I work with personal and professional growth.
Annika:To me, that's very much connected, because I believe all leadership
Annika:starts with leading yourself.
Annika:So to get to know yourself, lead yourself and then Lead others and, and
Annika:also the communication aspects of that.
Annika:I work with private people.
Annika:My next thing is I'm going to target more companies to see if I can
Annika:help them to grow their leaders.
Annika:And maybe to be the support that I didn't get when I was a manager first time.
Annika:That was now 15, 16 years ago, just okay, you're now the manager here, go.
Annika:I'm the kind of person learning by diving in at the deep end and
Annika:then swimming my way from there.
Annika:And that's fine, but it would have been great to get a couple of steers.
Annika:Start with yourself and then you can develop from there.
Annika:So many times I've been sent myself and also I see new leaders sent to classroom
Annika:trainings and it's great with those trainings and you sit there and it's
Annika:flip charts, it's beehives and you think and you reflect and it's fantastic.
Annika:Then you get back to reality with an inbox that's heaped over with
Annika:emails and things to attend to, and people in your team coming to you.
Annika:Hey, do you have a couple of minutes?
Annika:And hey, can I bounce this with you?
Annika:And all of a sudden, everything that you got in the classroom training has just
Annika:fallen off, because there hasn't been time enough to really anchor it in yourself.
Annika:What does this mean for me?
Annika:Now that I know all this, how do I want to transfer it into knowledge and into
Annika:something meaningful to me, so that I can lead with authenticity, so that I
Annika:can lead in a clear way so that I can lead in a way that makes people feel
Annika:so safe that they dare to be brave.
Rob:I love that.
Annika:That's what I have observed.
Annika:Maybe that's a little bit of missing piece and I would love
Annika:to, to come in and help there more because once I got a coach myself.
Annika:That's when the coins started to drop spending that time on reflection
Annika:and, and thinking and all of those things that you have read and heard.
Annika:These things are important, but once you get really dedicated time
Annika:to work on yourself and get an accountability buddy in a coach or a
Annika:mentor or something, I think that's really when the magic can happen.
Rob:Training is great for giving you knowledge and
Rob:sometimes giving you a framework.
Rob:What we then have to do is we have to customize how that fits to us.
Annika:So what does that mean to you when you lead, when you think about yourself
Annika:and when you reflect on your values your drivers and your ambitions so that's
Annika:one part and the other part is to adapt and practice those skills that we need.
Annika:An example would be active listening.
Annika:That you really listen if you say that you need a team of people that you really come
Annika:in with the intent to understand what they say and not the desire of oh I'm going to
Annika:give them a steer here but believing that they have the answer within themselves.
Annika:Or can find it with some support of you but then you need to be prepared
Annika:to take a step back and listen and have that person explore for himself
Annika:and find for himself what's the right way for that person to do it.
Rob:What it comes to mind is how interlinked different aspects are of that.
Rob:So for example, you talked about active listening, which is a skill in itself.
Rob:But in order to do that there needs to be a growth in certain qualities,
Rob:like being able to be patient.
Rob:Being able to Not feel the pressure to have to respond immediately.
Rob:I always think of first time manager is it's suddenly a jump and the
Rob:biggest jump is not necessarily communication or any of that.
Rob:It's about dealing with the pressure of what you feel others expect of you.
Rob:That's more of an inner journey.
Rob:We can change something intellectually, we can know something and we can see,
Rob:oh yeah, that makes perfect sense.
Rob:But when we're under pressure which I think for most leaders going back,
Rob:there's suddenly demand after demand they're under stress and then you
Rob:resort to what your operating model is.
Annika:Yeah.
Rob:So unless you transfer that.
Rob:intellectual knowing into an operating way of being it doesn't
Rob:have any impact because you'll be able to answer a test on it.
Rob:But when the real test is what happens when you're under
Rob:pressure, what do you do?
Rob:And if it doesn't make that change it hasn't really had any impact.
Rob:So in line with learning the skills, we also need to develop the qualities.
Rob:And I think I'm getting a sense of that's what you're helping people by
Rob:growing personally and professionally, they are able to assimilate and use the
Rob:skills under pressure when it matters.
Annika:Exactly it's both the learning and then it's the action that comes with it.
Annika:Practice it and then it will become a quality.
Annika:You've been made aware of it, you know about it.
Annika:And then you practice it.
Annika:Then one day, maybe it sits there.
Annika:And hopefully you'll start to see some positive results too.
Annika:With yourself, but also with the people that you lead that you lead.
Annika:Because if someone feels that way, trusted and empowered and you
Annika:know that, okay, I've got this.
