Amazing If

Squiggly Careers allow people to try many different modes of work and one that comes up a lot for our community is freelancing. If you’re curious about what work is like as a freelancer and how you go about making the leap from corporate life to freelance, this week’s episode is a must listen. We’ve invited Matthew Knight, founder of the Leapers Community, and Chloé Jepps, Head of Research at IPSE into the Squiggly Careers studio to explore the highs, lows, ins and outs of a career as a freelancer. Links to resources mentioned are over at www.amazingif.com  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Negotiation can feel like one of those skills we know we could be better at, but we're not sure how to go about improving. It's in the moments when we know negotiating would really help us (think salary negotiations and job crafting) that we often realise we've got work to do in order to successfully and confidently ask for what we want. In this week's Squiggly Careers podcast, Sarah (a great negotiator) and Helen (a work in progress), share their experiences and top tips for approaching key conversations at work confidentially and negotiating your way through to the outcomes you want. For resources and links, head to www.amazingif.com.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Managing for the first time can feel like a daunting experience that triggers all kinds of Confidence Gremlins. What if I get found out? How do I help people when I don't know how to help myself? How do I feel in control without micromanaging? In this week's Squiggly Careers podcast, Helen and Sarah share the moments they started managing and their top insights and actions to help you be the kind of manager that makes a positive and lasting impact on the people that work for you. All resources mentioned are linked over at www.amazingif.com  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Loneliness is a growing issue in the workplace and one that we can all take action on to support people. In this week's podcast, Helen interviews Tracey Crouch, the UK's first Minister for Loneliness about the Loneliness Strategy and the work being done to support individuals and organisations to create more belonging at work. For resources and links mentioned on the podcast, head to amazingif.com.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our careers are longer than ever and more and more people are looking not only to do a great job, but also to make a difference. In this week's Squiggly Careers podcast, Sarah and Helen talk about how to increase your social impact at work. They share their experiences of building businesses with a social purpose and working in large organisations with a social agenda. They also share organisations you can learn from and top tips you can action to build social impact into your career. All references and links can be found over at amazingif.com  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

How aware and affected are you of microaggressions at work? Perhaps it’s something you’ve not heard of before or maybe you think you may have unintentionally done something that could be categorised as a microaggression. This week, Helen and Sarah deep dive into the topic, exploring definitions, examples and actions you can take to respond to it and create workplaces that make work better for everyone. You can find any resources mentioned on the podcast over at www.amazingif.com  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Success is often defined by what we see others doing and achieving or external signals like salary and status. This search for external success can leave people feeling demotivated and frustrated. The reality is that we all have individual definitions of success and unless we take time to understand what this looks like, we can get distracted by the expectations of others. This week’s podcast is about different approaches to explore what success looks like for you and how to align your actions to achieve it. As ever, Helen and Sarah share practical tools and techniques that you can use for your own career development and resources to keep learning after you listen. Find all resources over at www.amazingif.com.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week's Squiggly Careers podcast episode features neuroscience expert Amy Brann, sharing her wisdom about how we can use our knowledge of the brain to stay engaged at work. Whether you listen for yourself or to get insight into how to make changes the workplace to benefit others, this week's podcast is an actionable and practical take on an increasingly important area of research for work and careers. Find links and additional resources over at www.amazingif.com  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Politics at work is something everyone experiences and no one we've spoken to yet actually enjoys! It seems like a 'fact of work' that politics is just part of the deal, but if often causes unhappiness, uncertainty and leads to environments where people can't be their best. This week, we've braved the topic and looked into the research to find out what causes politics, whether it's possible to avoid it and how to manage it positively if it feels like your working reality. As ever, we've got lots of resources for you over at amazingif.com  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Coaching is a fantastic tool for your career and personal development, however it’s often expensive and out of reach for many people who would benefit from it. One solution, is to take some of the tools professional coaches would use and apply them to yourself. That’s exactly what this week’s podcast is all about. Sarah and Helen talk through how they self coach and share 4 different tools and strategies so you can get started yourself. The more we can all take control of our development, the better! Lots of resources to accompany this episode over at www.amazingif.com  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Squiggly Careers might be full of opportunity, but they are also full of challenge! Challenge can feel hard and at times it can affect our confidence. Proactively building your confidence support system can help you to build resilient in a squiggly career. In the week’s episode Sarah and Helen walk you through practical steps to build your confidence support system so that you can be at your best, regardless of the situation. Head to www.amazingif.com for resources.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this week's episode Sarah interviews special guest Michelle Morgan. Michelle is a social entrepreneur, with a number of awards to her name including EY entrepreneur of the year. Michelle developed the idea for her latest business Pjoys after experiencing first hand what it's like to mentally burn out and sink into anxiety and depression. In this thoughtful and reflective episode you'll hear more about Michelle's story, why mental health at work matters and what we can all do about it. Sarah shares her experience of being trained (by Michelle) to become a Mental Health First Aider and as always we include ideas, hints and tips for how and where you can learn more.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We all know the old rules about your impact being 7% what you say and the rest how you say it. This week, Sarah and Helen take on the importance of language at work, focusing on what you say and how you say it. As well as challenging the commonly held views about the 7% number, they share top tips for making your words and your body language work for you. For all resources, head over to amazingif.com  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What does it really mean to be happy at work and are we setting ourselves up to fail if we expect to be happy every day? We spend 90,000 hours of our life at work, so they feel like relevant questions to discuss. This week, Sarah and Helen review the lastest insights about 'happy work' and share 5 small actions we can all take that can make a big difference to our enjoyment at work. You can find a transcript of the episode and all links over at www.amazingif.com  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Does conflict at work fill you with dread? For many people, conflict is something to avoid at all costs and results in them stepping back and disengaging in conversation. This week, Sarah and Helen talk about tips and tactics that can help to reframe and react differently to work situations where conflict is present. All the resources mentioned and a transcript of the episode can be found at www.amazingif.com/  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week Sarah talks to special guest Christine Armstrong author of The Mother of All Jobs. Christine shares how work has changed whilst the needs of children and the world of school and childcare has not changed at all. Christine shares what she has learnt from interviewing hundreds of professional parents who have opened up about everything from the good to the truly awful experiences of parenting. Together Sarah and Christine discuss why combining careers and motherhood can be such a challenge and what everyone can learn from the people who make it work (most of the time!)  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Did you know that we are sleeping 1-2 hours less than we did 60 years ago, that over 2/3s of us work outside of our contracted working hours and that on average people lose 6 days of their annual holiday because they don't take them? All of this contributes to feeling overworked and always on. This week's Squiggly Careers podcast looks at home we can press pause and put practical actions in place that enable us to switch-off and slow down. For all resources mentioned, headover to amazingif.com.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week Helen and Sarah tackle the subject of inspiration. Where it comes from, why it's so important for our work and how we can cultivate it. They share their own experiences of getting and staying inspired and dig into the research to learn from the experts! Listen to hear their top 5 ideas to increase your inspiration. For all links and resources, head over to amazingif.com  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Empathy is a skill which underpins relationships. Often, it happens intuitively, but there is much that can be done to cultivate more empathic workplaces and this week's Squiggly Careers podcasts looks at the actions we can all take to achieve that. Helen and Sarah explore 3 different types of empathy at work and talk through 5 ways in which we can build more empathy into our work. For show notes and resources, head to amazingif.com  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week we're joined by productivity expert Graham Allcott, founder of Think Productive, speaker and author of numerous books on the subject of productivity! Pick-up tips on how to take control of your inbox, your diary and your to-do list and understand how different processes and tools can help you to create simple systems to make your working life a little bit easier! Links as ever will be over at www.amazingif.com  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.