The Conscious Effect - Natasha Wallace
On the 16th November, hgkc and friends gathered at the Kensington Arms to discuss their latest read.
The Conscious Effect by Natasha Wallace offers ’50 Lessons for Better Organizational Wellbeing’ helping leaders to ‘Transform yourself and your workplace through greater consciousness’.
We were delighted that Natasha could join us. As part of her journey to writing the book, she talked about being driven by ‘a need to shift our behaviours, not our processes,’ and related this to a stressful experience earlier in her career.
Conversation flowed over teas, coffees, and cakes looking at conscious leadership. The discussion ranged from being self-aware about your preferences, whether you looked to work with people like you or different from you, to making your workplace more neurodiverse with offices, websites, and apps accessible for everyone.
It was agreed that leaders need to create a safe open space and that there was a need for curiosity. Effective leaders need to have an open mind and be willing to change their mind and ask for support.
A question was posed as whether you can learn to be an effective and/or empathetic leader?
As people offered their answers the conversation turned more into how you would learn – whether through courses, reading books, watching role models. It was agreed that people need to have the will and desire to learn.
As the Book Club wrapped up it was concluded that leaders need to be able to encourage curiosity in their people and have open conversations, whilst also having the ability to have the difficult conversations so things don’t become too disruptive or damaging to the business.
If you want to take part in our next Book Club, it will be held in January and we shall be reading The 6 Types of Working Genius, the great new book by Patrick Lencioni offering a better way to understand your gifts, your frustrations, and your team. Get in touch if you’d like an invitation to join us.