Annika:I believe that then you rise to the occasion and deliver not only what's
Annika:expected, but many times even more because you feel supported, you feel believed in.
Annika:And then you want to give more.
Rob:And when you have that early success, when you see it working, that
Rob:then brings biochemically dopamine and suddenly you feel more confidence
Rob:and you then build momentum because you feel you can do something.
Rob:And that's when it becomes like a game.
Rob:Like people love games because it perfectly gives them enough
Rob:challenge that's interesting, but also enough dopamine that
Rob:they stay involved in the game.
Rob:And when we can do the same in learning it, that's how we really grow quickly.
Rob:So I'm interested in specifically what kind of, what do you cover?
Rob:Cause you have a program, don't you?
Rob:Own your journey.
Annika:Yes.
Rob:So I'm just interested in what, and what happens in those stages.
Rob:I'm interested in what you've talked about in how, yeah.
Rob:What are the common lessons and qualities.
Annika:So in that program, so it aims really to, to both to
Annika:get insights about yourself.
Annika:It focuses a lot on the self and then to get habits and to get some tools that
Annika:you can use to lead yourself and stay on a positive and constructive way of
Annika:being or what way of living, if you like.
Annika:So what we do in the program is that we, the first piece
Annika:of work is around your values.
Annika:It's to discover what really matters to you.
Annika:What is it that is to you so important that you would stand up and take a fight
Annika:for it and put that as a good solid base.
Annika:Then we come to a part which is about identifying and recognizing the
Annika:voices that you have in your head.
Annika:And this is not about being paranoid.
Annika:It's about acknowledging that we have different voices.
Annika:There are cheerleaders that say, you can do this, go on.
Annika:And then there are other voices saying that who do you think you are that
Annika:think that you can pull this off and shouldn't you instead be focusing on
Annika:this and why on earth did you say that to her that was really stupid so like
Annika:the kind of judgy and controlling sides of ourself so we work with getting to
Annika:know that sort of the team that you have inside your head and finding strategies
Annika:on, okay, so how can I now with this knowledge, knowing what typical voices
Annika:I have, how can I work with them so that they favor me instead of harm me?
Annika:So that's another part of it.
Annika:The next part that comes after that, is about habits.
Annika:And there we go, like basic habits for eating, sleeping, and moving.
Annika:Our physical well being and our mental well being is so tightly
Annika:interlinked, so that we need to have good habits in place in order to
Annika:stay also in a good place mentally.
Annika:So there we work with the clients, they get to identify what, what
Annika:works for me, what can I do?
Annika:What are some small shifts that I can take to do one thing better
Annika:for eating, one thing better for sleeping, one thing better for moving.
Annika:And then we work with a habit tracker to start to see the progress and and so on.
Annika:So that's nice now too.
Annika:I have a client now.
Annika:When she brushes her teeth, she always stands on one leg.
Annika:Cause that's keeps her, calm, grounded.
Annika:She practiced, being there with all of her senses and can't
Annika:be busy with anything else.
Annika:It's a simple thing,
Rob:I've heard that before.
Rob:I think it was in martial arts, but it's yeah, it's, it gives you balance as well.
Annika:Yeah.
Rob:And coordination.
Annika:Another thing that we work with is I'm quite fond of Paul Gilbert's work
Annika:on the emotional systems or motivational systems, the red, the blue and the green.
Annika:I don't know if you have read about it.
Annika:It's a UK professor and he did this work talking about the calming system the
Annika:performance system and the threat system.
Annika:I think
Rob:you've mentioned it before.
Annika:I think so.
Annika:We might have had a little bit of writing in our comments.
Rob:I've got his books, one of those books that I don't think I've
Rob:ever got round to going through, but I think I've got a couple of his.
Annika:There's a piece in the program around that, what that is and how,
Annika:Many of us, when we seek to rest, sometimes we rest still in the blue
Annika:system, the performance system.
Annika:We rest with our phones we go shopping, we do, and that's still,
Annika:back to the, to what you said earlier on dopamine, it's still that.
Annika:But what we need to do is also to be in the green system
Annika:and find green activities.
Annika:That helps us to soothe and calm and that can be just
Annika:sitting and gazing out a window.
Annika:For me, it's winter bathing, it's reading, it's doing a puzzle.
Annika:It's gardening or working with flowers or something that's calming.
Annika:So we talk about the importance of having that system in balance.
Rob:Can you just run me through the three systems again?
Annika:Yeah, so it's the threat system.
Annika:It's also called the red system.
Annika:It's a fight flight.
