an emergent strategic approach, shouldn't we be looking to develop the skills of leaders and managers to also develop a more entrepreneurial mindset, allowing them to work like start-ups? Do start-ups have the upper hand as they have the mindsets to make the most of opportunities? Join Amrit for this week's podcast - Episode 107: Developing Entrepreneurial Skills and Mindsets.

Have you ever experienced a moment in your life where you knew what the outcome was going to be, you could see it, taste it, and you were in no doubt what it would become? Having such a strong power of conviction allows us to move forward from the natural state of fearing change, fearing uncertainty, and fearing losing what we have as we strive to achieve more. Sometimes, our internal narrative can be our biggest blocker. When we develop such clarity over what we're looking to achieve, it can sometimes be impossible not to make it happen! Join Amrit for this week's podcast on the Power of Conviction!

A company reputation matters. Those organisations that have a reputation for a great culture will attract people because of that culture. But that reputation could blind us to the toxic micro-cultures that may exist, resulting in people suffering in what should be a great culture. What can leaders do to uncover these toxic micro-cultures? What causes these cultures to develop in the first place? Join Amrit as he explores this topic in this week's podcast.

This week we're facing into the hard truth of whether senior leaders and CEOs are motivated enough to improve productivity and performance across organisations. Doing nothing can actually pay off. Many senior leaders will get their bonuses, and one could argue, they are almost being incentivised to maintain the status quo. But across every organisation, everyone knows those areas that need improvement or require attention, which will improve productivity and performance, but nothing is being done about them. No one is motivated enough to rock the boat and deal with the big issues. Could this be the reason why the UKs productivity is stuck? Join Amrit as he shares his thoughts of how we could improve what everyone claims they want.

Welcome back! Now that the summer is over, and we hope you have enjoyed time with family and friends, having rested, we hit September with the enthusiasm of starting the new year like we do after a Christmas break. This quarter is critical to many businesses so it's important that we are being as effective as we can possibly be. A specific request from a listener this week about a manager who is making her feel alienated from the team, and managing poorly. She has sent through a request for Amrit to see how he might deal with this situation. Listen in and then share your views of what you might do!

How much are we relying on data to make important decisions? Data is critical, but in our quest to process data at an exponential rate, to the extent that we need to rely on AI to provide us with insights, are we missing a critical human component? What ever happened to 'gut feel' or instincts? Have you ever had a moment when the data all pointed one way, but your gut told you to go another? What information did your brain have to make you consider the alternative path? Join Amrit as he explores the relevance of intuition in making decisions at work.

Details of Oliver Burkeman and his book: https://www.oliverburkeman.com/Details of out YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@and-evolve/videos 

Here at &Evolve, we've been running our podcast over the last three years, hoping to provoke thought, to consider how we can improve the world of work and improve the lives of everyone, whilst at the same time improving performance and productivity. With our special 100th episode, we wanted to do something different. This week Amy Billings, and Carole Castle from the &Evolve team who help support our clients, will be guests to share their thoughts all about leadership and cultures, sharing their own experiences and outlooks.

We have a real treat for you this week. To support you in your quest to develop greater wisdom, we have our accompanying digital Reflective Practice Journal which you can download immediately after the podcast, using the following link:DIGITAL REFLECTIVE JOURNAL  

How many Baby Boomers make up your organisation's senior leadership team? Are you prepared for them to begin retiring? Whilst they may not all choose to, in the U.S. alone, 2024 is going to see the largest population of people in its history, celebrate their 65th birthday. In the U.K., the baby boomer generation make up almost 25% of the population. How prepared are our organisations for when they retire? Have we got robust succession plans in place? Is hiring externally always of value? Join Amrit as he explores this topic in this week's podcast.

Welcome to a special episode of our podcast where we delve into the intersection of social media, expectations, and stereotypes within the workplace for Generation Z professionals. In this episode, we explore how social media influences the way Gen Z approaches work and relationships within their careers. We'll discuss the unique expectations Gen Z brings to the workplace, from a desire for purpose-driven work to a preference for flexibility and authenticity. We'll also address common stereotypes associated with this generation and how they can be reframed to better understand Gen Z employees

Over the last few decades, many organisations have moved away from deliberate strategies to more emergent strategic approaches. This has allowed organisations to reman agile, but has this had a longer term impact, preventing organisations from achieving their full potential? Is VUCA the new norm, meaning we need to rethink our strategic approaches? And how do we go about improving our personal performances at work? Amrit refers back to history seeing what lessons we can learn from pre- and post Russian history to improve our personal and business performances in this week's podcast.

