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A Conscious Approach to Success – a conversation with author Diane Taylor
1 Playsin 9 hours
A conversation about leading consciously at work and in life
Being led and being a leader can be something that happens to you; when it should be an activity that happens for you.
In this episode of the Abeceder podcast The Independent Minds Diane Taylor from GLOW Leadership explains the difference to host Michael Millward.
During their conversation Diane and Michael discuss
- How she helps leaders to lead consciously
- Why leaders need to understand themselves better
- How lived experience can be something that happens to you; or it can be something that makes you a better leader.
- What really happens when a leader points the finger of blame at a team member
Diane Taylor is the author of ELEVATE POTENTIAL: A Conscious Approach To SUCCESS a book that she describes as being for high achievers who want more success and balance in their career and personal life.
This podcast is essential listening for leader who wants more from every aspect of their life.
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast and Guest
00:00:05
Speaker
Made on Zencastr. The all-in-one podcasting platform that really does make every stage of the podcast production process so easy. All the details are in the description.
00:00:18
Speaker
Hello and welcome to The Independent Minds, a series of conversations between Abyssaida and people who think outside the box about how work works, with the aim of creating better workplace experiences for everyone.
00:00:33
Speaker
I am your host, Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abbasida. Today, I'm going to be learning about conscious leadership from Diane Taylor of Glow Leadership and the author of the bestselling book, Elevate Potential, A Conscious Approach to Success.
Travel Plans and Episode Overview
00:00:54
Speaker
Diane is based in Vancouver, Canada, a place I have enjoyed visiting. I would like to visit again. When I do, i will make my travel arrangements at the Ultimate Travel Club because at the Ultimate Travel Club I can access trade prices on flights, hotels, trains, holidays and so many other travel related purchases.
00:01:15
Speaker
You can also access those trade prices on travel by joining the Ultimate Travel Club. There is a link and a discount in the description. Now that I have paid some bills, it is time to make an episode of The Independent Minds that will be well worth listening to, liking, downloading and subscribing to.
00:01:34
Speaker
As with every episode of The Independent Minds, we won't be telling you what to think, but we are hoping to make you think. Hello, Diane. Hello, Michael.
00:01:46
Speaker
So great to be with you today. It's great that you that you are here. Thank you very much. I really appreciate You're making the time available.
Diane's Career Journey
00:01:53
Speaker
Please could we start by you just giving us a little potted history of Diane Taylor and how you ended up doing what you're doing today?
00:02:01
Speaker
Absolutely. Today I help senior leaders build winning teams. After i graduated from university, I went on the road as a chapter consultant, my title was called, with my women's fraternity. And I visited post-secondary campuses in the United States and Canada. and helped them with their programming and met with university officials and supported young emerging leaders all over North America. And then I came home and started my career as a management trainee. Shortly into that career, about three months, the group decided to hire their first human resources coordinator. that I was fortunate to be chosen because of my history with my women's fraternity. So started my career in human resources and spent 20 years in the corporate environment as a human resources professional.
00:03:02
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In 2012, had a really, really hard year doing a lot of major mass layoffs. I worked at that point for one of Canada's largest retailers. and we closed five big box stores in Western Canada. And then I relocated five support departments to another province.
00:03:25
Speaker
Then I had the pleasure of downsizing my own team by two thirds. And then my time came and I was laid off. Like every good HR person, you've made yourself redundant. Yes, right. So at that point, I took the opportunity to start my own business and focus on the things that I really enjoy. And that is leadership development.
Impact of Extracurricular Activities
00:03:49
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So here I am doing what I love and couldn't be more happy. Great. It's interesting, isn't it, how your qualifications are great, but very often it's your extracurricular activities that help you get the job.
00:04:03
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Right, because our our extracurricular activities really emphasize who we are and what our own authentic strengths and gifts are.
00:04:14
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yeah and you learn so much and about yourself. Like you say, your authentic self, you learn so much about yourself, how to interact with other people and develop a ah wide range of skills, I think. I know I got my first job in HR because of extracurricular activities as
Philosophy of GLOW Leadership
00:04:32
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well. so Why did you choose the name GLOW Leadership for your business?
