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Burnout In Women – Science, Recovery, Strategies, Decisions, Lessons [Dr Kellie Pritchard-Peschek]

I have a very personal, vested interest in this article. I grew up with incredibly strong female role models in my great- and grandmothers, mum, aunts and my three sisters. Now days, my wife and three sisters work, parent and wear many other hats as do so many other women I count as friends and colleagues. My mum grandparents 15 kids. And while my three daughters are all below ten and my six nieces are awesome, they’re all growing up and will need to understand this topic too. So when I met Dr Kellie Pritchard-Peschek, I wanted to understand how she’d become so purposeful about the science of women’s health and how it applies in the workplace and beyond.

Burnout in women

High Performance Recovery: Step-By-Step Guide, Principles & Questions, Lower The Bar, Design For Fulfilment, The Long Game

“I’m just heading off for a swim.” It was lunch time on a beautiful, sunny, winter’s day. This was from one of the most experienced, senior executives I know. For a long time, I’ve admired them in both their accomplishments and conduct. The decisions they’ve made, the organisation they’ve built and the impact they’d had on tens of thousands of lives (including mine) and organisations over decades of work. But at the heart of the reason why I’ve sought their counsel over the years, is that they speak about their proudest achievement as being the relationship they have with their children. And all of this through accomplishments, curveballs and crucibles. It struck me in this brief exchange that here was someone who’d created a habit of maintaining energy, health and wellbeing through it all. But this conversation seemed in stark contrast to others I’ve had recently.

High Performance Recovery

Practicing Discomfort – Cold Water, Benefits, Science, Safety, Architecting Recovery, Periodisation, Rituals

“…and have a great life.” Breath work was over. We’d followed Wim Hof’s breathing pattern on YouTube. His dutch-accented, closing words were already fading. It was cold bath time. Full body, cold water immersion (9 degrees) up to the neck for 10 mins. The tension in the room was rising. “When you get in a cold bath for the first time, you’ll feel awful. Your mind will scream at you that you’re dying, that you can’t breathe, that you have to get out of there.” “That’s completely normal.”

Practicing Discomfort

Mindfulness For Performance – Importance, Definition, Practice, Examples, 19 Activities <1 min

Mindfulness is not sitting in lotus position on a mountain top. Below is the often-cited definition of mindfulness from Jon Kabat-Zinn (author and founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts). “Mindfulness is paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.” Why is it important? I wrote recently about mindfulness being a critical practice in performance settings. In situations of stress and pressure, mindfulness is the scalpel that sits between my reaction (which I can’t control) and my response (which I can choose).

Mindfulness For Performance - Importance, Definition, Practice, Examples, 19 Activities

Showing Up – My Olympic Inspiration, A Minute, A Few Words, An Old T-shirt, Pay It Forward.

“You’re not in the official squad Toby. You don’t get swimmers and uniform.” This announcement from the head coach was in front of 30 of the best water polo players in the country - some of them my great mates. All of us were striving to be a part of the Sydney Olympics just 2 years away. We were in the briefing room above the pool at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra for an Australian Men’s water polo training camp with Serbia. When the coach asked if everyone had their gear, I was the only one who put my hand to say I didn’t. I was on scholarship, living and training at the AIS at the time. The training block in the lead up had been the hardest I’d ever trained. I’d put everything into it but still hadn’t been selected in the official squad. It was a completely fair response. “You can join in the conditioning work and be part of the warm ups. But you won’t be getting game time. You can watch and learn.” I wanted to crawl into a dark corner and hide.

showing up - my olympic inspiration

The Challenges Of Asking For Help (And What Can Be Done): Demons, Debt, Listening, Action, Importance and Qualifiers.

The Challenges Of Asking For Help (And What Can Be Done): Demons, Debt, Listening, Action, Importance and Qualifiers.

“Who Am I?” (v15,493) – How To Regain Momentum In 3 Mins

If you’re anything like me, you might like to just get straight to the “how to” part. So here it is. I’ll explain the backstory afterwards. Regaining Momentum As an experiment, I’ve tried this exercise recently with people feeling stuck in different situations: intense negotiations, family troubles, stepping down from their business and assessing job opportunities.

