Happier At Work: Leadership, Culture, Performance

When clocking off work for the day, have you ever wondered where did that time go!? A McKinsey report recently found that ‘’employees spend 1.8 hours every day of their working week on average – searching and gathering information.’’ Joining Aoife on the podcast this week is former McKinsey engagement manager and now CEO and co-founder of Scribe, a productivity SaaS company based in San Francisco,...

Currently, on an exploration tour of Ireland, Aoife is coming to you live from Co. Sligo. However, in this week’s solo episode, Aoife is turning the temperature nozzle right up as she revisits her 10-week summertime experience in the largest Canary Island, Tenerife. Aoife discusses career flexibility and working abroad, adapting to a slower pace of life yet still prioritising tasks, things to cons...

Did you know that recruiting teams and hiring managers spend 80% of their time on manual tasks!? Joining Aoife on the podcast this week is special guest Josh Secrest, Vice president of marketing and client advocacy at the hiring technology company Paradox. Paradox’s mission is to empower recruitment teams to spend time with people, not software, with their AI flagship product, Olivia. With clients...

There is no doubt that workplace toxicity is a crucial component to the matter of unhappiness at work. Toxicity is indeed the culprit driving the great resignation. In this week’s solo episode, Aoife uncovers the damages of a toxic culture and turns her focus to findings from two fascinating articles from the MIT Sloan management review. Throughout the episode, Aoife discusses the red flags within...

Did you know that there is a magical relationship between listening and telling!? One that can enhance not only your personal life but your professional life too. This week’s special guest Jerome Deroy is here to tell us more. Jerome is the CEO of Narativ Inc. Narativ is driven by the power of storytelling - helping businesses across the globe transform their ways of communication and behaviour fr...

Welcome back to Happier at Work! In this week’s solo episode, Aoife turns her attention to the hot topic and rising business trends of remote and hybrid work, exploring how each working model differs. Throughout the discussion, Aoife unpacks what the future of work might look like and provides tips on maintaining productivity in a non-office environment and avoiding job burnout. Aoife also delves...

“To do philosophy is to explore one’s own temperament and yet at the same time to discover the truth.” – Iris Murdoch. Joining Aoife on the podcast this week is Dr Brennan Jacoby. Brennan is a philosopher and founder of Philosophy at Work, a collective of philosophers that ignite individuals, teams and organisations to think and perform their best through the help of their highly sought-after trai...

‘’In a research study that I conducted recently, 90% of people who took the survey were experiencing impostor syndrome or had experienced it in the past.’’ – Aoife O’Brien. Welcome back to Happier at Work. To continue the exploration of unhappiness at work, this week, Aoife unpacks a popular topic that arose on LinkedIn: getting your voice heard at work. Speaking up at work can be a challenge for...

‘’I think the role of the leader now is to create that environment where everyone can feel deeply connected and motivated, where they feel that they’re able to bring their full talent and potential to work under a clear organisational direction.’’ – Sharath Jeevan. Joining Aoife on the podcast this week is Sharath Jeevan, chairman, author and a world-leading expert on intrinsic motivation, directi...

‘’When people are appreciated by the boss, they will appreciate the boss more as well.’’ – Aoife O’Brien. Welcome back to Happier at Work. To continue the unhappiness at work theme, this week’s solo episode focuses on employee recognition: the key to a happy workplace. Recognising your staff comes with many benefits; it drives development, builds trust and boosts employee job satisfaction, to name...

‘’I no longer care about my own individual success because I’ve realised that the only way I grow and feel satisfaction is if I grow with other people. And it’s super important for me to be part of a group that cares about each other’s growth rather than their own individual success.’’ – Yogesh Soni. Joining Aoife on the podcast this week is Yogesh Soni. Born and raised in India and currently base...

This week's solo episode focuses on workload and burnout to continue with Aoife's exploration of the widespread issue of unhappiness at work. Did you know that up to 80% of people are currently tackling burnout!? These statistics are shocking but not surprising. This week, Aoife dives into the toll that stress and heavy workloads have on our bodies and shares valuable tips on how to avoid burnout...

