Growth Hacking Culture

We are all excited when we hear success stories of companies implementing new business models and launching innovative products. It means evolution and creating value for customers. But the reality is not that bright: According to McKinsey, 70% percent of transformations fail.
The contributing factors for failure include insufficient high aspirations, a lack of engagement within the organization, and insufficient investment in building capabilities across the organization to sustain the change.
Another sad reality is that there is no model that can fit the particularities of a specific industry – we can't just say lets go and invest on technology, let's have agile processes or let's invest on what we need and we will get results.
Fortunately in this episode of Learn with Bessern - our guest Jorge Castellote is a thought leader on this topic.
🌟 About our guest Jorge Castellote
Jorge Castellote has worked with hundred of companies on their transformation during close to 15 years. First in one of the global consulting groups and lately in his own company Innoway - a change consulting group that has helped companies in almost all continents. You can reach out Jorge at https://innoway.me/  or in LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jorgecastellote/ 
What we discussed in this episode of Learn with Bessern:
💡 In the last 10 years the majority of organizations has embarked in initiatives to create new products, services or simply create efficiencies - what are the biggest misconceptions that you have observed in the execution of a corporate change program
💡 The Lean Startup approach has been made quite famous to bring agility and innovation: do we have proof that it works?
💡 When change in an organization doesn't work - what are the usual suspects? WHY change fails?
💡 What have you observed - in terms of human (organizational) psychology during times of change
💡 What KPIs should a CEO setup for change?
💡 Who should lead the change? Is there an organizational setup to make it real? 💡 Is there a roadmap or process to start change and de-risking the impact of human natural resistance and create a sustainable innovation engine… is there a specific order of doing things? What is a Minimum Valuable Ecosystem (MVE)?
🎙️ This episode on change in organizations is hosted by Ivan Palomino.
🚀 Subscribe to our monthly 📧 newsletter https://bessern.substack.com/   and Get superpowered for your self-development: learn stuff that makes you proud of you, manage your wellbeing, have the mindset to make your life awesome.
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Many countries have announced or are considering changes in working time or flexibility on how people work. Organizations are going through the painful decisions of a major change and often with little information on the impact on people and businesses.
In this episode with Angelique Slob, You will walk away with some thought provoking insights, inspiration and practical strategies to ensure your successful transition towards new ways of working. :
· What are the current trends to new ways of working: beyond remote work, flexi-time, reduced time, compressed workweeks and days and more
· The most important steps to redesign your workplace and maximize the ROI of your strategy in a way that creates a competitive employee experience
· The impact of new ways of working on people and business bottom line
· Is there a science behind new ways of working?
 
Do you want to learn on New Ways of Building Culture in a Hybrid Workplace? Check this article by Hello Monday https://hellomondayclub.com/new-ways-of-building-culture-in-a-hybrid-workplace/
 
About our guest Angelique Slob
Angelique is an an Organizational Sociologist, HR thought leader and founder of the international Think Tank Hello Monday Club https://hellomondayclub.com
More resources on alternative ways of working:
⭐ E-Book on Work Life Integration in a Hybrid World : http://eepurl.com/dorAB5
⭐ White-paper’ Knowledge Workers, Who is the Boss,  a summary of Angelique's research on the most effective management style for knowledge workers. http://eepurl.com/dqnZdP
 
This episode of Learn with Bessern is hosted by Ivan Palomino. 
Keep yourself updated with Bessern Monthly Newsletter 📧 https://bessern.substack.com 

Despite increased efforts and awareness around diversity, inclusion, and social justice, neurodiversity continues to be an underrepresented part of most organizations’ DEIB strategy (diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging). Think about it in certain countries bipolar disorders can reach up to 4% of the population but we rarely hear about it at work.
Basically, we only have 2 conclusions about people with mental health disorders:
a) Either bipolar people are not well accepted in the workplace due to fear and misunderstanding.
b) Their mental illness is not something that prevents them from doing any job.
To tell you the truth –I don’t have the answer. That’s why I wanted to invite to Learn with Bessern someone who knows about it –not only because he acts as a counselor, but also because of his own experience with bipolar disorder. Rabbi Alfredo Borodowski is based in NY.
🔵 About our guest: Alfredo Borodowski Raised in Argentina he earned a law degree at the University of Buenos Aires then you were ordained as a rabbi and earned a doctorate in Jewish Philosophy from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America where he taught for over a decade.
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bipolarrabbi/
Website Bipolar Rabbi https://www.bipolarrabbi.com/ 
A little insight about bipolar disorder and its effects!!!
People with bipolar disorder have extreme mood swings that range from mania to depression. It affects an estimated 1 in 100 people worldwide, and research suggests a strong genetic component. Contrary to the myths about people with bipolar disorder, they generally don’t swing rapidly between moods from one moment to the next. Instead, they often experience weeks or months of depression, punctuated by manic episodes. During manic episodes, affected individuals might feel very up, energetic, and confident. However, during depressive periods, they may feel hopeless, angry, or suicidal. These individuals might feel incapable of keeping up with the commitments they made during a manic phase. They may also lose interest in things they usually love to do, or feel too tired to participate.
Insights from the podcast!
Biggest misconceptions about Bipolar disorder!!!
 
