The Couch Talk

Sridhar is a HR manager who works in hospitality. Hear about how he has led his organisation through the shift during the pandemic, where he faced numerous challenges starting from business shut down to colleagues on furlough. Find out how the organisation – despite all of these hurdles – not only retain their staff but also create an engaged community and make The Arts Club an employer of choice.

Sridhar did his Dual degrees in India 20 years ago and since then worked in Asia and the UK in luxury hospitality settings. As an ardent advocate for continuous learning, Sridhar successfully completed an MBA in Strategic Human Resources Management at the University of Surrey. He is also a Chartered Fellow CIPD. Since joining The Arts Club in 2014, Sridhar has been instrumental in creating a successful L&D function with multiple talent development programs, an e-learning system, and partnerships with some of the best educational institutes in the world. Sridhar oversees all aspects of Human Resources for The Arts Club, in addition to offering his support with the Club’s first international expansion to Dubai.

Jamie Green is a Berkshire resident, volunteer, and community leader. He holds a number of completely voluntary roles, most notably the Chair of Slough Council for Voluntary Service.

Three weeks before COVID lockdown Jamie jumped into action, selflessly volunteering day and night to work with the staff and community groups at Slough Council for Voluntary Service, civil servants at Slough Borough Council, and business leaders from across the town – to co-found what would become #OneSlough. There was no task too big or too small for Jamie as he humbly, quietly and without complaint or question gave over every day of the week, helping others plan for and then cope with the impact of COVID.

He acted as the neutral face of #OneSlough with no personal or political agenda he was able to broker relationships between groups who had never previously worked together, he inspired those who had never volunteered to give freely of their time, he lobbied businesses to contribute to the cause with staff, resources, and cash.

Each day he would make collections, connect people, motivate staff and volunteers, join the dots and ensure no one was left out, representing the most marginalised whilst also developing strategies with senior leaders across the borough and beyond to keep resources moving and reduce the spread of the virus.

Jamie is continuing in this role and has established other projects under the #OneSlough umbrella including the Furniture Project, providing donated furniture to those in need. There has been much demand for this service as families struggle with redundancies and hardship.

Jamie prioritised the wellbeing of Slough and the need to work together. He embodies the ethos of what became known as #OneSlough – no branding, no organisation, working together for the shared good.

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Harry began his professional speaking career at the tender age of 16 and now after 30 years of experience and serving over a million people across the world, is recognised as one of the world’s most Inspirational and Transformational Speakers and Humanitarian President & CEO of Elite Transformations Global, a UK based international consulting firm working with clients on 6 continents to create Heart Centred Transformational Leadership Cultures.

Show Notes

Harry has had a rough upbringing in East London. But despite the challenges at home, he was resilient and thought that others would be worse off because his classmates would come to school with sad faces.

At 16 he felt he wanted to make a difference and work with vulnerable communities. He started to make a name and an impact on so many other lives.

Harry now works with people at the top of their “game”, such as top leaders and athletes who have hit a glass ceiling. He believes that often it’s not about doing more or up a level in a skillset but finding one’s authentic voice and tune into the high lever energy in order to achieve the next level “you”.

In this episode, Harry also shares his “take” on the pandemic and the fact that we as humans took so many things for granted and that instead of moving back into a normal – we should be moving forwards and seize a new way of living.

Today he runs a range of Masterminds and he’s found on large stages shared with celebrities such as Richard Branson and Tony Robbins. 

Bozidar is an engineer by trade, specializing in Information Security. He has worked for large enterprises - Telco, Banking, and Energy before shifting to the startup world and SaaS-based services.

In the past two years, he has started a mentoring initiative called BeyondMachines. It's focused on young people who need guidance in speeding up their careers via guidance and interaction with more senior people in a real-life situation (sales pitch, presentation, coordination, etc). So far the mentoring effort is in its third iteration, it got somewhat sidelined in the pandemic.

Show Notes

These days the attention span of a goldfish is somehow standard. And that's not just for people, that's also for organizations, everybody wants something immediately. So in that context, we should be able to help young people accelerate or short circuit, the skills, the communication skills, and the interaction skills that they're expected to have in a professional setting.

In the fall of 2019, I started an initiative program of mentoring young engineers, which was aimed to help develop soft skills with young engineers who are still in school or just coming out of school. The goal of that program was to develop just as engineers can easily prepare, they easily get the skills, the technical skills that they need to thrive and develop in their profession, from courses from programs for from online systems and learning to somehow accelerate the part of their experience and their expertise that can't be learned from such courses. And that is communication and soft skills.

And then the pandemic hit and, from an interaction perspective, things were difficult, because of all these little meetings that we never even consider all these hellos in the hallway, all these little chats by the water cooler in the kitchen, on the balcony in front of the building, talking about little things that happened throughout the day, or challenges or stresses or fears. They're not here anymore, because people can't meet with you personally, saying these things need to be scheduled. And suddenly the closer connection with the colleagues is starting to reduce people feel more stressed. People fear the unknown. And they suddenly are not aware of everything that is happening in the company as they were before. which can lead to fear which can lead to uncertainty.

