Unprofessionalism

Dr Myriam Hadnes
  • 5.0 (6)
  • SELF-IMPROVEMENT
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Professional performance is exhausting. Maintaining the mask. Editing ourselves. Pretending we know when we don't. This podcast is about people who dropped the performance. And what happened next. Each episode features someone who broke professional conventions and found something better on the other side: the executive who disclosed grief in a corporate setting and found it opened new ways of relating; the coach who realised her authority came from integrity, not compliance; the designer who ignored the 'approved tools' and saved thousands of hours. Conversations circle around three questions: What does it cost us to perform professionalism instead of showing up as ourselves?How do we create spaces where people can bring their full attention and humanity to work?When is the “unprofessional” move actually the most responsible one? If you feel the tension between who you are and who you're expected to be at work, this podcast shows you what happens when people stop managing that tension and just stop performing. Hosted by Dr Myriam Hadnes—behavioural economist and founder of workshops.work. New episode every week.

  1. 015 - The Price of Being Difficult with Tramaine Schilders-Teo

    4 DAYS AGO

    015 - The Price of Being Difficult with Tramaine Schilders-Teo

    Tramaine has a rule for herself and everyone she manages: what you allow will continue. She learned by watching what happened when she didn't set a boundary, and what happened when she did. With +15 years of managing teams across industries and seven countries around the globe, she spent a lot of that time being called difficult for doing things like putting her own phone number on an emergency contact list so her junior team members could have Christmas or pushing back against a request that would disrupt her team’s weekend. Tramaine is a leader who runs toward the hard conversation, takes the consequence that comes with it, and has taken a demotion more than once because she decided the price of staying was higher than the price of leaving. We talked about what it costs to be called difficult as a woman in corporate, how she decides what's worth the fight, and why everything - every choice, every boundary, every stance - has a price. The only question is whether you've made peace with paying it. Links to learn more about Tramaine Teo: LinkedIn Any thoughts? Share them with us! Support the show ✨✨✨ If you miss the "workshops work" podcast, join us on Substack, where Myriam builds a Podcast Club with monthly gatherings around old episodes: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/

    47 min
  2. 014 - The Cost of Being Yourself with Michael Bungay Stanier

    15 APR

    014 - The Cost of Being Yourself with Michael Bungay Stanier

    Thirty years ago, in a room full of blue suits with padded shoulders, pearls, and red ties — all competing for one of the most prestigious academic scholarships in the world — Michael Bungay Stanier walked in with long blonde hair, earrings, and a pink tie-dye tie. He was in his mid-twenties, in Australia, competing against people he knew might be sharper than him. His logic was simple: if I try to beat them on their terms, I lose. So he placed a different bet. One where he'd either come last by a long way, or come first. He came first. It wouldn't be the last time betting on himself paid off. You might be familiar with The Coaching Habit, a best-seller book he self-published a decade ago and has over a million copies sold around the globe. Sometimes knowing who you are comes with a price-tag. Michael lost a $300.000-a-year contract because a CEO hated the name of his company ‘Box of Crayons’. Instead of changing, he went looking for clients who loved it instead. We talked about what it costs to hold that line, and what happens when you stop making decisions to preserve a reputation almost nobody was tracking in the first place. Links to learn more about Michael Bungay Stanier: The Coaching Habit 10th Anniversary LinkedIn Newsletter Podcast YouTube Website Any thoughts? Share them with us! Support the show ✨✨✨ If you miss the "workshops work" podcast, join us on Substack, where Myriam builds a Podcast Club with monthly gatherings around old episodes: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/

    36 min
  3. 013 - The Mask I Still Wear with Myriam Hadnes

    7 APR

    013 - The Mask I Still Wear with Myriam Hadnes

    While working in Vietnam, the uni president, once told me I was getting away with a lot — working from home, teaching with comic books, skipping the standard slide show — because I was young, female, pretty, and white. As harsh as it might sound, I know my Vietnamese colleagues would indeed never have had the same latitude. The freedom to show up unpolished isn't equally available. Sometimes is contextual. Sometimes we are born closer to that permission than others. Maybe that's why it's been harder than I expected to find female guests for the podcast. Being unprofessional, in the corporate world, it's often a verdict. Putting your name next to a show celebrating not following the script might be risky. This episode is me thinking out loud, as someone who still hasn't fully dropped the mask, about what it actually costs to be yourself at work and how to make this space safer for those who have more to lose Links to learn more about me: Website LinkedIn Substack Any thoughts? Share them with us! Support the show ✨✨✨ If you miss the "workshops work" podcast, join us on Substack, where Myriam builds a Podcast Club with monthly gatherings around old episodes: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/

    20 min
  4. 012 - The Courage to Unmask with Roi Ben-Yehuda

    31 MAR

    012 - The Courage to Unmask with Roi Ben-Yehuda

    Roi Ben-Yehuda was one dissertation away from finishing his PhD when he realised he didn't want what was waiting on the other side. He walked away. Then years later, settled into a good job he liked, with a new mortgage and two small babies at home, he felt that pull again and walked away from that too, right in the middle of a pandemic.  Both times, the "thou shalt” voice telling him to stay on course was very loud. Both times, he ignored it. But the last one he gave himself nine months to make it work or face the consequences. In less time than that, he built a company centred around the virtue behind his "unprofessionalism". One he believes to be the source of all virtues: courage.  He even has a mathematical formula: courage = power x purpose ÷ dragons. The dragons are the doubt, the fear, the inner voice that tells you the risk isn't worth it. And his whole work is about shrinking them — not by ignoring them, but by naming them, auditing them, and asking one simple question: what is the cost of doing nothing? He also makes the case that we celebrate courage only when it works out. And that this is exactly how companies train people out of trying. Links to learn more about Roi Ben-Yehuda: LinkedIn Website Any thoughts? Share them with us! Support the show ✨✨✨ If you miss the "workshops work" podcast, join us on Substack, where Myriam builds a Podcast Club with monthly gatherings around old episodes: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/

