Build High Performing Teams Podcast Anna Oakes

“I feel like I'm not doing a good job at my work, in my life. I feel lonely and overwhelmed.” I hear this a lot. My advice is that you shouldn’t be navigating the work world alone. There are resources and people to have on your own personal “team”. If you don’t have this support team already, it is your job to build it and sustain it. In this episode, I’ll tell you the roles you need to support you in your work life, internal and external, and explain what exactly to seek from these roles. 
 
Discussed in this Episode:
How to promote internal success as a leader How to have a consistent weekly communication The power of having a leader, team, mentor, and sponsor How to create your personal board of directors Here are a few highlights:
 
03:26 LEADER “One of the best relationships, and most influential relationships that you can have is with your leader.” 4:54 TEAM “If you're a people leader or if you are thinking about your relationship with your leader, it starts by consistent communication and connection.” 14:38 MENTOR “A mentor is somebody who is going to be more behind the scenes; somebody who's agreeing to meet with you on a regular basis.” 17:56 MENTORS AND SPONSORS “The difference between a mentor and a sponsor is that a mentor is more behind the scenes and a sponsor is more upfront.” 25:38 HR “I want you to be friends with somebody in HR.”  
 
I appreciate you listening and invite you to subscribe, like and share it with whomever may want to be high performing and own their career.
 
Apply for my Own Your Career Accelerator: A 4-month program with 1:1 coaching, tools, and resources, and your secret weapon for deepening your impact. You'll leave with increased knowledge of how and when you can increase your impact through a career plan, time management plan, and project plan to present your current organization an idea that could add value to the business or its people.
 
Links to the Freebies Mentioned:
https://bhpt.mykajabi.com/anxietyatwork
https://bhpt.mykajabi.com/tedx-freebie-landing
 
If you or your organization are looking for a thought leader and strategic partner to address organization/team/employee performance, managing change, or people/culture strategy, please contact us at team@buildhighperformingteams.com.
I hope you liked today’s episode. Please don’t forget to subscribe on all podcast platforms and while you’re there, please don’t forget to rate and review! I truly appreciate and love you, and can’t wait to see you in the next episode!
Check out Anxiety at Work: A Guide for COVID-19 and Beyond
Download Virtual Teams During COVID-19: Mindsets + Values for High Performance Freebie
Watch my TEDx Talk on Leveraging Your Now to Get Your Best Next
P.S. Please don’t forget to tag me @theannaoakes & my team @careerandculture on instagram, and connect on LinkedIn to share your big takeaways and for more Build High Performing Teams updates. I’ll see you there! 
Peace & Progress,
Anna

In today’s episode, Anna interviews Alonzo Kelly, founder and CEO of Kelly Leadership.  As a sought after speaker and consultant, Alonzo leverages his corporate executive experience and 14 years as a coach and consultant to positively impact the world of work and leaders.
Alonzo shares advice on “Talking about Race and Other Taboo Topics At Work” and why it’s time we do it more and better.
Anna and Alonzo discuss:
How to prepare for talking about race in the workplace How to create the change The power of "being a witness" How to create a safe place to talk about and understand different cultures  
 
 
We appreciate you listening and invite you to subscribe, like and share it with whomever may want to be high performing and own their career.
 
Apply for Anna’s Own Your Career Accelerator: A 4-month program with 1:1 coaching, tools, and resources, and your secret weapon for deepening your impact. You'll leave with increased knowledge of how and when you can increase your impact through a career plan, time management plan, and project plan to present your current organization an idea that could add value to the business or its people.
 
Links to the Freebies Mentioned:
https://bhpt.mykajabi.com/anxietyatwork
https://bhpt.mykajabi.com/tedx-freebie-landing
 
If you or your organization are looking for a thought leader and strategic partner to address organization/team/employee performance, managing change, or people/culture strategy, please contact us at team@buildhighperformingteams.com.
“I've been using the anatomy of a tsunami [to explain what happened during the BLM movement]. So, out in the ocean, we've got these two things under incredible pressure, pressing up against each other, and then inevitably, something breaks and you have this ripple. And this ripple goes unchecked. So what was a 3 foot wave turns into 30, 30 turns into 300, and then it hits landfall. And at that point, there's really absolutely nothing you can do about it. So everything is about service recovery. So I feel like in the last month, this tsunami hit landfall. And it becomes impossible to not talk about all those things you prefer we not talk about at work, because we're in service recovery. We’re all in survival mode.” At minute 4:00, Alonzo shares how he visualizes the BLM movement. His analogy paints a picture in your mind that makes it easy to understand what happened, and why. 
 