Annika:So it's when we become like really threatened if, back in the day we were
Annika:hunted by lions today, it can be, a deadline coming up or you have a super
Annika:important presentation to a group of managers that you really dislike.
Annika:And that sort of will get those hormones going.
Annika:The blue system is the performance system.
Annika:And that's when we feel we get rewarded.
Annika:We feel appreciated, recognized taking things off a to do list,
Annika:a pat on the back, you did that well but also all things related
Annika:to to our phones and to yeah those dopamine releases just package job.
Annika:And then the green, the calming systems or the soothing systems.
Annika:That's oh, let me see if I can say those hormones in English endorphins.
Rob:Endorphins.
Rob:Yeah.
Annika:Yeah.
Annika:And oxytocin that releases when we go calm.
Rob:So it's reacting, doing, and then recharging.
Annika:Yeah.
Rob:Yeah.
Rob:Okay.
Rob:Yeah.
Annika:So I can send you a cheat sheet.
Rob:You gave me a link.
Rob:I think yeah, I remember reading them thinking it was really useful model.
Annika:The reason I really like this and to bring it in was that it was a
Annika:little bit of game changer for me myself, because I'm a super active person.
Annika:I like to be engaged.
Annika:I'm social.
Annika:I like to keep busy.
Annika:I have my fitness training classes and and I've always felt
Annika:that, okay, but I recharge.
Annika:I rest by doing things.
Annika:And I think that was a little bit of trap for me.
Annika:But when I caught eye on this through my coach, that was eyeopening.
Annika:And I realized that, okay, yeah, I may feel that that I'm doing something else
Annika:and my key, I keep my mind off, work or maybe other things that were troubling me.
Annika:But I had missed then that I needed the green system things.
Annika:That, that knowledge has helped me a lot.
Annika:And that's why I like to pass that particular piece along
Annika:as well to, to others who may feel that, that you just go.
Annika:And if you don't really know, back to the knowledge again,
Annika:how can you even then apply it?
Rob:Was listening to something yesterday and basically the sweet
Rob:spot of work is about 35 to 40 hours.
Rob:More than that, you're lowering the quality.
Rob:And once you get past 55 it's more of a detriment.
Rob:So the difference between 55 and 70 hours, you're not adding any
Rob:more, but I know, yeah, I know.
Rob:I've, you get I'll get in the afternoon, especially after eating
Rob:it and that'll be a slump and I know I'm not going to do productive work.
Rob:And in the past I would have pushed through.
Rob:Yeah.
Rob:Just do something and you're there like, and it's not high quality.
Annika:What made you change what happened that made you stop that pushing through?
Annika:I think that's really interesting.
Rob:I think.
Rob:I think it more like reading and just seeing different things and
Rob:the understanding that when we talk about productivity, I think we've
Rob:got to look at it's the percentage of energy you have in time.
Rob:So half an hour of really engaged, really high quality work is worth maybe
Rob:three, four hours of really low quality.
Rob:So yeah, I think, and it's just shifting that's when I'll go and do the
Rob:dog walk or I'll have some downtime.
Rob:Or I'll just do something that away from work and then I've had a little bit of
Rob:a break and then I'm for my second wave
Annika:okay.
Annika:So you have split up your workday.
Annika:Is that what I'm hearing in two, in sort of two, two chunks, a morning chunk and a
Rob:yeah.
Rob:I basically I know that when I get to later afternoon, once I've eaten then
Rob:there's going to be a dip and then I'm going to wake up and then I'm going to be.
Rob:I'm more of a night owl.
Rob:So it's also the being able to switch off which has often been because like
Rob:you keep going and you yeah, I'm really into this and I'm I don't want to stop.
Rob:So I never want to go to sleep.
Rob:But then that means in the morning, I never want to get up.
Rob:And so I've had to get in a pattern so that same time bed, same time
Rob:sleep, even if it's, even if I am doing well, because it will mess
Rob:up my sleep for the next few days.
Annika:Yeah but if it works, and I think, that's, just, if you keep an eye
Annika:on it and it works well for you and the rest of the family, then that's great.
Annika:Otherwise, you need to find some, another way of doing it.
Annika:I'm also more creative in the evenings, but that's also when, people around.
Annika:We have three kids teenagers, they will all be teenagers this year our son will
Annika:be 13 this year and the girls 17 and 19.
Annika:So the kitchen is always open and they're so hungry which is okay but they,
Annika:at 9, 9 30, that first one comes and just Oh, Snack and then the other one.
Annika:Oh, is there something to eat?
Rob:Yeah, it's just adapting to your environment, isn't it?