00:04:36
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Each one of us has trouble sometimes admitting this or showing up with this because we often tend to represent ourselves as perfect and high achieving and I have all these credentials. But what really makes us outstanding, exceptional, high performing people is the things that have happened to us along the way that are less than pretty, the messy things, the things we're ashamed of, the hard things. And so when i like to say when our soul breaks open or when our heart breaks open, our soul is allowed to shine through.
00:05:22
Speaker
And in that shining through, when our soul shines through the broken parts of us, it creates a beautiful glow. And what I do in my work is I help people glow. i help them rise up and shine brighter, reaching their highest potential. So that's the name glow. Very nice. When I started delivering management training programs and leadership development programs,
00:05:51
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It was very process orientated. Right.
Conscious Leadership and Growth Mindset
00:05:54
Speaker
This is how you apply Maslow's hierarchy of needs. This is how you will use McGregor and all sorts of things. But you're talking about developing leaders by almost breaking them down, first of all, in order to allow them to then identify who they are as individuals and then how that gets communicated to other people.
00:06:21
Speaker
Well, I don't break them down. I think. that's a yeah Yeah, thank you. Thank you for the correction. I didn't mean i didn't mean literally breaking them down into so they're on the floor in tears. yeah well this was of What I meant what it meant was that you can can enable them to break themselves down into identifying who they really are.
00:06:43
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Yes, I've had several students over the years say to me, your leadership development program was the very first that put me as a topic of learning.
00:06:55
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My 16-week GLOW Online Elevate Leadership Performance course is broken down into four success pillars and in each one of those there's four modules and the first four modules, the first success pillar is all about the leadership foundation, self-related. Who are you? How are you motivated? What are your superpowers? It's a really deep dive in increasing self-awareness, which I think is one of the most important things a leader has. And exactly like you say, Michael, back in the day, that wasn't the way. So that is, i believe, what was missing
00:07:38
Speaker
what is growing today as we increase consciousness as leadership development facilitators. I like that expression, leading consciousness, being aware that you are a leader and that that has to require you to be a little bit different how you might be when you're not leading. To be actually consciously leading, consciously being in that role and being what not just what you need to be, but also what other people need you to be. Yeah, and I think it just doesn't happen in terms of, you know, okay, I'm heading to the office now, I'm going to have to flip on my consciousness switch. No, I think it's something that it's a human experience growing in consciousness. And just what I define consciousness is people that are unconscious believe that life is happening to them.
00:08:35
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Conscious humans believe that life is happening for them. And when we make that seismic shift to a place of life is happening for me. So when all the bad stuff that I've challenged with or have experienced in my life, and some of it could be downright horrific, it's for a reason. And we understand that. And we ask, what is the lesson? And we take that to empower ourselves instead of being in a place of, oh, life is horrible.
00:09:06
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hard. Well, we know life is hard. It's how we perceive it and what we do with it that is really important. So it's not just, okay, I'm going to go lead the people in my workplace because a lot of people don't even have teams that report to them. It's, I'm going to start leading my life.
00:09:26
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And when we switch to that place, everything is easier. Work is easier. The people that we lead respond to us better. Our partner, our friends, everything changes.
Embracing Challenges as Growth Opportunities
00:09:40
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Because we're taking leadership as a way of life rather than a job role.
00:09:46
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Exactly. I always say you are the CEO of your life. Step up. But it's true, isn't it? Yes. You describe it in all sorts of different ways. But the reality is that an awful lot of us do go through life having things happen to us, done to us, rather than actually having things happen for us. And and because one is the the sort of acceptance and the lazy way and to have things happen for you, it feels almost as if to have things happen for you, you have to make them happen.
00:10:23
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Yeah. It's not going with a begging bowl and expecting other people to do things for you. It's making the world happen for you is something that you have to lead that process.
00:10:36
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You have to lead that mindset, I would say, because we can't control everything that's happening to us. And I believe the life process includes we were given us some kind of a challenge.