* We have to stop blaming people with mental illness.
* There is nothing in the mental illness itself, that give that person the character of being dangerous. Clearly somebody who has a mental illness and he's not taking care and he's still taking care and he's bullied and it's abused. We have a health care system, where to get any calling was served before a mental illness became elaborate. That is impossible to manage.
* People with severe mental illness such as depression can go up to harming themselves and committing suicide but it differs from person to person. They are usually of little to no harm to others.
What is the main responsibility of a person with a mental illness?
Depression is not a choice its a state of the body and the main responsibility of a person who is suffering from mental illness or mania is the responsibility towards themselves. This is in terms of watching who you are, the processes that follow and to have a plan set of action/ treatment.
Alfredo also points out towards the lack of resources that are available for people who require help or are in need to a psychiatrist. 
What would Alfredo do to improve the challenges of people with Bipolar disorder?
* Firstly, he would like to create a movement where by people suffering from the disorder come together and demand their rights as well as stand for their equality. He believes that the mental illness community has not yet come together to be a force for themselves. He would like to bring the wisdom of those with the illness and showcase it to the world.
*"Every person suffering from mental illness is a life coach to the world." If the wisdom is articulated in a correct manner the society will flourish regardless. 
*Alfredo would also want to make his next book run interactive in nature. Every chapter will have a link then it can be checked it on acceptance with Chapter One shame the chapter on self esteem, the chapter on uncertainty accepted on goals a chapter on exhaustion, but each section of the chapter will have a link and the reader will click the link go to a website can give his or her own wisdom. We are going to create the collective wisdom of mental illness and we are going to move the discussion from being victims from being perpetrators from being escape goal to being agents of wisdom.
Does the discussion on mental illness actually take place?
The answer is NO. that the mental illness community has not yet a pixelated message by which they go to the world with a positive wisdom. Okay, but I tell you COVID should have changed the equation, because one of the things of COVID is that people now know what depression is. Okay, people know now what anxiety, anxiety is. We are missing an opportunity. It should be a national discussion now on what is mental illness from the perspective of a greater empathy, bigger people now they have at least suffer or experience a little bit of what people with mental illness experience in a more chronic way. And I don't see that discussion taking place. I don't see the major organizations and national organizations that lead the discussion of mental illness. I don't see the now taking the opportunity of having a national discussion of empathy. We are now at a point like never before, where the population as a whole has had a taste of what depression is. 
 
Some episodes of Learn with Bessern that you may be interested:
I don’t need to be fixed, I am successful with Autism with Sam Mitchell
https://podcast.bessern.co/e/i-don-t-need-to-be-fixed-i-am-successful-with-autism-with-sam-mitchell/ 
Thriving at Work despite ADHD or Dyslexia: Performance in a different way with Rose Thompson
 https://youtu.be/CKPLNFCqpls 
About this episode of Learn with Bessern
🎙️ This episode is hosted by Ivan Palomino.
 
🚀 Subscribe to our monthly 📧 newsletter https://bessern.substack.com/  and Get superpowered for your self-development: learn stuff that makes you proud of you, manage your wellbeing, have the mindset to make your life awesome.
 
🚀 Follow us on:
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bessern.co 
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/bessern 
Twitter https://twitter.com/BessernOfficial 
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/bessernofficial 
 