“Who Am I?” (v15,493) - How To Regain Momentum In 3 Mins

How To Script Difficult Conversations – Getting Hyper-Tactical With Values.

“I’m insanely busy. And I still have to do my work over and above our time together. So that means you need to give me something pretty special Toby.” I was 5 minutes into a workshop. I’d asked: “What do you want to take away from our time together?” This immediate challenge rattled me. But I had to respond. “Thanks for being real with me. I’ll definitely use that to sharpen up how we work through this together.” It was the best I could do at the time. I pushed my way through the slide deck.

How To Script Difficult Conversations - Getting Hyper-Tactical With Values.

What Now? Filling The Olympic Void – 18 Years Later.

The Olympics was the culmination of an 11 year journey. It left a huge void in my time, focus, energy, commitment, passion, drive.

What Now? Filling The Olympic Void - 18 Years Later.

The Mirror Is The Hardest Place To Look

I love the quote from American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer, John Dewey: "We don’t learn from experience, we learn from reflection on experience."

marcel strauss J rJLHHhs unsplash

Values Based Decision Making

Despite the fact that organisational values are virtually ubiquitous, we don't see a corollary explosion in great businesses. From public values failures (like the banking sector here in Australia) to private conversations, implementation of values desperately needs a new approach.

Values Based Decision Making

Arjan Vos – Mistakes, Facilitation and Coaching Olympic All Stars

Arjan Vos is a Dutch women's water polo coach and was responsible for a diverse squad at Queensland Academy of Sport. In this conversation Arjan shares his coaching philosophies.

Arjan Vos - Mistakes, Facilitation and Coaching Olympic All Stars

The Art of Learning: Fractals, Water Polo and Marketing Templates

We do not learn from experience, but from reflecting on the experience.” - John Dewey Josh Waitzkin has a fascinating story.

The Art of Learning: Fractals, Water Polo and Marketing Templates

Go Slow to Go Fast – a Business Lesson from Water Polo

When I was up to my eyeballs in water polo, a part of my training was weekly martial arts sessions with Andy Sutton. Back in early 2002 he introduced me to the principle: "Go slow to go fast." This wasn't just counter intuitive when I first heard it - it seemed plain mad. We'd been training one on one in a park in West End in Brisbane and it really didn't make much sense to me. At the time I opted to file it away in my subconscious in the "too hard basket".

Go Slow to Go Fast - a Business Lesson from Water Polo

Humanising – the real value of Real Time

"Our people are our greatest asset." "Our differentiator is our relationships." "Product X is great but it’s our people and our culture that really makes the difference." "Our competitors could walk into this place and look around. They can even copy everything we do, but they can’t copy our culture or our people." Have you ever heard these statements? I have. Many times.

Humanising – the real value of Real Time

88 Tips For Business – Rework Reworked (a reminder list)

Rework is a string of 88 short essays by Jason Fried and David Heinmeier Hansson - the founders of 37signals.com (we are big fans of their products Highrise, Basecamp, Campfire and Backpack at Bluewire Media). It's a gem, so I thought I'd write a one line summary of the 88 to remind me.

88 Tips For Business - Rework Reworked (a reminder list)

Implementing Role Practice – A 24 second Why to and How to Guide for Business

A friend of mine asked me a question the other day: "What are the most important things you've implemented in your business?"

Implementing Role Practice - A 24 second Why to and How to Guide for Business

How to Discover “Native Genius” – Taking action on Multipliers

Here's what I wrote to Liz Wiseman and Greg McKeown as feedback on the session: I can’t tell you how energizing it was! It’s incredible to watch people around the table really identify what is the absolute best in their team mates. Then the reaction of the person in the “hot seat” - as they come to realise what others believe is their strongest quality, understand what it is that really drives them and realise how it translates not just to work, but across all aspects of their lives – was inspiring! The formal reviews we had scheduled for the next day were quite different as a result too.

How to Discover

4 Key Leadership Learnings From “Multipliers” (by Liz Wiseman)

The premise of Multipliers written by Liz Wiseman, is that any leader can be placed on a spectrum between being a Multiplier (good) and being a Diminisher (bad).

4 key leadership learnings from “Multipliers” (by Liz Wiseman)

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