Content warning:
Laura shares honestly and openly about her significant mental health struggles, including being sectioned. Some listeners/viewers may find the content hard. Please watch/listen only if you are in a healthy space to consider mental health issues.
Laura Baines is the founder of Embrace Forever Flowers. I met Laura at a networking event, and I was struck by her story and the power of how she used her personal story which included huge challenges with mental and physical health to shape her company and shape and make a difference to the lives of others.
Laura’s story helps us understand that struggles with mental health need not hold us back. Her story also helps us understand how you can model ‘Everyday Alchemy’ and ‘Transform Trash into Treasure’.
We explore topics like
Here we are in podcast 5 of 5 in the Everyday Alchemy series. We have learnt how to Pause, Reflect and Respong in the moment to make the best of the moment. We have learnt how to ReVISIT, ReVIEW, ReFRAME and ReBUILD aftwerwards to develop ourselves and our practice. But so what? Is it all just about bettering ourselves?In the fifth of our ‘Everyday Alchemy’ series of podcasts, Anna Hennell James interviews Colin Tapscott about his book Everyday Alchemy and this episode focuses on ‘Treasure’. We explore the Zulu phrase, ‘Ubuntu’ and the Japanese phrase ‘Ikagai’ to see how the Everyday Alchemist truly ‘transforms’ even beyond themselves and impacts on others. How we move from being an apprentice to truly being and Everyday Alchemist.
The ancient Alchemists transformed metal into gold. They changed its form. Everyday Alchemists look to take moments beyond their current form into a better way for the future. After the moment they have ReVISITed and ReVIEWed and now it is time to ReFRAME it and ReBUILD.
In the fourth of our ‘Everyday Alchemy’ series of podcasts, Anna Hennell James interviews Colin Tapscott about his book Everyday Alchemy and this episode focuses on how to ReFRAME, understand what a better way could look like and what you are in control of developing in your skills, knowledge or practice and ReBUILD helps you work out what you take forward in your mindset or actions based on the 4P’s of Priority, Power, Partner and Plan.
Often our thinking can be unhelpful. We can tell ourselves something went wrong because it was our fault. Everyday Alchemy helps us move away from that thinking of binary pass or fail to seeing every moment as potential for learning and growth. After an event, taking time to revisit it and reflect on it, can enable us to see it more clearly and focus on the things we can control and change for the future.
In the third of our ‘Everyday Alchemy’ series of podcasts, Anna Hennell James interviews Colin Tapscott about his book Everyday Alchemy and this episode focuses on ReVISIT and ReVIEW.
These are the first two steps to explore and moment and get a clearer picture. ReVISITing it to understand elements you didn’t see at the time that impacted on the situation. ReVIEWing it allows you to gain a clearer picture of the areas you could affect change in. This helps you gain control and consider how you could turn a moment you previously viewed as trash into the treasure of learning and growth.
So often we react to situations. We can then find ourselves in a position where the situation controls us rather than us controlling the situation. Reacting and letting the situation control us can lead to us feeling out of control and anxious. Everyday Alchemy has a different approach to make the best of any sitatuion in the moment. Rather than ReACT we can Respond, using 3 simple steps: Pause; Reflect; Respond.
In the second of our ‘Everyday Alchemy’ series of podcasts, Anna Hennell James interviews colin Tapscott about his book Everyday Alchemy and this episode focuses on how to make the best of any moment using Pause, Reflect and Respond. In doing so, you can turn what might seem like trash into treasure.
Life doesn’t have to be pass or fail. It can be so much more fulfilling if you have a reflective mindset. Anna Hennell James interviews Colin Tapscott about his new book, Everyday Alchemy - Turning your Trash into Treasure, which explores how you can thrive even from the most difficult moments. In this episode Colin explains what an Everyday Alchemist is, the mindset you need and the power of reflection.
It’s just banter. No harm done.” It’s what they say when they have been held to account for comments made in the workplace, that they say is humour but actually are not funny at all. So, what is banter and what is its impact? Is there any place for it in the workplace? How do we create a healthy culture where the negative effects of banter cannot take place? How do we deal with banter as leaders and set a culture of lifting others up? Anna Hennell James and Colin explore ‘Banter’.
How to delegate well is a key component of leadership. But yet, so often delegation doesn’t go well and can lose its way with deadlines missed and outcomes that don’t match expectation, causing the leader to utter those immortal words, “I might as well do it myself!” But there is a better way.
Delegation is not just about giving someone a job to do. Delegation is the act of giving someone else the responsibility and transferring authority. In this podcast, Colin Tapscott and Anna Hennell James explore how delegation therefore needs to be planned, purposeful and strategic. When delegating leaders need to think about skill strength, development opportunities and organisational capacity. They look at the 6W’s in delegating and clear time planning with review points and buffer zones and how to ensure that the person is clear on expectations.
If you want to know in simple terms how to make delegation successful, then join us in the Leadership Lounge to hear how.
s leading all about the badge that you wear? But what if you haven’t been given a badge yet that says leader? Can you still lead?
Colin Tapscott and Anna Hennell James believe you can lead without a badge and they discuss what this looks like. Leadership is rooted in purpose and a sense of presence that comes from that. You start being a leader when you lead yourself and then you can lead others with presence. Tune in to hear more how you generate purpose and presence and can lead without the badge.