There are many people who are happy with their work, especially if they are in a job that matches their career and life goals. However, even with the best job, there are times when you struggle to find enjoyment in what you are doing. During times of stress or discouragement, finding that joy in work can be difficult. If you struggle to find the motivation to go to work and resent the time you are there when you could be elsewhere, you will cultivate a negative attitude that spills over into the rest of your life. This affects your performance at work, as well as your relationships with co-workers, friends and family. Furthermore, the speed of performing a task reduces as your full focus is not on the task.
Flow is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. Flow is characterized by the complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting transformation in one's sense of time.
This episode of Learn with Bessern is about how individuals get into that focus where they are truly enjoying what their doing and their bodies are in direct correlation with the task at hand. The best moments are not these passive, chillout, receptive, relaxing times. The best moments usually occur if as a person our body and mind are stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and that is worthwhile. The task to be accomplished has to be challenging, just a bit above our current level of skills, there needs to have a purpose that we understand and we should be able to decide how to do this task.
So the big question comes, how do we know that you are we are in the flow state. It is because we have a complete focusing on the task. We have goals that are clear with there is kind of time transformation where you don't feel the time is passing and the task seems effortless and there is a good balance of challenge and ability or what we can we can do. A few ways to start enjoying what you do and channel your focus into a particular task is as follows:
1) Look for the purpose- You may find work hard to enjoy because you've lost sight of the reason you work. Consider why you are doing the specific tasks you perform, or even why you work at all. For example, think about why you are planning a particular meeting and what success would mean. Perhaps you are working on a project and need to remind yourself what the project will accomplish and why your participation matters.
2) Accept the imperfect - While some people enjoy being in an office surrounded by their co-workers, others find it too restrictive and distracting. If you're not enjoying your work, the answer might be to work from home if you can. Your telecommuting experience will depend a lot on your company's rules and your manager's expectations. You may find you are able to keep your own schedule as long as you show up for conference calls and perform your job well. Although you may feel less connected with your co-workers, your work enjoyment and productivity could benefit.
3) Enjoy the people you work with - Find ways to have fun in your workplace while maintaining a professional approach to your work. Smile and engage with your co-workers. Get to know them, perhaps even socially outside of work. If you enjoy spending time with the people you work with, this can go a long way toward making your work more enjoyable. A positive attitude toward your co-workers can also help you cultivate a positive attitude toward your work. One way to express this is to avoid office gossip and, instead, engage in constructive conversations that encourage your co-workers.
 
🎙️ This episode is hosted by Elena Agaragimova and Ivan Palomino.
 
🚀 Subscribe to our monthly 📧 newsletter https://bessern.substack.com/  and Get superpowered for your self-development: learn stuff that makes you proud of you, manage your wellbeing, have the mindset to make your life awesome.
 
🚀 Follow us on:
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bessern.co 
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/bessern 
Twitter https://twitter.com/BessernOfficial 
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/bessernofficial 

In the name of our podcast Learn with Bessern – we have the word "Learn" and the ambition we have is to help people learn how to practice being that person you expect of yourself. Now – there is diversity in the way we learn and sometimes what is out of the standards may seem like a handicap in our progress. Misconceptions about autism are widely spread and in most cases we imagine the extreme cases but in autism there is also diversity.
Learn more about neurodiversity here
About our guest Sam Mitchell!!!
In today's episode of Learn with Bessern we have Sam Mitchell with us who is a very young graduate from high school, he is the host of the popular podcast Autism Rocks and Rolls he talks exclusively about autism, he is an entrepreneur, a motivational speaker (check out his Ted Talk called Souled Structure) and he is a serious activists for Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain. He also has autism.
Insights from the podcast!!!
People with ASD often have problems with social communication and interaction, and restricted or repetitive behaviors or interests. People with ASD may also have different ways of learning, moving, or paying attention. One of the biggest misconceptions with autism is that we are better and that we cannot do anything which is highly inaccurate, because we are talented in our own way.
Many people surrounding you might have a certain degree of autism and and they don't have to be prevented if nothing has prevented them from their success. 
Biggest misconceptions about people with autism
One of the biggest misconceptions with autism is that we are better and that we cannot do anything which is highly inaccurate, because we are talented in our own way.
 
What would be your like the power advice that you will tell first, to a parent with a child with autism cycle to a schoolmate of a person with autism? And third, a teacher of a child with autism, would you what would you give them as an advice?:
Sam replies 'Why is everybody and so I don't think it's, it's okay not to be healthy but to be scared because my mother was once upon a time. She was very frightened of my future. And everyone should be afraid but should have the back of their head and my eyes are not gonna lie to you there. But my advice is honestly, just be patient, have consequences, find a balance, but understand that some certain behaviors that we do, it's neurological. We can't help you Yeah, that's for like parents, someone with misconceptions and in the classroom setting. It did. But I guess you gave that example of parents of parents it now that I'm a parent I can I totally understand we. We tend to be worried about our kids. Sometimes we would like to let them go. but not helping people to try things by themselves is maybe not good, either'.
 
Where and when did Sam make creating awareness about autism a life purpose? 
During high school I fell in love with the podcasting. So he decided start his own and initially it was an entertainment one but he soon realized he can use his voice to do something good for the community. That was how he started doing autism rock rolls which eventually got him sponsorship to make it nonprofitable.
 
Do you feel like people with autism have particular needs in terms of mental health compared to the standard guy in this industry?
 
Sam believes that this is a case by case situation and each case is different from the rest. It's usually hard to tell whether they're just being straight or actually knowing if there's a mental health issue behind it. He believes that people with autism have a different approach of interacting with others, some might be introverted and some might be dealing with anxiety or depression which interferes with their actions.
 
