October has been a particularly challenging time for the REAL. Leadership team, but it reminded us that we learn more from the challenging times than when times are easy. This has certainly been the case over the past few years, with leaders having to develop a new range of skills to manage a new type of workforce.

These challenges are still continuing with many companies in the middle of “The Great Resignation”. With the continued political unrest and cost of living crisis this does not look to be changing over the coming months.

So this month our newsletter focuses on what we can learn from the challenges we have faced recently.

1. Hear from Michel van den Berg, Former VP and General Manager EMEIA on what he learnt from taking his company through the “change cycle”.
2. Read an article from Inc.com on how to stop worrying about things that you can’t control.

3. Find out about the new models of work that have been introduced since the pandemic.

4. Listen to this podcast from Owen O’Kane on why we should all be trying to make ourselves happier and a great video from Brené Brown on why we should focus on empathy and not sympathy.

Some years ago, Michel van den Berg, Former Vice President & General Manager EMEIA at Jamf, would have said “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it”. However, when you grow from 1300 to 2300 employees in 2 years – you have no alternative than to be continuously changing your structure. So what did he learn from taking his company through the “change cycle”.

We cannot control everything that happens in our lives and this has never been more true than in recent years. In order to compensate for this fact many people fall into two different camps. Those that become control freaks, they micromanage, refuse to delegate tasks, and try to force other people to change. 

Alternatively others know they can’t prevent bad things from happening, but they worry about them anyway. Their worries keep them occupied, but ultimately, they waste their time and energy because worrying doesn’t do any good.

This article from Inc.com provides tips to prevent you wasting a lot of time worrying about things you can’t control.

The pandemic has introduced many new challenges to leaders, but it has also paved the way for new models of work, giving people a new purpose. We were therefore intrigued by this post by Pascal BORNET Chief Technology Evangelist at Aera Technology on The Evolution of the Employee. (Credit: Antonio Grasso).

As with many LinkedIn posts it is not only the content that is shared that is fascinating but also the comments from people and the debate that this creates. Many people who responded share a concern that “Work Anytime” and “Work Anywhere” just means “Work all the time”.

Is this a concern that you are seeing in your business? What plans have you put in place to avoid that happening? We’d love to hear your ideas.

We know that many of you listen to the High Performance Podcast. This month we just wanted to highlight this powerful episode by Owen O’Kane. In this episode Jake and Damian open up about their own worries, fears and negative thoughts. Owen takes them through how to tackle the noise in their mind and escape the ‘overthinking trap’. His key message is how important therapy can be and how we should all be trying to make ourselves happier.

As a leader we are often involved in challenging times for our team, both personal and business related.  We want to be sympathetic during these conversations but in this brief animation Brené Brown explains why we should be empathetic rather than sympathetic and why making that choice is a vulnerable one. Find out more.

If you’re worrying about answering any of these questions, why not get in contact with my team at getreal@realleadership.consulting, and they will arrange a free 20 minute (no obligation) discovery session with me.

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