Without ambition, we lack direction in our development and the motivation to navigate the knottier moments in our squiggly careers. This week, Helen and Sarah explore what ambition means in a squiggly career and how to use it to support your decisions. They share insights on how their views on ambition have changed and discuss three practical ideas for action to help define, connect, and communicate your own ambitions. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1. Download Squiggly Careers PodBo...
Jul 09, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast When your days are full and deadlines are looming it can feel difficult to stay motivated. However, there are small things that can increase your energy and get you through the tricky times. This week, Helen and Sarah talk about Dan Pink's work on motivation and reflect on what they do to increase their purpose, mastery and autonomy at work. They share 6 tried and tested ideas for action that are simple and easy to fit into your day. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1. Download Squiggl...
Jul 02, 2024•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this week's Ask the Expert episode Sarah talks to London Business School professor and author, Herminia Ibarra. Together they discuss the concept of outsight and how doing new things and interacting with different people can set you up for career success. Herminia also shares how to become a bridge in your network, why embracing multiple work selves leads to a growth mindset at work and how to create the momentum you need to act and think like a leader. More ways to learn about Squiggly Caree...
Jun 25, 2024•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sometimes the smallest of words are the hardest to say but working out how and when to say yes, no and I don't know can have on big impact on your career. This week, Helen and Sarah talk about the signals and situations to look out for if you need to adapt your words and easy ideas for action to change what you say and when you say it. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1. Download Squiggly Careers PodBook: https://bit.ly/squiggly-podbook2024 2. Sign up for PodMail, a weekly summary of t...
Jun 18, 2024•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week Helen and Sarah explore intrapreneurship, a skill which helps increase your impact and autonomy at work without introducing risks you might not be ready for. They talk through intrapreneurship actions to help you increase your profile, widen your influence and gather momentum and motivation for your ideas. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1. Download Squiggly Careers PodBook: https://bit.ly/squiggly-podbook2024 2. Sign up for PodMail, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly c...
Jun 11, 2024•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Helen talks to productivity expert Cal Newport about the way many of us are working and why it's so counter to long-term career success. Cal talks through the principles of slow productivity from his latest book and together with Helen they discuss small actions that everyone can take to increase their impact and reduce the overwhelm of work. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1. Download Squiggly Careers PodBook: https://bit.ly/squiggly-podbook2024 2. Sign up for PodMail, a w...
Jun 04, 2024•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sponsorship unlocks access to new career opportunities, though lots of people feel confused about what they can do to get a Sponsor. This week, Helen and Sarah share a 4-part process to make sponsorship easier for everyone to access. They talk about practical actions you can take to increase the advocacy of your work, gain introductions to other people and accelerate your development. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1. Download Squiggly Careers PodBook: https://bit.ly/squiggly-podbook...
May 28, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Inspired by a 400 episode milestone, this week Helen and Sarah explore the topic of career consistency. They talk about why consistency pays off for your development and where consistency counts the most. They share ideas to help you increase consistency in your day job, with your learning, in your relationships and by showing and growing your strengths. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1. Sign up for PodMail, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/sc-podm...
May 21, 2024•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this week’s Ask the Expert episode Sarah talks to author David Allen about productivity and overcoming obstacles to getting things done. Sarah and David discuss the concept of open loops and how to create follow-on actions to improve your flow at work. Together, they also talk through practical techniques such as the two-minute rule, the importance of the weekly review, and the impact of tech & tools on productivity. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1. Sign up for PodMail, a wee...
May 14, 2024•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast When Helen and Sarah asked the Squiggly Careers community whether FOMO affected how they thought about their development, the overwhelming response was YES. This week's episodes explores where FOMO comes from, what problems it leads to and simple actions you can take so it doesn't causes issues for confidence and happiness at work. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1. Sign up for PodMail, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/sc-podmail 2. Sign up for our ...
May 07, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Creating career advantage means you give yourself more opportunity to do the work that you find interesting and meaningful. This week, Helen and Sarah talk about how to make it happen! From acceleration opportunities to continual improvement habits, they share easy ideas for action that make a big difference to your development. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1. Sign up for PodMail, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/sc-podmail 2. Sign up for our mon...
Apr 30, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Helen takes to the stage at Squiggly Careers Live with 3 special guests to talk about Gremlins. Listen to her coversation with author Daisy Buchanan, swimmer and LGBTQ+ advocate Michael Gunning and author Dolly Alderton as they explore the connection between confidence and their career and share advice to learn from. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1. Sign up for PodMail, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/sc-podmail 2. Sign up for our mont...
Apr 23, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week on the podcast, Helen and Sarah are taking a different look at their diary and discovering lots of new insights about their development. They discuss how your diary can tell you the truth about your priorities, whether you are investing in the right relationships and how effectively you are protecting your boundaries. They also share actions to take to realign your time with what matters most to you. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: &...
Apr 16, 2024•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Silos affect our ability to do our job and the opportunities we have for our development. This week, Helen and Sarah share their own experiences of silos and 3 ideas for action to help you break through them. From anthropology to investing in adjacencies, their silo-busting solutions will help you succeed in your squiggly career. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1.Sign up for PodMail, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/sc-podmail 2.Sign up for our mont...
Apr 09, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Helen and Sarah talk about the knowing-doing gap. This is when you know what you should, could or want to do but you still don't take the action that you need to. They discuss how this gap can create cognitive dissonance and lead to us feeling frustrated at work. To close the gap, they share practical ways you can change your behaviour, work through your blockers and get closer to the outcomes you want. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1.Sign up for PodMail, a weekly summary...