Check Sam Mitchell's podcast Autism Rocks and Rolls
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/autism-rocks-and-rolls/id1501271993 Autism Rocks and Rolls aims to help others understand autism, to help those on the spectrum feel good about themselves, and to NEVER be ashamed.
Reach out Sam here: http://autismrocksandrolls.com/
 
About Learn with Bessern
This episode is hosted by Ivan Palomino. The Learn With Bessern Podcast is about exploring the science behind self-development, leadership and well-being. We demystify personal and organization growth.

Today we have 29% of senior management that is female globally. But only 33 of the Fortune 500 companies is led by women. It doesn't look like women are having their fair share of leadership. And it is worst, if we look within cultural backgrounds, people belonging to a certain culture or race - It is the moment to ask ourselves: what can we do to make it better? is confidence affecting the rate of career progression for women and minorities?
In todays episode of Learn with Bessern we have an impressive guest: Lily Woi to help us understand the situation and find solutions.
Many studies prove today that women outpace men in the majority of the leadership traits -Interestingly enough, studies have shown that women also tend to rank themselves lower when it comes to assessing themselves and this can be linked to the lack of confidence itself.
About our Guest Lily Woi
Lily has been working in consulting with KPMG, Accenture and Deloitte and today she is a determined entrepreneur. She helps people who:
✅ Can’t break the glass ceiling and step into their first (or next) leadership position
✅ Struggle with being seen, heard and recognised for their value and expertise
Over the past 8 years, she has worked with global leaders and businesses to shift behaviours, unlock potential, transform careers and develop courageous cultures. She has coached and trained clients working in multinationals such as Deloitte, Nest, Hello Fresh, Nike, Pureaffinity, and the British Film Institute.
To reach out Lily: https://go.oncehub.com/LilyWoi
Access her free mini-course Career Clarity & Success Blueprint: https://www.subscribepage.com/careerclarityblueprint 
 
Insights from the podcast!!!
if we are not aware about our biases, we fall into the trap of taking decisions in an irrational manner and based in known biological stereotypes, or other traits that are not of value for a company, right. And the thing is, we have seen over and over again, and research has shown that first impression are often wrong. As our first impressions are how we see the other person, not how competent they are but how confident they are and that's when unconscious bias starts to come into place
What are corporations doing in terms of teaching people how to control their biases?
There are increasingly more and more companies that invested in unconscious of unconscious bias training invested in understand how they can make their company more diverse and more inclusive, and how to really leverage and maximize the uniqueness or the diversity that exists within the company.
And looking at where is the glass ceiling?
So we are seeing that a lot of underrepresented groups are getting stuck at the middle management and then breaking through into the senior management. I have seen a lot of companies investing in a lot of initial training but the follow through is not strong. Example If a company has invested a light unconscious bias training, and those are great training, what is the follow through? What is the refresher? How do we bring this more into life? How do we really support individuals to figure out what are their own unconscious bias and how can they consciously bring it to awareness and understand how it impacts their decision making in their specific role? So really, taking it from a corporate level or company wide level and start breaking it down into individual level? And I don't feel companies are doing more of that. Hence companies should improve on that.
To get over biases
So, we have already taken a lot of time to build up our current biases saying Asian people are calm, do not have leadership traits that are required, or women are too gentle. All of the biases that have been formatted by our society. So it has taken within the last 20 to sometimes 40 years to write the code in our brains that this has said this is our shortcut. So you cannot solve the problem by having like an awareness session. You have to rewrite a new code and rewriting a new code it means practice consistently. Then being aware of and already I can tell you, I mean, this by that you mean whoever it is has a gorgeous of defecation. It doesn't mean that we know ourselves that well it takes time it's continuous practice. We only know that the process to get to know each other ourselves better. But if we were constantly practices because an irrational monster dominates us inside of our brain that controls our emotions, our perceptions, so we will always come and have our natural biases taking  control of our decisions. So it's a solution.
The momentum for change
Because when we are in a challenging situation or we are feeling challenged, our natural reaction is to revert back to what's comfortable. Let's just let's just go back to how we used to do it. And in that moment, whether you decide to go back to your old ways, or change to any way, I think that is the decision point where we where we really understand that we actually grow and develop and change as a person
 