What drives discrimination? If the colour of someone's skin is the only reason, how did the holocaust happen with Nazi Germany creating a 'Master race'? What then do we make of the caste system in India, where some people born into castes are considered untouchable, where their very touch could pollute another? Is race a version of a systemic caste system where humanity has artificially created superior groups and inferior groups, putting in place structures to perpetuate this very notion? Despite all the efforts by organisations to create more inclusive workplaces through ED&B initiatives, could this be the reason we haven't seen an impact? Join Amrit as he explores this topic, driven by the film 'Origins', highlighting the book 'Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents', in this week's podcast.

Just when you thought companies had adapted to remote and hybrid working, Boots announces that all their employees must come back into the office five days a week. The reason? Because they felt remote and hybrid working was having an impact on their culture. Cultures are made up of the values we hold most dear. What are the values driving Boots? Are companies making decisions aligned to their values? And for those who choose to work remotely, what impact is this having on their chances of career development and promotion? Join Amrit for this week's podcast on Flexibility and the Hybrid Ceiling.

Have you noticed how when companies have had a fantastic financial performance, they share the great news, but then tell employees they cannot invest in any additional resources because they just don't have the budgets? It leaves employees confused about the decisions being made, and questioning where all the money is going to? Leaders are working in a different time zone to employees, and if this isn't taking into account, it can cause disengagement, rather than driving engagement. Join Amrit as he explores this topic in this week's podcast - Communicating to Employees like Investors.

Is it inevitable that power will corrupt? Is this something we need to accept as the frailty of the human condition, that as soon as we achieve powerful positions, corruption is inevitable, irrespective of who you are and your benevolent intentions? Whilst power tends to corrupt, could power attract those with pathological tendencies acting like a magnet, only enhancing and magnifying what already existed in those people? What can companies do to protect those positions of power from those looking to get drunk on power? Join Amrit as he discusses Leader: Power and Hypocrisy in this week's podcast.

How much does your reputation matter to you? Obviously, we don't want people around us saying horrible things about us, but for some people, that can matter far more than for others. How important is reputation to those best performers? What role does having a clearly defined identity play in helping performance? It turns out, quite a lot. Our Values and Identity play a pivotal role based on the experiences of authors of a new book 'Learned Excellence', findings we can all apply to improve our own performance.

Would you know if your employees were living in poverty? What signs would you see? Would a drop in performance towards the end of the month be something you would ever associate with poverty, questioning whether some people are rationing food because they have no more money? This might sound extreme, but with the findings from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation highlighting how millions of employees are living in poverty, what does this mean to the role of the employer? Join Amrit as he explores this topic in this week's podcast.

Many of us will have watched the documentary called 'Mr Bates vs The Post Office', which showed the way sub-postmasters were treated after the roll-out of a new computer system which started to show hundred of sub-postmasters having huge gaps in their takings. Instead of questioning the system, the default of the senior leadership team was to blame their people. Not just blame, but to pursue criminal prosecutions and convictions, which were based on errors. Lives were wreaked, lives were lost, yet no one has been held to account. What can we learn from The Post Office scandal? Join Amrit for this week's podcast as he shares his thoughts.

Despite all the experience you have across your career, do you find you doubting yourself? Do you suffer from Imposter Syndrome? Are you afraid of being 'found out'? You are not alone. Many of us suffer from this and for those in senior positions, it could go on to impact on the culture. How can we overcome this and what could we do to improve how we feel? Join Amrit as he explores this in this week's podcast.

How often do you sit there on Sunday night thinking 'I really don't want to go to work tomorrow'? As winter draws closer, the thought of work on a Monday morning may fill some with dread. But whilst most of us think work is a means to an end - if we could find another way of earning a living, we would, could work mean something completely different? What if work just happened to be an avenue for you to positively touch the lives of the people you come into contact with? How would this change how you thought about work? Join Amrit as he explores our thoughts about the value of our work.

Have you ever been accused of flip-flopping? When we think of leaders, we often have images of strong, charismatic individuals who are clear visionaries, with the ability to immediately know where to go and how to get there. Whilst this applies to some very exceptional people, the world is full of great leaders who are more open-minded. When being open-minded is a great predictor of workplace success, engagement and innovation, isn't it more important that we focus on developing this critical skill? Join Amrit as he explores 'Leadership Open-Mindedness' in this week's podcast.

How is your home life? Perfect and all unfolding the way you planned it out? I suspect not. Whilst there's a huge focus on employee experiences and employee engagement, we can often forget the human beings experiencing life outside of work, trying to cope with the uncertainty life throws at us, and the constant change we are having to deal with. This week, Amrit shares his own challenges over the summer that made him reflect on how hard we can be on ourselves, trying to control things we cannot, whilst feeling guilty about not being our best at work. Embracing Personal Uncertainty and Change Whilst Being our Best at Work - the topic of this week's podcast.