Rob:Something that you've said you start with values so it makes sense to And it makes
Rob:me curious to understand your values So what are your values that drive you?
Annika:I would say that my top four values are freedom
Annika:authenticity, playfulness and trust.
Rob:Okay.
Rob:Freedom is one of mine as well.
Rob:I think my I originally, after I came out of university was based on happiness.
Rob:That's my first book.
Rob:And I think happiness is really about freedom.
Rob:Authenticity is another great one.
Rob:I think authentic is one of those words that just becomes it's become
Rob:devalued and I'm reluctant to use it often, but it's, the cliches are
Rob:cliches because they're so true.
Annika:Yeah it's a word that I also hear being used more and more.
Annika:And I think let's take the opportunity then if it's being used more and fill it
Annika:with a meaning that, that makes sense.
Annika:And that is valuable which is staying true to your.
Annika:true self.
Annika:And then the next question is, so how would you know what is that?
Annika:And that's when I think the values come in to play, knowing
Annika:what really matters to you.
Annika:What is really important?
Annika:What really pisses you off?
Annika:Because the opposite of that is likely a core value of yours.
Annika:So that you can choose, that's why we work on it.
Annika:So that, can choose more of that and bring it in into your life.
Annika:If you would do like a value scan and say, okay, so how much of these
Annika:things do I have in my life today?
Annika:And maybe you want to use like a scale of 10 or something and you find, Oh,
Annika:there's too little playfulness, let's say.
Annika:So what can I do to to get more of that in?
Annika:And then, yeah, and you fill that up and the more you're in tune with
Annika:your values, the the happier you feel, the happier I feel, at least.
Rob:Yeah.
Annika:That's one thing I've noted for myself in these in this fitness class.
Annika:training classes that I do.
Annika:But playfulness is a big element there for me to be around those people, twinkle
Annika:in the eye to cheer the what do you say?
Annika:The trainers or the exercisers.
Annika:What's the proper word there?
Rob:I don't think there is one.
Rob:No.
Rob:Participants, but that's more like a psychological study.
Rob:Yeah.
Annika:The gym visitors,
Rob:let's say fitness enthusiasts.
Rob:Yeah.
Rob:Yeah I can see those like I love models and i'm mapping out that free freedom
Rob:and freedom and playfulness go together and authenticity and trust go together
Rob:but what i'm looking at is you talked about you were in corporate for many
Rob:years and You love the communication and you love the leadership.
Rob:It would seem that meetings are in the middle because that's
Rob:where you communicate as a leader.
Rob:But you said that was one of the things made you unsatisfied with it.
Rob:So when I look at your values, I think I can see why, because
Rob:you weren't able to be authentic.
Rob:You weren't able to play.
Rob:And you didn't exactly say, but I'm reading between the lines that there
Rob:was probably politics and things that you didn't always agree with.
Rob:So there wasn't the trust and you didn't have the freedom to really be yourself.
Rob:And I'm guessing that's why you're discontent with corporate world.
Annika:In the end felt that, yeah, we have grown apart now.
Annika:So yeah, it's a really good analysis and also a conclusion,
Annika:Rob, I think that's exactly it.
Annika:I felt capped.
Annika:At last, because it was always so many people to go and and check things
Annika:with and get a alignment and approvals from here, there and everywhere.
Annika:And with a freedom, I like to move.
Annika:I like to be independent.
Annika:I understand that there are processes to be respected and, stakeholders to be
Annika:informed and decision makers to take care of, but you can do that in a simple way.
Annika:Or you can do it in a complicated way.
Annika:And, yeah, the last years it just became so complicated that, it created for
Annika:me a feeling to be a little bit stuck.
Rob:I think many people are feeling that.
Rob:I think there's a maybe a paradox or dichotomy where the organization
Rob:needs certain standards and it's done them traditionally through
Rob:rules and through constraints.
Rob:But what those constraints do is they also tie off Someone's whole self, their
Rob:ability to really be and the freedom to be themselves, to be authentic.
Rob:And I think organizations are going to have to find ways to allow people to have
Rob:that freedom to be themselves and yet still deliver the same standards and not.
Rob:Have the kind of problems of because before there were all those standards.
Rob:Like when you look at McDonald's, uniform and that's what those standards bring.
Rob:But what you're limited then to is the quality of a McDonald's.
Rob:You can't have.
Rob:Michelin star by that process.
Annika:Something to that, because something wakens
Annika:up here when you say that.
Annika:It limits maybe the, to be your true self.
Annika:And also I think it hinders Maybe the possibility for the task as such to be
Annika:carried out the best way, because let's say, you'd hire a social media specialist.
