Episode 12 How to Get Your Leadership Mojo Back!

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Welcome to Unstuck and Unstoppable,

the podcast for ambitious female

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leaders who want to create more impact,

income, and influence in their careers.

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feel connected to their passion

and purpose, but without

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selling out or burning out.

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I'm Sarah Archer, a leadership coach

and career strategist, helping women

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like you thrive in leadership roles

while staying true to your values.

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I'm the founder of CareerTree

Coaching and have over 15 years of

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coaching experience and significant HR

leadership experience to share with you.

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I know as a female leader it can

be hard to find time to focus

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on your career aspirations.

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The day job can be all consuming.

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Plus, no matter how senior you are,

there are always going to be times

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when you feel stuck, when you have

self doubt, or feel like an imposter.

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And that's where unstuck

and unstoppable comes in.

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Each week I'll be sharing practical

strategies, insightful interviews and

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inspiring stories to help you boost

your confidence, lead with purpose

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and achieve sustainable success.

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If you're ready to stop playing

small and unlock the incredible

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potential you have within you and feel

unstoppable, you're in the right place.

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Let's get started.

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So today's topic, let's dive into it.

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This is all about how to get

your leadership mojo back if it's

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disappeared, gone and walk about.

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Because let's face it, we've probably all

at some point in our career experienced

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that sense of our mojo just not being

there, just not feeling that same.

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energy or engagement or

passion for what we're doing.

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And certainly in my career I have

experienced that at different points.

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And it's certainly led me, to

make changes in my career, it's

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led me to change organizations,

it's led me to change career.

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What we're going to explore today is

things that you can do both short term

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and long term if you feel your career mojo

just isn't there and you're really missing

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it because it's what gives us that.

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Energy and that engagement, isn't it?

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Let's think about why it might go.

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Why you might be experiencing

a dip in your leadership mojo.

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It could be that maybe you're feeling that

there's a huge amount of responsibility

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sitting on your shoulders that maybe

it's all on you that you feel like

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you're just pushing this huge rock

uphill to either affect change or to

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get your team to deliver or to make

something happen in the organization.

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And it feels like it's just you and

you're on your own . Trying to move

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this rock and it's a huge heavy weight.

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Or it might be that you've done

everything that you need to in your role.

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When you took the role on,

it was about transformation.

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It was about making a difference,

having an impact, and maybe

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you've achieved all of that.

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And you've got that sense of

nothing new, no challenge.

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I'm just plateauing Just feeling that

I've done everything that I wanted to do.

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Or maybe the organization has

become in terms of its growth

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or its place, it's become more

systemized, more process driven.

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Maybe you feel there's

less room for innovation.

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for managed risk taking, for creativity

and you're just not turned on by

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this kind of plateauing, or the

organization's in maintenance mode

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before it moves to growth, but

it's not giving you that same buzz.

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So your mojo's disappeared.

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Maybe you are putting everybody

else's needs before your own.

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So you're beginning to just feel a

bit like there's no space for you.

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There's no room for you.

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You're doing everything for everybody

else, both personally and at work.

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Or maybe there's too much change

going on in the organization and it's

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beginning to feel it's taking its

toll and you're, you can't summon

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up the same level of enthusiasm and

energy to make those changes happen.

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Or it's a bit situational.

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You've just come back from a holiday.

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You need a holiday.

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You've had a milestone in your

life some way, age or something in

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your life that's happened recently.

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Or you've just had a spate

of bad experiences at work.

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Things just not going your way and

it's making you feel a bit meh.

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about work.

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It can be, short term situational,

or it could be these longer term

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things where it could mean that

a change of role or a change of

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organization is on the cards for you.

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If in some of those situations, you can't

see that things are going to shift at all,

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it might be then that you've got to put

your energy into finding something new.

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But what we're going to explore

today is what things you could put

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in place to get some kind of shift

in your mojo, which doesn't require

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you to leave the organization.

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But it's also recognizing

when it might be time to go.

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And maybe you've been putting

that off because it feels quite

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a hard job to find something new.

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How does it make you feel when

you've lost your leadership mojo?

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It might be that you're feeling

a bit adrift, that you just feel

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like there's no anchor there.

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I'm just, feeling a

bit, yeah, disconnected.

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Maybe you're feeling overwhelmed.

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There's just too much going on.

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Just feeling that sense of

approaching burnout , or not being

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able to see the wood for the trees.

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Maybe you're feeling disengaged

from the organization and

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what it's trying to achieve.

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Maybe you're feeling

a bit uncertain about.

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where's my place?

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What's next for me?

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Or even uncertainty in the

organization and where it's moving to.

