Food 4 Thought Podcast

Experts in any skill make it look easy and effortless but developing mastery requires a key ingredient that many people neglect.   Without this ingredient, you can easily delude yourself that you are developing your skills when you may be developing bad habits.    Check out this 150-second video to discover how to develop mastery in the skills that will make the biggest differe...

Experts in any skill make it look easy and effortless but developing mastery requires a key ingredient that many people neglect.  Without this ingredient, you can easily delude yourself that you are developing your skills when you may be developing bad habits.  Check out this 150-second video to discover how to develop mastery in the skills that will make the biggest difference to your p...

If your people don't do what you expect there's always a reason for it.  As a leader, it is your responsibility to avoid the 7 Performance Traps.  Check out this short video to see which one of the traps you may have fallen into. I look forward to seeing your comments below. 🙋Please get in touch to discuss how our unique approach to behaviour change motivates people to transform their p...

Check out this 150-second video that explores some useful insights for you to consider.  Food for Thought:  ❓How well are you balancing the two traits in this paradox?  ❓What are the tendencies of your team members?  I look forward to seeing your comments below. 🙋Please get in touch to discuss how our unique approach to behaviour change motivates people to transform their pe...

Whatever your tradition, the Christmas Holidays are a time of year when many of us get the opportunity to take a few days off and spend some quality time with loved ones.  It is also a time for reflection.  In this short Christmas video, I share two simple but powerful things that I’d like you to consider and be mindful of over the festive season.   I’d also like to express my grati...

Optimism is a critical component of resilience, but it can be dangerous if it’s not balanced as we have recently seen in UK politics. If you want to avoid looking delusional and remain alert to emerging factors, you need to navigate the paradox of Vigilant Resilience.  This means mastering two contradictory traits that, when you get it right, inspire confidence and help you learn fast.  ...

What are your tendencies when it comes to making decisions? How well do you balance your authority with including the views and opinions of others?  If you want to get full buy-in and avoid passive resistance while ensuring a timely decision gets made you need to balance the Paradox of Collaborative Accountability.  This 150-second video provides some useful insights for you to consider....

Are you being compassionate enough for your people while holding them to account for their performance?   There is a paradox when it comes to guiding people to be their best.  Addressing underperformance can trigger a lot of deep emotions and feelings about how we were treated in the past. A wise manager is able to remain mindful of their feelings and sees the benefits of a balanced appr...

The current economic environment is creating massive uncertainty and yet there are always opportunities available if you can tolerate some risk. However, if you are not mindful of the dangers, you can end up making expensive mistakes.  This 150-second video about the Paradox of Opportunity Management provides some useful insights about the two traits that you need to master in order to develo...

In a rapidly changing world, we need to adapt quickly. But we also need to create enough order to avoid inefficiency and chaos. This 150-second video provides some useful insights about the two traits in the Paradox of Adaptive Efficiency and what can happen if you don’t get the balance right. Food for Thought: ❓What are your current tendencies? ❓What are the tendencies of your team members? I l...

Innovation is often seen as the generation of new ideas but it also requires something else. In fact, it is said that ideas are cheap because without effective implementation they are useless.  It is also important to know when it’s time to adjust what you are doing or even change direction.  This 150-second video provides some useful insights about the two traits in the Paradox of Focus...

Producing great results requires a high degree of self-motivation but sustaining those results over time requires us to recognise that stress management is not optional, it is essential.   There is a paradox in producing sustained results that requires us to prioritise our health and well-being alongside our performance and results.    This 150-second video provides some useful...

When we need to make a decision, it is very easy to be overwhelmed with information or frustrated that there isn’t enough.  We can also fall into the trap of seeking to confirm what we already know or confuse our feelings as facts.  Therefore, it is useful to explore the Paradox of Instinctive Logic so we can achieve better balance, avoid the above and make better decisions.  This 1...

Good working relationships are becoming more important than ever.  Many people are choosing to leave their current employment to seek greener pastures and while money can be a reason it is rarely the only one. There is plenty of evidence that people value good working relationships, and the quality of relationships often influences the decision to stay or leave when offered opportunities else...

Communication is tricky and requires balance.   Some people want and need you to be very direct and to the point, while others want and need you to be diplomatic and respectful.  If we don’t get the balance right we can trigger upset and defensiveness or frustration and confusion.  Excellent communicators manage to get the balance right by skilfully navigating the paradox of Respect...

Leaders are often isolated from feedback about their performance and their behaviour due to their position.  It takes courage to give feedback to a leader or manager especially if they take it very personally or become defensive.  Are you overly self-critical?  Or perhaps unintentionally defensive?  There is a paradox when it comes to Self Actualisation and it requires a delica...

As leaders, we are often in danger of being caught in an information bubble that confirms what we expect to see. This makes discovering and exploring the truth more difficult. The secret to getting to the truth lies in your ability to navigate the paradox of Insightful Curiosity. This 150-second video explains how to do this. Food for Thought: ❓What are your current tendencies? ❓What are the ten...

You can build your emotional resilience by developing an attitude of gratitude. This video explores the health benefits of this attitude and also explores the 4  'A's of gratitude developed by Brian Tracey.  David Klaasen  Talent4Performance

There is a lot of discussion about resilience but what does it really mean? And what are the key components of becoming resilient? This short video explores this topic.   David Klaasen  Talent4Performance

There is a lot of talk about mindfulness but what does it really mean in simple terms and how can you practice it?   This short video gives you 5 ways to be more mindful and the last one is particularly powerful if you want to lose weight!

What level do you listen at?  Are you really listening at all?  Many people are busy thinking about how they will respond rather than listening to what others are actually saying. This video explores the 3 levels of listening and gives some tips on how you can become an excellent listener. David Klaasen Talent4Performance

It can feel awful when we receive critical feedback but there are a number of things you can do to be resilient and use it as a learning opportunity.  This short video explores 7 practical Tips to help with this. David Klaasen  Talent4Performance  wwwtalent4performance.co.uk

The research by Prof. Carol Dweck and her team at Stanford University discovered two fundamentally different mindsets.  She called them Fixed Mindset and Growth Mindset.  We all have a fixed mindset in certain contexts, so it is useful to explore where this may be the case and also explore where you may have a growth mindset. This video explains how to do that.   To see the full pla...

The historical background of Growth Mindset is fascinating. This short video explains one of the most significant experiments done by Dr. Carol Dweck and her team at Stanford University. It is about the impact different types of praise can have. Parents take note! What are the implications of her findings in business?   To see the full playlist of all our growth mindset videos click here: htt...

By listening to the language of others you can decode their motivation and phrase things in a way that will engage and encourage them to act. Check out this short video if you want the key to decoding motivation and improving performance. If you don’t watch it now you will miss out on this simple way to understand others and how to avoid the frustration of their inaction.   How could you appl...