00:10:49
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And we go through that challenge and we learn from that challenge and we grow from it. And then we're like, oh, I made it through. oh good. Now I'll be good for a little while.
00:10:59
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But then something else happened. I remember naively thinking at at some point, maybe when I was 45 or 50, that everything would be easy and I would have gotten to a place where...
00:11:14
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Things were easy, and but that is not the life experience. The life experience will always change and evolve and send us a new challenge and grow us some more and teach us some more and level us up some more and humble us
Mindset and Health Connection
00:11:31
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some more. That is the life experience. So what we need to do is shift our response to that.
00:11:40
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And instead of say, oh, I can't do It this is happening to me, we we have to shift and say, okay, what did I learn from that?
00:11:53
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What am I supposed to learn from what I'm in right now? Because that's not a state of resistance. That's a state of flow, which allows us to move through things with more ease.
00:12:07
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i get what you mean. we have to embrace life, don't we? Sometimes it's not that easy to embrace, but we have to meet life where it's at. You are such a realist. Instead of be a victim to life.
00:12:21
Speaker
Yes. I am. You are, but I don't feel criticized by what you do because like there's a couple of times where you've like picked me up on things and I don't mind. i really don't mind, but I am aware of it. But actually what you're doing is just presenting a very realistic reality of what this actually means it's not easy to to lead your own life if you're trying to lead children's lives partners lives yeah you're trying to get them to be leading as well in their own and take this on board as a as a lifestyle choice almost
00:12:59
Speaker
then it's not easy. You've got to try and be the example of how you want to live for yourself, your own role model, as well as being a role model for other people as well. So life's but not easy, which makes me sort of realize that if all of this is not easy, then it's going to have an impact on, or could have an impact on your health, your mental health, your physical health, have an impact on all sorts of different things. This is not something to go into lightly, but it's also something that you have to go into with your eyes open to make sure that you are balancing it with being able to enjoy a happy and healthy life. It is research on how our mindset affects our body.
00:13:54
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There's starting to become more understanding of how our emotions affect our body. Okay. We all know that life is hard. We all know that the challenges are going to keep coming.
00:14:05
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So we get to decide our response to that and our response to that will actually affect our health, our mental and our physical health and wellbeing.
00:14:18
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So that's why it's so important to step into a more empowered state and this place of leadership where we then have dominion over our whole being, you know, and our health and wellbeing, because we can't go and create success and be leaders and level up our careers if our health and wellbeing is not foundationally strong.
00:14:44
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Yes. It's sort of almost makes me think that there are things that happen to you in life that you can't stop happening.
Processing Past Experiences
00:14:52
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Right. It's and not what happens to you that is as important as how you manage your response, how you lead yourself through the response to what has happened.
00:15:05
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Exactly. Every single human being has something. that they've either gone through and not processed in some ways. And that affects the way they're showing up to those around them now. Stress is not something that's happening. We always talk, oh, you know, it's so stressful, but it's not the events that are stressful. It's our response to the events that creates that. When we understand that the power lies within us and how do we as humans
00:15:39
Speaker
process stressful events, things in our past that have caused, could still be causing us to show up, you know, in triggered ways because It wasn't traditionally common thing for us to so have emotional and mental health support. So many of us are walking around as functioning adults that have had traumatic experiences in our you know childhood, adolescent years that we just soldiered on from.
00:16:14
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And so those triggers are implanted somewhere in our subconscious mind and they affect the way we show up and interact with others, which also impacts the way we lead. Yes.
00:16:28
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Every one of us has something in our life that we don't like, we wish hadn't happened, but the way to deal with that is not to ignore it, but to actually acknowledge it. And if we go right back to the start of our conversation where we were talking about breaking down individuals in a constructive way, it's like,
00:16:51
Speaker
breaking down the barriers that stop people from acknowledging what has happened in the past until you acknowledge it you can't actually do anything to try and understand how to live with the fact that you've had that experience And you talk about people having experiences in their childhood, in their adolescence, in their early adult years. I would perhaps argue that having a bad experience at work with an employer at any age can create the sort of stress which then impacts how you are with a new employer.
