The Aligned Achiever with Siobhan Barnes

Women are 32% more likely to experience burnout than men (according to Future Forum’s August survey). Female senior leaders are 60% more likely to provide emotional support to their teams, more likely to ensure the team’s workload is manageable and help their team navigate work life challenges (McKinsey and LeanIn.org's annual Women in the Workplace 2021 report .) Women who are climbing the c...

It’s time to hit pause. When we’re always planning our future and looking ahead to what’s next, it’s no wonder we end up stressed and hustling to get to the next stage in our career. This constant state of being “on” and hustling to be more and more productive is not sustainable and inevitably leads to burnout. Whilst there are stages of our careers and lives for growth and we often find ourselves...

When we leave the minor stresses and challenges of life unchecked they can accumulate to a point where we make knee jerk decisions to our life or career or find ourselves in a health crisis. The good news is that it takes time to get to the point of full blown burnout where you’re unable to weigh up decisions, see opportunities and find your mental and physical health deteriorating. That means tha...

When we find extra on our plates, it’s easy to slip into survival mode. When we’re in survival mode, we’re basically just making sure everything that needs to get done, gets done. You may have slipped into survival mode because you’ve been juggling kids on their summer holidays with your full workload, maybe you have a sick family member or someone who’s needed more of your support recently, or ma...

People feel overwhelmed all the time. We live in a busy, fast-paced environment. That’s just what the modern world is. Being able to regulate our nervous system to support ourselves through stressful moments and life periods is an essential part of managing overwhelm and the burnout that can follow. Both our mind and body play integral roles in navigating the world we live in, which is one of the...

How does Barbie relate to burnout? Barbie is an iconic representation of the “ideal woman” in society. She symbolises the unattainable perfection that we as women often strive to achieve and the limitless potential that we as women have. Sounds empowering, right? Barbie can do it all, and while that may seem empowering, the idea that doing it all is what will make you happy and worthwhile is so de...

When burnout is left unchecked, you eventually get to the point where you can’t continue on. Hustle culture is so glorified. The idea of doing more and saying yes to more is so ingrained in us as a society that we keep saying yes, and putting more on our plate until we physically, mentally and emotionally are unable to keep at that adrenaline filled pace. There are subtle signs that you might be h...

There are a number of phases to creating a career you love. A common theme amongst all the different seasons of your career journey is centering your well-being and ensuring that you’re moving forward without burning yourself out. Each of us has skills and talents and gifts that we’re here to share, and because we’re swimming in a culture of hustle, it can take a toll on our health and make us fee...

Does the success in your career feel like golden handcuffs that are keeping you stuck? We live in a culture that assumes that money is happiness, more is better, the higher up the ladder we climb, the better life will be. Yes, money and financial security is needed, but I’ve spoken to a number of women who have incredibly successful careers, but they’re not happy. It’s easy to get caught up in cha...

When is the right time to grit your teeth and continue on your career path? More importantly, when should you listen to your inner compass and pivot and change in your career to move forward in the aligned direction for you? There is a time for both, but the idea of simply ‘going with the flow’ comes with costs and consequences that aren’t often thought about when choosing which direction to follo...

The middle of the year is a really good time to check in with yourself and see where you are. Often, at the start of the year we set ourselves these goals and we have great intentions, but we forget to check in on how we’re going, or if they’re even still the right goals for us 6 months on. In this episode of The Aligned Achiever podcast I’m sharing with you 3 questions that you can ask yourself i...

I want to see more women backing themselves and going after the career that they want for themselves. Women exactly like you. Women with emotional intelligence, empathy and a nurturing and caring approach to leadership to be compassionate, powerful leaders. In this episode of The Aligned Achiever podcast I’m talking about why it’s important to me that my work empowers women and results in more wom...

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘success’? Success is a word that holds so much power in society. Perhaps you associate it with achievement, job status, a luxurious lifestyle, an overflowing bank account, living in a specific location, having your own business, the list is endless. Have you thought about what “success” really means to you?  When we think of success it’s easy to find ou...

What we believe to be true actualises and eventuates. Having worked with women from all over the world as a coach and mentor, I have come across 4 key mindset challenges that come up time and time again with the women I work with. These mindset challenges stop them from taking the next step, asking for the pay raise or promotion, and taking up space. If you feel like you could be playing a bigger...

Do you love it when people share their lessons learned and mistakes they’ve made when navigating their own career journey?  This is something that I’ve personally found really helpful when navigating a career pivot. So I want to offer you the same opportunity by sharing my story. Not because I’m perfect, but because I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way.  I share them with you in today’s episo...

I’ve been reflecting recently on my own career journey, and also what's been going on for my clients and the stage of their careers that they’re in. The idea of changing things up and flipping things on their head is in the air for a lot of people right now. This could be for personal reasons driven by a change in values or circumstances, or even something externally driven like a change in t...

On  average, we spend more time in relationships with the people that we work with than those in our personal life. However, who we work with often isn’t a choice that we have, making conflict inevitable, because you’re just not going to get along with everyone all the time. Conflict and confrontation is not something that a lot of us love, so if the idea of addressing difficult people and situati...

For every opportunity there is, there are also many missed opportunities in the workplace. Often, it’s up to us to advocate for ourselves in the workplace, put ourselves forward and let people know what our goals are. This can be a real challenge for a lot of people, especially some women. In today’s episode of The Aligned Achiever podcast I’m talking about the top 10 challenges I see women face i...

Perfectionism vs High Standards. Do you know the difference? It’s one thing to want to put out high quality work and get good results, but if you’re consistently looking for perfection in your work, this is where the lines get crossed and we step into perfectionism. When we step into the realm of perfectionism, we end up paying the cost associated with it. Hello stress, anxiety, burnout and overth...

We all know that our health and wellbeing matters. Period.  If we’re to enjoy life, we need our health.  If we’re to do our best at work, we need our health.  If we’re to enjoy our relationships, we need our health.  Journeying into health and fitness doesn’t mean you have to give up everything. Before I started on my own health and fitness journey, I had the idea that I would have to become the p...

Have you ever felt like who you are at work is completely different to who you are at home or in your personal life? Like you’re living a double life? This is something that can cause distress and frustration because you end up confused about who you really are, and it disconnects you from your truth and integrity. While there is often a need to bring a different part of who you are to your corpor...

What is an Untamed CEO? Someone who takes charge of their life and career and makes executive decisions about the direction they want to go in. It’s about seizing opportunity and going where life takes you, but equally being discerning about whether that direction is right and true for you, and aligns with who you are. I’ve been talking about the Untamed CEO for the last few episodes and in today’...

Last week I spoke about what an untamed CEO is and why I want more women to be one.  When I talk about being a CEO, I’m not talking about becoming the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, but rather becoming the Chief Executive Officer, the leader of your own life and career and taking matters into your own hands. It can feel quite daunting when it comes to navigating how you can create an aligned career...

Have you ever read a book or had an experience that changed your life and got you thinking about the world differently? For me, that book is “Untamed” by Glennon Doyle. This book gave language to some of the challenges that I see myself and women at large facing when it comes to pursuing a career path of purpose both personally and professionally.  Many women have been conditioned and socialised i...

When you’re busy…the topic of menopause might seem like something to put into the “I’ll get to it later basket.” Especially if you’re in your 20’s, 30’s and early 40’s.  The truth is menopause is an evitable part of every woman’s journey and it WILL have an impact on your life and career. And usually when you are at the top of your game career wise. So it’s wise to think about now.  There is very...