Welkom bij deze speciale aflevering over European Mental Health Week (13-19 mei 2024). In een klein kwartier vertelt Marlies Zegelaar over haar mentale worstelingen en hoe die haar hebben gevormd tot de persoon die ze nu is.

Na een loopbaan in onder andere de communicatiesector werkt Marlies sinds enkele jaren met veel plezier als taaldocent op het mbo. Door haar verhaal te delen, wil Marlies bijdragen aan de normalisering en de-stigmatisering van mentale kwetsbaarheden. Ook hoopt zij, en ik met haar, dat we anderen kunnen inspireren om hierover met elkaar in gesprek te gaan.

Note to English speaking listeners: From now on, I will occasionally publish episodes in my mother tongue, Dutch. Today's conversation is a collaboration with my wife Marlies Zegelaar to raise awareness for European Mental Health Week (May 13-19, 2024). If you don’t speak Dutch and you find this topic interesting, please get in touch with me via LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelvandehoef/) or email at [email protected].

This is a quick update for listeners. In this short episode, I explain what I've been up to and why I chose to occasionally publish episodes in my mother tongue, Dutch.

Talking about episodes in Dutch, today I’m launching my first episode in a long time. It's a conversation to raise awareness for European Mental Health Week (May 13-19, 2024) and discuss the impact of mental health in our lives.

If you don’t speak Dutch and you find this topic interesting, please check out the shownotes at https://www.beyondexpertise.nl/en/the-happy-investor-podcast, get in touch with me via LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelvandehoef/) or email me at [email protected]. Please let me know what you are interested in and maybe we can also do something in English.

Here's a short episode about what I've been up to and what you can expect from me going forward.

The biggest news is that I'm launching a new show: The Happy Investor, a podcast about leadership and personal development for people in the asset management and investment industry. To listen, go to: www.thehappyinvestorpodcast.com

[Bonus episode in Dutch] Bram van den Hoogen deelt zijn ervaringen en lessen als thuiswerkende manager van het compacte marketing- en communicatieteam van de Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM).

Hoe communiceer je op afstand met je team en andere collega’s? En hoe kun je als communicatieteam op afstand je voelsprieten uitsteken en zorgen dat je op tijd bij projecten wordt betrokken?

In de afgelopen acht maanden leerde Bram als thuiswerkende manager belangrijke lessen. Zijn oproep: ga niet gelijk naar de inhoud, maar maak eerst contact met de mens. En: plak niet zo vast aan je Teams-scherm. Soms werkt samen wandelen of ouderwets bellen (terwijl je wandelt) veel beter. Voor meer informatie, ga naar de show notes op: http://www.meetingstrategist.org/bram-van-den-hoogen

“The purpose of an organization isn’t to make leaders feel good about themselves and make their subordinates feel like ‘gee, I’ve got a really nice leader, I like that person’. The purpose of an organization is to get something done.” Ron Ashkenas is a seasoned executive coach and boardroom advisor and the author or co-author of more than 100 articles and five books, including the ‘Harvard Business Review Leader’s Handbook’.

You might have already listened to episode 20 in which Ron and I discuss the six practices that define great leaders and the challenges they are facing in today’s virtual and fast-moving environment.

In this bonus episode, we discuss his recent HBR article ‘Executive Coaches, Your Job is to Deliver Business Results’ and how it clashes with conventional wisdom in coaching. In his article, Ron suggests turning the traditional coaching approach on its head: "Instead of focusing first on behaviors and hoping that they lead to results, start by trying to achieve some specific results, and see what behaviors are needed to get them."

Although interesting for anyone in a leadership or management position, this conversation is more geared towards coaches and HR professionals. Feel free to forward this episode to anyone in your organization who might be interested. Visit the show notes for more information: http://www.meetingstrategist.org/ron-ashkenas To read Ron's HBR article, go to https://hbr.org/2020/08/executive-coaches-your-job-is-to-deliver-business-results

What is leadership, how is it different from management and what does it take to succeed as a leader in today’s virtual environment?

My guest on this episode is Ron Ashkenas, an executive coach and boardroom advisor with more than 35 years of experience in supporting leadership growth and organizational transformation. He’s a Partner Emeritus at Schaffer Consulting and the author or co-author of more than 100 articles and five books, including the ‘Harvard Business Review Leader’s Handbook’ and the ‘GE Work-Out’.

This conversation consists of three parts:

• In the first 10 minutes Ron reflects on his experiences with former GE CEO Jack Welch: was he the best or the worst leader in corporate history?
• In the second part of the conversation we discuss authentic leadership and the six practices you need to succeed as a leader.
• In the final 15 minutes we explore how leaders can lead effectively in today’s virtual environment.

Visit the show notes for more information: http://www.meetingstrategist.org/ron-ashkenas To learn more about Ron's work, go to https://www.schafferconsulting.com/biography/rAshkenas

Wikipedia defines bias as “disproportionate weight in favor of or against an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair.”

