In the current climate, leadership qualities like emotional intelligence and positive mindset are more prized than ever.
While nothing is business as usual, this month’s Skim includes useful transferable advice on remaining resilient and positive in challenging circumstances.
Kelly McGonigal
‘When you move your body, you release chemicals in your brain that make your brain more resilient to stress, that boost your mood and that make it easier to bond with others.’
Health Psychologist and Stanford University lecturer Dr. Kelly McGonigal dedicates her time and talents to applying neuroscience and psychology insights towards helping people and communities improve their wellbeing.
In this episode of the Making Positive Psychology Work podcast, she talks to host Michelle McQuaid about her new book The Joy of Movement, which highlights the latest research on why all types of movement, not just exercise, are vital for wellbeing.
Jeni Britton Bauer
‘When you talk about brands building with authenticity, that’s something you can’t make – it’s something you have to do and it takes a long time. For me, authenticity is trusting yourself and realising that you will make mistakes but you’ll get yourself out of trouble.’
Food industry entrepreneur Jeni Britton Bauer has been pushing the boundaries of the ice cream world since 2002 with the innovative flavours her brand Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams brings to the table – including unique combinations like goat cheese and cherries and brambleberry crisps, biscuits and peaches.
In this episode of How I Built This with Guy Raz, she discusses how maintaining authenticity helped her scale her company and why she’s still passionate about what she does every day.
Liz Fosslien
‘When we can be honest about what we feel and freely suggest ideas, make mistakes and just not have to hide every piece of who we are, we’re much more likely to stay at the company for a long time and we’re also happier and more productive.’
Liz Fosslien is Head of Content at Humu, a firm that specialises in using behavioural science to make work better for everyone. She’s also a renowned marketing and design consultant whose high profile clients include Ernst & Young and Reddit.
In this quickfire TED video, she explains how embracing emotions at work, rather than suppressing them, increases empathy, connectivity, believability and productivity.
James Greenfield
‘At first, none of the challenge was explaining the proposition – it always resonated on that front. The challenge was convincing people when we didn’t have a portfolio yet. That’s the hill you have to climb at the beginning, but if you’ve got your story sharpened, it makes it a whole lot easier.
As Creative Director and Co-Founder of leading global branding agency Koto, James Greenfield has worked on major projects for high-calibre clients like Skyscanner, Fanta and Airbnb.
In this episode of the Just A Chat With podcast, he talks to hosts Andrew Dobbie and Lewis Phillips about tapping into team collective intelligence to produce the best results and how new enterprises can convince clients to trust them when they don’t yet have a portfolio of work to back up their business proposition.
Watch James dispense pearls of wisdom
Until The Skim returns, take a look at the following motivational blogs: