Welcome to Food for Thought, the go-to podcast for nourishing your brain on everything to do with leadership, management and performance improvement. It’s specifically designed for busy leaders and managers who want bite-sized nuggets of inspiration and insight that can be applied right away. Hosted by David Klaasen, Director of Talent 4 Performance and a Practitioner in Brain and Behaviour Change.
Ep 1 | The Scarf Model
In today’s episode, we will be discussing the SCARF Model developed by Dr. David Rock and his team at the NeuroLeadership Institute.
Ep2 | 10-Minute Relaxation Audio
This is a simple 10-minute deep relaxation exercise using the Body Scan technique. Regular use of these exercises will provide you with the opportunity to develop a very powerful mindfulness and deep relaxation routine.
Ep3 | 20-Minute Relaxation Audio
This is a simple 20-minute deep relaxation exercise using the Body Scan technique. Regular use of these exercises will provide you with the opportunity to develop a very powerful mindfulness and deep relaxation routine.
Ep4 | Can You Control Your Empathic Response?
In today’s episode, we will be discussing ‘Understanding Empathy’. It’s a really critical part of success in today’s complex environment.
Ep5 | Are You Seeing Friend or Foe?
Today, I’d like to talk about relationships and in particular, the concept of ‘Friend or Foe’.
Ep6 | Understanding Trust (And The Lack Of It)
Today, I want to talk about ‘Understanding Trust’. How do we trust other people who think differently to us?
Ep7 | The Double-Edged Sword of Team Behaviour
Today, I’d like to talk about ‘Team Behaviour’ and the double-edged sword of team behaviour.
Ep8 | How Do You Respond To Feedback?
Today I’d like to talk about the Paradox of Self. How we manage our self esteem and self improvement. And it’s one of the twelve paradoxes developed by Dr. Dan Harrison.
Ep9 | How To Use the 4 Types Of Values?
Today, I’d like to talk about corporate values and in particular, the ‘Four Types of Corporate Values’ as defined by Patrick Lencioni, a great management thinker and author.
Ep10 | Are Your Goals Good For Your Health?
Today I’d like to ask you a question. Are your goals intrinsic or extrinsic?
Ep11 | Are You Making Any Of These Thinking Errors?
Today, I’d like to talk about developing ‘Emotional Resilience’. The ability to bounce back emotionally.
Ep12 | FACT Based Appraisals: Don’t bother with Annual Appraisals!
In today’s episode, I’d like to talk about the FACT based approach to Appraisal.
Ep13 | Can You Identify The 7 Performance Traps
For today’s episode, I’d like to talk about ‘The Seven Performance Traps’.
Ep14 | Outputs & Outcomes: Should you be discussing Inputs? Outputs? or…
Today, I’d like to talk about Outputs and Outcomes. It’s part of the series on Improving Performance.
Ep15 | How to Avoid Defensiveness When Giving Someone Feedback
In today’s episode, I’d like to talk about the power of feedback and how to avoid defensiveness when giving someone feedback. There is a very simple technique that can transform the way people respond to feedback, making them more likely to act on it.
Ep16 | SIMPLE Delagation
In today’s episode, I’d like to talk about Delegation. In particular, the model that I put together called, SIMPLE Delegation.
Ep17 | Five Dysfunctions of a Team
In today’s episode, I’d like to talk about “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” by Patrick Lencioni.
Ep18 | Managing Your Brain Threat Response
In today’s episode, I’d like to talk about ‘Managing your Brain’. Begin to understand how your brain functions so you can take care of it more effectively.
Ep19 | P-A-M Motivation
In today’s episode, I’d like to talk about the P-A-M Motivation popularised by Dan Pink.
Ep20 | The 5Cs E1 Overview
Today, I’d like to talk about “The 5Cs of Post-Pandemic Management”.
Ep21 |The 5Cs E2 Compassionate Leadership
Today, I’d like to talk about Compassionate Leadership.
Compassionate leadership is about being able to have empathy and compassion with people but empathy in action.
Ep22 |The 5Cs E3 Curiosity
In today podcast episode it’s all about “Insightful Curiosity” and how to keep your best people with insightful curiosity.
Ep23 |The 5Cs E4 Collaboration
In today’s podcast, I’d like to talk about how to keep your people with collaboration.
Ep24 |The 5Cs E5 Coaching Mindset
In today’s podcast episode, I’d like to talk about “How to Keep and Retain your Best People by Developing a Coaching Mindset”.
Ep25 |The 5Cs E5 Communication
In today’s podcast episode I’d like to talk about “How to Keep your Best and Retain your Best People with Effective Communication”.
Ep26 |The Secret of Excellence
In today’s podcast episode I’d like to talk about “The Secret of Excellence” using the ‘The 1 Percent Rule’ by James Clear.
Ep27 |How to Turbocharge New Habits and New Behaviours!
In today’s podcast episode I’d like to talk about developing new habits to achieve excellence and to achieve great results.
Ep28 |How to Develop New Positive Habits that Stick
In today’s podcast episode I’d like to talk about developing new productive habits that will help you achieve the success that you want to achieve.
Ep29 |How to Use Your Brain Chemistry to Make a Change
In today’s podcast episode I’d like to talk about developing new productive habits that will help you achieve the success that you want to achieve.
