Refreshing Leadership with Maya - Career, Leadership & Life Design

Confidence, impact & influence and identity (personal and professional) are a core part of my executive coaching conversations.  Today we explore the impact wearing colour can have as we put ourselves forward into the world - and how it can support, rather than detract from our power. House of Colour: https://www.houseofcolour.co.uk/ Connect with Kate: https://katebrassington.com/ Book re...

“Just follow your passion and everything will work itself out…” This popular narrative (especially amongst certain life coach tribes) is quite misleading and can lead to wrongly rejecting certain career paths or choices. We tend to experience career transitions as part of our adult development, these are perfectly normal but at the time can seem quite disconcerting. In this episode I take some of...

Whether we are naturally calm or naturally more sensitive to life's events, the amount that today's world throws at us is enough to test anyone's nervous system.  And yet nervous system regulation was not a term which came up, even in my recent MSc in Positive Psychology.  This episode gives you an understanding of the nervous system so that you can take the steps to regulate it in a way...

My biggest time-saving, martial-harmony-inducing, family-chaos-reducing, fun-creating tool? Planing! Planning is often misunderstood. Its not about setting rigid and packed schedules. It is not about having to follow an agenda. Rather, it allows time for open space, time for spontaneity, time for peaceful moments - alone or with others. It helps us build in the fun stuff, which, with young familie...

In this episode, I'm joined by writer, author, speaker and podcaster, Laura Vanderkam. Laura is the author of several time management books, including the forthcoming Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters. Her work has appeared in publications including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and Fortune. She is the host of the podcast B...

At some point in my parenthood journey I looked up and realised I think differently about how work, family and fun can fit together - in a good way. A key part of this is due to the work of Laura Vanderkam. Before I interview her in next week’s episode, I wanted to get you up to speed on 5 ways she has changed my thinking - so that I can probe a little deeper in the actual conversation, and talk a...

In this episode, I'm joined by Kate Brassington, Coaching Psychologist and Trauma-Informed Coach for the first of a few episodes this season. How might trauma responses impact us at work and what can we do about it as individuals and leaders? (05:38) Defining trauma (10:42) How trauma plays out in the workplace (18:14) How trauma can play out at an organisational level (26:40) The questions we sho...

My clients often feel a tension between wanting to take time to smell the roses, and wanting to achieve ambitious goals. Enter slow productivity, a concept from Cal Newport. In this ep I share three steps for integrating slow productivity into your life so that you can achieve bigger goals, without burning out. I’ve been trying it out in my own life since January 2022 - and loving it - so I report...

Can you really design your own life? We're often told that we can but this messaging needs to be treated with care. We need an awareness of the systems, beliefs and expectations which shaped us, and the resources we have access to. Otherwise these subconscious elements can sabotage us from the shadows. So how do you create the life you want from the life you've been given? We talk through some key...

Welcome back to the Golden Hour. In this introductory episode to Season 6 I recap over the 4 pillars that surround the most common issues my high-performing clients face. If you're new to this podcast, this episode is a great introduction to the types of things we'll be covering moving forward. (00:52) The 4 Pillars (02:53) Vision (04:06) Relationships (05:34) Time Management (06:35) Emotion Regul...

Knowing precisely what goal you want to achieve is often the key to unlocking clarity and even if it takes a long time to pick the lock, it's usually worth the wait. Whether facing a complex goal or a simpler one which is potentially under time constraints, there are various tactics that can be utilised in order to find the right solution. So in this final episode of the season, we're going to dis...

Everyone loves a good story, don't they? For the modern leader or executive, it's become essential. Yet, there is an art to it, and many people don't like or aren't good at storytelling. Like anything else, however, it is a skill and can subsequently be learned. Even if there are natural boundaries, these can be turned into a positive part of storytelling - it's just about discovering how to do it...

Is your home overflowing with paper? Paper spilling out of every nook and cranny? Ok... it's likely the problem isn't this bad, but do take a look around; it's probable that paper filled with information, bills, RSVPs, to-dos and more have found themselves unconventional homes on top of furniture. If so, you too have a paper problem. The area that you work or relax shapes your mindset. So in this...