How many times have you heard the word 'entitled' when people describe Gen Z employees? What's so different about this generation than any other, that they can't seem to handle work? Well, maybe there's nothing wrong with them, and it's our work we need to fix. How supportive are our workplaces to those aged 18-24 years? Have we got lazy with job descriptions and recruiting the right fit, only to use Gen Z as our scapegoats? Join Amrit as he focuses on Stop Blaming Gen Z's in this week's podcast.

Many organisations are focused on promoting from within and whilst there are huge benefits, promoting someone to manage the team they were part of can be a huge challenge. The balance of still being friends, whilst managing performance can in itself cause problems and damage the very trust that underpinned those relationships. What can organisations do to better support newly promoted colleagues who are now managing the team they were part of? Join Amrit as he explores this topic.

Following the report from the Institute of Leadership, the Index of Leadership Trust 2023, trust in CEOs was shown to be lower than trust for line managers. Despite the millions spent on employee engagement each year, what are organisations, and more importantly, CEOs doing wrong? How can we focus to rebuild trust? Join Amrit as he explores this topic in this week's podcast.

We've just had the release of the Gallup report highlighting that the UK has some of the lowest employee engagement levels across the world - a figure of only 10%! When you combine this with our productivity amongst the G7 countries, you've got to question why this is? Do you believe it really is only 10%? If so, what might be causing this and why is it remaining so stubbornly low? Join Amrit as he shares his thoughts on this topic in this week's podcast.

Would you describe yourself as extraordinary? Most of us would have an immediate reaction of 'absolutely not!. But what if we were all extraordinary, but we just hadn't taken enough time to see it, appreciate it, acknowledge it? How can we possibly see extraordinary in others, if we cannot see it within ourselves? What are the traits of extraordinary people? And as leaders and managers, if we cannot see the extraordinary in the people around us, how could we ever create remarkable companies? Join Amrit as he explores 'Extraordinary People Creating Extraordinary Companies', in this week's podcast

In the UK, we've been experiencing lovely weather, and have you noticed how much nicer everyone is to one another when the sun shines? The weather makes a huge difference to our mood and motivation. Yet we don't often think about it, but leaders create the weather in our workplaces. Think of managers as the gardeners - there's a limit of what they can do if the weather doesn't help them. Join Amrit as he shares he thoughts on the impact leaders can have on managers and their ability to be effective.

How passionate are you about what your organisation does? Does the purpose statement excite you? What's the point of these purpose statements, if they have no impact on how we work? Passion and action are critical components of Purpose, yet across organisations, we don't think about how well we enable our teams to action upon the shared passion that brings us together. Join Amrit as he explores On Purpose, in this week's podcast.

When was the last time you indulged in time for you? We spend our lives focusing on everyone around us, and have little time to do everything we want to achieve, leaving any notion of spending time on ourselves as a luxury that can never happen. If we don't manage our time, we do not value ourselves - and this is important. Join Amrit as he explores taking time to Value You, in this week's podcast.

Following the news that the Deputy Prime Minister has resigned in the UK, following reports of bullying, it has raised a debate of what gets classed as bullying. Are managers who are 'robust' in their approach, bullies? Is there a standard definition of bullying? What then can individuals and organisations do to tackle bullying in the workplace, both for themselves and to help others? Join Amrit as he explores this topic in this week's podcast.

Whilst on the London Underground, during rush hour, Amrit noticed how many people looked exhausted and were sleeping. It's hard to imagine people being able to be the best of themselves when they're exhausted by the time they get to work. How well are we getting ourselves work ready? What can organisations do to help create meaningful roles that drive passion and energy at work? Join Amrit as he explores this topic in this week's podcast.

During challenging times, it's easy to get caught up thinking about worst-case scenarios and all that could go wrong. Whilst we might do this to protect ourselves, we can get into a habit of learned helplessness - resigned to the situations we find ourselves in. What if we were to focus on learned hopefulness? What is this and how do we achieve it? Imagine what this could do to our ability to act and find solutions. Join Amrit as he explores this topic in this week's podcast.

With the recent report into the Met police, and the horrific case of the school teacher who took her own life following an OFSTED inspection, it raises questions about how we go about improving standards, whilst using language such as 'Inadequate'. How can putting so much stress on people and branding them as 'inadequate', help motivate? We need to know standards are the best, but how can we go about doing this, by providing hope and motivating people to improve? Join Amrit as he explores this topic in this week's podcast.

