Impactful: The Podcast Julia Felton & Andrew Palmer

In this podcast, Julia and Andrew turn their thinking towards purpose. What is purpose and how has this changed with the impact of Covid-19. The discussion was sparked by a McKinsey quarterly article about purpose shifting from why to how. Julia was really inspired by this article, because she has been talking for a long time about purpose, and why it’s important for companies to have purpose, and we often talk about purpose before profits people have started to reevaluate what their own personal purpose is, and how they want to contribute to society.







business is a force for good. But the more that organisations can get clear on their purpose, and collectively with their team members get clear on the purpose of the business, I think it absolutely gives people that NorthStar, you know people know where they’re going. And that gives them the safety and security and certainty that many of us have been lacking over the last few months.







The duo also touch on the impact of Covid-19 on the corporate social responsibility agenda. Andrew talks about the recent documentary on the planet with Prince William and how young people are changing their attitudes. They delve into John Mackey, Conscious Leadership to look at purpose along with Simon Sinek’s The Infinite Game where he clearly sets out the difference between a finite and an infinite mindset. They then discuss companies that practice what they preach.







Purpose is about that beating heart in the organisation, pushing blood and oxygen, that excitement, that infectiousness that it talks about in a positive infectiousness around the organisation. It is about creating win-win situations by getting your teams galvanized behind your purpose.  







SHOW NOTES







00:46 McKinsey Quarterly: Purpose: Shifting from why to how April 2020







https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/purpose-shifting-from-why-to-how#







01:44 Why it is important to have purpose







03:47 It’s more than just ticking boxes it is about hard wiring it into the DNA of a business.







04:33 A few years ago, Unilever came up what they called a massive transformational purpose for each of their different brands. And the brands that are totally have fully embraced this.







05:21 Ethical and moral dilemmas related to Covid-19 volunteering







07:00 How young people are changing attitudes.







10:25 the significance of what it means to write about issues in company reports







12:36 Conscious Leadership John Mackey







13:35 The Infinite Game Simon Sinek







13:56 https://www.zappos.com/







19:44 ”… when stakeholders so for stakeholders, we could read customers, employee shareholders anyone participate in and help evolve an organization’s higher purpose, it can be infectious. The whole company receives an extra boost of alignment. There are a few things More powerful than a shared commitment to a higher purpose among all relevant stakeholders, this allows everyone to feel connected to the beating heart of the organisation, at least to some degree…” Conscious Leadership John Mackey.







23:00 “When stakeholders see important decisions being made in ways that are aligned with the company’s core values. And when they see leaders actually engaged with that higher purpose. It has enormous impact, for lack of a better word, it gives people faith.” Conscious Leadership John Mackey

With the backdrop of a COVID pandemic Julia and Andrew tackle leadership and discuss various models linked to the herd.







There’s a real need for leaders to be agile and flexible. So what does that mean to Julia and Andrew? We find out through a canter looking at how the herd operates and challenging old styles of leadership







During the discussion the pair draw a direct link between how good our leaders are and their ability to navigate the current situation, inspire and motivate others and the results of the company. Finding a direct linear connection and empirical evidence of how if we’ve got better leaders, we can actually improve team performance and get better results.







The couple touch on the importance of and learning and development because there is a point at which leadership, when we’re looking at leadership, those that are planning and looking at how things are run, do need to have more of a commercial mind about them.







In essence we are all  leaders, but what could shared leadership look like in an organisation and what can we learn from the herd?







Julia sets out how the mare leads at the front and the stallion at the back but what happens at the side this leads to  dialogue on collaboration and the importance of empowering your teams. To round off the conversation Julia and Andrew look at the impact on millennials







Podcast Show Notes







01:00 The need to develop better leaders







01:42 Is leadership a soft skill?







01:52 The concept of shared leadership







02:47 Comparing the old styles of leadership







04:40 What is shared leadership and how do we learn from the herd?







05:05 It’s about leading from the front







05:34 Pull / push energy







06:45 Channeling energy







07:00 Who is leading and who is providing energy from the back?







09:00Leading from the side







10:13 Being a herd member means you are still a leader







10:57 The power of empowerment







11:50 Accountability







12:54 It’s back to nature







13:57 Deloitte Human Capital Survey 2020







16:35 Jim Collins the importance of talent

In this episode Julia and Andrew look at to re-engage your teams as they start to return to work after furlough or a long period of home working.







Julia introduces a seven step pyramid model on how  to start the process of rebuilding  relationships based on what she learned from a  horse trainer in America. The trainer observed horse rituals at a waterholes and how the horses interacted with each other to build relationships within the herd.







Horses are good at hanging out together doing something and doing nothing. And in the workplace, when we were actually physically in the workplace, the doing nothing would be the bit for Julia and Andrew,  which is the water cooler talk, when we were hanging out. They pick up on the importance of reestablishing and developing good connections.







Andrew picks up on the importance of being self-aware about oneself and others and putting yourself into other people’s shoes and introduces a technique called Johari’s Window created by two American professors, Joe Luft and Harry Ingham, in the 1950s. So how do we press the connection reset button? What should we all be thinking about? It includes getting our body language right and knowing our own personal stories and how to use them in the reconnecting







Podcast Show Notes







00:48 How do we get back to re-engaging in the workplace.







01:20 Waterhole rituals and the human water cooler conversations







01:48 Horses are good at hanging out together doing something and doing nothing







03:10 The magic of relationships comes in that time when we just hang out.







