But I'm a Professional!

Thank you for listening to this season of But I'm a Professional! I'm pleased to have researched, written, recorded, edited, and produced each and every episode.I'm currently working on two other projects:1. A new podcast called The Problem With Work, with my creative partner Benedetta Castrioto. 2. My personal website Professional Development Designs. There you can find my blog, upcoming group learning sessions, and the option for individual coaching. Good luck out there, Professionals! See you again soon.

Either passively or intentionally, we mere overworked and underpaid mortals consume a fairly consistent feed of extraordinary claims from one day to the next. "Social media is a great place to connect with others!" - Is it? "We're reducing our carbon footprint and making real changes around here!" - Oh, are you? "We need to raise your heating/electric/food bill!" - Do you now? Sorry, you'll have to speak up - I can't hear you over the CEO banking his bonus. At the risk of upsetting the ghost of Carl Sagan, sometimes extraordinary claims are made without extraordinary evidence to back them up. Other times, extraordinary evidence inexplicably does not seem to beget extraordinary claims - even when well deserved. What are some claims you hear at work and see no evidence to support it? In this episode, I'll give you some examples of claims that do not match their evidence with a desperate imbalance on one side or the other. I'll also give you some considerations for work that are bizarrely not extraordinary claims. The citation for the article I quote is: Julian Decius, Michael Knappstein & Katharina Klug (2023): Which way of learning benefits your career? The role of different forms of work-related learning for different types of perceived employability, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, DOI: 10.1080/1359432X.2023.2191846 Follow me: https://twitter.com/butimaprofesh https://nancyelizabeth.substack.com/

Who are you, professionally speaking? What group do you belong to? How do you know you belong?  What motivates you? What are you interested in? What makes you feel capable and competent?  Where are you going and where have you been? If these types of questions make you draw a blank and/or teeter close to an existential crisis, an inquiry into your Professional Identity may be of some use.  To better understand what your professional identity is and why you should engage with it (and how!) - listen to this week's episode. I'll give you some context, draw some connections to your professional development, and coach you through some actions to help you on your learning journey. So, the next time your boss asks who you are - you've got a well-developed answer! Follow me on Twitter @butimaprofesh

Hello Professionals! We are back for Season 3 of your favourite Professional Development podcast with me, Nancy Elizabeth (your perspicacious pathfinder), in our unending pursuit of learning and improving so that we may be well while we work well. No small feat. But if anyone can do it, you can. And if anyone can help you along the journey, I can. And I shall!  Season 3 will continue with a range of topics fresh from the zeitgeist, a critical breakdown on why we should care, and an evidence-based collection of actions we can take to improve in that area. Set your notifications and go find a notebook.  It's time to get Professional.   Follow on the twitter @butimaprofesh

Because I have no doubt that the very word 'teamwork' makes you hit replay on all the times it hasn't, in fact, made the dream work for you - I offer you this final episode on Relationship Management.  Perhaps it hasn't worked because either it wasn't designed in a way to apply it in real-life spaces. Perhaps it hasn't worked because instead of actually training you and your colleagues on the foundational skills you need, a consultant was brought in to give everyone a personality test instead. Ugh. This is not how we're going to improve our teamwork competency.  I offer you something much more useful, practical and evidence-based. Listen to this episode for ideas on how we can stitch better teamwork approaches into the very fabric of our working practice in the interest of building foundations, making changes, and engaging a little bit each day until our teams resemble what we hoped they could be.  Come along, Professionals - let's get down to business. 

Do you aspire to inspire? Perhaps you're wondering why you should bother. Shouldn't everyone just listen to your brilliant ideas?  Good points all - but if you were interested in learning more about why inspirational leadership is an approach worthy of developing, and how much crossover the skills have in one's ability to manage relationships more broadly - this is a good place to start.  I'll talk about the traits that are helpful in building up your abilities in this area, how to apply them in the workplace, and why this may be of benefit with your overall professional development.  You're the meaning in my life... you're the in-spir-a-tion! (is what your team will be singing to you, once you adopt these practices) Twitter: @butimaprofesh  

In this episode, I'll return to our investigation into Emotional Intelligence and how we can apply and utilise it in work spaces. A while back on the podcast we looked at the EI domain of Self Management. Now, we'll shift our learning to Relationship Management. Under this domain, there are several competencies we can develop and this episode will focus on Coaching.  What is it? Who is it for? How can we make it effective? Well, it's a training intervention that's not just for executives and there are a few key factors to consider if we're going to expedite its success. What do you say we learn about those factors, hmm?? Yes.     Grab your sweatbands and gym socks! It's time for a little bit of coaching. Follow me on Twitter @butimaprofesh

