reading

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

1. My Leadershift in a VUCA world by Alison Lalieu

Reflection

2. Sexy-Ethics by Kendra Strudwick

Reflection

3. Trusted Leadership by Cass Russell

Reflection

4. Leading Change with a Neuroscience Lens by Jennie Hill

Reflection

5. Trust in Teams by Belinda Thomas

Reflection

6. The Currency of Presence by Narelle Harper-Phillips

Reflection

7. PAV: Life’s Sweetener, but without the Calories by Karen Muggleton

Reflection

8. Working Parents & Life Balance: Can they co-exist? by Amanda Crawford

Reflection

9. What are they Thinking? A guide to the thinking of Gen Z to Boomers and Builders by Evelyn Szumski

Reflection

10. Values based Boundaries by Melissa Boyle

Reflection

11. Free Yourself! by Zazeh Morfittis

Reflection

About the Authors

Alison Lalieu

Kendra Strudwick

Cass Russell

Jennie Hill

Belinda Thomas

Narelle Harper-Phillips

Karen Muggleton

Amanda Crawford

Evelyn Szumski

Melissa Boyle

Zazeh Morfittis

Preface

The idea for coaches consulting to our amazingly talented UBalancer Solutions national network to co-create a book came to me just over a year ago. As with everything we put our mind to, enthusiasm spread quickly and each of the co-authors who agreed to write a chapter started sharpening their pencils.

As an international network of NeuroCoaches, passionate about supporting UBalancer’s vision to connect people with their potential, the chance to share our collective stories of lessons observed from the frontline was too good an opportunity to miss. One coaching conversation at a time, we are collectively working with leaders across varying corporate and educational sectors. Our broad range of experience and many thousands of coaching hours place us in a unique position to share with you, the learning that we witness on a daily basis. To inspire and support you to make the shift from Surviving to Thriving.

Along with the unprecedented pace of change in the world at the moment, leadership is being challenged at every turn, and the results we achieve as a network in our leadership programs are testament to the powerful impact of our unique blend of integrating the neuroscience of leadership with Emotional Intelligence coaching.

The world seems to have a hit perfect thunderstorm of change; what is often referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. An unfolding technological revolution that will essentially alter the way we live, work and relate to one another. Human beings are in unchartered seas – having never experienced anything like this before in scale, scope or complexity. We can see the clouds approaching, but don’t yet know just how the storm will unfold! One thing is perfectly clear: the response to it needs to be global, integrated and draw on thought leaders with extraordinary people skills.

The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanize production; the Second introduced electric power to ramp up mass production whilst the Third used electronics and information technology to automate production. And now, we have the fusion of digital technologies ripping through our cultures at a pace with no historical precedent.

Imagine the impact of billions of people connected by mobile devices with unlimited access to information and education. The impact of emerging technological breakthroughs in fields such as Artificial Intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, self-driving vehicles, 3-D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology and quantum computing. Unfolding exponentially, disrupting almost every industry, and sending people’s brains into threat states as a result of all the change and resultant uncertainty.

The depth and breadth of change coming our way demands a whole new way of thinking and relating, a transformation at every level – from personal to corporate to governance leadership. The Fourth Industrial Revolution will affect the way we think about Life balance, our relationship with technology, how we develop our careers and grow ourselves personally and professionally.

Importantly, it will shape how we nurture our relationships. I call it a leadershift. Now more than ever, we are being asked to think differently, see things more clearly and act decisively. Making decisions and influencing outcomes in shorter time frames, as the pace of life picks up on a daily basis. To understand changing environments, challenge assumptions and relentlessly create and innovate. Along with this shifting thinking has emerged a powerful need for Emotionally Intelligent leadership – in a robotic world people skills will become especially important - the capacity to build caring and connected relationships, networks and communities.

I recently attended a university graduation ceremony, where the Occasional Address was given by a corporate leader/scientist who wisely shared her recipe for personal leadership success with the graduates. She drew attention to the fact that they were likely to experience many ups and downs in their careers, multiple career moves and that they would need to draw on certain life skills to help them pivot and respond to constant change.

Her number one life skill for leadership success was personal Resilience – the ability to get up and try again, to take care of their wellbeing (get enough sleep and disconnect from social media); to stay optimistic, nurture relationships and perform daily random acts of kindness. She went on to reassure graduates that none of these are soft and fluffy nice to haves! Rather; as a scientist herself, she backed the research - these things are indispensable.

Advances in neuroscience in the past seventeen (17) years have shed light on what is happening in the human brain – the neurochemistry at play in our conversations, what happens as we have thoughts and what drives our behaviours. fMRI’s have quite literally given us an in depth view of what is happening inside our greatest miracle, our brain.

This insight has helped us as NeuroCoaches to connect people with their potential; to give them access to the latest research to help them build confidence, influence and to lead in an Emotionally Intelligent way. We’re at an exciting time in our history – a time to shape up our leadershift and support others to connect with their potential and face the thunderstorm of change with courage, conviction and renewed purpose.

In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter”. Having a leadershift truly matters, and we’ve spoken up through the individual chapters in this book covering a broad range of Leadershift Essentials. Read it from beginning to end, or skip to the chapter that resonates with the leadershift you are personally looking to make. However you choose to digest it, know that nothing will change unless you apply what you learn.

As CEO of UBalancer Solutions, I feel very proud and excited to have collaborated with the co-authors to produce our first book, brimming with stories and development ideas from our own personal coaching experience.

We view this book as the first of many, and trust that you will enjoy reading it as much as we have enjoyed writing it.

Alison Lalieu

CEO, UBalancer Solutions

Acknowledgements

I invite you to join me in thanking the amazing NeuroCoaches who have contributed chapters to this book. At UBalancer Solutions, we work closely together every day to design and deliver what I believe are up there with the most cutting edge and impactful leadershift coaching experiences and leadership development programs. Thanks also go to the two coaches who are not consultants to UBalancer, and wanted to contribute a chapter nonetheless.

Thank you to our coach co-authors for sharing their own personal experiences, and devoting time and energy into contributing to a book that will make a difference to the lives of others. I think we have started something special, and can already feel another book brewing in 2018.

Finding a title that reflected the essence of our varied chapters was a fun exercise. Thanks to all the co-authors for their suggestions, and for helping us to settle on our fitting title Leadershift Essentials – From Surviving to Thriving.

My heartfelt thanks to our COO, Cassie, who has worked tirelessly with the coaches and the publishers to ensure we stayed on track and delivered on time. Her beautiful way with words, attention to detail and gentle encouragement kept us all connected, involved and passionate about what we were aiming to achieve. This book is testament to Cassie’s dedication to bring this project to life.

Editing many chapters (with each author having their own style and flavour) was a big task, and an enormous thanks to Cass Russell for volunteering to help edit the chapters. I am always blown away by the connectedness and wholehearted generosity of our coach network, and having Cass support us all in this way is deeply appreciated.

I’d also like to recognise and personally thank our inspirational lead coach, Kendra Strudwick. She connected us and continues to motivate each and every one of us to realise our own potential.

I am delighted that so many people have responded so positively to this book. It is immensely gratifying to provide people with a resource that can help them on their personal and professional leadership journeys in such a practical, fun and creative way. This book complements the coaching programs we run within the UBalancer group, and speaks volumes about the passion and dedication we collectively bring to our work.

Our mission statement at UBalancer is to: ‘Connect people with their Potential, and Witness the Magic’ and my hope is that by reading this book, you will experience just that.