What are the do's and don'ts when either you are a woman or you are associated with a culture of a region?
The first is really understanding some of the feeling misconception or unconscious bias that woman or even underrepresented groups half on themselves is that you do not represent your community. So you can do whatever you want. Make off the mistakes you want. And it's a representation of who you are as a person, but you do not represent woman. You do not represent the Chinese community. You do not represent you know, XYZ committee and I think one of the common misconceptions that I've seen and this really disbelief kind of help kind of get people stuck in where they are is, oh, you know, I can't really do this. How would people react? How would my people react? How people like me react, in my mind representing a good image for my community, and that in turn, in still fear in you.
The second one is about when we look at you know, for example, you mentioned gravitas, or what are the traits of a great leader. So, for example, confidence or decisiveness of presence. Those are a list of traits, and often we have an idea of how that translates to behaviors. But I think it's the deep to disconnect traits and behaviors. traits are what how can I put it treats and neutral? Look, for example, confidence in a confidence is a trait that we see in great leaders with confidence itself. And for however, what this how this translates to actions and behaviors is confidence to you looks quite different to how I demonstrate confidence. Yep. Yes, we agree that it's a common set of traits we see in great leaders. But that does not mean that there is only one way to demonstrate those traits and how do we figure out what does that look like for me, that still fits my style and my personality? So I don't need to imitate someone else. And for example, a classic example it's extra was an introvert, the introvert feeling that I need to constantly be loved to be seen as confidence. But now, an introvert person just has a unique way of demonstrating confidence. And they are soft spoken, and quiet.
What do you think it could be the daily practice that we can start to build our confidence is by gender and culture. Why is it important to create consistency in the practice?
We'd have to repeat them because that is the key word. Yeah, exactly. I like to describe confidence as a muscle. And that's where consistency come in, is you need to be consistent in going to the gym, and or going exercise to maintain your muscle and it's the same confidence you need to consistently do something to keep nurturing and developing your confidence. And if you stop doing it, it will start to shrink.
Lastly, Lily emphasizes on being unapologetically you irrespective of race, gender, age or position.
 
About Learn with Bessern
The Learn With Bessern Podcast is about exploring the science behind self-development, leadership and well-being. We demystify personal and organization growth.
This episode is hosted by Ivan Palomino https://www.ivanpalomino.net/
Learn more about Bessern http://bessern.co/ 

In this episode of Learn with Bessern, we cover the challenges leaders face to create workplaces where employees and organizations thrive.
The role of leaders to drive better workplaces
The opportunity cost of an engaged workforce through increased productivity & well-being
The challenges organizations have in this transformation
The journey of a life of purpose: learnings from Chris Cummings driving change in the workplace
About the speaker: Chris Cummings
Chris is on a global mission to create workplaces where employees thrive. He is CEO of Sonas Group, organizers of the global series of Wellbeing @ Work Summits and global workplace community The Wellbeing @ Work Hub. Chris is also Co-Founder of The InsideOut Awards and is an advisor to organizations with purpose around the world.
Learn more about WELLBEING AT WORK: https://wellbeingatwork.world - a movement to make health and wellbeing a strategic priority globally.
Insights from the podcast!!!
In recent times the data that has been coming in from a number of reports around the world have shown that employees are more engaged in the workplace. Many companies have on their websites that the people are their biggest asset and now an engaged and purpose driven workforce will deliver higher productivity and loyalty. However workplaces have to work out their strategies in real by creating awareness amongst employees to a whole new level. A healthy and productive workplace from all aspects should be the goal of every organization today.
Chris mentions that it is important for a company to focus on the disengaged people as they tend to bring down the levels of productivity easily. They might just tend to sit there and work because it is part of their work ethic not because they are actually engaging or being productive. It is very necessary to identify these people as they can bring down the morale of a team.
It is a challenge for companies to create this hybrid workplace and to take into account all the members different ways of working. On of the most important element that a company can follow is to be flexible and adaptive in times of uncertainty or change. Flexibility can only be followed when there is trust within the team members and when the team members trust their leader. Hence building an environment of trust and well-being where employees feel that they can approach their boss without thinking twice is very important.
Chris also stresses about the importance of working in collaboration. The well-being community is the most collaborative community and it is very essential for every company to have one. They help the company create happy and engaged workplaces.
The company should make sure each individual is able to link their personal interests to that of the companies motives. The younger workforce today particularly the Gen Z's are lookin for a sense of purpose within their workplace. They are more than just the financial need and want to feel like they are makin a difference with the work they do. Hence linking purpose and well-being should definitely be a part of talent attraction for workplaces today.
Lastly, it is very important for every leader to develop consistent routines to be emotionally intelligent and capable of displaying empathy. Training and other learning activities should take place in organizations as it is essential for every people's manager to develop their soft skills.
 
About Learn with Bessern
The Learn With Bessern Podcast is about exploring the science behind self-development, leadership and well-being. We demystify personal and organization growth. This podcast is hosted by Elena Agaragimova and Ivan Palomino.

