The Mind Takeaway

This year has been turbulent, and we have seen a massive reduction in art funding, especially in Europe. My city of Berlin has seen art funding reduced to nearly zero for 2025. Although I am a leadership coach, what I do not share so often here, and I was requested to do more of, is mention stories of challenges and successes here for my work coaching artists. Ten years ago, Ivana was going through a particularly challenging time, and she started painting as a form of mental healthcare. Mira Culic and I received one of her paintings as a wedding present. Her challenge was to continue painting when her time, attention and focus were needed elsewhere. She is a stay-at-home mum of three wonderful children, one of whom has a developmental disability. One of the challenges was making time for herself and painting; the other was the guilt of doing it. She knew that to make her dreams come true and become a professional artist, she needed to change her limiting beliefs and behaviour. She was used to putting everyone first and leaving little to no time for her inspiration and painting. Ivana's first big step towards her development as an artist was in 2022 when she joined Mira and me for an artist's retreat and spent two weeks in Berlin with us for coaching and visiting art spaces. Ever since, she has had our support, growing as an artist and becoming more visible and confident, even though, like most artists, there are times of doubt. I am beyond excited to share the opening of her first solo art exhibition, from 3rd to 20th December 2024, in Culture Center "Vlada Divljan" in Belgrade, Serbia. 👀 Keep an eye out early next year for our podcast episodes where we share this and other stories of challenges and successes.

My top 5️⃣ podcasts of 2024, you ask? I listen to a lot of podcasts, especially when I'm commuting or out running (the former of which I tend to do more of and the latter less of than I like 🥹 ). There are a couple of classics that I've been listening to loyally for years, such as Adam Grant's "Rethinking," Freakonomics, Scott J. Allen, Ph.D.'s "Phronesis," Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos's "The Leadership Podcast," Mira Culic and Peter Griffiths's The Mind Takeaway , and others. But here are five podcasts I discovered and fell in love with this year: 🏗️ Big Think+'s "How to make a leader," hosted by Hannah Beaver - a show which, as the name suggests, digs below the hype and tries to uncover the nuts and bolts of good leadership. 🏄 Human Leaders's "We are human leaders," hosted by Alexis Zahner & Sally Clarke - which foregrounds the research and people behind empathetic, holistic, and relationship-based leadership. 🧗 Uphill Athlete with Steve House - as a long-time mountaineer and mountain runner, I've always looked up to Steve, not only for his epic ascents but for his reflection and wisdom on the human drive to perform (in the mountains and beyond). 🚀 The Economist's "Boss Class" with Andrew Palmer - is just that, a witty and sharp (it's the Economist, after all) look at what it takes to lead. 🇳🇴 Nicolai Tangen and Norges Bank Investment Management's "In Good Company" - conversations with big personalities out there, from science, business, and politics. A big thanks to the amazing hosts and teams behind these shows 🙏 Did I forget any? What's been on your listening list this year? PS as part of my #yearinreview I will do a separate list for history podcasts (in my mind, history deserves its own list 😊 ) --- 🔔 I write about #leadership, #technology, #history (and, especially, where they overlap). 🖇️ Feel free to follow or connect... ♻️ And thanks for re-posting...

"Leadership isn't about you. It's about taking others forward with you." In this episode of The Mind Takeaway Podcast, we explore the second half of our leadership takeaways from five years of podcasting and working with leaders, teams, and executives. Building on the first six insights shared in the previous episode, we now explore six more takeaways that have significantly impacted our approach and can transform your leadership style. 🔗 the episode is linked in the first comment.

Thats a wrap for 2024! Yesterday Peter and I delivered the last online group training session for this year to students and faculty members of NOVA Medical School - Faculdade de Ciências Médicas Thank you Judite Costa for having us deliver this training and for your support. We had a fantastic time!