Annika:That's maybe half your age coming in, being all excited and knows and navigates
Annika:these landscapes like in their own pocket.
Annika:As a manager, then I think you need to understand that maybe you don't understand
Annika:as much and trust that person again.
Annika:So there we go again with the trust and trusting that the
Annika:other person has the answers.
Annika:Because if you then come in and you're being hired for the talent that you
Annika:have and the skill set that you have in an area, and then not being able
Annika:to use it best way, because somebody in the hierarchy that's leading you.
Annika:They don't trust you.
Annika:So it goes too slow.
Annika:And I think that's it.
Annika:It's a way of killing creativity and it's a way of killing talent.
Annika:If you don't trust the sort of the youngsters that come in
Annika:with all of these new skills.
Rob:It's also the way of killing productivity.
Rob:Because there was a huge growth in productivity from
Rob:the Industrial Revolution and it was because we specialized.
Rob:But what that specialization did was constrained people and it didn't
Rob:give them, like Adam Smith's example of the pin factory, like people
Rob:just had this little bit, so they didn't have the sense of fulfillment
Rob:of a complete creating anything.
Rob:They just, press buttons and
Annika:yeah,
Rob:cut up metal or whatever they did.
Rob:And since 1970, the productivity has Dramatically slowed down in its growth
Rob:and technology hasn't made any impact.
Rob:And I think that's because now we've moved to knowledge work.
Rob:We haven't learned to specialize knowledge work.
Rob:And so within the team, like everyone's doing sales, but there's going to be
Rob:someone who's great at one part of sales and, or maybe sales isn't even the
Rob:best example, but maybe something like marketing where someone's great with
Rob:coming up with the idea and someone's great with I'm now using these contexts
Rob:that I don't know enough about, but basically we need to, whatever we
Rob:do, we need to separate like the part that shines for you in what you're
Rob:doing, where you're authentic, where you're really enthusiastic about it.
Rob:If you can do that and someone else can do the other part.
Rob:And I think that's what we haven't really developed in knowledge work.
Annika:It could be that.
Annika:And it could also be.
Annika:that we haven't really learned how to lead the specialism knowledge.
Annika:How, because leading someone just doing pin work, it's the same for everybody.
Annika:But how do we lead knowledge?
Annika:Specialism.
Rob:Yeah.
Annika:Yeah, just as an additional thought to explore.
Rob:I think that's very true.
Rob:I think the structures and the style of leadership, when you go from where humans
Rob:are resources to now, what we need is we need creativity, we need engagement,
Rob:we need enthusiasm, we need ideas.
Rob:We need people to be at the best of their game.
Rob:And all of the things that frustrated you in corporate as being tied up,
Rob:not having autonomy not being able to express yourself, needing so much
Rob:approval to get anything done, all of those things are inhibiting people.
Rob:We need to lead in a different style, which means that people
Rob:need to be at different level.
Rob:I think like the growth that you're talking about, people
Rob:need to be more comfortable.
Rob:They need to be they need to manage their ego more.
Rob:They need to be able to.
Rob:Let go of their ego.
Rob:They need to be active, listening, all of those types of qualities.
Rob:But also I think traditionally we've always put focus on the leader.
Rob:And there is so much demanded of a leader.
Rob:We're basically asking for a superhuman, we're asking, can you put your so
Rob:what we're saying is in this team, the team members can, Come to work, but
Rob:the leader has to be able to manage conflict and all of these things.
Rob:My thesis is that we need to upgrade the team members so that they manage,
Rob:because when you look at the data on communication and conflict, managers
Rob:are spending a huge amount of time, even resolving conflict or trying to
Rob:deal with communication blockages or.
Annika:Yeah.
Annika:And the time that isn't spent there is spent in meetings.
Rob:If we can upskill the team members so that they manage the relationships,
Rob:they manage the conflict and they manage the communication, then the
Rob:lead, they have what I call the leader ready team, which is ready
Rob:to be led, but also ready to lead.
Rob:When you have specialists who have.
Rob:knowledge that the leader might not have, they need to also have the
Rob:communication skills, the ability to argue their case to the ability to deal
Rob:with conflict, resolve differences so that they are able to lead their aspect.
Rob:So you've got a team where you've got an overall leader who's coordinating
Rob:and supporting all of these, but each element is a node in that, which
Rob:is also leading their specialism.
Annika:It starts with them.
Annika:It's self leadership.
Annika:In that is one point and another thought, then I want to try with you is it can also
Annika:sit in a perspective shift of the manager?
Annika:Because I think so.