Are you struggling to get organised, reset and realign yourself with your goals? In this episode of the Golden Hour, we're going to look at some of the amazing concepts I've learned from the founder of Organize 365, Lisa Woodruff. Her thoughts on the Phases of life help us see the bigger picture - and that many of us are in the ‘Accumulation Phase’ of our lives. I hope you enjoy the episode. (02:5...

Welcome to September, and to Season 5 of The Golden Hour. Ready to slay September ? September has a particular energy about it and we want to capitalise on this back to school vibe! But first, we start with key lessons from the reset: (02:28) - Think planning over permission (04:18) - Taking longer periods off for deeper resets (08:23) - A reset is not an overnight process (10:18) - Creating buffe...

At the end of this 5 part series, as August comes to a close, I hope that the past few weeks have been a good reset for you. It's now time to join the dots and set some goals as you begin to think about the coming months which might have a rather different pace. (01:28) - Goal setting for the next quarter and Ta-da lists (06:34) - Proactively thinking about the Autumn months (07:18) - Wrap up If y...

By now, if you’ve been listening weekly, you’ll have thought of some fun, manageable summer projects, focused on having a deeper switch off and used metaphors to help define your vision for the final few months of the year. In this episode, I approach designing your hybrid working life. The good news is I’ve recently published research on this exact topic. So, what are the key considerations in de...

How do you describe your work life? Busy or perhaps, overwhelmed? The problem with the way we describe situations is that this is often how we also frame it in our minds and envision the solution. Busy people get less busy, overwhelmed people take on less, however, the problem is rarely that black and white. This is where I find metaphors to be game changers. Bear with me here – metaphors are one...

Struggling to switch off? August is upon us; it’s been a demanding year and we could all do with a bit of deep rest and rejuvenation. But how? In this episode I share practical steps on how to switch off to deepen rejuvenation. Because switching off can sometimes need practice, it might not happen automatically. This is episode 2 of 5 guided episodes I’ve lined up on how can we make that as deep a...

The Golden Hour podcast is back with a brand new season! 🌅 August is upon us, and many of my clients are ready for, or limping towards, their August breaks. It has been a demanding year and we could all do with a bit of deep rest and rejuvenation. SO I have 5 guided episodes lined up, with a focus on how can we make that as deep a rest, and powerful a recovery, as possible. I will take you throug...

Many of the Golden Hour listeners will now be returning to the world of hybrid work. And there's much discussion and debate about which approach is optimal. Here Maya shares her recently published research which finds that's it is not so much about which approach is ‘best’, rather, which are the best of each world to optimise our overall work design. She is interviewed by Carlos Alvarenga, who has...

In this bonus episode, Maya is interviewed by Austra Putnina. Many of us think that if we just had a little bit more self-control or willpower, we could achieve our goals. In this episode, Maya explains the difference between willpower and self-regulation and why it's the latter that is so important for our wellbeing and achieving our goals over time. Self-regulation is also critical in understand...

This is another of our most popular episodes from the Your Plate archive on: Mindset. An expert in positive psychology, Maya's explores how to challenge our internal scripts, and shift the focus from short-term goal setting to a stress-tested system for success. A slightly longer Ep, for a longer walk! If you’re a high achiever who wants BOTH Career Success & Confidence AND an extra 5+ hou...

This episode is from the archive of Your Plate episodes with Maya and Aarti. The fourth in a 4-part mini-series on meditation, they look at how you can integrate some mindful eating in your daily life and the benefits which flow from it.. They demystify the concept of Mindful Eating and what it actually is & explore why HOW you eat is as important as WHAT you eat If you’re a high achiever who...

In the last few episodes, we looked at our personal experience with meditation and the importance of mindfulness for digital wellbeing. This episode is from the archive of Your Plate episodes with Maya and Aarti. The third in a 4-part mini-series on meditation, we look at their personal meditation journey over the past 20 years. They explore which styles and forms of meditation have been most usef...