The Career Coven, with Bec & Annie

We all need resilience - in work, and in life. Recovering from setbacks is part of everyones journey. In this episode, Bec and Annie cover times when we’ve not felt resilient, our own ‘watch out’ signs that our resilience may be low, and what we both do to maintain our resilience now. They talk about the importance of having a longer term mindset, and spending time on self care can be critical to increasing your resilience and recovering from burnout.

Listen to find out answers to:

• Do you have be optimistic to be resilient?
• Can you find resilience on your own? Or do you need other people?
• What are 5 things everyone could do to increase their resilience?

Content recs and little extras from this episode:

• Sara Pascoe at the Hay Festival on how experience makes things easier to process
• The Body Keeps the Score - Dr Bessel van der Kolk
• Why We Sleep - Matthew Walker
• The stress bucket exercise
• NHS mental health services - if you need a bit of help from a professional
• If anyone you know is struggling with mental health - the Samaritans are always available when you need.

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Annie takes the lead in this episode, having strong feelings about how she likes her team to manage upwards to her. We discuss the importance of preparing for your line management meetings, knowing and communicating exactly what you need from your line manager, and establishing your boundaries early. Annie shares how one of the most common things people forget when managing upwards is that often, you are a small part of your managers whole job and responsibilities. Sometimes, this can lead to people feeling overlooked or unimportant - when really it’s about the time people have to invest across all their different priorities. Having empathy with your line manager, as well as expecting that they will show you empathy and support, is important for a relationship to be both successful and realistic.

We examine the often given advice that it’s important to be ‘easy to manage’ and we answer some listener questions on:

• How to deal with a manager who doesn’t like you
• How to deal with a manager blocking your progression
• How to manage up if you don’t trust your line manager

Content recs, references & extra reading

• Dealing with your incompetent boss, Amy Gallo, HBR
• Setting the Record Straight on Managing Your Boss, Amy Gallo, HBR
• Guide to managing up: What it means and why it’s important, CultureAmp

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P.S. This was our last planned episode for series 1. Let us know what extra topics you’d like us to cover next.

In this episode, Bec and Annie discuss the importance of being assertive but how it takes energy and is not always needed. Bec finds being assertive very easy - but this means she sometimes has to watch her tone and hold her breath. Whilst Annie is perceived as very assertive or direct, but doesn’t actually think she is assertive for much of the week.

You’ll hear about how being assertive is related to confidence, but not exactly the same thing. We agree that assertiveness is generally important for progression, but it’s a tool that’s part of influencing and it should be used with care. There were a large number of listener questions for this episode about how to be assertive, without being perceived as ‘bossy’ or ‘harsh’. We try to address these questions with practical tips for the listeners but we don’t necessarily see some of these ‘bad’ connotations as bad. Watch out for a little rant at the end by Annie, who doesn’t want our listeners to aspire to being ‘soft’ in the workplace.

Content recs, references & extra reading

• The Authority Gap: Why women are still taken less seriously than men, and what we can do about it, Mary Ann Sieghart
• Navigating high conflict personalities, Reboot podcast

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P.S. Hope you enjoy higher sound quality for this episode. Let us know if it’s better for you!

In the third episode of the Career Coven, Bec and Annie discuss leadership. We discuss the best and worst leadership characteristics we've seen our respective careers. You'll hear about how leaders can't be everything to the people they lead; and how expectations differ on female and male leaders. We both agree on the importance of a ‘well done’. You'll hear about our own personal leadership styles and values, and some of the mistakes we've made in leadership.

You’ll also hear us unpack some great questions from women on:

• Why are there so many people in leadership positions without any leadership skills? (eek)
• The reality of c-suite leadership - what happens when you get to the top of an organisation?
• What are the biggest leadership mistakes we’ve both made

Content recs, references & extra reading

• Leaders Eat Last, Simon Sinek
• Let My People Go Surfing, Yvon Chouinard
• Please Yourself, Emma Reed Turrell

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P.S. Thanks for bearing with the audio gremlins, we are working on improving this for future recordings!

Our second ep of the Career Coven is on boundaries - the things that keep you sane, and can also drive you insane. In this episode we hear from Bec who has spent a lot of time thinking about boundaries, and Annie who is in her boundary ‘discovery’ era. We talk about types of boundaries, experimentation, the opportunity cost of saying ‘yes’ to everything, professional boundaries, the role of communication, powering through the awkwardness and guilt, and why is it that senior leaders all have weird niche hobbies? Because they have boundaries.

You’ll also hear us unpack some great questions from women on:

• What can managers do to ensure their teams achieve healthy work/life balance and encouraging high performance? Can you have both?
• Boundaries with self - how do you balance going that extra mile, upskilling, and challenging yourself, whilst maintaining perspective that there is more to life than work?
• As a people pleaser, sometimes I feel when I set boundaries I have to essentially apologise or make up for it later. How do I work on showing up authentically and standing my ground when setting deadlines and boundaries?

Content recs, references & extra reading

• A phenomenal podcast episode referenced throughout - Best Friend Therapy podcast, S01E01, Emma Reed Turrell & Elizabeth Day
• Designing Your Life, Bill Burnett & David Evans
• Personal Strategy by Kit Jackson
• The perils of getting sh*t done (and the need for boundaries), Roger Taylor
• How to say no - templates to help you say no in any situation

Are you a fan? Please like and subscribe on your preferred platform, and let us know what you think [email protected]

P.S. Thanks for bearing with the audio gremlins, we are working on improving this for future recordings!