The Unlock Moment: find your purpose for leadership and life - 129 Michael Bungay Stanier: The Power Of An Accidental Joke, How Embracing His Uniqueness Won Him The Rhodes Scholarship

129 Michael Bungay Stanier: The Power Of An Accidental Joke, How Embracing His Uniqueness Won Him The Rhodes Scholarship

02/13/24 • 50 min

The Unlock Moment: find your purpose for leadership and life

Today’s guest is one of the very top coaches in the world. Michael Bungay Stanier grew up in Australia, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and now lives in Toronto. His work centres around coaching and curiosity, the challenges of change at an individual and organisational level, and how to stay focused on work that matters.

In 2023 Michael was awarded the prestigious Thinkers50 Marshall Goldsmith Award for Coaching and Mentoring at a gala dinner considered the Oscars of management thinking. His 2016 book ‘The Coaching Habit, Say Less, Ask More’ has sold more than a million copies and has been translated into 20 languages – the bestselling book on coaching this century. His TEDx talk, “Tame Your Advice Monster”, has been viewed well over a million times. He’s also written books including The Advice Trap, How to Begin and Do More Great Work. His most recent book is entitled How to Work with (Almost) Anyone: Five Questions for Building The Best Possible Relationships.

It's been a tough year in 2023 and a lot of people I’m working with at the moment are figuring out how they can work on building stronger relationships at work and in life. For all that AI might be taking over, one thing I’m sure of is that person and professional success in 2024 is going to be built on people and conversations. I’m looking forward to hearing Michael’s take on the power of a curious mindset and of course I’m looking forward to indulging my own curiosity in discovering more about the Unlock Moments of remarkable clarity that shaped his own life’s path.

Michael Bungay Stanier: https://www.mbs.works/

How To Work With Almost Anyone: https://www.mbs.works/how-to-work-with-almost-anyone-book/

The Unlock Moment podcast is brought to you by Dr Gary Crotaz, PhD. Downloaded in over 120 countries. Sign up to The Unlock Moment newsletter at https://tinyurl.com/ywhdaazp Find out more at https://garycrotaz.com and https://theunlockmoment.com

Michael Bungay Stanier: https://www.mbs.works/

How To Work With Almost Anyone: https://www.mbs.works/how-to-work-with-almost-anyone-book/

Previous Episode

128 Donna Easton: Words Can Hurt, How A Journey Of Bulimia And Alopecia Roused The Joyologist

Last year it was my great pleasure to speak at Carfest, a huge summer festival here in the UK where the health and wellbeing zone Spafest brought together many leading lights in the areas of holistic wellbeing, mindfulness and the general pursuit of happiness.

And twas there that I met the force of nature that is Donna Easton. Donna is a Joyologist, a performer, a presenter and the creator of Joyology. A highly sought after speaker, Donna’s work can be found on TV, radio and she has written for national press including Hello! magazine, Stylist and The Express newspaper. Donna helps individuals, entrepreneurs and businesses re-frame mindsets and shift how we show up each day to re-connect with the real 'us'. Donna has hosted stages and delivered talks at events across the UK, including Car Fest, Camp Bestival, Mind Body Spirit Festival, Latitude and MOVE IT and has delivered keynotes for organisations such as Google, MARS and Holland & Barrett. She helps people re-connect with themselves, find their joy and maximise success in their lives and career.

Donna's challenging personal journey puts her life's mission in context. Childhood bullying, an eating disorder and overnight hair loss gave her a deep appreciation of what really matters in life. And this is manifest throughout her life and work as a parent and as a coach.

After a pretty challenging 2023, I think we all need a bit more joy in our lives and I’m looking forward to hearing Donna’s take on how to reconnect with our best selves through the power of Joyology. And of course I’m curious to learn about the Unlock Moments of remarkable clarity that shaped her own life’s journey.

Donna Easton: https://mylifeshines.com/

Donna Easton on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mylifeshines/

Next Episode

130 Prof Rebecca Jones: The Professor Who Went Back To School - How To Activate A Growth Mindset

Back in 2019/2020 when I started on this journey of coaching, speaking, podcasting and writing, I had the great privilege of training on the Henley Business School coaching programme here in the UK. My guest today is an esteemed Professor at Henley and I was fascinated by her recent choice to trade places and become a student on the same programme that I’d trained. We’ll talk about that! But her personal journey is also frankly pretty inspiring – how she beat the odds to ascend the academic ladder and become a business school professor.

Professor Rebecca Jones PhD is a Professor in Coaching and Behavioural Change at Henley Business School, a Chartered Psychologist and Co-Founder of the Inclusive Leadership Company. Her research interests lie in examining the factors that influence coaching effectiveness and her consultancy practice focuses on working with organisations to create diverse and inclusive workplaces using coaching and psychological theory and research to achieve sustained behaviour change. Rebecca is the author of the book ‘Coaching with Research in Mind’, host of ‘Coaching@Henley’ and ‘The Coaching Academic’ podcasts and has published her research in globally renowned journals.

I’m looking forward to hearing more of her personal journey and also to get her take on how we can turn intent into action and establish effective new habits in work and in life that help us to be at our very best.

Prof Rebecca Jones: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-jones-35ab8526/

Coaching at Henley Business School: https://www.henley.ac.uk/coaching-at-henley

The Inclusive Leadership Company: https://inclusiveleadershipcompany.com/