“If I'm looking out and I see a flock of white sheep, all white, 100 of them, and one of them is black, for me to pretend like I don't see that denies that sheep. For everybody to pretend like they don't see that denies their experience with the world around them. 100 people walk by. I won't remember any of them, but the black one. So I don't know why we got to pretend like I don't see it. And so a lot of we don't we don't talk about race here. Well, then you've denied me. And it's really just that simple for me. It doesn't even have to be some of this stuff they think is uncomfortable. I just asked that you see me, I'll go back to the sheep. I'm a sheep. I'd like to be treated like sheep. And I need you to acknowledge that my experience as a sheep is different. And I have no idea why that turned into something taboo. I have no idea.” At 12:20, Alonzo emphasizes the importance of being able to talk about race, understand different experiences that different races go through, and make change. He wants people to understand and DO something about it. If we deny the conversation, we deny the humanity.
“I don't know how I would feel if I had a party and a bunch of people came to my party and didn't know my name. And here's what I mean by that; Martin is not his name. Harriet Tubman is not her name. Frederick Douglass is not his name. I could go on and on and on and on. So how about you honor these people by, at a minimum, learning what their real name is? How about that's my contribution. You can have the party, but at leas

DO NOT QUIT YOUR JOB!
I can't tell you how many people reached out to me each week that are asking questions like:
·       ”Is this what I should be doing with my life?”
·       “Isn't there something better than this?”
·       “I feel like I could be doing more.”
·       “I feel like my values could be aligned to the organization better?” 
These questions are what motivated my TEDx talk.  To talk to the change-maker, that INTRApreneur.  That someone who is fully capable of doing so many good things AND chooses to work within an organization.  
Enjoy this solo episode where I share why it’s important to stay put, maximize your impact and get ready for your “best next!”
Please don’t forget to subscribe on all podcast platforms and while you’re there, please don’t forget to rate and review! I truly appreciate and love you, and can’t wait to see you in the next episode!
Check out Anxiety at Work: A Guide for COVID-19 and Beyond
Download Virtual Teams During COVID-19: Mindsets + Values for High Performance Freebie
Watch my TEDx Talk on Leveraging Your Now to Get Your Best Next
P.S. Please don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @theannaoakes to share your big takeaways and for more Build High Performing Teams updates. I’ll see you there! 
Peace & Progress,
Anna
 

Just the other day, I got asked by a client “to tone down my anti-corporate messaging”. Yikes. And I was a little taken aback. In fact, they said they watched my TEDx talk, which is about leveraging your job now and letting that take you to your best next, whatever that is. This was one of the things that made them think that. So this is not a defensive rant, guys, you can watch my TEDx talk and search by my name: Anna Oakes. My talk is about leveraging your now to get to your best next. Feel free to listen to it yourself. But here's the thing, guys, this isn't a defense, this is an explanation. I'm not anti corporate, I'm pro humanity. So after 20 years in corporate, I realized after I left that I was an intrapreneur for pretty much that entire 20 years. I was even more ready to be an entrepreneur. I did not leave corporate America because I hated it. I left corporate America because I felt like that's what this season of my life was calling me into. I might go back to it someday. In fact, it's my life's work to restore humanity into our work and in our workplaces. I don't want people to leave. Not everybody's meant to be an entrepreneur. I want people to stay within organizations. I want those change agents to get busy. Let’s dive in.



I hope you liked today’s episode. Please don’t forget to subscribe on all podcast platforms and while you’re there, please don’t forget to rate and review! I truly appreciate and love you, and can’t wait to see you in the next episode!
Check out Anxiety at Work: A Guide for COVID-19 and Beyond
Download Virtual Teams During COVID-19: Mindsets + Values for High Performance Freebie
Watch my TEDx Talk on Leveraging Your Now to Get Your Best Next
P.S. Please don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @theannaoakes to share your big takeaways and for more Build High Performing Teams updates. I’ll see you there! 
Peace & Progress,
Anna

I want to talk to you about intrapreneurs, I get this question asked a lot, “What is an intrapreneur?” A lot of people ask me if I am an intrapreneur, everybody wants to know, so here we go. I have a little bit of knowledge about what an intrapreneur is. In today’s episode, I’m going to tell you why I am passionate about it, how I got to this topic, and then how I support the work of intrapreneurs.
Okay, so a definition of an intrapreneur is someone who displays entrepreneurial traits and chooses to work within an organization. So that could be a for-profit company, non-profit organization, hospital, church, school, startup, any of those things. That's an organization, whenever two or more people are gathered together around a common cause. 
Intrapreneurs are in any system, they're in any organization. If you are someone who wants to own your time, talents, and voice within that system, and use that to create change to work against the status quo, then you're probably someone that I would identify as an intrapreneur!
 
