Speaker #0Hi, welcome to The Pulse. I hope you're doing well. I am Julie, your host, and today is a bit of a special episode because first of all is episode number 10, which I have to say I'm very proud to have already done 10 episodes and to have follow through on putting out there in episodes every two weeks, even in difficult time like two weeks ago, but also because This is the episode that I've decided to broadcast it even to a bigger community. Until now, I had shared, I have my Instagram, which you may be following through. I have, of course, put the episodes on the different podcast platform, but I've not shared beyond. And first of all, because I wanted to ensure, first of all, that I follow through, but also because I was still in the mood of not knowing how... what people would think. I'm someone that loves to share, loves to exchange, and this is why I did this podcast. But of course, sharing it with a big audience, putting it out there fully is not so easy. So this is why I started a bit smaller. So I think you might be one of my friends or someone that knows me for the one who has been there in the prior episodes. But now, basically, I have decided that when this episode comes out on Sunday, Okay. I will be sharing it with my whole LinkedIn network. So you may be new from this network. Welcome. There is a few episodes that you can listen to from the last few months. Yeah, so it's a bit of a big deal. And I'm looking forward to having you enjoy, if you're new or if you've been already there since the very beginning, to get to know the different episodes, the different topics that I'm talking about. And so today I have decided to make these episodes about my friends and about more specifically the leadership lessons I have learned from them. They have been really my close group of people who have helped me through everything and it's really them who allowed me and enabled me, not allowed, enabled really, me to be who I am today. And I'm really grateful, of course, my family as well. But here I want to take the time more specifically with my friends. But they're really some of the people who shaped me and helped me grow and understand who I am and what I want to do. And they're definitely also my biggest cheerleaders and supporters. And I really wanted to dedicate these episodes to sharing how they have helped me grow and become a better leader. The first topic I want to bring on, and for the one that will most likely, this will end up on Instagram, my dog has decided to join me, so I'm the second time recording this part of the episode. As I was saying, the first lesson I've learned from them is flexibility, and the fact that allowing for flexibility in your day-to-day allows you to have better enjoyment and better moments of truly unexpected discoveries let's put it that way so I give an example when traveling with some friends we had of course a rough plan of what we wanted to do and and some of the people from my group are very organized and structured and some are more very flexible and I tend to be in the middle sometimes I have really moments that I want to have a very specific structure. But by having that flexibility, we were able to have a lot of opportunities. So giving the example straight in, we were in Malta and we had a rough plan that we wanted to go to a certain location in a certain timing. But then we didn't really make plans of what would be the impact on dinner, etc. And so we ended up having dinner at 11 p.m. And of course, you expect maybe most restaurants might be closed or close to being in the last call. And actually, we found a restaurant slash clubs where we had an amazing dinner. Literally, I had lobster pasta and lava cake at midnight. And we had an amazing time. And that was truly because we had been flexible to say, OK, we wanted to go to a certain location, but we had not made for the plan. that allowed for this very... enjoying moment. And I am, of course, very lucky to have the opportunity to have such moments. But in this context, taking the fact that flexibility can bring that type of enjoyment in personal time, it can also happen very much when it comes to work. And flexibility, you can also take it from a leadership standpoint in terms of adaptability. discovering new opportunities within your project or within your work and the topics that you're leading. So basically giving space for some flexibility and some adaptability might give you open opportunities or open doors within your topics that was unexpected. So I would highly suggest to give some. I do understand the fact that there is an infrastructure. I'm also in the workplace and I like to have a certain structure and create a certain rhythm because it's allowed for people to properly know what they are expected to do, when they are expected to do and organize themselves. But also keeping the space for that flexibility, even within the days or within the week, allow for that time, for that reflection time. That would be the first lesson that I would like to share. Sorry, I'm laughing because my dog is, of course, asking for attention right as I am recording the episode. So it's a bit of a funny time, which most likely I will put some blooper on Instagram later on. That's what happened in this podcast. Sometimes you end up in a different setting. Sometimes it's a bit of funny moments. you Bear with me. As I mentioned in prior episodes, it can be still tricky for me to get to do it. I'm still learning. So it's not the most