In this episode, fellow communication coach Chaya Mistry and I explore this important topic and how it affects our ability to lead, communicate and build human connections.

Contrary to what many people might think, bias is not just about race or gender. It relates to any human attribute such a person’s height, fitness, clothing, pronunciation, writing skills and even the car he or she drives.

Within milliseconds of being exposed to someone, the brain decides if this is someone we can trust, like or relate to. Most of the time we are not even aware of it. This is a huge barrier to effective communication as it prevents us from seeing people as they really are.

In our conversation, Chaya explains where bias comes from and explores ways to manage our filters to create a richer relationship with the world around us.

Visit the show notes for more information: https://www.meetingstrategist.org/chaya-mistry

To learn more about Chaya’s work, go to https://www.humanlyconsulting.com

This conversation is closely linked to my previous episode with Kwame Christian on ‘How to Talk About Race’, which you can listen to here.

Summer break! Time to replay one of my most downloaded episodes. 

In 2018, I invited David Rudolf onto the show because of the communication excellence he demonstrated as Michael Peterson's attorney in 'The Staircase' on Netflix. But when listening to our conversation again nearly two years later, I'm equally impressed by David's personal leadership. He has a strong sense of purpose (fighting the Abuse of Power), he's very open about his strengths and weaknesses and how they impact others (sometimes it almost seems like he's citing a 'How to Handle Me' memo) and he's well tuned into his feelings, for example when selecting jurors or when deciding whether he has prepared enough to do well in court.

In our conversation, David shares many great anecdotes from his more than 40 years as an attorney. He also talks about the strategies he uses during cross examination, why transparency is key in bad news conversations and how he's able to perform at his peak when the stakes couldn't be higher.

For more detailed information about this episode, visit the original show notes on www.meetingstrategist.org/david-rudolf And if you enjoy listening to David Rudolf, he has his own podcast now. In 'Abuse of Power', David and co-host Sonya Pfeiffer spotlight cases of significant injustice, which often result in a wrongful prosecution or conviction. You can listen here: https://abuseofpowerpodcast.com 

Kwame Christian, the author of 'Finding Confidence in Conflict', talks about the role of leaders in tackling systemic racism and inequality in our societies.

This episode can be broken up in two parts:

• In the first 14 minutes or so, we discuss Kwame's personal story, his view on the Black Lives Matter movement and his own experiences with systemic racism.
• In the second part, we focus on the role of leadership and how to have conversations about race in the workplace.

Visit the show notes for more information: https://www.meetingstrategist.org/how-to-talk-about-race

To learn more about Kwame's work, go to https://americannegotiationinstitute.com 

Michael Bungay Stanier, the best-selling author of ‘The Coaching Habit’, returns to the show to talk about how to blend coaching into your lifestyle.

Coaching is the most underutilized leadership skill, but it can be highly effective in engaging and empowering employees – and making sure that the right people are working on the right things.

Of course, we also discuss Michael's latest book ‘The Advice Trap’. Most of us are hardwired to add value to each conversation and offer our advice without being asked. And why not? Our knowledge helped us rise through the ranks and is one of the main reasons why we got to where we are today.  But if you want to grow as a leader, you have to be able to resist the burning temptation to offer advice – or tame your advice monster, as Michael puts it.

In our conversation, we discuss:

• What it means to be more coach-like as a leader
• The difference between being coach-like and professional coaching
• Being lazy, often and curious: the principles of coach-like leadership
• Michael’s seven coaching questions
• The importance of trust in effective leadership conversations
• Investing in the resilience of relationships
• Being human at work: what it means and how to get there

Visit the show notes for more information: https://www.meetingstrategist.org/mbs

To learn more about Michael’s work, go to https://www.mbs.works  

How do you keep making your own choices and following your own path when external forces are pulling you in all directions?

My guest on this episode is no one less than my wife, Marlies Zegelaar.

Let me explain this. A few weeks back, I released my first-ever episode in my native language Dutch. My guest on that episode was Nanco Vrijland, an executive coach and the founder of Coachcenter in The Hague - the coaching school where I received my training as a professional coach.

In our conversation, Nanco shared many powerful lessons on how to deal with uncertainty and live a more examined life, which I also wanted to make available to my international audience. My first thought was to record a solo episode but then I found a more dynamic way … a conversation about a conversation. In this short episode, Marlies and I discuss Nanco's lessons about personal leadership and reflect on how it relates to us.

I created this recap episode to give international listeners a taste of what I discussed with Nanco. The original episode ran about 45 minutes and obviously contained much more information. To make up for this, I will include several tools and resources in the show notes. This is also where you can find links to learn more about Nanco and his work: http://www.meetingstrategist.org/nanco-vrijland