We always hear books, podcast interviews that are full of discussions of positive mindset and successful lives. But we often underestimate the role of failure to build fulfillment (or extraordinary lives). Today we have a special guest with us Terry Tucker to give us great insights into how to deal with failure and how important is failure to become successful.
About Terry Tucker
Terry Tucker has been an college basketball player, a marketing executive, a hospital administrator, a SWAT Team Hostage Negotiator, a high school basketball coach, a business owner and most recently, a cancer warrior. He is also the author of the book: Sustainable Excellence, Ten Principles to Leading Your Uncommon and Extraordinary Life.
Take aways from this episode with Terry Tucker:
About success or excellence and the role of failure
When you're successful, you're not failing. That's true in a lot of ways. But at the same time, if you think about where do we learn about failure where do we learn about being defeated? We start out in our lives with our caregivers, whether that's our mother or father, you know, grandparents or siblings or whoever's, you know, raising us we learned about failing and we learned very early on, winning is good, failing or losing is bad. I think the road to success is paved with failure. Anybody who has ever succeeded, if they say have never failed, I would be extremely skeptical about them saying that but people get devastated when they fail. They feel like there's something wrong with them, if they do. But that's not the point. The major takeaway from failing is the lessons you learn along the way. If you fail and then stop that you're a quitter, but if you fail and you learn, then you're a smart individual.
Failure is the stepping stone to success
We are great about starting down the path towards a goal, something we want to do something we feel good about. And then we butt up against an impediment to something gets in our way, and we can't get around it. We can't get over it. We can't get through it. And so we quit. We just don't quit. We've got to blame somebody. We got to find somebody to blame. It's like we got to blame our parents or our boss or our station in life. Very few people take personal responsibility for their own success and happiness. So, failure is a part of success.
Trends about success in the society
I see two trends in our society. And maybe because we have this crisis with COVID that people had the time to rethink a little bit about the life purpose and I saw the trend of that is constantly repeated in corporations is about having vulnerability vulnerabilities. So that the fact of being ourselves and being able to communicate in a genuine manner, things that we are good at we are bad. So, there is a trend and necessity that has come out of the fact that the way we work has changed drastically. The importance of mental health in in our society finally got a little bit of a spot so when we were all excited pre COVID Making money progressing in Indian society, we didn't realize it and suddenly we got a small break to think about our position in the world and we start thinking about this type of thing. So that has made that a lot of the mindset in incorporation has changed and the other trend that is almost kind of Its kind of the opposite is that we are always because of social media we are always comparing benchmarking ourselves versus what we think is successful others, so we look at someone in Facebook and we say, oh, this guy has a car ha a Ferrari has a beautiful house. This is the level of success. So, it's almost like if we had to redefine success, we need to be we need to create a moment of self-awareness to create to dig inside of us about what is important for us so that we can define our own measures of success.
About the way we approach success
We want to be successful. We want to develop goals that will lead us toward success. The problem is, we haven't defined our values yet. You can have goals while you can . I don't know if you're going to be successful in those goals. But if you can first before you set goals before you develop new year's resolutions before you do all the kind of stuff that we seem to do every year and you know, the department's got to have goals and you've got to have individual goals, and the company's got to have you know, a mission statement and all that kind of stuff.
To get in touch with Terry Tucker:
His website: https://www.motivationalcheck.com/ 
Join the Sustainable Excellence Membership https://www.sustainableexcellencemembership.com/ you can also download his free ebook on Sustainable Excellence 
 
About Learn with Bessern
This episode is hosted by Ivan Palomino. The Learn With Bessern Podcast is about exploring the science behind self-development, leadership and well-being. We demystify personal and organization growth. 

