Strong Foundations Podcast: Recent Episodes
Shane Curran
In this episode of the Strong Foundations Podcast, I talk to Lynn Crean O’ Callaghan about the future of work, and different ways to think when considering the next steps in your career and your life.
Lynn’s background as a barrister has instilled a commitment to bringing excellence in work and being honest with yourself and others about what you know, what you’re being motivated by, and what you want.
Lynn is the Founder and CEO of Role Recruit, a niche boutique recruitment agency that specialises in the digital space, and is focussed on bringing pace, passion and power to the New Zealand market.
In this episode of the Strong Foundations Podcast, I talk to Bradie Claydon about personal finances and managing debt.
In January 2016, Bradie and her husband Paul came to the realisation that they weren’t paying $1 off their $566,380 debt, and decided they had to make a change to their priorities and how they were living their lives or face a lifetime of debt. 39 months later, they were debt free.
Bradie’s story is a great one, and demonstrates how making small positive changes can compound over time.
In this episode of the Strong Foundations Podcast, I talk to Katie Fisher about physical fitness, and developing a strong mindset.
Katie has spent a great deal of her life struggling with self confidence, and over the years has become a strong advocate of a multi-faceted approach to achieving the life you want. In particular, dedicating time and energy to developing a healthy relationship with food, a well-planned sustainable training routine, and a positive mindset.
Katie is currently a personal trainer at Les Mills in Auckland, specialising in creating strength through adherence and mastery of basic functional movements.
In this episode of the Strong Foundations Podcast, I talk to Andy Fell about setting yourself up for success, being an effective and empathetic leader, and the importance of winning routines.
Andy is the founder of GiFT631 and a public speaker on inspirational leadership.
After 30 years of corporate experience across the UK and Australia, in senior leadership positions for the RBS, Nat West, Westpac and St. George banks, Andy is obsessed with creating high performance and inclusive cultures where people were empowered and encouraged to give their best.
His ability to build self-belief and inspire confidence in people lead him to found both GiFT631 and #youth4good, a social platform to give a voice to young people with passion, energy and a desire to make a positive impact on the world. His purpose is to help others strive to reach their potential in a stretching, supportive and inclusive environment. He is a highly sought after speaker, coach and educator who fills his work with actionable and practical strategies.
In this episode I speak with Rebekah Gerry about financial wellbeing. Beky is currently the Programme Manager for Financial Wellbeing at Westpac New Zealand, but has been a budget nerd for many years. She is also a founding member of Closing the Gap – a social enterprise focused on encouraging young women to invest.
In this episode I speak with Eric Helms PhD about finding and sustaining your focus. Eric is a research fellow at the Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand at the Auckland University of Technology. He is also a science communicator through his Monthly Application in Strength Sports research review publication, the author of the Muscle & Strength Pyramid books, and a coach for drug free strength and physique athletes with 3D Muscle Journey. As an active strength and physique athlete, Eric's mission statement is to support the drug free lifting community and help them find sustainable pathways forward for performance.
Culture is critically important to business success.
This is the resounding message from 84% of the more than 2,200 global participants in the 2013 culture and change management survey. This survey also explored sentiment around change and the impact of culture as an engaging factor in the change process – and found there is a strong correlation with success where culture is leveraged. Naturally, this would indicate a strong need for embracing culture in change programmes.
Despite the criticality of culture in change success, there remains a significant disconnect between the value placed on culture and how well it is cultivated. Less than 50% of survey participants indicated that their companies effectively manage culture, while the majority suggested that a major cultural overhaul was needed.
Change is a significant and expected part of today’s work environment. But, change is often challenging and problematic for employees – so harvesting an excellent culture makes the change process easier for them.
Are there conditions under which change is not possible? If so, what would such conditions be?
Change is possible in everything, in fact it should be expected. However, there are certainly cases where change is extremely challenging. A deeply entrenched set of norms, a cult of personality, and a lack of willingness to change are all conditions where this would be difficult – but not impossible.
Can new employees change a company’s culture? If so, how?
New employees enter the workplace unblemished by the pre-existing company culture. They are therefore exceptionally well positioned to look on and understand the company culture with a fresh perspective. This will allow them to see portions of the existing culture that are working well, and portions which are causing frustration within the business. In addition, they can provide existing employees with reinforcement of certain aspects of company culture that could be negatively viewed by them.
By way of example, a company may undertake a regular / semi-regular process such as team building, inductions for new joiners, etc. Long time employees in the business may begin to seriously question the value of this expense; as they have not seen the outlay replicated in terms of increased performance. However, in speaking with new employees, they may find the effect of the sessions to be wonderful; very constructive; and beneficial to their understanding of the company, it’s mission and approach. This intangible benefit is, in this case, something which can be lost on existing employees; hence the reinforcement is a positive benefit of new employees.
How can leaders take steps to enrich and more effectively leverage their culture to affect organizational change?