Annika:It's quite common that leaders, they come in as parents and the team, the children,
Annika:this is transactional analysis, right?
Annika:But what if you shift?
Annika:So that it's two adults meeting.
Annika:One is super strong at social media marketing, let's say, and then you have
Annika:the leader, but you meet eye to eye.
Annika:It's too, it's two adults that have gone to work that morning.
Annika:It's two adults that meet and have a conversation and trust that
Annika:the other one wants to do a super good job either as a specialist
Annika:or as the manager for this person.
Annika:I think that also shifts something when you move away from the parent perspective
Annika:and just take the adult perspective.
Annika:I don't know what you say.
Rob:I definitely agree.
Rob:I think there's two, two points to that.
Rob:One is The problem of hierarchy, traditionally, we've had
Rob:hierarchy because it made sense.
Rob:There is a natural hierarchy.
Rob:Ken Wilber talks about that.
Rob:And he said there's a move to shift hierarchy, but,
Rob:there's a hierarchy in nature.
Rob:It naturally occurs.
Rob:And so there's a hierarchy, but it's about having a flexibility of hierarchy
Rob:so the leader has the hierarchy when they're coordinating, but the specialist
Rob:has hierarchy over their specialism.
Rob:Yeah.
Rob:Yeah.
Rob:And so it is definitely about it's definitely about, moving to
Rob:adult, which is raising the team member, but someone has to go first.
Rob:And so the leader has to have that level above of maturity emotional regulation
Rob:and the ability, the big picture.
Rob:But what also comes to mind there is the typically our model has often been family.
Rob:We're one family, but actually that becomes dysfunctional because the basis
Rob:for every organization is transactional.
Rob:We join and we have to be really clear on the purpose of why we're joining.
Rob:Netflix has done something because they've explicitly said we're based on a high
Rob:performing team rather than a family.
Rob:Yes.
Annika:Yeah.
Annika:I've seen that too.
Annika:I think that's a metaphor.
Annika:That's resonates far better with me to see it like that.
Annika:You can't have all the forwards.
Annika:That would not be good.
Annika:Also, not only goalkeepers would also not make sense.
Annika:The blend.
Rob:You cover quite a wide range of, Aspects.
Rob:You've been a leader, you're very interested in fitness.
Rob:We've talked about your values and program that you do.
Rob:If you were going to do a TED talk or write a book, what would it be about?
Annika:The first thing that comes to mind is about how to make the best popcorn.
Annika:But that's something else.
Annika:I'm really good at making popcorn on the stove and I can talk for
Annika:a long time about, what fats to use, should it be rapeseed oil or
Annika:olive oil or butter and how does that affect the popcorn and so on.
Annika:Maybe it wouldn't be material enough for for an entire TED talk.
Annika:I realized that when I'm pitching the idea to you here now and I
Annika:see you're a little bit hesitant.
Annika:So it's not going to be on popcorn let's decide that here and now.
Rob:Okay.
Rob:Let's go with that a minute.
Rob:Why popcorn?
Annika:Oh, I love popcorn.
Annika:That was my favorite snack when I was when I was a little, and every
Annika:weekend we could make a big bowl.
Annika:Me I have two siblings, so we each made a big bowl and it was like, Private
Annika:personal bowl, no sharing so that there wouldn't be any arguments because someone
Annika:ate faster and someone ate slower.
Annika:And then in the end, how many did you have?
Annika:And all of those discussions that anyone having a brother or
Annika:sister would be familiar with.
Annika:So I'm just very used to that.
Annika:I love the crisp.
Annika:I love the combination of fat and salt, probably a horrendous thing to
Annika:say, but I think it's really nice.
Annika:And the popcorn is just a wonderful carrier of that.
Rob:Yeah, I always look at what someone does now is usually
Rob:rooted in something in childhood.
Rob:So it's maybe a way that you were playing and a sense of experience
Rob:generally popcorns when you watch film.
Annika:Yeah,
Rob:so it's family time.
Annika:I think you're right in that that it's a reflection of some things
Annika:that you have enjoyed in the past.
Annika:And I had dream professions when I was when I was a kid, I used,
Annika:I love to play teacher and my.
Annika:poor brother and sister.
Annika:They were the very reluctant students alongside with Barbie dolls and teddy
Annika:bears and, that I put in place in a school classroom formation, et cetera.
Annika:So that's one part.
Annika:The other dream job was to become a a journalist or a writer.
Annika:So me and a friend, we wrote a little tabloid paper that we then
Annika:printed out with the help of my dad's copying machine and walked around,
Annika:knocked on doors and tried to sell.