After 25 years of engineering, law, real estate, mediation, fitness training, martial arts, and corporate law, Christina left her job to DIRECTLY make a difference in people’s lives. Two things happened, her 21-year marriage ended 6 years ago and COVID happened. Through her divorce, she realized that she had lost her true self and gathered the courage little by little to show her three children that their mom could put the pieces back together.

Show Notes

Listen to Christina’s story of Fight Club Meets Night Club, “we can't be our best selves for other people unless we are our best selves for ourselves. I was both physically and emotionally exhausted, but more exhausted with my life.” What it took was a pandemic! For me to really reflect on all my choices since I was a teenager, it was constantly doing things that were not on purpose and not my true passion. And instead, what society was expecting of me.

I was a corporate attorney for a Medical Products Division company and working long hours, but just kind of going through the grind. I had been an attorney for 25 years, but with you know, a 15-year break as a stay-at-home mom, full-time mom taking care of my children, and then got back into law. And you know, in the corporate attorney world, which I'm sure a lot of people know is a global company. So with timezone differences, I was on the phone literally from 5 am to about 8 pm without breaks. 

So, you know, the pandemic hit, all of a sudden all my kids are home, I'm home with them as well and we're all working from home.

I kept thinking to myself, what am I doing? What am I doing with my life?, and I like to say I was throwing my life away, which I actually was doing back, you know, 10 years earlier, as well, like, I'll just do it tomorrow, just stick it out, for another three years, when your kids leave, you know, the house, you know, just wait one more year, so you can get that promotion, or wait to know that, you know, wait till tomorrow waiting, this project is over. So, you know, it really took a lot of thinking, multitasking on my calls, to figure out what I really wanted to do, and, also thinking to myself, I really want to help people directly, as opposed to indirectly, you know, as a lawyer in a medical products company. I mean, arguably, you are helping people, but I'm not the engineer who invented the device. So I was just looking for something more.

So here I am now, you know, doing another thing that I didn't always want to do. Find out what Christina does next in our episode of Couch Talks!

This is how you can contact Christina: Tina@tinakilikina.com + www.rockboxfitness.com/scottsdale

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Natalia Blagoeva has been a C-level executive and entrepreneur for 20 years, and a Certified Management Consultant and Executive Coach for 10. Today, she is the Founder of the Global Community of Changemakers and Co-creators, WomenH2H, as well as a Change Whisperer©, Impact Co-creator, Thought Leader, Educator, and Disruptpreneur. What unites everything she does is her focus on creating opportunities for us to deepen our understanding of our reality, tap into our innate wisdom and collective intelligence, and consciously participate in shaping our own future.

Show Notes

Questions of whether or not online would work disappeared in an instant when COVID hit. No more debate, everyone is online and it’s working that way. We can energetically connect with each other around the world online.

Before COVID, we were denying the possibility of energetically connecting in an online way. Today, those objections are gone. COVID was the disrupter that enables us to learn the skills we need to be successful and thrive in the 21st Century.

More barriers to heart 2 heart connections in the physical world versus the online world. So many other factors come into play in the physical world that fuel our biases. Much more efficient and faster using the online mechanisms than having to do it all in the physical spaces.

Disrupting our “usual” ways has been a catalyst for the growth and development of new approaches, an awakening! It’s an opening of eyes and mindset to new horizons. COVID is only one example of disruptors happening all around us. Technology is another example and COVID was a push to remove the barriers in the uses of technology and the other new developments and disruptors around us.

It’s about the consciousness of using the disruptors to enable the changes to our lives we’ve always wanted to see.

Learn from irritation, or meeting an opposite opinion to ours. Lean into it and learn from it. Be able to analyze completely opposite world views and opinions. The better we are at understanding our own reality, the more connected we can be, and the more we can be open to looking at things with new eyes.

Hugh MacLeod had the privilege of experiencing many organizational environments. He’s spent time as a front-line worker, middle manager, senior executive, and chief operating officer. In the process, he has gained an appreciation of the dynamics that take place between people. His work is focused on helping leaders understand a truth - what goes on between people defines organizational leadership and culture. A spouse, father, grandfather, brother, friend, life-long learner, and concerned citizen.

Show Notes

Listen to learn how demonstrating the new leadership style is a pathway to shifting the leadership style and approach to others for increased business growth! Hugh discusses the authenticity of authentic leaders and ways to humanize leadership to enhance business growth.

“Throughout my career, I had people around me who had confidence in Hugh McLeod before I had confidence in myself. As I moved through the levels of the health care system in Canada, I thought I knew it. I thought I was aware. And then I had a health crisis and was in the hospital, under the care of nurses and doctors, and learned so much about the health care system I never knew.

Bottom line, I learned that each organization is a human energy field, a series of relationships and conversations between people! COVID has rung an alarm bell to highlight the awareness that people matter. The boundaries we’ve created can be knocked down when it comes to the health and wellness of people.

Because of this new awareness, organizations will be reframed in terms of the people side of their enterprises, enhancing the role and strategic business growth responsibility of HR.