00:17:27
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Having a bad manager will impact how you react to every other manager that you work with because it's like nothing travels faster than bad news and nothing gets embedded deeper than bad experience.
00:17:43
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Yes, absolutely. All of our challenging experiences will create a how we move forward.
Job Satisfaction and Personal Alignment
00:17:51
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If we go back to the Maslow's hierarchy and this the survival needs, is we need to protect ourselves and keep ourselves safe. So we think, okay, I'm now going to avoid that type of manager. But the other thing that could be causing us to react or respond and if we're in a place of someone being led. If one of our leaders is behaving in a way that reminds us of someone from our past, say, formative years, where we had a traumatic experience, the way we respond to them could be affected as well. So that's why it comes. We can't just point the finger at the bad leader.
00:18:32
Speaker
The most powerful thing that we can do is to point the four fingers back at us. You know, if you point your finger, there's four fingers pointing back at you. That's a nice way of thinking about things, isn't it? If you're pointing the finger yeah in terms of blaming somebody, you point the finger at somebody who think is responsible. yeah That's only 25% of the fingers. The other three, 75%, is actually pointing back at yourself. A lot of people from my career would have been good to know that.
00:19:06
Speaker
100%. And that's where our power lies. We can't change other people, not necessarily if we're reporting to them. It's difficult when we report to someone to try to change them. We can influence them to hopefully behave differently. But the most powerful thing we can do is How can I change myself to get a different response? Yes. And sometimes that means if we have a terrible manager that is just not going to be good for our well-being, the change that we need to make is to find ah an alternative place of employment.
00:19:43
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But the change and the the circle of influence, what's in my circle of influence would be to make some attempts to change the way we show up when we're interacting with them. And if that doesn't work, we have the choice to leave to a place where it does work for us. Yes.
00:20:03
Speaker
We're all volunteers when we go to work. Nobody is forcing us to go in there. Right. Although I suppose some people in some parts of the world may think, well, the actual employment opportunities that fit with the lifestyle that I have to have with childcare or caring for elderly parents or relatives,
00:20:22
Speaker
There are all sorts of things that can mean that it isn't as easy as it sounds to actually say this environment is not healthy for me, therefore I will leave. You you just said all the the barriers or the challenges which arched valid and do exist.
00:20:42
Speaker
Those are the negative things that feel heavy, emotionally heavy. But what if? What if we were to find that one position, right? We could use the same example for people trying to find their partner and they're on the dating apps.
00:20:58
Speaker
It's you know hard to find a person and all there you know there's not a lot of great choices out there, but you only need to find one, right Yes. in the Eight billion people on the planet. You just need one.
00:21:12
Speaker
Same goes for your your ideal job. So instead of focusing on, yeah, but this and yeah, this and that and letting those negative things start to get out a piece of paper and a pen and say, what what are the things for your ideal job? What would that look like? OK.
00:21:30
Speaker
Now, what are the steps I need to take? Is my resume ready? Then I can start looking you know online for some jobs and see because you're fully gainfully employed. There's no harm in searching for what it might be. What if there is one instead of focusing on all the heavy negative stuff because that is just keeping you stuck.
00:21:56
Speaker
So again, take your power back and do what is in your control. and move yourself forward. Because I believe if you are not happy and it's you're not meant to be there, there's there's a place somewhere else that will fit within your life. I do believe that 100%.
00:22:16
Speaker
I believe it as well. Yeah. Sometimes we accept a job because it's offered to us and the idea of it sounds great. Yeah. Sometimes it doesn't work out. It can not work out for all sorts of different reasons.
00:22:30
Speaker
But too many people just say, well, I've got to be here for this amount of time. Otherwise, it won't look good on my CV or my resume, a whichever word you use for that job hunting document. Yeah.
00:22:42
Speaker
And what you have to do is obviously... what is right for me and focus on a bit like being on the airplane before you can help someone else with their oxygen mask you have to sort out your own oxygen mask yeah first and what you're talking about is a very similar type of situation if you are going to work unhappy and if you have exhausted the possibilities to adapt and change your working environment so that you are not unhappy, then the only thing that you can do in order to maintain your own health and wellbeing is to start thinking this environment is not one that is conducive to me having a good health and wellbeing. And before you can build a career, you have to have good health and wellbeing first.
