Growth Hacking Culture
The Growth Hacking Culture Podcast is a series of insightful interviews with prominent experts on mindsets, skills and mental resources to grow individually, lead motivated teams and create human-centric work cultures. These episodes are about thought provoking ideas to scale up and growth hack human-centric and performing work cultures. Hosted by Ivan Palomino.
Episodes

Monday Sep 12, 2022
How to keep your Values and Purpose at Work?
Monday Sep 12, 2022
Monday Sep 12, 2022
Your values in life help you navigate through career choices, partner choices, and overall, how you spend your days and how you behave. Furthermore, values help you establish a sense of purpose and direction for your personal brand. Values act as guides that drive your choices in your life based on what you want to be known for. Your core values at work and personal brand (how you show them) will speak loudly without you even saying a word.
They are the core principles that give meaning to your life and are defined as a set of standards that determine your attitudes, choices, and actions. Values change as you change; they reflect what’s important to you at any given moment. It’s not always easy to identify the values that mean the most to you, but it warrants serious reflection so that you can pay more focused attention to what really matters in life. Look at your weekly schedule on your computer, phone or diary. If you value health and put it at the top of your list but you work 70 hours a week, then you need to make some serious changes to align yourself with this value. Very often we do the wrong assumption that values will not change upon the time. But what we have to consider is what happens in our brain when we are aligned in terms of our values. It happens a little bit like a stock exchange and it's almost like a currency reward system that is automatically put in place where the dopamine reward in the values that you are displaying in that are aligned with yourself. So it's super important to understand that when you know your your values, you know the exchange rate of this currency dopamine if I do this, I would receive so much of a rush of this molecule of pleasure called dopamine. But imagine that you don't know your values for the funny thing is that you you feel cheated? All the time. You feel unsatisfied because you don't know if you receive enough or not enough reward for this plane, the good behaviors that are aligned with your with your values. Another thing that is super important is that when we are talking about about values, we need to consider that the context of the situations may change or shaped your values.
A few ways branding yourselves helps you in your daily lives are:
1. It Helps You Stand out from the Crowd.
2. It Leads to Opportunities.
3. It Inspires Trust in Your Audience.
4. It helps you Build Relationships.
🎙️ This episode on Keeping your Values and Purpose at Work 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.
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Wednesday Sep 07, 2022
Why traditional coaching at work doesn’t work and How to fix it with Meredith Bell
Wednesday Sep 07, 2022
Wednesday Sep 07, 2022
This episode of Learn with Bessern is about the flaws of traditional coaching at work and what actions can be taken to fix it. This episode is going to be interesting for leaders wanting to create a coaching culture in their organizations.
Many companies have started programs to individualize the development of people and traditional coaching has become the tool of choice to make it happen. And the reason is that companies have realized that developing people cannot be done simply with training. The current need for agility transformation requires a model to develop people rather than the simple transfer of knowledge that you have in simple training.
But Traditional Coaching is failing to deliver the impact required by organizations
About our guest Meredith Bell
Meredith is one of the most respected leadership development advisor - She is a reference in the coaching world and has written a couple of impressive books. Meredith is also the president and co founder of Performance Support System - a company focused on communication and leadership development.
One of her books 'Connect with your Team' has been recommended by no other than Ken Blanchard (Author and Reference in Leadership Development).
How to reach Meredith: https://growstrongleaders.com/
Her 2 books are on Amazon:
Connect with Your Team - Mastering the Top 10 Communication Skills
Peer Coaching Made Simple - How to Do the 6 Things That Matter Most When Helping Someone Improve a Skill
Excerpt of our discussion:
Some of the misconceptions on how corporates deploy coaching:
There are a couple that really stood out to Meredith and one is not realizing that everyone in an organization needs coaching. Most of the time, it's reserved for executives or higher level folks, because, of course they have a great impact within the organization. And that's that's the traditional perception is these are the folks who kind of qualified to have a coach, when in reality in time we are attempting to improve a skill or improve the way we do things.