Leadership, while often talked about, remains elusive; and business still sees many more managers than leaders in positions of power. Engaging employees in the cultural process is a must. A culture defined by upper management and trickled down will not work; and something enforced will also be challenging to propagate. The employees must value the culture that is in place – and this must be valued by the majority of people. It could be argued, however, that culture begins organically with business success. Perhaps it is easy to have a good culture which things are going well; and the real challenge is continuing this positive trend while business is not travelling in an upwards trajectory.
The results of successful teamwork are all around us; from catchy advertising campaigns, to nice vehicles, even to the clothes we wear. These are all a direct result of successful teamwork at various stages in the value chain. There’s no way around it: Every significant human accomplishment is the result of coordinated group behaviour – people working together to achieve a common goal.
As these successes influence on our daily lives, we can reflect on the synergies and unity of direction that drove the respective teams to deliver. However, the reality is that teamwork is challenging; it takes a lot of time to get it right, and it is not for everybody.
Today’s working environment relies heavily on teams so the common myths around them should be understood.
Teams are harmonious people who compromise on their needs for the sake of the team
The assumption is that people are easily and readily capable of putting aside personal requirements for the overall team goal, with no conflict or divergence of ideas. In reality, this is never the case. Harmony is the prospective result of the final sequence of team creation, following several disruptive events. Maintaining harmony is also very challenging. Even at this, it may be difficult or impossible for these team members to put aside their needs for the sake of the team – it may simply not be valuable enough for them.
Team conflict is unhealthy
Conflict is essentially inevitable when you work with others. This myth propagates the belief that any conflict is unhealthy and damaging. In fact, conflict can be beneficial, as it can alleviate existing negativity and move the team on. Conflict is a normal part of team formation and, while it should not be encouraged, should not be viewed as a significant negative.
Most people like teamwork
In reality, while many people do enjoy teamwork, it is not for all as demonstrated by a recent study by the University of Phoenix that revealed that nearly 85 percent of U.S employees think working on teams in the office is difficult. In addition, individual receptivity to teamwork can be impacted by a myriad of variables, such as the tasks that are being worked towards and personality characteristics. Oftentimes the prospect of teamwork foisted upon us; as you must work cross functionally to achieve a common goal, with input from many and varied stakeholders.
Teamwork is essential to business success
This myth depends on the assumption that teams can achieve more than individuals. However, this is dependent on the complexity of the task at hand and to the knowledgebase of the team assigned. It may be more apt to have an individual manage the task, or a different and smaller team.
Teams are easy to influence and manage
This is true when dealing with a ready and willing team, with whom you are able to provide guidance and structure for an immediate move towards the required goal. In reality, teams are more difficult to manage than individuals. People are more empowered to become challenging, to garner support for counter-productive measures within teams.
Oftentimes, the requirement to work in a team is not chosen, it is forced through a business requirement to achieve a common goal, or to overcome a certain obstacle, project or regulatory change. Articulating the reality of teams versus the myth is not difficult; it represents the everyday challenges of working with people. However, it is important not to forget what can be achieved by great teams - together, we are better. Therefore, ensuring adequate leadership of the team, complimented by a solid structure with a clearly defined goal will hopefully mitigate the challenges of working together, thereby delivering a satisfactory outcome.
The New Zealand Lotto recently reached record highs with the jackpot hitting $38 million. As someone who rarely buys a lotto ticket, I got caught up in the frenzy. I picked numbers and bought a ticket online. The jackpot wasn’t won and it rolled over to $44 million, causing further frenzy. I made a mental note to buy another ticket using those same numbers but life got in the way, as it sometimes does, and I didn’t.
After the results came out, news spread of a deserving young couple that won the jackpot. “Good for them”, I thought after scanning through a news article about their win. In the article, reference was made of the winning numbers and to my horror I realised that some of my numbers were there. I did a quick count and jumped onto the Lotto website to see what I had missed.
$21,640.
My heart broke. There’s a famous quote about how often people think about sex, but all day long the number 21,640 was on my mind every seven seconds. Before bed, I decided to check the numbers again. Without the panic I had after seeing that article, and with the time to carefully interpret the numbers I had, I came up with a different result.
$59.
Although there is a sting of embarrassment when I think about this, there is a lesson to be learned - Make decisions and choose your course of action using knowledge, not poorly formed beliefs.
In considering how to react to problems and situations in the future, I’ll be more aware of what I am using to drive my decision. Is it a just a belief or is it real knowledge?
Keys to making knowledge based decisions:
- Don’t rush to an understanding. Take time to understand the reality around you (macro-level).
- Know what the problem is that you’re trying to solve and the question you’re looking to answer (micro-level). Understand these as much as possible or practical.
- Try to remove emotion from the decision and remain objective.
- Consider your options for action and map out the likely (and unlikely) outcomes.
- Apply your core philosophy to the problem and solution to stay grounded, such as:
- "Put the customer first"
- "Will it make the boat go faster?"
- "Would an idiot do that?"