Apr 02, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Meetings consume our hours and our energy at work, so we want to make sure they also increase our impact! This week, Helen and Sarah talk about practical ideas to increase the value of time spent in meetings for you and your team. They explore how questions create better agendas, how shorter meetings can force clarity and debate whether doing in the moment is better than accumulating actions throughout the day. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1.Sign up for PodMail, a weekly summary of...
Mar 26, 2024•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this week’s episode, Helen and Sarah discuss how data can support your career development. From strengths and values, through to possibilities and learning they suggest practical ways to improve your self-awareness by taking simple actions. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1.Sign up for PodMail, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/sc-podmail 2.Sign up for our monthly Squiggly Career Calendar: https://bit.ly/squigglycalendar_signup 3. Read our books ‘...
Mar 19, 2024•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Helen and Sarah are talking about what it takes to stay organised. They discuss the difference between self-organisation and team organisation and how the two things need to work together if you're going to stick with your systems! They share things that have worked well for them and areas they are still working on and give lots of practical ideas to try out. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1.Sign up for PodMail, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https:/...
Mar 12, 2024•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast How to present an idea so it makes sense to other people, and has the best possible chance to shine and stick. This week Helen and Sarah explore some different strategies for presenting ideas at work. Whether it's a small idea to improve a process or a big idea to do something differently, how we share our ideas makes a difference to their impact. They discuss practical tips to help you to share ideas in a way that creates connection and conversation. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1...
Mar 05, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Interviews open us up to new positions and projects but without practice, they can feel quite difficult to do. This week Helen and Sarah talk about their top tips for interviews to help you be at your best. They share practical ideas on how to prepare and show up with confidence in the conversation. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1.Sign up for PodMail, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/sc-podmail 2.Sign up for our monthly Squiggly Career Calendar: h...
Feb 27, 2024•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week Sarah and Helen are talking about how to cage your confidence gremlins - the beliefs that hold us back. Together they talk about common gremlins that can mean we stall or get stuck in our careers and some of the 'foods' (people, past and places) that grow our gremlins. They share 3 ideas for how you can cage your gremlins so you can explore your potential and possibilities in a squiggly career. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1.Pre-...
Feb 20, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Helen and Sarah explore how to spot the red flags that get in the way of your career success. They discuss short and specific ideas for action for 5 common career red flags including 'directionless development', 'enmeshment', and 'busy burnout'. Spotting and solving your red flags can help you get unstuck and navigate your squiggly career with clarity and confidence. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1.Pre-order our new book Gremlins: https://bit.ly/gremlins-book 2.Sign up fo...
Feb 13, 2024•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this weeks Ask the Expert episode Sarah talks to author and adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, Cheryl Strauss Einhorn about problem solving and how to make smart decisions. Sarah and Cheryl talk about 5 different problem-solver profiles and how these profiles provide useful perspective for improving your decision making skills. Together, they also discuss the importance of self-awareness when problem-solving, decision-making myths, and go through practical strategies to help you p...
Feb 06, 2024•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Helen and Sarah are deep diving into the world of deliberate practice to explore how it can apply to what we do at work. Together, they talk about the process of deliberate practice and use their own examples to bring it to life. If you want to make your learning more intentional and your career development efforts have more impact, this week's episode should be a useful listen for you! More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1. Sign-up for PodMail, a weekly summary of the latest s...
Jan 30, 2024•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast In squiggly careers, if we want to be at our best at work, we need to punctuate our days with pauses. This week, Helen and Sarah talk about how adding long or short pauses into your day can help to increase your performance and productivity. From playing around with pauses in meetings to reflecting on your levels of 'space and speed', they discuss ideas for action that can prevent sameness and help you to get unstuck. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1. Sign-up for PodMail, a weekly su...
Jan 23, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Helen and Sarah are tackling a topic that's close to home. Having worked together for over 10 years, Helen and Sarah have learnt to bring their opposite profiles together to increase the impact of their work. It might not always have been easy, but over time they have learnt how much more effective they are when they bring the best of their introvert and extrovert tendencies together. Listen and learn from their ideas on how to approach 'you/me/we' work and the benefit of noticing wha...
Jan 16, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Starting from scratch is an important skill in a squiggly career and the more we use our ability, the better we get! This week, Helen and Sarah share 3 ideas for action to help you to find more ways to start from scratch and to feel confident doing it. They talk through the importance of taking an MVP approach, Scratch Stacking and Smart Copying. More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1. Sign up for our Squiggly Career calendar: https://bit.ly/squigglycalendar_signup 2. Sign-up for PodMail, ...
Jan 09, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Whilst the idea of a brand new role can be appealing, the reality for most of us is that we are more likely to stay in our current job than leave to do something different. However, staying does not have to mean stagnating and this week, Helen and Sarah talk about how you can grow your role. They share 3 tried and tested actions that can help you to increase your opportunities and the variety of what you are working on. From spotting problems and pitching ideas to finding mutual work wins, growi...
Jan 02, 2024•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week Sarah talks to futurist, speaker and author April Rinne. Together they discuss what we need to unlearn and relearn to get better at navigating change in our squiggly careers, skills you can develop to support you during career change and practical ideas for action when creating a portfolio approach to careers. Find out more about April's work here: https://aprilrinne.com/ More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 1. Sign up for our Squiggly Career calendar: https://bit.ly/squigglycale...
Dec 26, 2023•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Helen and Sarah use reflection questions to discuss their impact and insights from the year. If you're a regular listener, you'll hear what happens behind-the-squiggly-scenes and if you're new, you'll get some coaching questions to end your year with and set 2024 up for success. Download the podsheet with the questions at www.amazingif.com and read Helen and Sarah's latest Harvard Business Review article for more end of year inspiration https://hbr.org/2023/12/how-to-create-your-own-y...
Dec 19, 2023•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