What is it that you fear, dear Professionals? Is it failure? Is it change? Is it just a vague, all-encompassing fear of the Great Unknown??? Before you enter another day at work with the burden of fear heavy on your mind, listen to this episode. I'll talk about when fear is useful and when it isn't. I'll discuss how it potentially (negatively) impacts your professional development. And, as always, I'll go through some activities you can engage in as you attempt to make your brain work for you.  I disagree with Roosevelt - we do, in fact, have things to fear beyond fear itself. We just need some practice at organising them into better (more useful) categories. So, listen in and let's work on developing that practice. Please enjoy the occasional hum of my AC unit, the intervals of a tram vibrating by, and the odd thud from an upstairs neighbour as I help you be well in your working self.    

Tricky conversations at work have their own special flavour of challenge, wouldn't you say? Whether you have to take someone on a journey of why-did-you-do-that-stupid-thing-you-did or you're the one who did the thing, we're not very well equipped to navigate these spaces skillfully.  Let's change that.  Let's go through some different types of hard conversations we're likely to encounter in work spaces. Let's address what makes them hit harder than the equivalent in our personal lives. And, let's get some practices in place to make them less awful.  We're talking about power struggles, parasympathetic systems, and perspective shifts - all in the name of a little more peace in your professional existence. We can make these hard conversations a little less heavy, I assure you.

Have you been suffering a bout of disengagement recently? Perhaps you or your team hasn't exactly been exemplifying the savvy motivated personnel practices you once did. What's wrong? Probably a couple of things - as is usually the case with anything that involves humans.  Let's get things sorted into digestible chunks. First, let's remember why we care about engagement in the first place (hint: it's not only about productivity). Next, let's think about how we can improve it using top down + bottom up approaches. And finally, let's think of the actions that blow holes in the tank where we keep the reserves.  Also, I'm not talking about employee satisfaction nor am I referring to that 'fun' event you planned last month where everyone wore a silly shirt. No, we're interested in people being engaged in what they're actually doing at work - not distracting themselves from how crap it is.  For notes and references used in this episode, go to www.patreon.com/nancyelizabeth To enjoy my brilliant insights on Twitter, follow @butimaprofesh

I'm sure by now you've considered (and hopefully have developed some skills on) how you can build trust in your romantic and your friendship-focused relationships. May I ask if you've done the same in your professional life? Whyever not??  There has been a noticeable shift in the recognition of how impactful trust is to an organisation, and those who work within them. We are not speaking about trust between company and customer - that is a different can of worms. No, no... we are setting our sights on how important trust is between you and those with whom you work.  Why do we need to build trust? What makes a person trustworthy? How can we hone these fundamental interpersonal skills to make our professional lives easier? I've got all the answers you need in this episode.  Trust me. I'm a professional.  

The past few years have been a whirlwind of change and chaos in our working lives. We've lost old habits, formed new ones, and are still dragging along some things we probably should not have added to the cart. Whoops.  Never fear - it's nothing we can't change with a bit of unlearning and relearning. Not sure what I mean by all that? Well, let me walk you through it. Bring come brightly coloured pens because there will likely be a mind map involved. Bloody love a mind map on this channel.  What habits are not serving us? Which ones are close but not quite getting it right? How do we stop them and what do we put in their place? The answers you seek are right this way, Professionals... p.s. Won't you answer the poll question for this episode? I'm dead curious about where you're working from these days. Much appreciated!

Continuing on with our sub-theme of leadership development, we turn our attention to decision-making. The skill to make decisions well is incredibly important to your team, your organisation, the bottom line, and - last but most certainly not least, you sanity. If there is anything more maddening than the email 'conversation' that never ends, I have yet to encounter it. All talk, no action. No thank you.  Tune in to this episode to learn a few steps you can take to diversify your decision-making skills, and how to make sure you hard work sticks. Also, at the end of this episode I go through how to use the message function to see if we can get some of your professional interests addressed. Remember to include: Your name, your region, your profession, what you're currently interested in developing.  https://anchor.fm/nancy-elizabeth/message Twitter: @butimaprofesh Patreon: www.patreon.com/nancyelizabeth

This episode is an acknowledgement that there is a gap in most organisations around adequate leadership training and development versus an ever-growing need. Surely you've been on some sort of 2 day training programme and it may have even been useful! However, that pesky transfer gap haunts many of our organisations whereby we learn something and think it's fab (and it is) but when we get back to work it suddenly becomes less important than all the other issues that require your attention and so you just put it on the back burner for the time being.. and before you know it, you've forgotten everything you learnt on those colourful post-it themed activities.  So, how can we participate in our own development (in conjunction with that workshop you've been on if it was any good) but in ways that are more incremental, actionable, and easily monitored through your own reflection?  We can start by identifying the types of traits effective leaders have - the traits that research backs up and modern demands in the workplace cannot function without. We can also investigate our personal responsibility in the honing of those traits and look for ways to set that firmly into our professional practice. Does this sound like something you could use some help with? Good! Let's jump in and see what we can do, dear leader...