00:23:35
Speaker
Yeah. Like you say with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it's like, make sure you're safe, make sure that you're fed, make sure that all of the basics are there in place first before you can move to the next level.
Self-awareness in Career Success
00:23:47
Speaker
Right. I would also add one other thing to this formula here. There's a saying. Wherever you go, there you are. Yes. So if you're in a bad environment and you move to another environment and you find that environment bad as well,
00:24:06
Speaker
The question is, is it the environment that's bad or is it something we go back to the within, right? Within you, what isn't working? So while you're trying to influence a better workplace and looking for a job, what you said, put your own oxygen mask on first. So what are you doing to increase your self-awareness, to heal yourself, to to level your your own self-worth on all levels? Yeah, it takes us back to that pointing the finger. You point yeah one finger at it's the company, it's the office, it's the manager, it's the colleague, it's it's this, it's that, it's the other. And when you do that, you're also pointing three fingers back at yourself.
00:24:50
Speaker
yeah And you have to investigate why 75% of the solution, 75% of the cause of the challenge actually look at yourself inside look at everything about your life, I suppose, as well.
Diane's Book on Personal Growth
00:25:07
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And that's, this is why I wrote the book that I wrote because it's hard. People are probably saying, well, how do I do that? And I, you know, i did that the hard way, figuring that out over the years. And that's why I decided to write a book that, you know, the last third of my book is that a roadmap to help people do that because nowhere are we taught about these things.
00:25:34
Speaker
about how to evolve or heal your you know subconscious wounds you might not even know exist. You might even not even know you have wounds in your subconscious that you are making you show up the way you are making you feel the way you are, or making you have that disease or illness that you have.
00:25:56
Speaker
or look for the easiest place to put the blame. Yes. But what you're saying is that if you want to be truly successful in life, whether that's at work or in your life away from work, you first of all have to look at yourself. Yeah. Look inwards and heal the inner person. Yes. Before you start find looking for someone or something to blame for the way in which you are inside.
00:26:23
Speaker
hundred percent. Yeah.
Conclusion and Episode Wrap-up
00:26:26
Speaker
That book, the Elevate Potential, A Conscious Approach to Success his set is well worth reading. Yeah. But for today, Diane, it has been really very interesting and I've enjoyed it. Thank you very much. do appreciate your time. Thank you, Michael. It's been very enjoyable. Thank you.
00:26:47
Speaker
I am Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abbasida, and I have been having a conversation with the independent mind, Diane Taylor of Glow Leadership, and the author of the best-selling book, Elevate Potential, A Conscious Approach to Success.
00:27:05
Speaker
You can find out more about both of us at abasida.co.uk. dot u k I must remember to thank the team at matchmaker.fm for introducing me to Diane.
00:27:16
Speaker
If you are a podcaster looking for interesting guests, or if like Diane, you have something interesting to say, matchmaker.fm is where matches of great hosts and great guests are made.
00:27:29
Speaker
The Zencastr system has, as always, been very efficient today. But if you are listening to the independent minds on your smartphone and experience technical issues, you may like to know that 3.0 has the UK's fastest 5G network with unlimited data.
00:27:45
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So listening on 3.0 means you can wave goodbye to buffering. There's a link in the description that will take you to more information about business and personal telecom solutions from 3.0 and the special offers available when you quote my referral code.
00:28:01
Speaker
The description is well worth reading. I'm sure that you will have enjoyed this episode of The Independent Minds as much as Diane and I have enjoyed making it.
00:28:12
Speaker
Please give it a like and download it so that you can listen anytime, anywhere. To make sure you don't miss out on future episodes, please subscribe. Remember the aim of all the podcasts produced by Abbasida, The Independent Minds, Fit for My Age, Rest and Recreation, is not to tell you what to think, but we do hope to have made you think.
00:28:35
Speaker
Until the next episode of The Independent Minds, thank you for listening and goodbye.