Leading With Authenticity

Hello, everyone. Happy Monday. This is Jean Mitchells. I'm excited to be here on this beautiful Monday, waiting for everyone to jump on in. Hello, hello. How we doing today? Happy Monday. Excited to have you here. Hello, Jules. Nice to see you. Or at least see our names pop on in. It's Monday. We made it. So as we're all coming into this space, I'm simply going to ask everybody just take a breath. You're here. I don't know about you, but Mondays I feel like they start really strong, right? We come out firing, we come into a bunch of emails or a bunch of meetings right away.

I feel like Monday should be a no meeting day. Mondays are already so chaotic that if we had even a few less meetings on Mondays. I try really hard to not schedule meetings on Mondays just so that people have a time or a chance to catch up from where they left off on Fridays. Maybe they were out for the weekend or out on Friday, giving people space and time to just get present, get our minds wrapped around work again. But today I wanted to talk about comfort, and I'm sitting by an open door allowing a Minnesota breeze to come in.

As it's 80 degrees today, it's gonna get up to 80 in Minneapolis. I might ask, where are you all calling in from today? What's the weather like for you? Sounds silly to ask about the weather when we're talking about leadership. But sometimes the weather can really dictate what our mood is on any given day. So I find that even if it's sunny and cold, I still feel better. Or if I might find the comforts of nestling into wearing a big puffy sweater that day. But just being able to identify what helps us feel comfortable, allowing our teams, allowing our colleagues to find what helps them feel comfortable at work.

Whether we're working virtually, we're in the office, all of these things really matter. And I've challenged myself. I checked myself on bringing comfort into the conversation of leadership, and I can't think of a better thing to talk about today. And the reason why is physically, my body is tired. I ran a couple of marathons. I've been doing a bunch of workouts, but also it just needs to rest. And if I find that I'm uncomfortable sitting at my desk, sitting in my chair, uncomfortable with the height of my computer, I just get a little frustrated or I might have a pained look on my face.

And I was listening to a podcast earlier today as I was walking my dog Mondays. I've been trying to listen to podcasts right away. Just to help myself resetting ground and intentionally set that time, because I don't always make time to listen to podcasts. So it's my new habit of listening to podcasts on Mondays. And this one talked about comfort, and it, it went on to share how this individual's son took a blanket from childhood and a teddy bear from childhood with them to college, and they had it with them.

And it got me thinking. I travel for work often, and it got me thinking of what's in my suitcase that I never take out. And if you were to open up my suitcase or my backpack that I usually travel with, you'll find a few things. I always have cards that I collect at different, maybe boutique stores when I'm traveling. Fun cards, fun designs from wherever that is. Because if somebody does something really well or something that made me feel really nice or comfortable or just had an impact on me, I like to pull out a card and write a card and leave that behind.

So I always have those with me. I have them in my backpack even when I'm sitting at coffee shops locally. Because to me, being able to express gratitude is something comforting, but also something that I think can really be impactful when you pay that forward to a stranger. I also have a candle, small candles. So when I'm traveling, oftentimes I'll go into maybe a flower shop or something and I'll find small candles and I'll stock up on those, and I'll put those in a little box of matches in my suitcase.

And I always have those in my room with me. And then I also have been carrying photos of, like, my mom and dad and having those with me as well on my travels, because that just helps me feel comfort and at home. And maybe there's a couple of other things, too that I might pack in there, but those are usually, for sure, staples. Now, when I think about that and I think about my desk at home, I work from home a lot. I have some staples that sit on my desk that help me feel comfortable. Hello, Jocelyn.

Welcome. And I have a candle on my desk. Sometimes, if it's really just an angsty day or maybe it's a melancholy day, I might have a different scent to just help me to be more present, be more alert, be more aware. I have little inspiration cards because sometimes I just need a little inspiration, or sometimes maybe I need to bring one into a meeting to help lift up my team, lift up the energy in a meeting that we're in. Or maybe it's just a simple reminder to myself that I can offer something different in that moment, and how do I want to show up in that moment?