Annika:And I can see today, how that is what I enjoyed doing today.
Annika:I like to teach.
Annika:Instruct my classes transfer knowledge, transfer energy transferring inspiration.
Annika:And I also like to write and create and craft things and that creative side of me.
Annika:So I think when I look back I can see that it, it started there along
Annika:alongside the bowls of popcorn.
Rob:Okay that's interesting because my eldest she loved to, to teach.
Rob:She was always coming down when she was a child and she would have her sister
Rob:and she, yeah, all these things and she'd be teaching them or she'd be mum.
Rob:And she's graduating soon as a journalist.
Rob:It combines those two things.
Annika:Yeah, same
Rob:pattern.
Rob:Okay.
Rob:So let me get to own your journey, that's about, that says authenticity.
Rob:And it says freedom and I suppose playfulness.
Rob:And then when you have that, people can trust.
Rob:Where did that idea come from?
Annika:It came from, I think from, I think from different parts.
Annika:Some, you know that it comes from different ways or different,
Annika:yeah, from different places.
Annika:One place was that I really want for people to trust themselves and be
Annika:true to themselves and listen inwards to what they want so that they don't
Annika:just become a doctor or a teacher or a lawyer because that because you're
Annika:imposed to do choose for yourself, and you have to have some self knowledge
Annika:to do and I know that through coaching.
Annika:I'm in a good position to help people to find what that is for themselves.
Annika:And then when you have it, you can make those choices.
Annika:So that was one driver.
Annika:And I think the other driver was Perhaps me 10 years ago, just trotting away in the
Annika:hamster wheel, doing all of these things.
Annika:And who was it for always pleasing others, forgetting a little bit myself.
Annika:And even if I'm lucky enough to always have been interested in training
Annika:and fitness and eating well I think that was what also kept me going.
Annika:But only up until a certain moment in time because then the wall was there
Annika:and I had to go home for burnout leave.
Annika:Just having to take it on so much.
Annika:And had I had the tools that I now know of, I think I could have avoided that.
Annika:And that's the second driver of it, to help people become more
Annika:conscious, knowledgeable, and taking the right actions for themselves.
Annika:so that they can last for a long time.
Annika:Yes, you can be productive and have a high productivity, but you want to have
Annika:that maybe over a long time period, not just here and now and the next
Annika:week and up until next vacation when you can rest, but still maybe can you.
Annika:Put your phone off and away, or is the expectation that
Annika:you will have to be reachable.
Annika:So it's a little bit about the boundary setting there, which I
Annika:have not always been being great at.
Annika:And yeah, that's why I created it to help others.
Rob:When you talk about coaching did you have a coach, what was the step from you
Rob:being dissatisfied to making that leap?
Annika:I think it was a long process maybe longer than it needed
Annika:to be because things need to land.
Annika:Need to find the courage to go and do something else.
Annika:It's easy to say follow your heart and off you go.
Annika:In reality, maybe you have a house, maybe you have some
Annika:kids to provide for, et cetera.
Annika:And not everybody can just take that leap.
Annika:Yeah to work with that and to process that and then finally realize that, all
Annika:right so this is what's right for me and I now know that this is the right path.
Annika:But that, it didn't come overnight for me because I really like to
Annika:work and I loved also my colleagues.
Annika:I had fantastic manager and there were so many things that were good.
Annika:And also now, when looking at it, it was a fantastic place to work.
Annika:I worked there for 17 years and it has given me so much.
Annika:Ultimately, the everyday work day didn't fit my values any longer.
Annika:And then I guess I grew in the coaching to realize that this is
Annika:always, this will be a glitch now.
Annika:And then it's better to do something proactively about it than, hang around
Annika:and maybe risk being bitter and even more tired and less energized and being
Annika:annoyed at my family, because that's where we can be really ourselves.
Annika:So I didn't want that to happen.
Rob:Yeah, makes sense.
Rob:Okay.
Rob:So if you okay, so who would be the kind of person who would join your program
Rob:and really benefit from your program?
Annika:What I've seen that I work quite well with people that are
Annika:quite driven, that are ambitious.
Annika:They have busy agendas both at work.
Annika:And they can't really see how they will get time to themselves.
Annika:And that's also one thing.
Annika:You have to take that time.
Annika:It's a matter of where do you put yourself on the to do list at the bottom?
Annika:You need to flip the list then.
Annika:So people who have started to feel that, something is not quite right.
Annika:This is not going to be sustainable in the long run.
Annika:I need to do something.
Annika:I'm not sure exactly what it is I want to do.
Annika:I want to change because I want to feel happier.