professional podcast, but it can be a fun one sometimes. So here you have a first glimpse at a fun podcast. So I guess that's how unorganized and flexible my podcast can be. The second lesson I learned from them is truly about joy and lightheartedness. And I would make it even more concrete is my friends have taught me the art of work and fun. And I have some great friends that are amazing in their career, but they are very good at balancing. Also that, I don't want to call it, and I have talked about it in prior episodes, work-life balance. there Very good at balancing moments of fun and also in having those moments in the workplace. Of course, I myself have learned that art and have done different classes and different courses throughout my year of work and my experience. But I think they were the ones who really truly showed me when to let go, also during the work time. I've seen some of them showing me how they can have fun in their work. And of course, some departments or some topics are easier than others. And I have been for myself and sometime in some highly strategic, very complex topics, some projects that have been difficult, where, of course, a lot of resilience is needed. And it's there is such a heaviness in my job. Really, truly, they have shown me the importance of some time, even if in hard moments, to take the opportunity to have a bit of humor or take a bit of a break or chat with your colleagues or really take a fun moment. And I do try myself in my own way as I lead my project to do this with my team. And I'm not saying it's easy every day because there are some moments that are tough. But they have shown me the importance of sometimes finding a bit of brightness. So whenever I can, I try to bring it on. But I would really encourage also you as a leader. It doesn't matter if you are leading a project or you are leading a team. At the end, we are all leaders. And I think this is also where you can potentially lead and influence a team, even if you're not the leader of that team. If you feel like you're working in an environment that is... Dealing with a hard time at that moment, maybe you can be the one also that brings, of course, you have to be aware of your environments. And when you're doing that, better bring a bit of good fun. You know, for example, once I said to them, hey, you know what, we don't have any more candy. So that doesn't work. We need to get some more candy. And I went to get some and people were happy about it. But it can also be sometimes too. to make a little fun comment. So, I mean, we see nowadays on social media sometimes some funny reels and sometimes it's about work and saying like everyone is struggling, for example. So maybe sharing that or showing that or talking a bit more about personal topic when you start the morning can be moments where you can better connect and make it a bit more lighthearted with your colleagues, even more when it's a difficult time. So it's, of course, finding the balance. but Really, this is truly something also that they have shown me, how having those lighthearted moments in the workplace can bring a lot of value into your daily work and bring you further along also as a leader. The third lesson I learned from my friends is that you have to adapt communication to the person you're talking to. And truly, I have a very diverse group of friends and I'll talk about it. This is also one of the lessons about embracing diversity. But right now, I really want to focus on communication. And as a leader, you have to adapt how you communicate to the person you have in front of you. And as I mentioned, everyone is a leader in their own way. And truly, I truly believe that from one colleague, from one friend to the others, I communicate differently today. if I have some friends that really love to communicate through phone calls, some friends that are only doing text, some friends that are way too busy, so it's once in a while, some friends that we talk on a regular basis. And that doesn't mean any of those friendships are different. They are just what they are in their own way, based on who we are as people. And I know they also do this with me, by the way. It's like we adapt to each other to find our communication style together. And in that same way, whenever you are dealing with a different person, you should adapt to them the same way as you hope that they will adapt in some ways to you and you find a bit of that middle ground. And basically, you have to tailor your approach to ensure that everyone feels heard, everyone feels that. Their input is valuable. You need to ensure that you have that building, that trust with the other person. And this is the same way in any of your friendship, right? You have to adapt to who they are. And in that same way, you have to do the same when communicating with your colleague. In light of the communication topic that I was just mentioning, Another lesson I've learned from my friends is celebrating diversity. And here I have so much diverse friends. I have friends from basically all over the world. Brazil, Canada, some that are living abroad from different countries. So I have people living in New Zealand, in Hong Kong, people living in France, UK, Europe, coming from Spain, living in Luxembourg, coming from the US, living in Germany. and many, many more cases. So I have a lot of people who have this international background, but they're all different. Some are living back near their home where they grew up. Some are living in