I hope you liked today’s episode. Please don’t forget to subscribe on all podcast platforms and while you’re there, please don’t forget to rate and review! I truly appreciate and love you, and can’t wait to see you in the next episode!
Check out Anxiety at Work: A Guide for COVID-19 and Beyond
Download Virtual Teams During COVID-19: Mindsets + Values for High Performance Freebie
Watch my TEDx Talk on Leveraging Your Now to Get Your Best Next
P.S. Please don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @theannaoakes to share your big takeaways and for more Build High Performing Teams updates. I’ll see you there! 
Peace & Progress,
Anna
 

Emotions at work. I swear, when I said that half of you cringed, either because of your own emotions or the emotions of people that you have had to deal with. And look, as someone who has been a coach and worked with 2 individuals to 20 individuals on conflict resolution, communication, productivity and mental health in the workplace...emotions are something that are either going to hinder or help a person or a situation. I am passionate about helping you make sure that your emotions, or the emotions of other people actually help the situation and not hinder it, so I am introducing Dr Kurt Nelson to you. He's an amazing guy, he works with behavioral science and helps companies and people improve with that. This is going to be a great episode where we dive into how we can leverage emotions, use that for more powerful connection and performance. So get your notebook and take notes! And as always guys, sending you peace in progress on your journey.
 
“Well I think one of the very first things that we have to take into consideration that we know implicitly but sometimes we just forget, is that humans are emotional creatures. We really come at things from an emotional perspective as opposed to a rational perspective, and in business we often overlook that.” At minute 7:15, Dr. Kurt talks about how our emotions often drive us in the workplace and how we tend to overlook that, trying to rationalize without factoring our feelings to the situation. 
“I think the mindset is really allowing that emotion to be there, recognizing it. And then, understanding do I act upon that emotion or do I not? Then it's taking a pause and allowing ourselves to catch ourselves. There's a lot of great work and you can talk about meditation or mindfulness, but it is a really good technique, or tip to understand to have us look at how our mind works. Mindfulness training is really looking at what are the thoughts that I'm having, and why are they there because our mind is always filled with thoughts and it's really hard. Our mind has to stop having those thoughts. ” At 21:18, Dr. Kurt emphasizes the importance of connecting mindfulness and meditation to your emotions and how there is power in pausing to reflect on what you are both thinking and feeling in the moment. 
“We cannot separate the emotion from the rational and we shouldn't go on either spectrum. I find that journaling is a really powerful way of being able to collect that data on your day. If you're very purposeful about identifying what happened today, how did I respond, how did I feel, then over the course of a week, a month, a year, you can look back and start tracking some of that. It's really powerful to see the trends and the patterns that you have, and we are habitual creatures by nature, we respond to triggers.” At minute 39:26, Dr. Kurt encourages us to write our emotions down in a journal so we can identify patterns or triggers that cause us to feel a certain way. 
Dr. Kurt Nelson shared a lot of valuable information about embracing our emotions at work. He also gave a lot of helpful tips for all of us, so make sure you stay tuned!
Don’t forget to connect and follow Dr. Kurt Nelson through his website http://www.lanterngroup.com/, Twitter, Instagram, and on LinkedIn. Check out the Behavioral Grooves Podcast and the Weekly Grooves Podcast! And if you have any questions for Dr. Kurt, just send an email to kurt@lanterngroup.com. Go follow him now! 
I hope you liked today’s episode. Please don’t forget to subscribe on all podcast platforms and while you’re there, please don’t forget to rate and review! I truly appreciate and love you, and can’t wait to see you in the next episode!
Check out Anxiety at Work: A Guide for COVID-19 and Beyond
Download Virtual Teams During COVID-19: Mindsets + Values for High Performance Freebie
Watch my TEDx Talk on Leveraging Your Now to Get Your Best Next
P.S. Please don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @theannaoake