What do you think of kindness? How important is it to have in our organisations and what should it look like? Our interview in the Leadership Lounge is with Rachael Wyartt, Director and Co-founder of Kiltti, a training, coaching & consultancy business where kindness and consideration is at the heart of everything. Colin Tapscott explores with Rachael how kindness is much stronger than you think, brings clarity and boundaries and can have an impact on you, those you work with and your organisation.
They explore how self-compassion and self-acceptance helps us accept our whole self which can be helpful in then accepting and loving others with their rough and smooth. This doesn’t mean that kindness means accepting things that are not ok. Kindness means we communicate with clarity and with a core driver of person centred and improving things.
This podcast will help you reassess kindness and the power it can have.
In leadership and life we are often taught to evaluate, strategise and plan. These can indeed be important for us as leaders. Life and leadership though does not always go to plan and the unexpected can happen. Colin interviews Alex Menhams about ‘Improv’ as he is a Trainer, Speaker and Improviser who runs the ‘Here & Now People’ Improvisation Community. So Alex has the perspective of ‘Improv’ to help us not fear the unexpected moments but in fact to engage in them in the moment.
What is the power of being people centred in our organisations? If we really support and develop our people can it also help us to raise standards in our organisation?Joining me today, we have Colette Firth - Executive Head; Ross Colley, Head of school at Winyates, Alice Braxton, teacher at St Johns and Connor Knowling, Head of school one day a week, an assistant head and a class teacher to have real life conversation about Creating a People Centred Culture. We will look at what they are doing well and areas they still want to work on and from that unpick what helps us to invest in people and create a people centred culture.
We often find ourselves in moments of transition. Moments of moving from one thing to another, whether that is a new job, a new moment in life, a new approach at work or a new way of doing something. The moment when we process this transition is the threshold. Thresholds can feel scary, but Trevor in his new book ‘The Gift Of Thresholds: Flourishing Through Challenging Transitions’ helps us see the beauty and opportunity that thresholds can offer us.
Creating a high performing team is what every leader dreams of to accomplish their vision for their organisation. Key to this is both growing and nurturing talent and getting the best from everyone so that the team is greater than the sum of its parts.
So, today in our podcast Colin Tapscott will explore with Ashley Bowdler, Managing Director at FORCE Business Development, how do you grow and manage talent in individuals. They also discuss when you bring that talent together, how you ensure the dynamics bring the best out of individuals and the team.
We will also explore how you cultivate a continuous learning culture that is the seedbed for growing staff and empowering the team.
Our topic today is ‘Mastering the minimum’. As a leader, we are encouraged to ‘paint the picture of the future, go there and people will follow’ as Seth Godin put it. We are the artists of the culture we want to create. In reality, we know that painting the picture we want established is not always followed. People have their own ideas and standards that are different to ours. Therefore, as a leader, establishing the parameters, ensuring the minimum standards are met are key to maintaining the culture.
Nobody likes to get it wrong and so sometimes we like to reduce the risk to make no chance of failure. But this can then lead to risk reduction ruling us and stifling innovation. Colin speaks to Adam Golding, who is General Manager at Electroglass, & soon to be Chairman of the Charity Sizewell Hall, to explore how we can get the balance to ensure successful change and innovation.
We explore ‘risk reduction’, thinking ahead of what could go wrong and reducing the risk of it happening, and ‘risk management’, working out how you will deal with it if it arises. We distil the important components to help you rule the risk, rather than the risk rule you in both leading change and in your personal life.
Adam Golding started out in Engineering & Manufacturing making specialist equipment for the live entertainment industry working up from the shop floor to Managing Director, whilst involved with the growing and merging of various companies before the whole Group was purchased by an American company & he became Operations Director. Covid saw an opportunity to change industries during the downturn and he was invited to help grow a Printing Company before then being Head Hunted to his current role in the Glass container industry.
Join us in the Leadership Lounge to discover more about ‘Ruling Risk’.
Any leader knows that successfully leading your team is key to success and taking people with you. Leading a team well does not happen by accident. It must be purposeful and responsive. This month’s guest is Dawn Jarvis, Managing Director of Stellar Leadership Group, author of Leading Corporate Clans, and she explains key components for leading your team well. Using the core components of the Stellar Model, Dawn helps us see what can transform your leadership of your team.
Beyond the purpose and values that drive the organisation, what else helps you ensure you have a culture that helps the organisation and the people thrive? Colin Tapscott and Anna Hennell James interview Nick Osborne who is the CEO of Maritime Academy Trust to explore how you create a strong culture. Psychological safety is a key part of that and Nick explains practical steps he takes to create that, how he develops leadership throughout the organisation and what authentic steps help create alignment from all parties. Tune in this month to help you develop your organisational culture.
Even an experienced leader can find it hard to have a challenging conversation with someone. We like to get on with people and so having a difficult conversation with a colleague or your line manager about something that isn’t working or talking to a colleague about a performance issue, can feel like a binary pass/fail moment and therefore unsettling.
But what if there was a different way of having this conversation that was more about collaboration than confrontation? Could this boost our confidence?
In this podcast Colin Tapscott and Anna Hennell James explore how this issue starts with our own internal storyline and how we can change this so we feel more confident going into the conversation with our purpose for the conversation much clearer.
They will explore with you four ‘R’s: Realise the Reason; Recognise the issues; Reaction awareness; Raise with 4P’s that will help you grow in confidence for this conversation.