This pandemic has shifted the mindset of people from the intensity of work and indulging ourselves with instant gratification, pleasure to a time where corporates are talking about purpose at work, where individuals have started to reflect on giving meaning to their lives. These 2 years have been years of growth of life coaches, literature on self-development, podcasts trying to help people to find their own ways to fulfilment.
In today’s episode of Learn with Bessern we got a great guest Jason Merchey to give us insights about finding life purpose through the practice of wisdom.
About Jason Merchey
Jason Merchey is a philosophical thinker. Jason STUDIED psychology and social behavior, he has a master’s degree in clinical psychology, and is a graduate in philosophy and ethics from Harvard University. Jason’s fourth book is entitled Wisdom: A Very Valuable Virtue That Cannot Be Bought. It is a unique combination of psychological research findings, philosophical principles, & personal insights.
Key take aways from the Podcast:
About work life
Jason said- It's great if a person can have like this alignment or confluence between what they're doing in their lives and what they love and there's a famous old quote, something like if you love what you do, you don't have to work a day in your life, Mark Twain said that.
About Intrinsic motivation
Jason said- It's only in the last five, six years that intrinsic motivation is something that is quite often measured at work by because they have noticed that when you go and pay and you do the typical motivator, tactic of the carrot and the stick, people are going to improve up to a certain level for a very short time intrinsic motivation depends on different factors. One of them being I decide how am I going to do the things that I when I know that direction, I decide by myself, I mastered what I do little by little and get a little bit more challenge. And the third debate that is related to what we are discussing today is about meaning that we need to find something that is beyond just providing extra money to the shareholders of the companies means to do something beyond ourselves or the society because we are doing something great in a company. And that's what really drives engagement with employees.
Wisdom depends on 2 human needs
One is about the need of becoming a better self actualization and the other one is transcendence to understand the overall my position in as a person in the world. The aspect of curiosity would be the second one. I would guess that this is something that it is quite important because if you don't are not asking yourself questions then what's the point you cannot acquire this? This wisdom?
Understanding wisdom
For a human being. It's a theory, but I think it I think it's pretty solid. I guess if I were to say, you know, seven things that I say describe wisdom, I would, I would probably connect it to things like you know, judiciousness, perceptiveness. You know, excellent reasoning, a kind of vision, keen introspection, the ability to relate well to other people, to see yourself as part of the system as part of as part of a whole, rather than being, let's say, selfish or self-concern. being ethical, kind of above all else being ethical. Let's see what else being able to manage emotion in a sense, to use your rational mind to combine with your emotional mind to get a product that is superior to just one or the other. That's the kind of what I call integration.
Wisdom is like an umbrella
that contains some emotional intelligence dimensions. It can also contain the aspect of critical thinking because you cannot be wise if you accept and absorb everything that you hear. You need to be able to select rationally. 
Emotional intelligence has two aspects
in fact, one which is self-awareness, the building of self-awareness to so that you are not guided by this part of your brain that is just emotions but you activate the part of your brain that is more that is going to be judging what you're going to activate your critical thinking and about this idea of interactions because you cannot be wise if you are just in your room watching YouTube videos or reading books, you need this interaction because there needs to be a debate, because perspectives are going to build up your wisdom.
 
Wisdom is a is a learnable skill
The purpose why we were having this episode of learning with Bessern is to demystify the fact that wisdom is the stuff for an academical guy who is going to be reading many philosophers, but it is something that we can acquire because we have mentioned that in the area of wisdom there is a lot of emotional intelligence, art and literature in the last 10 years in emotional intelligence as as demonstrated that this is something that you can learn. Program your brain to through something that is consistently done, the habits, the habits, the story. Critical thinking is something that can be trained, but of course you cannot train someone with a one day training and many 160 slides during the training. So it is something to be practiced.
 
How to start building on wisdom?
I think one wanting to improve and to see things for what they really are, to live a more authentic life and be more truly successful and happier. Just by wanting those things and focusing on them. It's a good step.
 
To get in touch with the author!!!
Jason posts regularly on his website values of the wise where people can get access to his content and connect with him. https://valuesofthewise.com/ 
 

For years together there has been a debate about having women in leadership positions: has it become easier for women to reach leadership positions? are they high performers in leadership positions?
Though the situation has gotten better during the years with more women leaders evolving in the workplace there has still been a silent debate about the representation of women in powerful positions.
In today's podcast of Learn with Bessern we have Marwa Soliman who believes in providing equal opportunities for both the genders in the workplace. She shares some amazing insights from her personal experiences and thus finds it necessary to empower women today. She also talks about the slight difference between gender equality and gender equity.
 
Key Takeaways from the Podcast:
About women support, biases and confidence
 
Marwa said: I believe personally, that really, if you want to do something, whether you're a woman or a man, if you put something in your head, you will do it. But you need some support sometimes and women needs more support. But most of the times it's almost like our society that includes our parents, and kind of programming in our brains, certain biases is almost like, and this is something that is quite true in in human psychology is that most of our brain is consisted of formatting a number of rules that have been dictated by our society, and is constantly reminding us where we belong, right. So we all know that because of human evolution, men were supposed to be stronger. Men were were supposed supposed to take care of the family. It's us men because of our biases, our considerations about women capabilities we think women need more support than usual. We have women that have been constantly being pushed that has affected their ability to be confident or the capacity to be whatever they want to be. And that is a big problem.
 
 
 
The current situation of women in corporations
 
It's putting women in leadership and toward more stereotyping women and men role in the corporation. But there is a real progress there. And if we talk about progress in the corporation, we talk about Two types, gender equality and gender equity. Because they are different. So the general equality is let's say that this is giving fair treatment for all genders. So what what does, what do I mean by equal treatment? First of all, for example, equal pay, you cannot hold the same position, and there is a difference between white man and woman. There is a progress in that. And you really see that there is a lot of payment policies and procedures are being revised in the corporation.
 
 
 
Two major issues for women in leadership in corporations
 
First is the lack of enough pipeline of talent that is ready to take on board and that comes from the educational system. We may have been biased to certain directions a loop psychology do something else don't do don't be an engineer, don't be a tech person, don't be a programmer. That's one problem. And the other thing is more about the, the the human context that in order to reach to that leadership position, women will have to go with more struggles than men.
 