Have you ever found yourself starting the process of taking on a professional opportunity only to hear a voice in the back of your head asking, "Are you the right person for this?" Did you listen to that voice and not bother with the application first nor last? Self selecting isn't just a case of you taking yourself out of the running - it's also a phenomenon that comes out of people's fear of responsibility and change. Because fear can lead to a whole host of other issues down the line, we want to nip them in the bud early on. So let's get better acquainted with the tendency for people to self-select out of an opportunity and let's get to know our collective fears better so that we can put them to good use. Twitter: @butimaprofesh Patreon: www.patreon.com/nancyelizabeth

In the final installment in this itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny mini series on Emotional Intelligence, we bask in the warm sunlight of having a Positive Outlook. If you fear this is going to turn into a parade of cliches and a strong appeal to make you feel guilty for not having 'manifested' a senior leadership position yet - put those fears down. This is not me telling you the grass is always greener on the other side - no, sometimes that other side is an abandoned building with no windows and an awful lot of pigeon poo. Positive Outlook is a competency that, when strengthened, will help us to improve our resilience and determination in the face of obstacles and setbacks. It helps in being able to find possibility and opportunity (where possible) in difficult circumstances. It's also key in working better with others (whether leading or following) and seeing challenges for what they are - challenges not catastrophes. Grey skies are gonna clear up... Twitter: @butimaprofesh Patreon: www.patreon.com/nancyelizabeth

This is the second in a mini-series of episodes focussed on developing our Emotional Intelligence. The previous episode talked about Emotional Self Control - of course it would help to go back and listen, but no need to worry about playing these in any order. Just make sure to listen to all four episodes to get the full benefit. This series will look at the four domains of Emotional Intelligence, and the twelve competencies that fall under them. In this episode, we'll think about how we can work on flexing, stretching, and building our Adaptability muscles. Change is inevitable - pull up a pew and let's learn how to use it to our advantage. Twitter: @butimaprofesh Patreon: www.patreon.com/nancyelizabeth

If you feel exhausted at work, does that mean you're suffering from burn-out? Or is it just good, old-fashioned fatigue? And why are you always exhausted anyway? Is it because working from home during a global pandemic has stripped many of us of any boundaries we may have had in place between our personal and professional lives? Has the clenching response from your organisation caused a lot of 'belt-tightening' and management talk around 'doing-more-with-less'? Is it the sound of our oceans and fires burning around us that keeps you awake at night? No wonder you're exhausted, petals.  In this episode, we try to work out whether you're suffering from burn-out or fatigue, whether that matters, and what you can do about it. The very good work of Dr. Christine Maslach is cited often and if you are interested in learning more from the experts, she has talks, contributions to journal articles, and guest spots on podcasts all over the internet. Check her out!  In the meantime, get yourself another cup of coffee and let's see how we can be well while working well - without napping through the next budget meeting.  Twitter: @butimaprofesh Patreon: patreon.com/nancyelizabeth    

Do you find yourself losing it at work - either via a shouting match with a colleague or seething quietly behind a screen as you fantasize about logging off and cartwheeling out of that hideous office, never to return again? We've all been there.. several times. Anger is a basic emotion that is triggered by a very long list of work-related stimuli and unfortunately, not having a developed ability and varied toolkit with which to use that anger in a skillful way can lead to weakened relationships at work. So, what do we do? Do we meditate our way out of this? No! You need anger - but you need to know how to not let it take the wheel. So let's learn how we can be more skillful when we encounter situations where anger wants to run us off the road.  Twitter: @butimaprofesh

What is driving our current obsession with productivity? Why are there so many articles telling me how to get more done in less time, and other ones telling me it's exploitative and harmful? Which is it - purposeful or problematic? And how does it relate to my ability to stay well at work?  Those are a lot of questions for an innocent bystander. Let's press on and parse what we ponder about the paradox of being productive as we attempt to better understand ourselves and how we navigate tricky areas of our professional lives.