completely different countries and are experiencing different cultures. So now I have become multicultural, and I'm definitely planning to do another episode on multicultural and also multilanguism. here. truly through that I had the opportunity to learn from them that we're very different from each other and each brings their own set of values and and positive impact and basically they each bring their unique perspective and their unique strengths in a way coming from their background but also coming to from what they have learned, what they've grown to. coming from all the experiences and coming also from their exchange with me and me with them, in a way. And really that diversity has given me the opportunity to learn from a lot of people, but also learn how each of my friends are uniquely amazing. And as I said, I have people from all over the world. And this I was lucky enough to also have in some ways within my family already before. But it just got strengthened and got even bigger and multinational after in my life. And throughout the years, I really learned to embrace each person for who they are. And in the workplace, having that opportunity as a leader and embracing this diversity can bring you a lot of opportunity within your team. And here I'm going to talk leadership team, but you could also... view it in any case whenever you are working with different people as an individual contributor or as a project lead it doesn't matter having this diversity around you you can use the opportunity of of learning from the strengths of the others or lean in on on the strengths of your colleagues some of my colleagues for example are very strong in some areas where I'm not so much and on the other side I'm strong in some areas that there are not so much. And having that diversity within my team allows me to ensure that the work gets done overall, because we each take on the task or the works that make sense based on our strengths. But we also take the time to learn from each other in order to improve our weaknesses together. And this is really also what you do in a way with your friends, right? You lean on them, you learn from them. They also give you feedback and that is so valuable. For example, for this podcast, the first three episodes, before releasing them, I had done the whole thing. I sent it to some of my friends and I said, brutal feedback, I want to know what you think. Do you think it's good enough to send them or not? So having this whole interaction from their perspective, they had different views. Some of them are like, well, I mean, it's a... You put yourself out there. I don't know if I would. And of course, different personality, different people. Some of them gave me feedback more specifically in terms of like, oh, yeah, like we hear more when you're reading or not. So that's why now I'm like barely reading anything. So sometimes my thought goes all over the place on this podcast. But at least I'm hoping that my message come across. But in general, this is the dynamic that I've had with my friends. And I do feel like this is a bit similar to what... we can have with a diverse environment with with our colleague and really using the opportunity of embracing those sometimes also vibrant interaction and I said the word vibrant because sometimes you might have a bit of clash of moments where you don't understand each other but giving that opportunity also for that and from learning from each other and growing can can help you and I am I'm French in a German company a lot of my colleagues are German but I have also a colleague that is from Brazil, a colleague that is from Asia, I'm working in a project that is very international. So all those people coming from different backgrounds, coming from different cultures, have to work together and collaborate together. And I truly have to say, for me, it's been this part, at least, has been easier because of the fact that I'm already in a similar dynamic with my friends. The last lesson I want to talk about today, and of course, I have you Many more from my friends, but it's about strengthening the group and empowering the individual. And this is also a big lesson I have learned from my friends is we each have strengths. And by each taking on a certain specific our strengths and the task related to our strengths, we can really empower a very good group dynamic. and Whenever I've been traveling or I've been having events with my friends where we each took on different tasks, it was very clear, very quickly that we each took on the task that makes sense. But also by communicating with each other, we enabled to better delivered what was expected. And I know it sounds very work and working type saying it that way. But what I mean is that by having truly the... By each taking on our favorite tasks, which sounds very natural when you are in a personal environment, we really ended up having a great time and delivering what was expected to deliver or to go to the place we were planning to go, etc. And here again, having experienced that with my friends and really using their unique strengths has shown me the fact that By doing the same in a work environment and can really enable the people and enable the group. And there is two pieces in it. The first one is really letting the unique strengths of the person shine. And truly at work, whenever someone is clear on their strengths, giving the opportunity for them to use that strength in the project, in the work they're doing. can be highly