So on my desk, I have that. I have a little plant on my desk because it just helps me feel grounded. Plants are very grounding to me. I have quite a few, several in my windows, because they just remind me that even when I can't be outside, I can have that grounded feeling with me inside. So I might ask you, what do you have on your desk? What brings you energy that maybe you have sitting on your desk every single day that can help you to feel grounded, feel present? I have a couple of books on my shelf.

Some of them are poetry. I like to flip out some poetry, because, again, it helps me to just reconnect into the moment. Because sometimes we go back to back meeting, to meeting, to meeting in our days, and that can be really unsettling. And so having something quick and simple that can help us reground and reset, I find to be very important. The book that I have on my desk right now is by Brianna west. It's called ceremony. There are a whole bunch of different poems inside there. And I like to flip the book open, and I just go to it.

And I don't even go page by page. I just flip it open. I see what page opens, and then I read through that, and I just take a minute, and I just find that it helps me to reset so that I can go into the next meeting more grounded. Or sometimes when I'm working at my desk, I am solving complex problems. And I have little puzzles, little hand puzzles that I do, and I fidget with them. And sometimes just taking a quick pause to fidget with a puzzle can help me to reset. So what do you find helps bring you comfort at your desk, either at home or at work?

Now, you might not be able to burn a candle at work, but I do carry little bottles of essential oils. And sometimes just the change in ascent can help change my mood. We're human. We have multiple senses. So there are visuals. We have smell. Things that we might listen to, a podcast or music, things that we can touch. Right. Things that we can feel. All of our senses can be at play. Now, when you think about leading with authenticity and leading a team, why is it important for you to be comfortable?

I'll ask you that question. Jules, I know you, so I'm gonna pick on you a little bit. What do you have on your desk that allows you to have pause, allows you to ground or reset? Jocelyn, I see you out here as well. What might you have on your desk or in your space that when you need a quick pause, brings you that comfort. That allows you to be more present, to allow you to be or calm. So feel free to type anything in the chat. If you're listening to this on replay, I would love to see what you have.

What on your desk inspires you, allowing ourselves that opportunity to feel comfort. Maybe it's an adjusting your chair, maybe the chair that you have at your desk at work isn't as comfortable. What can you do differently? Can you find a place to stand? Move your body? Stretch? Can you find a place to break a pillow for your back so that you can be really comfortable in your chair again? Allowing ourselves that opportunity to physically, mentally and emotionally feel comfort in our work is super important and there's a lot of research around this.

I'm happy to post some in the comments or post some in the comments on our main stream that when we find more comfort even in our spaces, allowing our desks to be arranged certain ways that are accessible for us, allowing our chairs to be ergonomically correct for us, the height of our desk, the height of our screen or monitor, whenever we can create that comfort for ourselves at desk, especially if we're working from home more often. Or maybe we're transitioning back into the office. So what are things that we can have on our desks in our office to just create a space where we can feel more connected?

The studies on that element alone helps our brain and our mind to find the ability to reset. It creates an opportunity for us to find calm, even in some stressful spaces. Maybe if you have to go back into office where many companies, corporations are asking us to go back in office, if we are required to do that, that can be unsettling. We went from being in the office to being at home. That transition was difficult. Creating our spaces so we can be comfortable, and now transitioning back into an office, it can be a disruption for some.

So what might we do to create more comfort in our spaces? Because when we are mentally, physically and emotionally more comfortable in our jobs, we are more communicative, we're more collaborative, we're more creative in our spaces just by how we design them. We can show up more authentically because we can be more relaxed or calm even in a space of chaos. So today, in leading with authenticity, it really is about how might we intentionally design the space around us so we can be our best selves, our best self as a leader, a manager, a contributor, a colleague, a friend, a support, all of those things play out in our workspaces.

So I would love to hear from you in the chat what you have at your desk, what helps you feel comfortable, what allows you to be more creative, what tips and tricks you offer. In the larger comment section, I will post a photo of some of the things that I have on my desk that I've mentioned on here that bring me comfort, but also help me to reset so that I can be my best self at work every single day. I hope you have the best Monday. I look forward to seeing you. If you're in Minnesota or Minneapolis, get outside.

Supposed to be 80 today and with the fall leaves, it's delightful. So go take a 15 minutes breather, take a quick walk, and come on back in and check out what it's next on Cadre. I hope you have an amazing day and I will see you soon.