Strength in future business success will be understanding the importance of putting a HUMAN face on everything that is done in an organization. And shifting myself to a “talking with” conversation versus a “talking to” conversation with the people I work with, I understand that this is the pathway to the future for all others in the leadership space.”

Show Notes

I lost my mother. And although she was ill, she died quite suddenly with something that we didn't expect to happen. And we were absolutely in total shock and numbness with her death. But we were able to have friends and family with us at the funeral ceremony, which I wrote. But thank goodness, we were able to have around about 80 people at the ceremony. Whereas today, the maximum you can have is 30. And there have been points in the past 12 months where we've only been allowed to have 10 people in the crematoria to attend a ceremony which must have been incredibly hard for family when they've got the loss of a loved one. And then they can't be with their other loved ones to comfort and support them.

I am a celebrant, so I conduct personalized funeral and wedding ceremonies and occasionally baby naming's as well. Going into 2020. You know, I felt armed to help other people because I had endured and gone through the set process of loss and grief myself the year before.

And it's been, It was like walking through triple grief because you've got the loss of the loved one and the family were grieving around that. You then got the loss of not being supported by family members because of the restriction of people allowed into the ceremony and really got the loss of grief around after the ceremony. Nobody could be together. They had to go home to their own homes and isolate again. And all you can do is let them know that there's somebody there that cares deeply about what's happening to them right now. And every single ceremony that I take, that is my intention for them. So no matter how many people are in that room, I will do my very best for them and hold the space so that they can grieve with dignity and still celebrate the life of their loved ones.

Show Notes

Sometimes, as professionals who help others regulate their emotions, it is hard to see the personal toll client stress is taking. The energy and empathy required for listening to and assisting clients out with extreme challenges we all faced during Covid can be debilitating, for any front-line care provider. Even with a personal self-care practice, working from home in isolation, dealing with illness and loss, and the inability to socialize and engage with others takes its toll on coaches as it does on everyone else. A whole new level of self-care is required under these circumstances.

While assisting her coaching clients with their anxiety and stress, Marie struggled with the emotions of her own corporate client revenue loss and increased elder care requirements for her family. Interestingly, those industry clients previously resistant to online training and development, started to awaken to its potential as they worked through their own Covid workplace adjustments. Eventually, industry clients started coming in, and at the same time, Marie’s coaching client intake increased. Upon reflection, Marie notes that working with her own coach to gain perspective on her personal increased needs for emotional regulation, and paying closer attention to her own self-care red flags have been key, even in the most difficult circumstances, to maintain the perspective and detachment required to provide emotional regulation coaching and industry communication training for others while avoiding the dangers of empathy overload.

Rachel became self-employed 2 weeks before the first lockdown and is creating a successful business. Her daughter is pursuing a career as a hairdresser during COVID which she wouldn't have been able to do if she hadn't discovered how to help her become free of her autoimmune disease.

Rachel helps people erase anxiety and depression by getting to the root cause. Many people are going through these issues right now. She thinks it is extremely important to know that there is help out there and they don't need to keep suffering from it.

Her message is that we have been conditioned to take a pill when we feel ill, that just masks the symptoms. When you heal at the root, everything changes quickly and permanently.

“I help men and women free themselves from long term illness, anxiety, depression, toxic relationships so that they are free to live life pain-free and symptom-free. I've helped my daughter recover from her autoimmune disease when she was 14, which is over 2 years ago.”

Cliff has over 20 years of experience in senior HR leadership roles at Eli Lilly and Company, Mead Johnson Nutrition (now part of Reckitt Benckiser), and Verifone, all top-flight multinational companies in their industries. During this time, he focused most of his energy on the development of leaders through personal coaching, and by creating and deploying various learning and development programs. Many of the people Cliff worked with have progressed from middle-management roles to senior business and functional leadership roles at top pharmaceutical companies. In addition, Cliff has lived and worked in nine countries and helped General Managers to work with their own strengths in different cultures and often in highly challenging business environments. Now Cliff is focused solely on executive coaching for people like this, and he is very keen to help develop more outstanding coaches for the future, using his training and skills from his early career as a teacher and from facilitating many learning and development programs.

Show Notes

The challenges pre-COVID-19 of separating living and work and the challenges during COVID-19 of integrated living and work with remote working situations from the perspective of an employer.

This is how you can contact Cliff: cliff.g.taylor@gmail.com

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Michael talks about how he helps youth and young leaders to step up and create their own vision, voice, and touching people through the DNA structure.

Show Notes

Michael Duah is a Transformational speaker, youth and leadership mindset coach, and consultant. Michael is passionate about the next generation and has worked with young people and served in leadership positions for over 10 years in differing contexts. Michael is the founder and director of Transcend X which seeks to reach the next generation, raise up leaders, release them into their potential and reshape organisations and people. Michael travels helping leaders build themselves and capacities, their teams, and their organisations through consultancy on vision, strategy, and culture. Michael loves helping leaders remove self-imposed limitations, find their unique vision, voice & vocation by delivering transformational talks, bespoke services, first-class coaching, and consultation.