    42 min
  5. 011 - Claim It Before You're Ready with Leanne Hughes

    24 MAR

    011 - Claim It Before You're Ready with Leanne Hughes

    Leanne Hughes wrote the name of a podcast she didn’t have on a blue Post-it note, dropped it in a hat, and when her name was called — walked on stage and described the show as if it existed. It didn’t. A few months later, the First Time Facilitator was born. That’s also how she landed a Wiley publishing deal, and sold out a 50-person consulting conference in eight days. The pattern is always the same: claim it first, build it second. Resourcefulness shows up after commitment, not before it. Waiting until you’re ready is the riskier move. In this episode: why tight deadlines are a gift, what happens when you fuse your identity with your work, and why disliking failure and fearing it are two very different things. Links to learn more about Leanne: Website: https://www.leannehughes.com Work Fame Substack: https://workfa.me LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leannehughes/ Instagram: https://www.youtube.com/@LeanneHughes YouTube: https://www.instagram.com/leannehughes/ Any thoughts? Share them with us! Support the show ✨✨✨ If you miss the "workshops work" podcast, join us on Substack, where Myriam builds a Podcast Club with monthly gatherings around old episodes: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/

    36 min
  6. 010 - When a CFO Chooses Humanity over Numbers with Martin Frederik Garbers

    17 MAR

    010 - When a CFO Chooses Humanity over Numbers with Martin Frederik Garbers

    When Martin Frederik Garbers’ company was acquired, he was handed the unenviable job of letting twenty-five people go. His own days were numbered too, but he chose to spend them sitting through the hard conversations, one by one, as a human being first – a CFO second. As he walked the Camino after redundancy, his body told him with every fibre of his being, that he wasn't going back to corporate life. Now he lights a candle in the early hours of the morning, takes executives for long walks in nature, and asks his coaching clients to slow down long enough to hear what their inner tutor would tell them. We talk about why the unspoken rules often do the most damage, what gets buried when leaders aren't allowed to feel, and why two hours walking in nature will do far more for your business than a back-to-back calendar full of big, important meetings. Links to learn more about Martin: Linkedin Website Book Any thoughts? Share them with us! Support the show ✨✨✨ If you miss the "workshops work" podcast, join us on Substack, where Myriam builds a Podcast Club with monthly gatherings around old episodes: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/

    47 min
  7. 009 - Creating a Return on Humanity (When ROI Isn't Enough) with Philippa White

    10 MAR

    009 - Creating a Return on Humanity (When ROI Isn't Enough) with Philippa White

    As her classmates chanted the purpose of business (spoiler: to make money), Philippa White couldn’t help but feel like she'd wandered into the wrong room, as the business school black sheep. She'd grown up watching her uncle bridge worlds in apartheid South Africa – endlessly curious, fascinated by people and possibility, and the doctor of Nelson Mandela. He taught Philippa something that no business school curriculum was ever going to: the return on being more human. Today, she takes this conviction into boardrooms across the world. We got into what happens when people genuinely care about each other at work, and what it costs when they don't. As Philippa will tell you, connection and belonging isn’t the soft, smushy stuff in business, it's by far your greatest asset. Links to learn more about Philippa White: LinkedIn Website Any thoughts? Share them with us! Support the show ✨✨✨ If you miss the "workshops work" podcast, join us on Substack, where Myriam builds a Podcast Club with monthly gatherings around old episodes: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/

    43 min
  8. 008 - The Generation That Refused to Fake It at Work with Alex McCann

    3 MAR

    008 - The Generation That Refused to Fake It at Work with Alex McCann

    Alex McCann isn’t a qualified career coach, occupational therapist, or psychologist. But he’ll be the first to tell you that. He walked away from a six-month internship, would sneak off to watch films when he should've been serving popcorn, and then decided he was done pretending he had it all figured out. Now at just 25 years old, he’s figuring it all out in public. After hundreds of conversations about why people feel lost in their careers, he’s building an AI career coach for the ones tired of faking it. Alex doesn’t claim to have all the answers though – and that’s precisely the point. We talk about what happens when you stop performing expertise — and start solving problems from the inside. Links to learn more about Alex McCann: Substack LinkedIn Any thoughts? Share them with us! Support the show ✨✨✨ If you miss the "workshops work" podcast, join us on Substack, where Myriam builds a Podcast Club with monthly gatherings around old episodes: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/

    40 min
See All (375)

Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

Professional performance is exhausting. Maintaining the mask. Editing ourselves. Pretending we know when we don't. This podcast is about people who dropped the performance. And what happened next. Each episode features someone who broke professional conventions and found something better on the other side: the executive who disclosed grief in a corporate setting and found it opened new ways of relating; the coach who realised her authority came from integrity, not compliance; the designer who ignored the 'approved tools' and saved thousands of hours. Conversations circle around three questions: What does it cost us to perform professionalism instead of showing up as ourselves?How do we create spaces where people can bring their full attention and humanity to work?When is the “unprofessional” move actually the most responsible one? If you feel the tension between who you are and who you're expected to be at work, this podcast shows you what happens when people stop managing that tension and just stop performing. Hosted by Dr Myriam Hadnes—behavioural economist and founder of workshops.work. New episode every week.

Information

  • Creator
    Dr Myriam Hadnes
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    375
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 workshops.work B.V.
  • Show Website
    Unprofessionalism

You Might Also Like