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Or maybe you're feeling a bit stagnant

that there's just nothing inspiring you.

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All of those feelings are not

great to experience, are they?

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I know certainly about 18 months

ago in my business, I was feeling

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like I'd lost my business mojo, not

in my coaching practice, but in the

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business because I've been running

my business for over 10 years.

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And I just felt I'd lost it.

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that energy, that mojo to move it forward.

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And I did have to take action.

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What I decided to do was find some

external support, find a business coach

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just to help me bring that creativity,

innovation, energy back into the business

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because I couldn't do it on my own.

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I think the great thing about recognizing

that your mojo has disappeared is

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that it gives you the opportunity to

just press pause and engage in some

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reflection to work out what is going on.

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It's just a helpful sign that

something needs to change either

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in a small way or in a bigger

way in your existing situation.

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It's quite a useful thing to notice

so that you can then take action.

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What we're going to look at today is

some ideas to help you regain that.

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But the first thing to think

about might be to think about

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your leadership identity.

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Having the opportunity to just press

pause and reflect, because we are

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always growing and evolving as leaders.

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So it might be just worth thinking

about, okay, what kind of leadership

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identity do I currently And what

do I actually want my leadership

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identity, my leadership brand to be?

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And what's the gap there?

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Being able to do that reflective piece

can be helpful in terms of noticing

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that actually you're about to engage

in a period of growth as a leader.

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Or you need to do some reconnection with

your values and passion as a leader.

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I was coaching someone

a couple of years ago.

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She was a senior leader in financial

services and she'd just been promoted

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and she wanted to do some work around

her positioning in the organization.

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But actually, as we started to unpack

it, there was some work to do around her.

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Leadership mojo and her new identity

and her new leadership role.

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And what she wanted to try and do

was reconnect with her values and her

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passion, which was around people and

enabling people, especially women to have

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success in the financial services sector.

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She didn't want to leave her organization.

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She was really good on her

delivery and what was making

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her a great leader in terms of.

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strategic piece, but she really

needed to have something additional.

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And so what we did is some work

around reconnection with her values,

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which led her to then engage in some

leadership activities, which were

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outside her day to day leadership

role, which were more about EDI.

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which were more about how she

could promote women in leadership

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externally to her organization, how

she could develop a mentoring scheme

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internally within her organization.

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And that enabled her to re

engage with her leadership

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identity, change it to a degree.

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And she felt her mojo returning in terms

of her position in the organization

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and how much time she wanted to spend

in that organization going forward

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because she didn't want to leave.

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She had to find a way of reconnecting

with something that enabled her to feel

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passion for the organization and for

her different roles in the organization.

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Doing that piece around what's my

leadership identity and what I want

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it to be can be really powerful.

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The second thing to do is a practical

check in and I'm not going to spend very

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much time on this idea, but it's just

a useful thing to do is just to think

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about your energy levels and what you

could do practically to increase them

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because that contributes to your mojo.

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So that's those things around sleep,

nutrition, hydration, and the elements

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that feed you and that give you energy.

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Doing a check in, am I

relying on stimulants?

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Am I relying on coffee and

sugar to get my energy?

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Do I need to do some tweaks

around my hours of work?

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My food I'm putting into my body,

how much sleep I'm getting, etc.

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So that's a little side to make sure

you're not neglecting that piece as well.

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And then the next couple of strategies

I am borrowing from Tony Robbins.

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So I'm just going to credit him with

these ideas, but I think they're

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really useful at helping shift your

mindset, particularly if you think,

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okay, I want to stay where I am,

but I need to get my mojo back.

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The first one would be to

prime yourself for success.

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And what do I mean by this?

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It's a a mindset shift, but this

is a small thing that you could do

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every day that can just shift how you

feel about what you're about to do.

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It might be about starting with a

bit of meditation or some mindfulness

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just to get you in the zone.

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And if you find, you struggle with

those activities, there's a brilliant

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app called insights timer, which has

basically a meditation for everything and

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has hundreds of practitioners on there.

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So you'll be bound to find one that

you like and that you can engage with.

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And literally you can just

choose a five minute meditation

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just to get you in the zone.

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And then you want to be setting

an intention for the day.

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And these are really powerful, so that

might be something like, I'm going to

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be really productive today, I'm going

to feel positive about the ten meetings

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I've got scheduled for today, I'm going

to power through the key things on my

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to do list today, or whatever, is going

to make you feel, a lift in energy

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when you set that intention for how

you want that particular day to go.

