Aid for Aid Workers Leadership Podcast

When used properly, a team vision motivate your team to know where they're going and how what they're doing contributes to the overall organization. It can also provide guidance in terms of how to behave.  I want to share with you from my own experience how to create an effective team vision which will allow you to know where you're going over the next year.

How intentional are you with the start of your day? Do you roll out of bed and hope for the best, or do you have a routine planned that will set you up for a motivated morning? How you start your day is very important, which is why so many leaders are focused on it like Tony Robbins, Oprah and Tim Ferriss. But aid work makes creating a "routine" all the more challenging, since our lives are rarely...

Is it possible to consume 20 email newsletters, 8 podcasts, 4 audiobooks and 5 blogs in one week?   Probably not.... so why do we subscribe to them all?  This used to be me---- consuming leadership resources of all kinds, but at the end of the day feeling quite overwhelmed by the amount of information available.  And some which isn't even relevant or helpful!  In today's episode I share how I shif...

When we think of having fun at work, what usually comes to mind is team building, retreats or in some cases, happy hour.  But why do work and fun have to be seen as separate things?  And how can we promote more of a culture of fun at the office?  After all, play at work has been linked to a more creative environment, more trust and also better staff wellbeing (especially essential in humanitarian...

Have you ever heard about someone receiving professional coaching and thought, I wonder if I could use a coach? In today’s episode, professional coach and academic Liz Griffin explains all about coaching in the humanitarian context, how it can be used and what may result from it, including improving your wellbeing, helping provide strategic guidance in your work or moving closer to realizing your...

How are the questions you are asking yourself and others influencing your results?  Knowing how to ask the right question can be the difference between inspiration and stagnation.  If you want to learn three best practices you can apply to encourage your team to think more critically, resolve problems and surpass obstacles in international development then this episode is for you! By the way, this...

If you think you could accomplish more if your team was a bit stronger, then it is important to gain clarity around what you would need to focus on in order to do so.  In this episode I share three ways to know if your team needs strengthening and if so what types of areas if you improved would broaden your impact and take your team's performance to the next level. This episode is sponsored by my...

The last thing you need is a task management system so complex you have to have another system to manage it.  In this episode I share four tips (and a few bonus ones) on how to create a task management system that will work for you, and not the other way around.  Hint:  No complicated apps involved!

How consistent are your team's actions with your organization's values in international development?  Many of us think we are "walking our talk" but then we observe two vehicles going to the same community with only three passengers, or we use disposable plastic at meetings, or serve fried foods during a nutrition meeting.  These misalignments add up over time, and can lead to a less motivated tea...

We all have encountered one of those annoying suck-ups during meetings whose only agenda is to get the attention of a donor so they can receive more funding.  I never wanted to be one of "those" people, yet how do you balance positioning yourself with a donor for that next proposal with not sounding too needy or pushy?  In today's episode I share three tips (and a lot of examples) you can use to b...

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." -- Marcus Aurelius Our reality is our perspective, and so changing our perspective can mean changing our reality, or what we call truth.  I love challenging my own perspective on many things, and also enjoy helping others do the same.  Changing your perspective as a leader in aid work can mean taking...

Today's episode is a little different - it covers three stories, two of my former direct reports and one colleague, who all experienced changes in their work and lives due to coaching.  I hope their stories will inspire you to understand how much coaching can help move you forward in a way that a normal conversation cannot, even in the context of international development. Thank you to Yane Pinto,...

In international development we often hear about the importance of human centered design, and how it can make projects more sustainable by serving what a community really needs.  So what about human centered leadership, or how can we make our direct reports the focus of our conversations instead of the problems they bring to us?  From my experience this mindset shift can lead to greater behavior c...

We all know how it goes as leaders in aid work.  We have the best of intentions on having focused conversations around our direct reports' professional development or helping them with problem solving.  But then - you get distracted and find yourself talking about the day to day work rather than what you originally intended.  In this mini training I provide some ways you can make your important co...

Coaching is becoming more recognized in international development as a powerful leadership methodology that when used properly will help your direct reports develop professionally, realize their goals and become the best version of themselves. That said, there are a lot of misconceptions of coaching, what it is and how to do it. In this episode I share three common misconceptions (the wrong way to...

Making sure a new team member's first day goes well and they have a great impression of your organization is very important.  But how often do we rush through this process or overlook just how much impact a good or bad experience can have? In this episode I share four unconventional ways you can make your new team member's first month(s) working with you amazing - so they immediately feel part of...

There can be a variety of reasons in our work in international development that we end up with someone on our team who knows everything, or at least they think they do.  It could be that culturally it is not appropriate to question them as an elder or someone who has worked with the organization a long time, for example.  On the other hand maybe you have someone on your team who is super ambitious...

A five year study by Google on highly effective teams found that by far the most important characteristic of a successful team is to feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable .   So how can we create an environment in which our teams feel safe enough to be vulnerable and in which we can have open and sometimes difficult conversations? Whether it is a change in policy or a cut in funding, we all ha...

The first job of a leader - at work or at home - is to inspire trust." - Stephen M.R. Covey Every day we have the opportunity to either strengthen or weaken trust with others through our actions and words.  There will be times when we act in a way which breaks down trust, whether intentionally or without knowing it.  However if you have enough deposits in your "trust bank account" from previous ef...

We've all worked with that person.  The one that spreads rumors about others or the organization or even about you.  I have worked with my share of difficult people, and it can really take a toll on your motivation level and make it stressful to engage with that person.   On today's episode I am sharing five things you can do when handling a difficult coworker.  If you find it unbearable to spend...

Effective delegation can mean the difference between feeling confident and supported versus anxious and overwhelmed.  If done well, effective delegation can motivate your direct reports and free up your time to focus on other things.  In other words, it is worth knowing how to delegate well.  In this episode I provide different levels of delegation and also a five step process for you to be an eff...

Are you a micro manager?  Maybe you just feel like you have to follow up a lot with certain staff on your team.  It's not always easy to tell when the need to constantly follow up and sometimes complete tasks for others is because of something you are doing or maybe because this person is not able to fill the role they were hired for. This is part two of a three part mini series on micro managemen...

No one wants to be a micro manager, and no one wants to be managed by one either. On the part of the manager it is normally accompanied by stress and anxiety that something will not get done. From a direct report’s perspective, being micro managed can feel like you are not trusted and not competent. There are a variety of reasons why one may micro manage in international development, and it could...

We all know the saying “you are what you eat”. Well what if you performed how you ate as well? I know since learning more about diet and nutrition, I definitely notice a correlation between how I am feeling and what I had for lunch. Knowing how food impacts your performance can allow you to take it to the next level, and that is just what we aim to do in this episode. My husband Shannon, although...

It can be scary to seek feedback, knowing that if you are to get genuine feedback there are inevitably things you will find out about that you may not want to know.  Add to that the difficulty of receiving open feedback in some of the cultures where we work in the humanitarian context, and receiving honest feedback becomes even more challenging.  And what do you do once you have received that feed...