A strengths deep-dive for those who never stop growing If Learner shows up in your Top 10-12, you know the thrill. That electric moment when a concept clicks. The satisfaction of mastering a new skill. The quiet joy of discovering you understand something today that was a mystery yesterday. Learner can give…
Individualization gets called a leadership superpower for a reason. You see people. You notice nuance. You adapt instinctively. You know humans aren’t interchangeable units in a system. All of that is true. But here’s the quiet plot twist: when Individualisation runs unbounded, the strength starts creating complexity instead of clarity. Think of it…
If you lead with Includer, chances are you’ve been doing this your whole life without even realising it: • You spot the person hovering at the edge. • You widen the circle so others don’t have to ask. • You notice who’s being overlooked long before anyone else clocks it. • You bring warmth, fairness, and humanity…
Reflections from Joan van den Brink’s new book Language, deficit framing, and what Wired Differently made me rethink Reading Wired Differently by Joan van den Brink set me thinking — not just about neurodiversity, but about the language we use to describe it, and…
If you’ve had your head in the sand this past week, you may have missed Mattel’s latest Barbie release: Autistic Barbie. Over the years, Mattel has expanded Barbie’s world to show she can do anything and be anything. But with every (many) evolution, controversy follows. Maybe that’s the point? Disruptive inclusion. Remember these…
We found that engineers don’t access support services for wellbeing or mental health until they are in crisis (Jo-Anne Tait, 2024). We also know that men don’t ask for help and suffer in silence. A double whammy for engineering.
Curious, we wanted to understand why. While reviewing services on offer and chatting with those who train and educate engineers, the mists cleared, revealing a multi-faceted problem.
Our mission: to help engineers hack their wellbeing.
The problem:
The people skills and opportunties to practice them are core to UKSPEC.
As future managers and leaders, being adept at hacking your own wellbeing, and supporting your team to do so, is, I would like to think an essential professional credential.
At Katalytik we’ve been working with engineering doctoral researchers for over 10 years and noticed common patterns of stress and frustration. We observed the same challenges and pressures in early-career researchers and in high-performing teams in R&D environments and manufacturing.
Imagine our surprise when we realised the tools we use to improve communication that rest on a solid bedrock of self-awareness could be applied to a process to hack your wellbeing.
We use a common language of CliftonStrengths. But it also works with other positive psychology tools.
The Gallup Net Thriving Index asks participants to rate their overall wellbeing from 0 – 10. Where 10 is living your best life. The indicators of these states is summarised:
Respondents who rated their elements of wellbeing from 1-3 were more likely to report:
Respondents who rated their elements of wellbeing from 4-6 were more likely to report:
Respondents who rated their elements of wellbeing from 7-10 were more likely to report:
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Gallup’s research names five universal elements of wellbeing:
Oftentimes, when experiencing stress, we think of it as all-encompassing (“I’m SO stressed!”). Drilling down into which area(s) of wellbeing are impacted (and which ones are not!) helps pinpoint where the stress actually lies. This will help you target ways to manage the stress more effectively, while also reminding you of areas you may be thriving in.
We’re so excited for our whitepaper on conflict and communication to finally meet the rest of the world. We started on the journey because we wanted to add greater value to our workshops, drawing on the experiences of engineering managers about the challenges they…
Introduction There are times when coaching or facilitating workshops I cross paths with people who are either extremely reserved, or very self-contained and very confident. Within a team setting these people can feel isolated and brush off their lack of connection as the fault…
It seems the word decolonisaiton itself puts up barriers and is problmentic in addressing. What does it mean and what can you do? Here are 5 tips.
And where did Inclusion Power-up come from? Over lockdowns, I’ve been harnessing my ideation to build a collection of inclusion power-ups. Ways to help engineering teaching colleagues gain confidence in being more inclusive. . I find that every time I speak with someone or…