‘’Doing good by people is also good business.’’ – Kevin Campbell. Are you looking to create a positive space for employees but don’t know where to begin? If so, this episode focused on data analytics and people experience is a must-listen! Joining Aoife on the show this week is special guest Kevin Campbell. Kevin is the founder of Lifted Leadership LLC and is an employee experience scientist at Qu...

Welcome to this week’s solo episode of Happier at Work. This week in the midst of a rare thunderstorm in Dublin, Aoife answers a listener’s burning question regarding leaping into leadership. From having a boss who made decisions and called the shouts to now being in command – Aoife dives into the transition into leadership and offers valuable advice on how to lead effectively and strategically. S...

In this week’s podcast, Aoife focuses on a topic very close to her heart - data and the impact of a data-driven workplace culture. Joining Aoife to explore this topic further is special guest Natalie Cramp. Natalie is the proud CEO of London-based data agency, Profusion, which specialises in helping businesses become more efficient, effective and profitable by embracing data science. In this episo...

Welcome to Happier at Work’s brand-new solo series, where Aoife will be shaking things up a little as she focuses on the widespread issue of unhappiness at work. At some point throughout your professional career, you may have encountered challenges and hardships at work dealing with a tricky manager, which can drive a great sense of job dissatisfaction. In this week’s episode, Aoife hone’s in on o...

“Doubt keeps us humble and curious. If you didn’t experience this healthy and normal emotion of doubt, it means that you wouldn’t care about your audience. It means you wouldn’t care about doing good work.” – Kelli Thompson. Joining Aoife on the podcast this week is special guest Kelli Thompson. Kelli is an inspirational women’s leadership coach, speaker and author who made the brave leap of leavi...

This week, Aoife is serving up a challenging and thought-provoking solo episode focused on talent management, inspired by a college lecture-discussion she took part in a couple of years ago. In this episode, Aoife explores organisational performance and the measurements of talent in the workplace, unlocking our fullest potential and excelling in our career, and probes the question; is everyone goo...

Did you know there is a parallel link between human psychology and animal behaviour? Here to break it down for us is this week's special guest Beth Anstandig who will be discussing the animal within and awakening our natural leadership. Beth is a licensed psychotherapist, lifelong cowgirl and author with over 25 years of experience working with human herds offering leadership, corporate culture an...

This week’s solo episode focuses on the rising concept of toxic productivity and the busyness badge of honour. We can all strive to be productive, but do we recognise the detrimental impact of busyness on our mental health and bodies, and is it a badge of honour worth wearing? In this episode, Aoife discusses the link between busyness and success, the need for setting personal boundaries and the i...

‘’We're fighting in this war of talent. Google are coming in and knocking on the door of our people, Microsoft and Amazon too. We're losing our people to huge organisations and I don't have the weapons to keep them but I do have one great weapon, which is belonging.’’ – Stephanie Brady. Welcome back to Happier at Work. This week, Aoife is delighted to be joined by HR expert and enthusiast Stephani...

‘’People will leave managers rather than leaving organisations because the managers are the touchpoint for individuals within the organisation, especially now with most people working remotely or in a hybrid situation.’’ – Aoife O’Brien. Welcome back to Happier at Work! This week’s solo episode is inspired by a statistic that Aoife recently came across on LinkedIn, stating that only 28% of organis...

‘I always say if you don't have a plan yourself, you will become part of somebody else's.’’ – Katrin Sturm. Welcome back to Happier at Work. This week, Aoife is delighted to welcome German-born, Dublin based renowned personal growth mentor, CEO and founder of Scale & Shine, Katrin Sturm. Katrin is passionate and devoted to empowering female leaders to reach new career heights in male-dominated...

Welcome back to Happier at Work! To celebrate the recent milestone of reaching 100 episodes, Aoife has put together a selection of unique episodes. For today’s solo special, Aoife opened the floor to the listeners for any questions or topics of interest that they wished to get covered. Today’s episode will be focused on maintaining employee satisfaction during the great reshuffle as a brilliant qu...

"I've actually never come across an organisation that doesn't value and doesn't require the skill of problem-solving." – Irial O'Farrell. Returning to the podcast this week is special guest Irial O'Farrell. Last July, Irial joined Aoife on the podcast to discuss The Values of Business. If you missed that in-depth discussion, fear not, as you can listen back here. This week, Irial returns to discus...