What happened to those employees who were part of the 'Great Resignation'? Would you be surprised to hear a recent survey identified 8 out of 10 people regretted moving jobs? It takes so much for someone to leave, so when causes people to regret moving? Organisations work hard to entice new employees, but how well do we look after them when it comes to onboarding? Amrit explores how creating amazing on boardings could help.

If anyone is interested in finding out more, here's the link to the '4 day week global'. We have no affiliation with the organisation.https://www.4dayweek.com/

How kind is your workplace? How kind are the people to each other? Following the experience of a CEO of a large organisation, reaching out to Amrit, to meet up to say thank you for all the work carried out, reflecting on the emotions he experienced, and the feelings he was left with, Amrit shares his thoughts of how amazing he felt and how this random act was such a stark reminder of the huge impact kindness can have on our workplaces.

Are you over 50 years old, struggling to find work? Why do we assume older employees will add less value that younger ones to our organisations? Whilst it's a protected characteristic, there's still some views that to create a dynamic organisation, you need young people. What value do older employees bring to organisations in terms of culture and performance? Join Amrit as he shared his experiences in this week's podcast.

Every human being is an emotional creature - driven by emotions than logic. Yet somehow when it comes to work, we seem to abandon this knowledge, dealing with people in a very logical and rational way. Emotions matter yet we seem to be slow in equipping leaders and managers with the ability to emotionally connect with people. Join Amrit as he explores Emotions at Work in this week's podcast.

An article Amrit wrote recently for HRDirector on the subject can be read here: https://www.thehrdirector.com/features/future-of-work/engineered-attrition-latest-tactic-get-rid-employees/ 

Many people have an expectation from leaders and managers when it comes to their experiences at work. Whilst leaders set the tone for the culture, much of what we experience of work can be managed by us, but we get caught up being subjected to other people's behaviours. How could you take control of your work experiences? Imagine the impact this could have. You won't be able to make systemic changes, but you could take direct control of your daily experiences. Join Amrit as he shared his thoughts on taking ownership of our work experiences.

Every one of us have suffered from procrastination and it's often a horrible feeling, ladened with guilt. What is procrastination and why do we suffer from it? How can we overcome this helplessness that so many of us can feel? This podcast is linked to the 'Driving Productivity' series of workshops that The Engagement Coach will be running, open to all, with the first focused on Time Management. Join Amrit in this week's podcast on dealing with procrastination.

Having had one week into the New Year, this is a perfect opportunity to review and reflect on our company cultures. What have we tolerated and what needs changing? Rather than waiting for an engagement survey to focus on our company culture, with this fresh perspective, how can we create truly great work cultures? Join Amrit as he shares his thoughts on this critical topic.

Have you ever used your holiday away from work to catch up on work? Many of us have often worked evenings and weekends to catch up, but as we face a recession, and organisations look to cut costs, could we be creating an environment perfect for Leavism? How can we tell if our teams are working too hard and using their personal time to play catch up, especially with obvious implications on burnout? Join Amrit as he explores this topic in this week's podcast.

No one would ever describe themselves as suffering from learned helplessness but when we learn to accept the negative situation around us is never going to change, whilst we may not choose to admit it, this is exactly what this is. It results in us no longer trying to make changes, as it is pointless. What can we do and is there ever any hope? Join Amrit as he explores this topic in this week's podcast

What's holding you back from being your best? Many of us know deep down we could be so much better than we are today, but we struggle to do anything about it. Some of us struggle because we want everything we be perfect. Others struggle because of a narrative or belief system we tell ourselves, and some of us struggle to commit to ourselves because we think there's nothing we've managed to commit to, in our lives. Join Amrit as he explores what can hold us back and how we can overcome this.

Have you ever had that feeling that something didn't feel right, only to find you were right but you didn't follow through on those instinctive feelings? As leaders, we are conditioned that everything must be data-driven, tangible and we often ignore those gut feelings or intuition, yet it serves an important purpose. Our brains and bodies are processing information at a phenomenal rate, leading to these feelings and thoughts, that we find hard to articulate or explain, and therefore we ignore. When something doesn't feel right, it usually isn't, and our brains and bodies have picked up on this, without us realising. Combining this knowledge with an awareness of our personal values, can help improve our decision-making. Join Amrit as he explores Intuitive Leadership in this week's podcast.

It's easy to confuse compassion and care, but being a caring leader, isn't the same as being a compassionate leader. What are the components of compassionate leadership? According to research, compassion has three facets: Noticing, Feeling and Responding. How well do organisations notice what people are experiencing? Do they work hard enough to fully understand what people feel? And then how can organisations respond accordingly? Join Amrit as he explores this topic in this week's podcast.