04:55 The importance of the self-awareness dial







06:10 Johari’s Window – devised in the 1950s by and they were two psychology professors in California.







09:07 Horses are always asking each other questions when they meet each other, which are: Who are you? What do you do and how do you operate?







10:00 It’s about listening and body language, right, to find out how we’re now operating in the New World.







11:03 Pressing the reset button on all of our relationships.







11:06 A powerful exercise to do, is  to get people to share a time that they went through some adversity or some challenge.







11:40 Sharing their experience and their storytelling







15:04 Horses feel great respect for each other. And so the foundations are building trust, and creating respect.







17:09 Effective listening.







18:00 Body language, the non-verbals, making sure we get the words right.

The importance of agility and being agile and flexible in a fast moving world  is explored in this episode of Impactful the Podcast, especially with the threat of  potential and UK-wide local lockdowns.







The Impactful duo look at the problems with a rigid working practices and what we can learn from the recent national lockdown. Julia and Andrew look at structure relating it to a pendulum swinging  between structure and no structure and what that shows us in terms of fluidity, freedom and security. They bring in their personal experiences to highlight how we can adapt to build momentum.







Julia discusses a piece of research that Accenture did on leadership imperatives for an agile business and its three pillars here, of what is called demystifying leadership and  what we can learn from high performance leaders. Now we’re all coming back to work and everyone’s got very different agendas about how they want to return  it comes down to different levels of flexibility and agility to respond to what’s going on and which is very, very different.







Can businesses be agile and flexible? Andrew talks about the importance of communication especially internally and the two then chat about employee engagement with reference to Robert Dilts logical levels of change, looking at environment behaviours, capabilities, beliefs, identity, identity, and purpose.







Podcast Show Notes







01:54 Importance of transferable skills in the workplace







02:39 Are there barriers?







03:07 Structures operating like a pendulum







03:22 Structure gives freedom







03:40 Structure security







04:47 Proactive &  Reactive – learning from the herd







09:15 Accenture Report  – The Three Pillars







09:58 Pulling in the same direction







10:55 Shared Consensus







11:18 Talent & Skills







13:05 Employee engagement and internal comms







14:28 The Comfort zone







16:12 Trust as a leader







16:56 Robert Dilts – Logical Levels of Change

As leaders, we all know that we need to sometimes have difficult conversations.  Julia refers to them as courageous conversations.







These are conversations, which, if they took place, would improve life for us and everyone else in our teams. The problem is that fear often causes us to put this off and, as a result, the offending team member continues to provide sub-standard performance, miss deadlines, engage interpersonal conflicts and exhibit ‘toxic’ behaviour.







Andrew and Julia discuss the emotions involved and how important thoughtful, unambiguous and honest conversations are. During their conversation they look at feedback, different personality styles and tapping in to your inner self.







In Julia’s book The Alchemy of Change she gives tips on how to approach courageous conversations using a framework that she calls the 6 C’s to successful Courageous conversations:







Centre: the key that you stay in charge of yourself, your purpose and your emotions energy throughout any courageous conversations remembering to breath.







Clarity:  being clear on the reason for the conversation and the outcome that you desire







Curiosity: cultivating an attitude of discovery and curiosity.







Coherence:  showing you’ve heard and understood and trying to understand the other person so well you can make their argument for them.







Congruence: when you sense the other person has said all they want to, then it’s your turn







Co-Create Closure: building new solutions.















Communication is essential in business. Learning to read body language and listening is essential to notice any inconsistencies in what is being said.







Podcast Show Notes:







* What are courageous conversations (00:50)* Emotions  (2:34)* The Six-Step Process (3:30) Email us for our fact sheet* Being Centre and Present (4:19)* Clarity on Outcomes (5:00)* Curiosity (5:32)* Coherent (6:20)* Congruent (6:44)* Co-Create (7:06)* Make Gravitas count (8:46)* The Power of the Horses to lead the way (9:56)* Creating Time & Space ( 12:57)* Understanding Personality Types (15:43)* The Chair Exercise (18:17)

In this episode we talk around boundaries and what they mean especially in the workplace and for us both and how the horses have been masters at teaching Julia all about boundaries.







The word boundary is a word in common use and for clarity Julia defines it as “a limit, something we will permit or not into our lives”. Our boundaries define what type of person we are and therefore the opportunities that we’re going to let in our life. Often a boundary can be imagined like a fence that we’ve got around ourselves, and it’s our responsibility to ensure that that fencing is in good repair, because otherwise we’ll let things into our lives that we don’t really want.







Our physical boundaries are probably the ones that we’re most familiar with, in terms of people that we let into our personal space. There also mental and psychological boundaries as well as spiritual boundaries.   So, a boundary is really shaping what we’re going to allow into our lives and why is that important?  It helps create real clarity about what we want into our lives and what we don’t want into our lives.







Julia explains the problems about not setting boundaries by recalling stories with the horses. After all boundaries are there to protect us and what clients get out of working with her horses.







Andrew then shares a workplace story which leads on to a discussion around the benefits of contracting.







Julia and Andrew then discuss how anger and resentment can build up in personal relationships before summing up







Podcast Show Notes







* What are boundaries? (00:45)* What are the different types of boundaries? (1:37)* Boundaries are there to protect us (2:38)* The Aha moment – learning from the horses (3:55)* Contracting in the workplace (5:52)* The box model of contracting (6:20) * Bracken teaches Julia about trust (7:12)* Rules of the game (11:38)* The working from home trust problem (15:15)* The problem of not speaking up (17:11)* Having honest conversations (18:24)