Ep30 |Want to Develop a New Habit? Make it Easy
In today’s podcast episode I’d like to talk about “Making it Easy” to develop a new habit. And this is according to the book of James Clear, ‘Atomic Habits’.
Ep31 | Are You Satisfying your Brain When Making a Change?
In today’s podcast episode I’d like to talk about “Making it Easy” to develop a new habit. And this is according to the book of James Clear, ‘Atomic Habits’.
Ep32 |The 4 Paradoxes of a Growth Mindset
Many people talk about developing a Growth Mindset but few will explain the specific combinations of behaviour you actually need to practice to improve your mindset. This video explains the four behavioural paradoxes that you need to master in order to develop a powerful Growth Mindset.
Ep33 |How to identify Personal Values (Yours and Others)
Values drive our behaviour and trigger big emotional reactions. However, our values, and the values of others, are often below our conscious awareness – until something happens that triggers a big reaction! So here is a very elegant way to identify your own values. There is also a key question to ask if you want to know the personal values of others.
Ep34 | How to decode and influence Motivation
By listening to the language of others you can decode their motivation and phrase things in a way that will engage and encourage them to act. Check out this short video if you want the key to decoding motivation and improving performance. If you don’t watch it now you will miss out on this simple way to understand others and how to avoid the frustration of their inaction.
Ep35 | The Mixed Power of Praise
The historical background of Growth Mindset is fascinating. This short video explains one of the most significant experiments done by Dr. Carol Dweck and her team at Stanford University. It is about the impact different types of praise can have. Parents take note! What are the implications of her findings in business?
Ep36 | Mindset : Growth vs Fixed
The research by Prof. Carol Dweck and her team at Stanford University discovered two fundamentally different mindsets. She called them Fixed Mindset and Growth Mindset. We all have a fixed mindset in certain contexts, so it is useful to explore where this may be the case and also explore where you may have a growth mindset. This video explains how to do that.
Ep37 |How to receive Critical Feedback
It can feel awful when we receive critical feedback but there are a number of things you can do to be resilient and use it as a learning opportunity. This short video explores 7 practical Tips to help with this.
Ep38 | Levels of Listening
What level do you listen at? Are you really listening at all? Many people are busy thinking about how they will respond rather than listening to what others are actually saying.
Ep39| Developing Resilience with Mindfulness
There is a lot of talk about mindfulness but what does it really mean in simple terms and how can you practice it?
Ep40| Intro to Resilience
There is a lot of discussion about resilience but what does it really mean? And what are the key components of becoming resilient?
Ep41| Emotional Resilience- Attitude of Gratitude
You can build your emotional resilience by developing an attitude of gratitude. This video explores the health benefits of this attitude and also explores the 4 ‘A’s of gratitude developed by Brian Tracey.
Ep42| How Well Are Seeking The Truth?
As leaders, we are often in danger of being caught in an information bubble that confirms what we expect to see. This makes discovering and exploring the truth more difficult.
The secret to getting to the truth lies in your ability to navigate the paradox of Insightful Curiosity.
Ep43| How Do You Respond To Feedback
Leaders are often isolated from feedback about their performance and their behaviour due to their position. It takes courage to give feedback to a leader or manager especially if they take it very personally or become defensive.
Are you overly self-critical?
Or perhaps unintentionally defensive?
Ep44| How Do People Interpret Your Communication
Communication is tricky and requires balance.
Some people want and need you to be very direct and to the point, while others want and need you to be diplomatic and respectful. If we don’t get the balance right, we can trigger upset and defensiveness or frustration and confusion.
Ep45| What Is The Secret Of Sustainable Relationship?
Good working relationships are becoming more important than ever.
Ep46| How Effective Is Your Decision Making?
When we need to make a decision, it is very easy to be overwhelmed with information or frustrated that there isn’t enough.
Ep47| The Paradox of Sustained Results
Producing great results requires a high degree of self-motivation but sustaining those results over time requires us to recognise that stress management is not optional, it is essential. There is a paradox in producing sustained results that requires us to prioritise our health and well-being alongside our performance and results.
Ep48| The Paradox of Focused Innovation
Innovation is often seen as the generation of new ideas but it also requires something else. In fact, it is said that ideas are cheap because without effective implementation they are useless.
Ep49| How Much Adaptive Capacity Do You have?
In a rapidly changing world, we need to adapt quickly.
But we also need to create enough order to avoid inefficiency and chaos.
Ep50| How Much Risk Can You Tolerate?
The current economic environment is creating massive uncertainty and yet there are always opportunities available if you can tolerate some risk. However, if you are not mindful of the dangers, you can end up making expensive mistakes.
Ep51| How Well Are You Balancing Compassion And Accountability?
Are you being compassionate enough for your people while holding them to account for their performance?
There is a paradox when it comes to guiding people to be their best.
Ep52| How Inclusive Are You When Making Decisions?
What are your tendencies when it comes to making decisions? How well do you balance your authority with including the views and opinions of others?
If you want to get full buy-in and avoid passive resistance while ensuring a timely decision gets made you need to balance the Paradox of Collaborative Accountability.
Ep53| Can You Inspire Confidence While Avoiding Delusion?
Optimism is a critical component of resilience, but it can be dangerous if it’s not balanced as we have recently seen in UK politics. If you want to avoid looking delusional and remain alert to emerging factors, you need to navigate the paradox of Vigilant Resilience.