valuable and also the person is definitely going to feel better being able to use that strength and being able to be recognized also for that strength. So it's going to have a pretty positive impact, I would say. So this is valid for everyone around and therefore if everyone is in a positive feeling toward I'm recognized for my strength, I'm recognized for what I bring to the table on that project. or that work that I'm doing on the team. This will definitely have then further impact when you end up on top of it, ensuring that there is a true communication and collaboration between the different people. And of course, if each person use their strengths, but don't talk to each other, this doesn't work, right? So you still need to strengthen the group by ensuring group growth and that everyone grow together. And this is the same thing also. What I've faced with my friends, we each, with our strengths, grew, changed, evolved. A lot of them are now in different places, in different jobs. We each had our different paths, also personally, professionally. But based on all this, we each were able to shine in our own way without impacting each other negatively, but helping each other in a way grow. And I have a lot of, I have some friends that know each other, some friends that are from completely different groups, but it's valid no matter what. We help each other, we support each other through our growth and we see each other develop and be the new people that we are. And I truly believe that it's the same thing at work whenever the group is supportive of each other and helping each other develop and evolve as individual. Then as a team, we're going to be stronger automatically because everyone is going to feel like there is a true base and a true support that is there. And it's finding, of course, a balance because at work, and to be honest, it's been also my case, having my friends moved sometime to a different country. So also at work, some team members that have been part of that solid group that has grown together, someone moves. And of course, then the dynamic is different. And you have to, in the case of work, rebuild the dynamics, rebuild the balance with potentially one person less or a new person joining, etc. And you have to find, again, how the group dynamic is going to work. And it's important that you take the time for this. In the case of friendship, very similarly, if a friend of you leaves or goes somewhere else or has a, I don't know, New family, different case scenarios, but... Anyway, you have to constantly rebalance and readapt the friendship to the new condition, in a way. And it's similar in that sense in a work environment. So I think this is also valuable to always keep in mind that group dynamic, but also the fact of having empowerment of each individual within your group. This is basically today's episode. I don't know how long it's gonna be but usually I try to make it around 20 to 30 minutes. But basically this is the of course I have more topics that comes to my mind but I wanted to to keep it on a certain length because I don't want to spend hours and hours talking. That's not my goal but also I want to ensure that the message sink in and I'd rather do a second episode later and to be honest I would have to to think about it, make some research or follow up on my reflections. But for now, I thought this is what I would want to share. And truly, with my friendship, they have been amazing teachers for me. All of them, in their own individual way, have brought me, have taught me different things and have taught me also that leadership is about the heart, but also about the mind. It's both together that works. And that they have also taught me the fact that I am who I am and the fact that we each are great in our own way, basically. So I'm very proud to have those friendships. I'm very grateful as well. And I hope, you know, applying these lessons can create more meaningful and impactful professional relationships for you. And I definitely will keep for myself having those reminders because it's easy to forget. Sometimes we're in the midst of a busy day today. And it's always a good reminder to have this in mind, to still have this mindset of adapting your communication, of embracing the diversity of everyone, even sometime when you have those difficult moments, to also empower the individuals on the team. And also to empower, you know, being a bit of lightheartedness, a bit of fun, and to not forget also the importance of flexibility. I hope you really liked this episode today. I wish you all a very great day. I am available on all the platforms. So wherever you listen, you should be able to watch all the previous episodes and future episodes that come. You can also find me on Instagram. You will have all the... information, all the links in the bio and the detail of the episodes. And please comment, like, give me your feedback. I would love to hear if you like this episode, if there is any special episodes you would like me to talk about at the end of the day. I'm here to share my experience and I'm happy to exchange with you whenever you want. This is the first first 10 and I hope more to come. I have a few ideas of a few more. I'm also looking forward at some point to have some of you on the podcast and to have an exchange. So if you are interested in discussing a topic and to make it an exchange episode, please feel free to reach out. And looking forward. I wish you all a very great day and talk to you soon.
