Episode 14: The Future of Leadership Development & Creating Psychological Safety with Ashley Mielke

 
Ep 14 Ashley Mielke Banner.png

As Founder and Director of People and Culture at The Grief and Trauma Healing Centre Inc., Ashley has nearly a decade of clinical experience as a practicing psychologist, and it is this scientific background that forms the foundation of her signature training program—Conscious Culture Bootcamp.

Ashley found her own ‘Why’ early in life following a difficult childhood punctuated by her father’s substance abuse and eventual suicide. From this, the darkest and most painful period of her life, she uncovered a deep and passionate desire to serve others and a natural ability to create a safe space in which to explore life’s most challenging questions—a skill that has been immeasurably valuable in her career both as a psychologist and trainer.

The workplace today is in dire need of increased psychological safety. A term made popular by Amy Edmondson coined is the belief that one can speak up without risk of punishment or humiliation. Ashley helps us navigate this from a clinical perspective and how we can build company culture's where this is the norm.

Some questions Tynan asks:

  • It’s almost taboo to encroach on people’s “personal lives,” so how do leaders go about knowing what their needs are without crossing a boundary? 

  • What’s the psychological effect of somebody not being understood at their company? 

  • What does the future of leadership development look like? 

  • What is a “conscious culture”? 

In this episode, you will learn:

  • We are hardwired for connection. If we can learn how to motivate, inspire and drive people from an intrinsic level, then we can release untapped potential in our people. 

  • We need a secure attachment with our leaders. This means providing emotional availability and responsivity to our people. Unlike what we often think, people bring their full selves to work; they don’t just turn off their human side when they walk in the front doors to our offices. 

  • We have a responsibility to set the emotional tone of our companies. 

  • At the foundation of a high-trust culture are people being heard, seen and valued. 

  • When we provide flexibility to our employees, they in-turn provide our companies with high-performance of their own choice, even going above-and-beyond during non-work-hours because they care. 

  • Relationship challenges at work are a direct reflection of a need not being met by the other person in the workplace. Enquiring of that need is crucial in resolving conflicts & maintaining healthy workplace relationships. 

  • Leaders have a responsibility to their own cleanup work. You can start by doing the following:

    • Recognizing the clean up emotional roadblocks 

    • Recognizing the pain & loss that is getting in the way of us truly showing up for others in an authentic way 

    • This is the future of leadership development

  • If we want others to do the work on themselves to improve & grow, we have to do do the work ourselves as leaders 

  • A conscious culture is a high-performance culture grounded in trust, psychological safety, and belonging. At the center of a conscious culture are secure attachments;  the leader creating a space for people to take healthy risks, to speak up, to make mistakes, to put their best foot forward, to go the extra mile for their teammates, and to know that they belong and that they matter. 

  • Leaders can benefit greatly by considering how they show up for their teams, how they light up for them and the energy they bring to space/work environment. 

  • When leaders step back and think, “what is the most generous assumption I can make about my employees,” the workplace environment totally shifts. 

 
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Episode 16: How To Be Fearless & Have Bold Conversations With Your Leaders at Work with Julian Rosen

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Episode 13: A Masterclass on Employee Recognition with Tom Short, Chief Customer Officer of Kudos