Coaching will accelerate that process dramatically. And so it's logical that everyone can benefit from having enough but the thing is, the other misconception is often they think we've got to bring in an external person, you know, to with the right credentials like qualifications to perform that function. When in reality there are internal resources that can be tapped into, such as people coaching each other or managers learning how to be coaches, to their employees. However many times corporations are not deploying in a wider scale to the different levels of organization because it's costly. One spectacular way to enhance coaching is by speeding up the process.
Trends that companies can follow while coaching:
One of the the trends is looking at how can we provide just in time coaching for people around the specific things that they need so it's a shorter engagement and and maybe even shorter bursts of time because everyone is feeling so overwhelmed so much to give these days. Just in time, real time, kind of coaching opportunities is what the world needs today.
One of the best investments I think an organization can make is in teaching managers, how to be effective coaches as a part of their role in working with the people on their teams.
How employees feel opening up to a manager about a challenge?
When managers evaluate the performance of an employee, employees are often overwhelmed and they think twice before opening up and becoming more vulnerable.
According to Meredith it takes time to create what I would call a coaching culture where people feel comfortable opening up about a problem they're having or a challenge they're facing, to seek guidance from that person who's also in the role to evaluate them. And I think there are a couple of different things at work here. Number one is we do have this perception that to be an effective coach, you need to be certified. Well, if you're going to be a paid professional coach, definitely. But if you're looking at taking on a role of coaching someone is simply a part of the way you interact with them at work. There are really a few basics that can be learned and they're things that we all do naturally with people we care about in our other parts of our lives.
The second important task is learning to ask questions. One of the challenges that I think managers face, especially when they are newly in their positions is they think they have to provide all the answers. That's part of their job is to be the answer person. So if somebody comes to them, they're, you know, they they feel like they need to have the answer instead of asking questions that help the other person, think about it for themselves and often come up with their own solution.
One of the best ways for a manager to become a good coach is to first be coached.
🎙️ This episode on coaching 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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Sunday Sep 04, 2022
How to be creative at solving problems?
Sunday Sep 04, 2022
Sunday Sep 04, 2022
Problems are a part of our everyday life. Whether it is at home, in the workplace or even in our relationships, every individual has to face them. But what if we look at problems as something as a good thing? And what if it's just about getting better at solving those problems, whether on an individual level, or in this case, in particular, as a leader in your organization.
If you think that you got analytical power and you can pull it out nicely to solve problems –that might not be enough. Research shows that beyond making sense of complexity, problem solving requires skills some other skills that are more “human”: such as Creativity, Decision Making, EQ, Persuasion.
In this episode of Learn with Bessern, we discuss about some principles that if you train yourself to follow –it can easily make you great at solving problems.
🎙️ This episode on Creativity to Solve Problems 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.
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Thursday Sep 01, 2022
Is it possible to train your brain to deal with Change?
Thursday Sep 01, 2022
Thursday Sep 01, 2022
The only constant in life is change. In this episode of Learn with Bessern we discuss neuroplasticity - creating more connections around our brain so that we can maximize the use of this 70-80% of the brain that we are not currently using and that is done through processes and systems that need to be created.
We often hear how the older you are the harder it is to change. The reality is that change is hard at any age, and it really depends on the various factors –how big is the change, the process one creates to make change simpler, what motivates them to change.
🎙️ This episode on Training your brain to deal with change 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.
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Monday Aug 22, 2022
Monday Aug 22, 2022
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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Sunday Aug 14, 2022
Sunday Aug 14, 2022
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

Monday Aug 08, 2022
Monday Aug 08, 2022
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

Thursday Aug 04, 2022
Flow - How do you get to focus and still enjoy what you do at work
Thursday Aug 04, 2022
Thursday Aug 04, 2022
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

Saturday Jul 30, 2022
I don’t need to be fixed, I am successful with Autism with Sam Mitchell
Saturday Jul 30, 2022
Saturday Jul 30, 2022
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.

Sunday Jul 24, 2022
Design your Confidence at work despite Gender and Race with Lily Woi
Sunday Jul 24, 2022
Sunday Jul 24, 2022
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/