 
 
Personal Bias
 
We all have our own personal biases that have been instilled in us by our parents, teachers, society etc. For example, there are some lures in the society like boys cannot cry, boys can find outside women are more into the household business they are more caregivers for the family, they need to be in dresses polite, not shouting while the boys can shout and can play around no issues. This is all let's say a social and gender norms that control our voice and simply it controls how we accept this or not accepting a certain behavior action from a specific male or female. So you are stereotyping so if I interview somebody now for position I revert back in my brain to my norms and my bringing up and how it works and then I can say okay, probably even fits the job or not.
 
 
 
Workplace bias
 
If you segment the job function in the workplace, and you start with the HR, the regulatory you will find at least 60-70% woman, it is a brain domination for women. This is again a background or a result of the social norms, gender roles, the biases, even for the hiring manager or bias to take a woman in this position this is a bias against men. They don't believe that men fitting this position, they believe that women more fitting this position and if you go the other side into commercial leadership into sales marketing, IT service the IT service is much worse, much worse bias against women. So, these are the type of biases you s need to be aware of as a leader by developing self-realization sessions in the company.
 
 
 
Are women that good in leadership positions? In what skills are they better than men?
 
Marwa said: I personally believe women if adequately trained and educated and exposed to proper work experience like men they will be more effective leaders, and I will not talk here on my own opinion or observation from more than 20 years of working in diverse environment but also will refer to that researches and studies confirms that and will shed a light on a recent research conducted by Zegner / Folker (authors of make yourself indispensable) done on more than 800 leaders 360 Women and 450 men , the research was done using the 360 assessment score across peers/subordinates and managers of the sample above to test over all leadership effectiveness and the leadership competencies , the overall effectiveness was score better for women than men and the assessment was done before and after the crisis of COVID and the after results were even better for the favor of women.
 
 
 
Diverse and Inclusive workplaces
 
Male and female are complementary genders in the progress of the Society of a corporation or a school of any place in this world. And I personally believe that the most, let's say, healthy culture of a corporation is where you have a balanced representation. Not only between male and females, but between different backgrounds, different education, different nationalities. So the balance is always there, because this is the real truth behind the diversity. And the other truth is do not stop at a diversity, how you include those togethers. What is your inclusion action that you are doing because the inclusion actually is more important than the diversity? The diversity it just having different head counts, but how you can make those headcounts counts which is the inclusion this is this is the key and how you can make a male learn from a female a trait that he doesn't have like what you refer to, like multitasking. For example, women are better at multitasking than men and this is evidence across years. But you also the male or the female also can learn from a Male. Male can be more assertive in controlling things. Females usually tend to be softer way but sometimes you need to be assertive. So how you learn from a male and this will be achieved by creating a diverse and inclusive workplace.
 
 
 
What can women practice in order to overcome the barriers that are limiting them into their growth?
 
There is also some barriers inside the head of the lady ladies are more used to be or more famous to suffer from impostor syndrome. And this is research evidence. It's not you know, among among 100 List leaders in the senior leadership 75% Suffering from impostor so they are always self doubt themselves. So it's very clear barrier because when you self doubt, you are even sometimes the self doubting is preventing you from even speaking out in a meeting. So when you have in a meeting, you start out okay, do I understand the topic correctly? Probably not. So it's better not to answer this question. It's better not to comment. So this is a barrier because your exposure is limited because you don't expose yourself again, because you self doubt.
 
 
 
Firstly, to overcome this I believe personally start with yourself to change yourself. Because the society change is difficult. So changing yourself is easy. So be aware about your values and be let's say honest with yourself, what is what are your values? And I know my parents, I personally know my barriers very, very clearly. I know that I'm having self doubts a lot. I know I'm imposing sometimes I know the answer. I don't say it because I feel shy or embarrassed.
 
Secondly, enroll yourself in a mentorship program, hire a mentor, hire a coach as can be even if you don't go to a mentor or a coach in a formal way but find a buddy or a manager that you can trust and you can be open.
 
Thirdly, work on your education. Don't spend one single year without adding to your skills, something on top because this will empower your self confidence. This empowerment, reduce your self doubt and it makes you feel better even psychologically it also will give you this post of pushing.
 
 
 
What should MEN change / improve / remove to support gender balance?
 
Support diversity as the balanced work environment will make both grow up as they learn from each other, lower individualistic decision making and endorse participative decision making, endorse as well work-life balance, balance between control and coach if not done, continue a healthy ego.
 
About the Speaker!!!
Marwa Soliman has held senior positions across pharma, dermo cosmetics & medical industry. Today she is the General Manager in a Danish medical device company. She went through the (tough) path of "making it to the top" and is a fierce advocate of women to be able to get equal opportunities and exposure in leadership positions.