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And you're probably going to have a

different intention for every day, but

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it's about Setting the tone for your

day and it can shift how you then

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go on to experience that day and how

you can set yourself up for success

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because if you've lost your mojo, then

you'll probably be feeling that you're

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not having impact, that you're not

having the success that would drive

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you and enable you to push through.

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So by setting yourself up for

success, by priming yourself, it

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can make a difference to your day.

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Because also what you'll notice is when

you've lost your mojo, those limiting

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beliefs, that inner critic will be louder.

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And so you have to work harder,

which then drains you to manage those

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.

Inner voices.

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So doing things like priming yourself

for success can be helpful with that.

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, if you're struggling with your inner

critic and those voices, you might

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want to have some coaching support

around helping you with that.

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But another thing you can think

about doing is embracing the

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concept of life happening for you.

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and not to you because when you've lost

your mojo and you're feeling low in

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energy, you feel like you don't have

so much control of your situation and

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you can get into that why me dialogue.

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And it's.

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Good to be able to reframe this

again so that if you have a difficult

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situation or an event that hasn't

gone your way or hasn't gone well,

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being able to see it as an opportunity

to grow, to become resilient, to

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develop your capability, to cope with

adversity can be really powerful.

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And it's partly tapping into that

Buddhist philosophy of being able to

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be thankful for something happening

that allows you to grow and to develop.

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Being able to be thankful.

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Okay.

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I'm thankful that actually I'm

feeling that I've lost my mojo

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at the moment because it gives

me an opportunity to pause and

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reflect and think about my growth.

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It's just one way to start repositioning.

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what's happening to you at the moment and

seeing it as it's happening for me so that

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as a leader I can become a better leader

or I can find a better organization that

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allows me to thrive or I can learn how

to manage my energy when it's not always

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there in the way that I want it to be.

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, you could think about amplifying your

gratefulness practice if you have

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one if you don't have a gratefulness

practice maybe engaging one The positive

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psychology research shows that even

if you indulge in finding three things

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to be thankful for every day for a

week, the research shows it increases

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your well being for up to six months.

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Making it a regular practice can

be powerful at boosting your

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well being, which is ultimately

going to boost your mojo.

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Thinking about how you can maybe

engage in a gratefulness practice,

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but also noticing if you're having a

bad experience, thinking about what

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can I learn from it and how can I

be thankful that this is helping me.

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And sometimes that can feel a stretch and

I do realize that, it can feel a stretch

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to do it, but if you can start to reframe

those experiences, it's just going to help

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you throughout your leadership career.

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And then the final thing to think

about is transforming your words in

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terms of how you talk to yourself, but

also talking about how you're feeling.

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If you're saying, Oh, I'm really tired.

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I'm really exhausted.

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I've lost my mojo.

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Then your body is going to respond

to those words and you are going

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to feel how you've described.

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Whereas if you say I'm feeling energetic

today, I'm feeling really positive.

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I know I'm going to have a great day

and I'm going to make a difference.

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Even just saying that now , I can

feel how my body is responding to that

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and how just my posture changes and

I feel that sense of uplift because

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when we talk to ourselves negatively

or we express things negatively,

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we can create that self fulfilling.

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prophecy that feeds into

how we might be feeling.

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Noticing what's my language around

my energy, what's my language around

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my mojo and what makes me feel great.

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And just experimenting with it

and seeing what the difference

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can be for you can be helpful.

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Let's do a quick recap of some of the

things that could be helpful for you.

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Noticing, is this a long term loss of

mojo or is it something short term?

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Because that will help

you decide how to address it.

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Then thinking about this is an

opportunity for me to pause and reflect,

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to think about my leadership identity.

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And then to think about what actions

I want to take and experiment

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with some of the ideas around

transforming your language, so

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thinking about the words that you use.

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Seeing it as an opportunity to reframe it

as life is happening for me, not to me.

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And then priming yourself for success.

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By setting an intention every day.

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And also thinking about

how you can amplify.

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Or start a gratefulness practice.

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I hope this short session has given

you a boost to think about how you can

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start getting your leadership mojo back.

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You can also watch this episode live

over on LinkedIn, and I will put

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something in the show notes for you.

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And while you're over on LinkedIn,

if we're not connected, please

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do send me a connection request.

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Thank you so much for listening

to this episode of the Unstuck

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and Unstoppable podcast.

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I have lots of free resources you

can access on my website, ww.career

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tree coaching.co

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uk, and I'll also put

links in the show notes.

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If you found this episode

helpful, then please subscribe

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so you don't miss the next one.

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And please do share it with a

friend and leave me a review

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and I will personally thank you.

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Remember, you're capable of more

than you know, shine brightly.

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Lead boldly and unlock the

extraordinary potential within you.

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Be unstoppable.