Annika:I want to have more peace of mind.
Annika:I want to feel lighter.
Annika:I want to feel that I have energy left at the end of the day to spend with
Annika:family or with the kids without being irritated with things popping up,
Annika:but just be calmer be more balanced.
Annika:So those are person.
Annika:And usually it's women don't know why, but that's how it
Annika:has been a couple of men too,
Rob:but mostly women.
Rob:I suppose looking my background is relationships and when you look
Rob:it was like 70 percent women who would look at the relationship.
Rob:Men tend to not look so much for, to other people for help.
Annika:Interesting.
Rob:So what I'm seeing is basically people are stuck in a mindset and they
Rob:can't see how to carry on with, I think if you go into If you live the default life,
Rob:which is you go into corporate you follow the rules, you do, you turn up every day.
Rob:I think that grinds people down.
Rob:And I think it's not sustainable for most people.
Rob:Because there's going to be more and more pressure, the more
Rob:that you rise and less time.
Rob:And.
Rob:One of the keys now is we have so much more choice of where to give our
Rob:attention, where to spend our time than we actually have time or attention.
Rob:And so what it seems to me is what you do is.
Rob:You break people out of their box of what they can see so that they can
Rob:zoom out and see more possibilities.
Rob:So how they can do the same job or how they can have the same lifestyle that they
Rob:want without having without being bogged down by the, and also have more capacity
Rob:and energy and joy from their life.
Annika:Yeah, I like how you summarize that.
Annika:So yeah, it's self awareness, a sort of self knowledge and habits and tools
Annika:to steer yourself with so that you can come from a place of of choice.
Annika:intentional choice for yourself.
Rob:By your name, you have a little logo, like a little not
Rob:a flower, but a plant growing.
Rob:I'm interested in the significance of that because immediately you
Rob:started drawing, I started In my head had I can't draw but it was like
Rob:a growth of a flower or something.
Rob:So i'm interested in where that came from.
Annika:I just wanted to choose something that's signified or displayed That you'll
Annika:grow you can grow and we grow together.
Annika:If we work together, we grow together because that, that, that's the case too.
Annika:That, in a coaching relationship or a partnership, both parties grow,
Annika:both the coachee and the coach.
Annika:So I wanted to just find a little way to, to show that and I chose that emoji
Rob:I don't know if it was subliminal that i'd noticed it.
Rob:But when you were talking about personal and professional growth.
Rob:And the way that you were talking brought to mind, like a little plant growing.
Rob:And I think really the way that we get out of our trap that we create
Rob:problems are at level of thinking.
Rob:And then if we grow up we can grow past the problems or we know
Rob:how to deal with the problems.
Annika:We can.
Annika:And there's another thing to that too, to the growing part.
Annika:It's that it grows where we water.
Annika:That's a very Swedish saying.
Annika:What grows it is where we put the water.
Annika:So we need to water the the positive sides and and the conscious sides of ourselves.
Annika:So that they grow and not the other ones.
Rob:Which goes back to what you were talking about at the inner
Rob:team.
Rob:Now if you had a message for someone who's stuck in that position,
Rob:maybe where you were 10 years ago.
Rob:What is the key message that you would want them to know?
Annika:I want them to know that the answer it's somewhere in you.
Annika:Maybe it's hidden because of others expectations or overloaded agenda.
Annika:Others, what do you think are others desires or demands and
Annika:what you need to do and don't but you do know what's right for you.
Annika:Give yourself time to figure that out, start by unplugging and going
Annika:outside, spend time in nature, go for a long walk and listen inwards.
Rob:Yeah.
Rob:I suppose that's really the problem, isn't it?
Rob:Is that the speed of life and the amount of stuff that we've got coming at us
Rob:means that we're moving faster and it's hard to have that time to stop.
Annika:For sure.
Annika:The faster you drive, the, the less visibility you have on what's, what's
Annika:actually happening alongside the road and you just go to maintain the speed.
Rob:If someone is in that position and wants to reach out.
Rob:How should they get in contact with you?
Annika:It works lovely with a direct message on LinkedIn or visit my website.
Annika:It's in Swedish though, but contact is the same word in Swedish and English.
Annika:Yeah so there's there's a link there with an email address.
Annika:Or the good old phone, if somebody would fancy just, giving a phone call.
Rob:Okay, so if they look on your LinkedIn profile, that
Rob:has all that information.
Rob:All
Annika:of those details are there.
Annika:That's the short and packaged answer, of course.
Annika:Yes.
Rob:Okay.
Rob:That's great to put more detail to the person I've, that I've seen online.
Annika:It's been great to chat